Post your book recommendation here (Non-fiction)

[Grampa]

I read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch yesterday

[herm]

If you are going to read that hack's book, you ought to read 'The Climb', by Anatoli Boukreev.  One must understand that Krakauer is wracked with self-loathing due to the fact that he passed out in his tent and didn't do shit to help anybody.  Boukreev is the true hero, of that tragedy, but you won't learn that in Jon's book (make the beast with two backsing hack).

Sorry for the rant, but this is a hot-button topic in the PNW climbing community.

For a recommendation, I'll put out: "Conquest & Culture", by Thomas Sowell.  An interesting look at how conquests, through the ages, has impacted cultures around the world.

you obviously missed my synapse of the book. i am no fan of the author, but the book does do a good job of looking at causes of leadership failure in high risk environments...my interest was/is not in the climbing, but in the underlying failure of good leadership (including the failure of anyone to step up/speak up to avoid tragedy)

[Sinister]

you obviously missed my synapse of the book.

No, I saw that.  Interesting lesson to take away from the book (of course, you have to understand that there are inaccuracies in Jonny's book).  I just get a little pissed when the tool that is Jon Krakauer gets mentioned. 

[DoubleEagle]

" Chariots of the Gods "          by  Eric Von Daniken

A Real Thought Provoker.

Are we  ....or aren't we ?                                    Dolph

[zzilla]

I recommend the awesome book : "Not A Good Day To Die" about Operation Anaconda during OEF 1 with the 101st Airborne Division. The pictorial book about my infantry platoon during 2008-2009 should be out shortly. check out the photographer's website: www.rafalgerszak.com

[krolik]

Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. Cool look at deep sea diving and German u boats

That's a good one.

Redcoats and Rebels by Christopher Hibbert

The American Revolution through British Eyes.

[Speeddog]

One Good Run, The Legend of Burt Munro. 

[factorPlayer]

War by Gwynne Dyer.  Published in 1985 it is still relevant 20+ years later, and will be for some time (unfortunately). 

[triangleforge]

Been on a big non-fiction kick lately, and some of my recent faves have been:

James McPherson, For Cause & Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War

John Maclean, Fire on the Mountain -- an investigative look at the South Canyon (Storm King) fire in 1994 that killed 14 wildland firefighter. The author is the son of Norman Maclean (A River Runs Through It) who also wrote a similar splendid, even lyrical, investigation of the fatal Mann Gulch fire, Young Men and Fire

Ted Kerasote, Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog this one should have been the big seller, rather than Marley & Me. Better book, and sounds like a dog I would have enjoyed a whole lot more. Other books I really like by Kerasote are Blood Ties: Nature, Culture & The Hunt that looks at the complicated role hunting plays in human culture, and Out There: In the Wild in a Wired World, a short little book that looks at how the experience of being in true wilderness (canoeing in far Northern Canada, two plus weeks from any road, much less civilization) is altered by taking along a satellite phone.

Lynn Hill, Climbing Free

And two that I read back to back, for some odd reason: Ghiglieri & Myers, Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon and Ghiglieri, Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite. I hear there's also another one about Yellowstone!

[Buckethead]

John Maclean, Fire on the Mountain -- an investigative look at the South Canyon (Storm King) fire in 1994 that killed 14 wildland firefighter. The author is the son of Norman Maclean (A River Runs Through It) who also wrote a similar splendid, even lyrical, investigation of the fatal Mann Gulch fire, Young Men and Fire

Read it. 

noted. thats my kind of book

Remind me some time. I have a copy gathering dust.

[JEFF_H]

+1 on both of those.

Charlie Wilson's War. Still haven't seen the movie, but I doubt I'm missing too much.

Um- except for our buddy Crowbar in his breakout role!

book suggestion- The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

[Buckethead]

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber - Backup goalie on a Hungarian professional hockey team, Attila Ambrus supplemented his income for roughly 6 years by robbing post offices in Budapest.

[herm]

Been on a big non-fiction kick lately, and some of my recent faves have been:

James McPherson, For Cause & Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War

John Maclean, Fire on the Mountain -- an investigative look at the South Canyon (Storm King) fire in 1994 that killed 14 wildland firefighter. The author is the son of Norman Maclean (A River Runs Through It) who also wrote a similar splendid, even lyrical, investigation of the fatal Mann Gulch fire, Young Men and Fire

Ted Kerasote, Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog this one should have been the big seller, rather than Marley & Me. Better book, and sounds like a dog I would have enjoyed a whole lot more. Other books I really like by Kerasote are Blood Ties: Nature, Culture & The Hunt that looks at the complicated role hunting plays in human culture, and Out There: In the Wild in a Wired World, a short little book that looks at how the experience of being in true wilderness (canoeing in far Northern Canada, two plus weeks from any road, much less civilization) is altered by taking along a satellite phone.

Lynn Hill, Climbing Free

And two that I read back to back, for some odd reason: Ghiglieri & Myers, Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon and Ghiglieri, Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite. I hear there's also another one about Yellowstone!

soooooooooooooooo much wrong with that book

[krolik]

Two more in the Naval section:

Ship of Ghosts  and The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors both by James D. Hornfischer,

Ship of Ghosts is about the USS Houston, the lost cruiser; and Last Stand is about the Battle of Samar and Taffy 3.