Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2021?

Bullshit jobs by David Graeber. It fundamentally makes you question how senseless human existence is due to our 9 to 5, bullshit-driven, Western corporate jobs (although work life in China and Japan is probably even worse, so the part of Western is just my perspective). It's a great book to not take work so seriously, and start making the best of being able to "work" from home. It's also very interesting to see how a usual work day has changed through out history and how work obsessed modern society has become in comparison to past societies.

"Burn: The Misunderstood Science of Metabolism" by Herman Pontzer

"Humankind" by Rutger Bregman

"The Dawn of Everything" by David Graeber and David Wengrow

"Work: A history of how we spend our time" by James Suzman

I sort of want to include "The Ministry of the Future" by Kim Stanley Robinson because it feels almost as much like political treatise as it does a work of fiction.

The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III

Revisiting a major historical figure, whose reputation may be completely un warranted. Was he a Tyrant or a Patriot King? Did he suffer from a genetic in-breed disease or was he Bi-polar?

Hadn't spent much time learning about this part of history as an adult. Was somewhat surprised to learn that aside from the Pre-Amble, The Declaration of Independence was just a bunch of baseless ad=hominem attacks on the king and that "Common Sense" was a rabble rousing populist piece that blamed monarchy on the jews...

Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship — By Laurence Heller and Aline Lapierre

The Courage to be Disliked — By Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi

Le monde sans fin, miracle énergétique et dérive climatique — An eye opening French comic book on energy and climate change, by Jean-Marc Jancovici and Christophe Blain

Svetlana Aleksijevitsj - Tsjernobylskaja molitva (Voices of Chernobyl).

Aleksijevitsj won the Nobel prize for literature in 2015. At the time of the Chernobyl disaster (1986) Aleksijevitsj lived in Minsk and interviewed over 500 witnesses of Chernobyl. Tsjernobylskaja molitva is a selection of these interviews. Best book I read in 2021. Not a light read.

Secrets of the Autistic Millionaire: Everything I know now about Autism and Asperger's that I wish I'd known then.

"How to Avoid a Climate Disaster" by Bill Gates. It's a pragmatic nerd's comprehensive view of ways to tackle climate change, and you know the author is deeply involved in some of the initiatives.

I also found "Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind" by Judson Brewer eye opening (once you see through its self-help tone). The author claims (and backs it up by research he has conducted) that anxiety and worrying are addictive, and similar regimes for smoke cessation, weight loss, and drug rehab can be used to mitigate them.

David Stuckler & Sanjay Basu - The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills - Recessions, Budget Battles, and The Politics of Life and Death

In it they look at the results that austerity measures had on societies around the western world following the aftermath of the 2007/2008 financial crisis, as well as comparing those results with those had in nations where social systems where protected instead.

Effectively it was one big natural experiment, and I can not wait to see what they write up about the ongoing crisis in a few years time.

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13547241-unorthodox

If you haven't seen movie yet, check it out. But the book talks about what happened to her before she left her husband and place she grew up.

This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56015023-this-is-your-mi...

Excellent book about plants and they role in our life.

Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail by Rusty Young

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43081.Marching_Powder

Excellent book about inside life in one of the most dangerous prisons in the world and what people do to survive it.

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoğlu, James A. Robinson

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12158480-why-nations-fai...

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50743767-between-two-kin...

A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence - Jeff Hawkins

"Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy" by Matt Stoller

The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World Paperback – Simon Winchester (2019 Paperback, purchased/read recently)

True Tales of American Life - it's a collection of mostly autobiographical true stories, submitted by everyday Americans as part of NPR's National Story Project and edited by Paul Auster.

Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection, John E Sarno.

Recommend on HN by someone I don’t have back pain but have other issues and this might help i think.

"Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old" by Andrew Steele (2021)

For a very no frills account of the current state of anti-aging research.

The Constitution of Knowledge, by Jonathan Rauch

Biographies are technically non fiction I suppose?

I really enjoyed reading Kurt Godel’s biography:

Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel.

   Working backwards
   Visual MBA

Marilyn & Irvin Yalom: A Matter of Death and Life

Michael Polla: How to Change Your Mind

The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class

Flash Boys by Michael Lewis