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Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction Books

Type: Preset list created by peach3009

Members: 7 participating members (show all)

All members' listSort: Score | Title | Author | Date
1
A Room of One's Own
by Virginia Woolf
10,955 members, 150 reviews
4.12 stars (4.12 stars)

Lists: Kristelh (1), ManWithAnAgenda (2), Bretzky1 (2), peach3009 (4)

Score: 13.56

2
The Elements of Style
by William Jr. Strunk
19,005 members, 186 reviews
4.17 stars (4.17 stars)

Lists: Bretzky1 (1), Kristelh (2), deldevries (2), ManWithAnAgenda (4), peach3009 (21)

Thumbs down: aulsmith

Score: 13.42

Explanations:

aulsmith (0): There was much in this book to like, but I've found other books on writing just as helpful, if not more so.

3
In Cold Blood
by Truman Capote
21,164 members, 426 reviews
4.13 stars (4.13 stars)

Lists: ManWithAnAgenda (1), Kristelh (3), deldevries (4), peach3009 (96)

Score: 11.15

4
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
by Thomas S. Kuhn
7,282 members, 81 reviews
3.99 stars (3.99 stars)

Lists: deldevries (1), aulsmith (4), peach3009 (69)

Score: 8.22

Explanations:

aulsmith (4): But read it carefully. It's not as post-modern as some people think

5
Notes of a Native Son
by James Baldwin
1,642 members, 26 reviews
4.16 stars (4.16 stars)

Lists: aulsmith (3), kara.shamy (4), peach3009 (19)

Score: 7.78

6
The Souls of Black Folk
by W. E. B. Du Bois
4,472 members, 61 reviews
4.21 stars (4.21 stars)

Lists: Kristelh (4), kara.shamy (5), peach3009 (31)

Score: 7.2

7
The Proper Study of Mankind: An Anthology of Essays
by Isaiah Berlin
634 members, 5 reviews
4.25 stars (4.25 stars)

Lists: aulsmith (1), peach3009 (17)

Score: 5.97

Explanations:

aulsmith (1): Berlin is great, never satisfied with easy answers (or some times any answer)

8
Selected Essays
by T. S. Eliot
339 members, 0 reviews
4.12 stars (4.12 stars)

Lists: kara.shamy (2), peach3009 (6)

Score: 5.92

9
Up from Slavery
by Booker T. Washington
3,464 members, 35 reviews
3.9 stars (3.9 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (3), deldevries (7)

Score: 5.5

10
Aspects of the Novel
by E. M. Forster
2,080 members, 35 reviews
3.81 stars (3.81 stars)

Lists: aulsmith (2), peach3009 (14)

Score: 5.43

11
James Joyce
by Richard Ellmann
1,206 members, 10 reviews
4.37 stars (4.37 stars)

Lists: kara.shamy (1), peach3009 (73)

Score: 5.37

12
The Right Stuff
by Tom Wolfe
4,183 members, 63 reviews
4.2 stars (4.2 stars)

Lists: ManWithAnAgenda (3), deldevries (6), peach3009 (52)

Thumbs down: aulsmith

Score: 5.09

Explanations:

aulsmith (0): This was an interesting book, but too cynical for my taste.

13
The Guns of August
by Barbara W. Tuchman
5,795 members, 104 reviews
4.27 stars (4.27 stars)

Lists: kara.shamy (3), peach3009 (16)

Score: 5.04

15
The Civil War (complete 14 volumes)
by Shelby Foote
22 members, 0 reviews

Lists: deldevries (8), peach3009 (15)

Score: 4.41

16
Out of Africa
by Isak Dinesen
4,745 members, 94 reviews
3.92 stars (3.92 stars)

Lists: Kristelh (5), peach3009 (58)

Score: 4.12

17
The Education of Henry Adams
by Henry Adams
2,564 members, 40 reviews
3.76 stars (3.76 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (1)

Score: 4

18
The Journalist and the Murderer
by Janet Malcolm
565 members, 12 reviews
3.88 stars (3.88 stars)

Lists: deldevries (5), peach3009 (97)

Score: 3.95

19
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness
by William Styron
2,779 members, 69 reviews
3.9 stars (3.9 stars)

Lists: kara.shamy (7), peach3009 (55)

Score: 3.93

20
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by Malcolm X
8,535 members, 110 reviews
4.27 stars (4.27 stars)

Lists: kara.shamy (8), peach3009 (51)

Score: 3.88

21
This Boy's Life
by Tobias Wolff
2,686 members, 40 reviews
3.9 stars (3.9 stars)

Lists: kara.shamy (6), peach3009 (86)

Score: 3.87

22
The Varieties of Religious Experience
by William James
4,684 members, 32 reviews
3.91 stars (3.91 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (2)

Score: 3.36

23
Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson
5,612 members, 87 reviews
4.01 stars (4.01 stars)

Lists: ManWithAnAgenda (5), peach3009 (5)

Thumbs down: aulsmith

Score: 3.35

Explanations:

aulsmith (0): This is getting very dated. A silent spring is certainly not our greatest ecological worry.

25
Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited
by Vladimir Nabokov
3,295 members, 41 reviews
4.2 stars (4.2 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (8)

Score: 2.38

27
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money
by John Maynard Keynes
1,583 members, 11 reviews
3.61 stars (3.61 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (10)

Score: 2.25

28
The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
by Lewis Thomas
1,917 members, 29 reviews
4.17 stars (4.17 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (11)

Score: 2.2

29
The Frontier in American History
by Frederick Jackson Turner
463 members, 6 reviews
4 stars (4 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (12)

Score: 2.15

30
Black Boy
by Richard Wright
4,635 members, 61 reviews
3.98 stars (3.98 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (13)

Score: 2.11

31
The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation
by Reinhold Niebuhr
443 members, 2 reviews
3.71 stars (3.71 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (18)

Score: 1.94

32
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
by Gertrude Stein
2,428 members, 41 reviews
3.58 stars (3.58 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (20)

Score: 1.89

33
An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy
by Gunnar Myrdal
126 members, 2 reviews
4 stars (4 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (22)

Score: 1.85

34
Principia Mathematica (3-volume set)
by Alfred North Whitehead
65 members, 0 reviews
4 stars (4 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (23)

Score: 1.83

35
The Mismeasure of Man [Revised & Expanded]
by Stephen Jay Gould
1,667 members, 17 reviews
4.09 stars (4.09 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (24)

Score: 1.81

36
The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition
by Meyer H. Abrams
515 members, 4 reviews
4.04 stars (4.04 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (25)

Score: 1.79

37
The Art of the Soluble: Creativity and Originality in Science
by P. B. Medawar
69 members, 2 reviews
4.25 stars (4.25 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (26)

Score: 1.77

38
The Ants
by Bert Hölldobler
321 members, 2 reviews
4.37 stars (4.37 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (27)

Score: 1.76

39
A Theory of Justice
by John Rawls
2,810 members, 22 reviews
3.89 stars (3.89 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (28)

Score: 1.74

40
Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation
by E. H. Gombrich
987 members, 5 reviews
4.01 stars (4.01 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (29)

Score: 1.72

41
The Making of the English Working Class
by E. P. Thompson
1,584 members, 9 reviews
4.15 stars (4.15 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (30)

Score: 1.71

42
Principia Ethica
by G. E. Moore
615 members, 3 reviews
3.79 stars (3.79 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (32)

Score: 1.68

43
Philosophy and Civilization
by John Dewey
29 members, 0 reviews
3 stars (3 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (33)

Score: 1.67

44
On Growth and Form
by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
269 members, 2 reviews
4.17 stars (4.17 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (34)

Score: 1.66

45
Ideas and Opinions
by Albert Einstein
1,765 members, 8 reviews
3.86 stars (3.86 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (35)

Score: 1.65

46
The Age of Jackson
by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
819 members, 11 reviews
4.06 stars (4.06 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (36)

Score: 1.63

47
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
by Richard Rhodes
3,041 members, 46 reviews
4.46 stars (4.46 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (37)

Score: 1.62

48
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey through Yugoslavia
by Rebecca West
1,502 members, 21 reviews
4.04 stars (4.04 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (38)

Score: 1.61

49
Autobiography of William Butler Yeats
by William Butler Yeats
230 members, 2 reviews
3.93 stars (3.93 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (39)

Score: 1.6

51
Goodbye to All That
by Robert Graves
3,397 members, 60 reviews
4.01 stars (4.01 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (41)

Score: 1.58

52
Homage to Catalonia
by George Orwell
5,899 members, 95 reviews
4.09 stars (4.09 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (42)

Score: 1.57

53
The Autobiography of Mark Twain
by Mark Twain
800 members, 9 reviews
4.14 stars (4.14 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (43)

Score: 1.56

54
Children of Crisis: A Study of Courage and Fear
by Robert Coles
138 members, 0 reviews
4.57 stars (4.57 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (44)

Score: 1.55

55
A study of history
by Arnold Joseph Toynbee
254 members, 3 reviews
3.14 stars (3.14 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (45)

Score: 1.54

56
The Affluent Society
by John Kenneth Galbraith
1,556 members, 10 reviews
3.8 stars (3.8 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (46)

Score: 1.54

57
Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department
by Dean Acheson
426 members, 4 reviews
3.71 stars (3.71 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (47)

Score: 1.53

58
The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge
by David McCullough
2,345 members, 55 reviews
4.25 stars (4.25 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (48)

Score: 1.52

59
Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War
by Edmund Wilson
364 members, 4 reviews
4.07 stars (4.07 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (49)

Score: 1.51

60
Samuel Johnson
by W. Jackson Bate
368 members, 5 reviews
4.45 stars (4.45 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (50)

Score: 1.5

61
Eminent Victorians
by Lytton Strachey
1,622 members, 28 reviews
3.74 stars (3.74 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (53)

Score: 1.48

62
The Liberal Imagination
by Lionel Trilling
461 members, 5 reviews
3.8 stars (3.8 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (56)

Score: 1.46

63
The Second World War {complete}
by Winston S. Churchill
1,321 members, 7 reviews
4.29 stars (4.29 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (57)

Score: 1.46

64
Jefferson and His Time (6 Volume Set)
by Dumas Malone
244 members, 2 reviews
4.23 stars (4.23 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (59)

Score: 1.44

65
In the American Grain
by William Carlos Williams
489 members, 2 reviews
3.89 stars (3.89 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (60)

Score: 1.44

66
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
by Marc Reisner
1,553 members, 34 reviews
4.31 stars (4.31 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (61)

Score: 1.43

67
The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
by Ron Chernow
1,223 members, 18 reviews
3.89 stars (3.89 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (62)

Score: 1.43

68
The Open Society and Its Enemies
by Karl Popper
772 members, 13 reviews
4.29 stars (4.29 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (64)

Score: 1.41

69
The Art of Memory
by Frances A. Yates
1,312 members, 15 reviews
4.04 stars (4.04 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (65)

Score: 1.41

70
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism: A Historical Study
by R. H. Tawney
673 members, 1 review
3.55 stars (3.55 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (66)

Score: 1.4

71
A Preface to Morals
by Walter Lippmann
343 members, 0 reviews
3.92 stars (3.92 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (67)

Score: 1.4

72
The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution
by Jonathan D. Spence
393 members, 0 reviews
3.71 stars (3.71 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (68)

Score: 1.39

73
The Strange Career of Jim Crow
by C. Vann Woodward
960 members, 5 reviews
4.04 stars (4.04 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (70)

Score: 1.38

74
The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community
by William H. McNeill
644 members, 6 reviews
4.19 stars (4.19 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (71)

Score: 1.38

75
The Gnostic Gospels
by Elaine Pagels
4,467 members, 44 reviews
3.89 stars (3.89 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (72)

Score: 1.37

76
Florence Nightingale
by Cecil Woodham-Smith
253 members, 4 reviews
3.45 stars (3.45 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (74)

Score: 1.36

77
The Great War and Modern Memory
by Paul Fussell
1,919 members, 27 reviews
4.24 stars (4.24 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (75)

Score: 1.36

78
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
by James M. McPherson
4,800 members, 68 reviews
4.45 stars (4.45 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (77)

Score: 1.35

79
Why We Can't Wait
by Martin Luther King, Jr.
1,275 members, 6 reviews
4.44 stars (4.44 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (78)

Score: 1.35

80
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
by Edmund Morris
3,566 members, 44 reviews
4.43 stars (4.43 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (79)

Score: 1.34

81
Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance
by Erwin Panofsky
406 members, 1 review
4.11 stars (4.11 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (80)

Score: 1.34

82
The Face of Battle
by John Keegan
2,515 members, 24 reviews
4.04 stars (4.04 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (81)

Score: 1.33

83
The Strange Death of Liberal England
by George Dangerfield
392 members, 6 reviews
4.1 stars (4.1 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (82)

Score: 1.33

84
Vermeer (Barnes & Noble Art Series)
by Lawrence Gowing
95 members, 1 review
2.9 stars (2.9 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (83)

Score: 1.33

85
A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
by Neil Sheehan
1,947 members, 27 reviews
4.21 stars (4.21 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (84)

Score: 1.32

86
West with the Night
by Beryl Markham
3,260 members, 114 reviews
4.15 stars (4.15 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (85)

Score: 1.32

87
A Mathematician's Apology
by G. H. Hardy
1,230 members, 22 reviews
3.82 stars (3.82 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (87)

Score: 1.31

89
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
by Annie Dillard
4,903 members, 88 reviews
4.2 stars (4.2 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (89)

Score: 1.3

90
Shadow and Act
by Ralph Ellison
376 members, 0 reviews
3.95 stars (3.95 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (91)

Score: 1.3

91
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
by Robert A. Caro
2,380 members, 39 reviews
4.59 stars (4.59 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (92)

Score: 1.29

92
The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made it
by Richard Hofstadter
1,131 members, 12 reviews
3.92 stars (3.92 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (93)

Score: 1.29

93
The Contours of American History
by William Appleman Williams
124 members, 1 review
3.38 stars (3.38 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (94)

Score: 1.29

94
The Promise of American Life
by Herbert Croly
123 members, 0 reviews
2.6 stars (2.6 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (95)

Score: 1.28

95
The Taming of Chance
by Ian Hacking
219 members, 1 review
3.67 stars (3.67 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (98)

Score: 1.27

96
Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year
by Anne Lamott
1,614 members, 32 reviews
4.1 stars (4.1 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (99)

Score: 1.27

97
The Young Melbourne
by David Cecil
52 members, 0 reviews
2 stars (2 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (100)

Score: 1.27

98
The Sweet Science
by A. J. Liebling
226 members, 7 reviews
3.79 stars (3.79 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (63)

Thumbs down: aulsmith

Score: -0.58

Explanations:

aulsmith (0): I love Liebling's writing, but even he couldn't get me to read about boxing.

99
The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects
by Lewis Mumford
1,253 members, 9 reviews
4.14 stars (4.14 stars)

Lists: peach3009 (76)

Thumbs down: aulsmith

Score: -0.65

Explanations:

aulsmith (0): This has really been out-dated by more modern archeology.

100
The Golden Bough [set - 15 volumes]
by James George Frazer
23 members, 0 reviews

Lists: peach3009 (90)

Thumbs down: aulsmith

Score: -0.7

Explanations:

aulsmith (0): Even the abridged version is more than most people want to know.

All members' listSort: Score | Title | Author | Date

About this list

Started by: peach3009 (May 2015)

Type: Numbered and unnumbered

Related tags

20th century (1,980) American history (1,792) autobiography (3,305) biography (5,655) Civil War (938) essays (1,962) fiction (2,081) history (10,819) literature (1,705) memoir (3,827) military history (1,010) non-fiction (14,101) philosophy (3,006) politics (1,383) read (1,684) reference (2,423) religion (1,823) science (3,864) to-read (9,044) true crime (1,249) unread (989) USA (1,061) war (1,018) writing (3,413) WWI (2,356)