[clonewars222]

We have a school project for this semester -- a book report on ANY nonfiction book (it has to be a good one, though).

Although this is a fiction forum, I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions. I need something that I can write a paper on and perhaps be able to search up differing views on.

??

[DailyRich]

Some of my favorite non-fiction:

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Unger

[k1w1taxi]

I would second Bury My Heart and Right Stuff.

Also
The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide by Gerard Prunier
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
No Logos by Naomi Klein

Cheers
Lee

[DailyRich]

Other good ones:

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman

[mshnd06]

Are you more interested in History, Science, etc?

For history I enjoy Ambrose, David McCollugh, AJP Taylor, Diamond

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee was a particularly painful (in a good, moving way) read for me, very important work

[Hitmouse]

The Worst Journey in the World Apsley Cherry-Gerard
The Blind Watchmaker Richard Dawkins
The Naked Ape Desmond Morris
Trawler Redmond O'Hanlon
Bad Science Ben Goldacre
The Expert at the Card Table SW Erdnase
In Patagonia Bruce Chatwin
The Voyage of the Beagle Charles Darwin
Europe A History Norman Davies
Possible Worlds JBS Haldane
[B]Straight and Crooked Thinking Thouless
Lost Worlds Michael Bywater
The River Cottage Meat Book Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S Thompson
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Tom Wolfe
My Family and Other Animals Gerald Durrell

etc etc

[clonewars222]

one question, does "bury my heart at wounded knee" have an argument that can be analyzed?

[expatrie]

Well, Success Through Failure - Petroski is non-obvious (I'm not exactly picking on Guns, Germs and Steel, really, but it's a more popular title) and has a "every x years there's a major bridge failure" as a central bit, which is ... I guess you could debate that some, it also suggests doing things wrong is a better way to learn than doing things right, and from a philosophical standpoint you could debate it. It also suggests that failures have increased resulting from the inclusion of liberal arts components in engineering programs and thus more technical education is needed for engineers to compensate--surely there is data on structural failures that could address that if you dug far enough down.

I really liked Measuring America, Andro Linklater - but as it's history, I don't see a thesis to dispute in it.

Um. Dang. The Code Book-Simon Singh was really interesting, but again, no thesis to dispute.

What about Brainwashed - Tom Burrell? It sounded really interesting when I heard the interview on NPR or Tavis Smiley or wherever I heard it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1401925928/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=031232572X&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=16HTHFKQ4G9H86JEP01M

You could always take on some of the 9/11 was / was not conspiracy / not a conspiracy is too / is not stuff, depending on which side you preferred--there's dozens of titles by David Dunbar and David Ray Griffon.

Any of a dozen Atheists are Awesome Religious people suck - Richard Dawson / Atheists suck religious people are awesome titles, if you're in private religious school ought to carry favor. Letters to an Atheist could be fascinating if your heart gets glee-filled with the logic of Rhetoric and arguments, for example.

How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World - Fancis Wheen. Sounded good when I read the back jacket.

Or something like Hitler's Scientists or Hitler's Willing Executioners? Can't say those have points of view or not. Maybe something on the Stanford Prison Experiment?

Going Up the River - Halinan - addresses recent developments in prisons, administrative segregation and so on. (this one I have read, it was educational).
Bomb the Suburbs - William Wimsat (and other titles like No More Prisons).

[DailyRich]

one question, does "bury my heart at wounded knee" have an argument that can be analyzed?

Well, it's a pretty one-sided argument: "We treated the Native Americans like utter crap."

[tmso]

Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall. Very good read.