<p>Non fiction, fun to read, about HS level, smart, ...please list your recommendations. thanks.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t know about non-fiction. How about historical fiction? Why do you need non-fiction? The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini are great historical fiction books.</p>
<p>everything2.com but that’s not a book , it’s a website</p>
<p>[Why</a> the ancient Babylonians would have loved high definition television (idea)@Everything2.com](<a href=“Findings: - Everything2.com”>Why the ancient Babylonians would have loved high definition television (idea) by ZoeB - Everything2.com)</p>
<p>The Kite Runner was touching and Wuthering Heights.</p>
<p>I third the Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Also check out The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It’s an amazing book, and I think it’s just the level you’re looking for. Oh, it’s fiction though.</p>
<p>EDIT: A pretty good nonfiction book that I read recently was The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.</p>
<p>The Book Thief is seconded. Although it’s fiction, it’s set during the Holocaust in Germany and it’s an awesome read.</p>
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<p>I love everything2 so hard.</p>
<p>Anyway, to actually recommend nonfiction…</p>
<p>Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie is really awesome. It was made into a mini series that was less awesome than it is. But you can read it and then read Robert K. Massie’s other stuff. I read it when I was in 7th grade and really enjoyed it. It’s still the longest book I’ve finished (Darn you, War and Peace!).</p>
<p>Ferdinand de Saussure really knew how to write about linguistics, which is why he wrote Course in General Linguistics. If you like it, Sapir’s Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech is pretty beasting, as is the book it should be sold along with (legit), Language, Thought and Reality: The Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf</p>
<p>The Overachievers by Alexandra Robbins. I could relate to it so much that I cried at the end. I don’t know why.</p>
<p>I don’t know about “fun to read,” but CollegeBoard has two reading lists. Here is the one for poetry and cultural/historical texts: [famous</a> poetry - classic books - teen poetry](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Stand Out in High School – BigFuture | College Board)</p>
<p>The few nonfiction titles toward the bottom are challenging college-prep material that would advance your understanding of society.</p>
<p>And I agree with esmee16 – great book! You could also try one of my personal favorites, Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons. Touching, enlightening – an interesting read. I have re-read it more than once. It has inspired me to think critically about girls’ relationships with each other and to even want to be a sociologist who works with middle-school aged girls. I really recommend it.</p>
<p>The Devil in the White City reads like fiction in many ways…I found it fascinating. The author, Erik Larson, has also written other nonfiction books in the same style.</p>
<p>Many biographies are very good, as well, if their are specific people or groups you are interested in…</p>
<p>i couldn’t read past page 50 of the overachievers. it brought up too many bad memories.</p>
<p>I just finished The Things They Carried. It was absolutely amazing. It’s about Vietnam is mostly non-fiction from his experiences. It’s a collection of short stories, and some of them are really moving. Discusses the effect of war on people at length. I highly recommend it.</p>
<p>The Culture of Terrorism by Noam Chomsky</p>
<p>Thanks a lot guys. i’ll certainly check some of these out. </p>
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I don’t really know. just want to try some nonfiction to make myself feel like i’m growing up i guess lol. also they’re intriguing to me. like, i saw you guys talk about any rand in another tread. i have a book “any rand for beginners”. i read it. the story of her life and her philosophy are interesting. i don’t think i have patience to read her huge books though. something like that, make me think. i also like history, esp. french revolution, wwii, etc.</p>
<p>omg you have to read “A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century” by Barbara W. Tuchman. It’s long, but it’s history and made me lol</p>
<p>^If you are going to read a biography of Ayn Rand, read Anne C. Heller’s “Ayn Rand and the World She Made.”</p>
<p>It’s VERY comprehensive, detailing her life from childhood through her immigration to America, writing fame and personal affairs…it’s really well written, extremely interesting, and pulls information from every sources possible. It pretty recently came out, so it’s probably only in hardback now (and somewhat expensive).</p>
<p>Devil in the White City I though was amazing. It is the story of two men at the turn of the 20th century…Daniel Burnham who is the mastermind behind the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and Dr. H. H. Holmes (though that was an alias, I believe) who built a hotel by the World’s Fair and lured women there–and killed them (serial killer). It’s fascinating to read of a time over a century ago and to look into the psyches of two brilliant men–one who chose something good and productive, the other evil.</p>
<p>I am planning to read another Erik Larson book called Thunderstruck soon.</p>
<p>A book that isn’t really history or anything, is Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman–it’s a collection of essays about reading…and if you love reading, you will LOVE this book. It’s awesome and just amazing. Also read 84 Charing Cross Road…it’s very short and it is letter between an American rare books aficionado and a London book store–it is very short, you can easily read it in 30 minutes.</p>
<p>Some ideas…</p>
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i can see why - even though i didn’t read it but i heard about things in it. are you one of those? :)</p>
<p>Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. Or anything he’s written, really.</p>
<p>Immanuel Kant stuff is cool too.</p>
<p>The Stepmother by Diana Diamond, I absolutely love this book. It is a thriller, it has action, love, and twists that leave you wondering. (I sound like a commercial,haha)</p>