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The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
by
Erik Larson (Goodreads Author)
3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 avg rating — 162,036 ratings
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| 2 |
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The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
by
Simon Winchester
3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 avg rating — 34,887 ratings
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| 3 |
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Salt: A World History
by
Mark Kurlansky
3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 avg rating — 16,756 ratings
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| 4 |
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by
Rebecca Skloot (Goodreads Author)
4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 avg rating — 140,099 ratings
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| 5 |
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Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by
Jared Diamond
3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 avg rating — 93,404 ratings
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| 6 |
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Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
by
Mary Roach (Goodreads Author)
4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 avg rating — 56,502 ratings
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| 7 |
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The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
by
Steven Johnson
3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 avg rating — 11,212 ratings
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| 8 |
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A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
by
Bill Bryson
4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 avg rating — 107,716 ratings
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| 9 |
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Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time
by
Dava Sobel
3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 avg rating — 17,900 ratings
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| 10 |
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The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
by
Michael Pollan
4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 avg rating — 22,699 ratings
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| 11 |
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Seabiscuit: An American Legend
by
Laura Hillenbrand
4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 avg rating — 48,274 ratings
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| 12 |
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Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World
by
Mark Kurlansky
3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 avg rating — 6,559 ratings
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| 13 |
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A History of the World in 6 Glasses
by
Tom Standage
3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 avg rating — 4,838 ratings
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| 14 |
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Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
by
Erik Larson (Goodreads Author)
4.01 of 5 stars 4.01 avg rating — 13,041 ratings
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| 15 |
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The Emperor of All Maladies
by
Siddhartha Mukherjee
4.24 of 5 stars 4.24 avg rating — 16,610 ratings
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| 16 |
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In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
by
Nathaniel Philbrick
4.19 of 5 stars 4.19 avg rating — 19,271 ratings
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| 17 |
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Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
by
Laura Hillenbrand
4.45 of 5 stars 4.45 avg rating — 131,984 ratings
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| 18 |
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Year of Wonders
by
Geraldine Brooks
3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 avg rating — 56,479 ratings
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| 19 |
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The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
by
John M. Barry
3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 avg rating — 7,380 ratings
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| 20 |
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The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
by
Simon Singh
4.22 of 5 stars 4.22 avg rating — 6,004 ratings
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| 21 |
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Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
by
Mary Roach (Goodreads Author)
3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 avg rating — 19,867 ratings
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| 22 |
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The Diary of a Young Girl
by
Anne Frank
4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 avg rating — 903,521 ratings
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| 23 |
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At Home: A Short History of Private Life
by
Bill Bryson
3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 25,107 ratings
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| 24 |
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The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
by
Deborah Blum
4.01 of 5 stars 4.01 avg rating — 6,804 ratings
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| 25 |
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Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture
by
Ross King
3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 avg rating — 6,641 ratings
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| 26 |
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Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World
by
Dan Koeppel
3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 avg rating — 1,182 ratings
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| 27 |
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Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
by
S.C. Gwynne
4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 avg rating — 7,628 ratings
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| 28 |
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Color: A Natural History of the Palette
by
Victoria Finlay
3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 avg rating — 7,660 ratings
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| 29 |
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The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
by
Simon Winchester
3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 avg rating — 4,491 ratings
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| 30 |
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Thunderstruck
by
Erik Larson (Goodreads Author)
3.56 of 5 stars 3.56 avg rating — 12,158 ratings
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| 31 |
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Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
by
Charles Seife
3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 avg rating — 3,386 ratings
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| 32 |
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Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul
by
Karen Abbott
3.54 of 5 stars 3.54 avg rating — 5,744 ratings
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| 33 |
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Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
by
Mary Roach (Goodreads Author)
3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 avg rating — 14,410 ratings
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| 34 |
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Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World
by
Mark Pendergrast (Goodreads Author)
3.58 of 5 stars 3.58 avg rating — 538 ratings
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| 35 |
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Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated Into What America Eats
by
Steve Ettlinger (Goodreads Author)
3.24 of 5 stars 3.24 avg rating — 1,198 ratings
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| 36 |
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Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants
by
Robert Sullivan
3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 avg rating — 1,963 ratings
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| 37 |
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Seeds of Change: Six Plants That Transformed Mankind
by
Henry Hobhouse
3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 avg rating — 165 ratings
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| 38 |
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The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean
by
Trevor Corson
3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 avg rating — 1,465 ratings
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| 39 |
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How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
by
Franklin Foer
3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 avg rating — 4,987 ratings
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| 40 |
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Tulipomania: The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower & the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused
by
Mike Dash
3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 avg rating — 585 ratings
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| 41 |
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Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded
by
Simon Winchester
3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 avg rating — 7,447 ratings
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| 42 |
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Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
by
Jack Weatherford
4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 avg rating — 6,500 ratings
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| 43 |
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The Calendar
by
David Ewing Duncan
3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 avg rating — 284 ratings
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| 44 |
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A History of the Wife
by
Marilyn Yalom
3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 avg rating — 547 ratings
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| 45 |
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The Guns of August
by
Barbara W. Tuchman
4.22 of 5 stars 4.22 avg rating — 11,535 ratings
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| 46 |
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A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire
by
Amy Butler Greenfield (Goodreads Author)
3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 avg rating — 839 ratings
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| 47 |
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London
by
Peter Ackroyd
3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 avg rating — 1,894 ratings
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| 48 |
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Spice: The History of a Temptation
by
Jack Turner
3.48 of 5 stars 3.48 avg rating — 755 ratings
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| 49 |
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Into the Wild
by
Jon Krakauer
3.85 of 5 stars 3.85 avg rating — 309,570 ratings
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| 50 |
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The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
by
Isabel Wilkerson (Goodreads Author)
4.3 of 5 stars 4.30 avg rating — 10,626 ratings
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| 51 |
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Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages
by
Anne Mendelson
3.5 of 5 stars 3.50 avg rating — 156 ratings
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| 52 |
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The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession
by
Susan Orlean (Goodreads Author)
3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 avg rating — 5,684 ratings
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| 53 |
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And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
by
Randy Shilts
4.38 of 5 stars 4.38 avg rating — 8,632 ratings
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| 54 |
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The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
by
Timothy Egan
4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 avg rating — 15,037 ratings
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| 55 |
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The True History of Chocolate
by
Sophie D. Coe
3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 avg rating — 325 ratings
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| 56 |
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The Children's Blizzard
by
David Laskin (Goodreads Author)
3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 avg rating — 3,453 ratings
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| 57 |
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Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
by
Giles Milton
3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 avg rating — 1,112 ratings
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| 58 |
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No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting
by
Anne Macdonald
3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 avg rating — 229 ratings
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| 59 |
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Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern
by
Joshua Zeitz
3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 avg rating — 1,095 ratings
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| 60 |
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The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World
by
Larry Zuckerman
3.46 of 5 stars 3.46 avg rating — 120 ratings
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| 61 |
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Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It
by
Gina Kolata
3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 avg rating — 2,145 ratings
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| 62 |
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Eiffel's Tower: And the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count
by
Jill Jonnes
3.66 of 5 stars 3.66 avg rating — 990 ratings
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| 63 |
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The Johnstown Flood
by
David McCullough
4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 avg rating — 5,364 ratings
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| 64 |
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History of the Breast
by
Marilyn Yalom
3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 165 ratings
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| 65 |
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Tea: The Drink that Changed the World
by
Laura C. Martin
3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 avg rating — 81 ratings
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| 66 |
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Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World
by
Simon Garfield
3.63 of 5 stars 3.63 avg rating — 529 ratings
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| 67 |
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Coal: A Human History
by
Barbara Freese
3.63 of 5 stars 3.63 avg rating — 646 ratings
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| 68 |
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Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do
by
Tom Vanderbilt
3.61 of 5 stars 3.61 avg rating — 3,280 ratings
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| 69 |
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The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell
by
Mark Kurlansky
3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 avg rating — 1,371 ratings
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| 70 |
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The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed
by
John Vaillant
3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 avg rating — 1,840 ratings
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| 71 |
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Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive That Changed the World
by
Jack Kelly
3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 avg rating — 111 ratings
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| 72 |
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Woman: An Intimate Geography
by
Natalie Angier
4.17 of 5 stars 4.17 avg rating — 2,321 ratings
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| 73 |
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Unfamiliar Fishes
by
Sarah Vowell
3.51 of 5 stars 3.51 avg rating — 6,018 ratings
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| 74 |
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The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery
by
D.T. Max (Goodreads Author)
3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 avg rating — 1,394 ratings
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| 75 |
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The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance
by
Henry Petroski
3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 avg rating — 210 ratings
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| 76 |
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Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
by
Steve Coll
4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 avg rating — 4,193 ratings
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| 77 |
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The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History
by
Katherine Ashenburg
3.6 of 5 stars 3.60 avg rating — 746 ratings
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| 78 |
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Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
by
Jon Krakauer
3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 avg rating — 182,630 ratings
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| 79 |
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The Devil's Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee
by
Stewart Lee Allen
3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 avg rating — 476 ratings
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| 80 |
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The Story of Corn
by
Betty Fussell
3.29 of 5 stars 3.29 avg rating — 35 ratings
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| 81 |
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The Victorian Internet
by
Tom Standage
3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 avg rating — 789 ratings
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| 82 |
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E=mc²: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation
by
David Bodanis
4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 avg rating — 2,429 ratings
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| 83 |
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Just My Type: A Book About Fonts
by
Simon Garfield
3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 avg rating — 6,325 ratings
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| 84 |
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The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation
by
Mark Kurlansky
3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 avg rating — 1,433 ratings
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| 85 |
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Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
by
Jon Krakauer
3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 avg rating — 68,433 ratings
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| 86 |
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Thames: Sacred River
by
Peter Ackroyd
3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 avg rating — 331 ratings
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| 87 |
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The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters
by
Rose George
3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 avg rating — 723 ratings
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| 88 |
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The Coffee House: A Cultural History
by
Markman Ellis
3.58 of 5 stars 3.58 avg rating — 36 ratings
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| 89 |
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The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War 1890-1914
by
Barbara W. Tuchman
4.14 of 5 stars 4.14 avg rating — 2,515 ratings
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| 90 |
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Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
by
Mary Roach (Goodreads Author)
3.52 of 5 stars 3.52 avg rating — 13,371 ratings
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| 91 |
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Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
by
Candice Millard
4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 avg rating — 10,753 ratings
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| 92 |
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The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium
by
Robert Lacey
3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 avg rating — 1,870 ratings
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| 93 |
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Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce
by
Douglas Starr
3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 avg rating — 127 ratings
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| 94 |
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Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny
by
Mike Dash
4.13 of 5 stars 4.13 avg rating — 592 ratings
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| 95 |
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The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime
by
Miles Harvey
3.62 of 5 stars 3.62 avg rating — 1,097 ratings
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| 96 |
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The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects
by
Lewis Mumford
4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 avg rating — 407 ratings
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| 97 |
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Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage
by
Stephanie Coontz
3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 856 ratings
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| 98 |
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The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
by
Marc Levinson
3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 avg rating — 308 ratings
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| 99 |
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Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82
by
Elizabeth A. Fenn
3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 avg rating — 375 ratings
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| 100 |
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A Short History of Rudeness: Manners, Morals, and Misbehavior in Modern America
by
Mark Caldwell
3.04 of 5 stars 3.04 avg rating — 56 ratings
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Written by me (public librarian in New York) my Dad (urban planner and should-be history teacher in Toronto) and my librarian friends on Facebook.
Please add books, comments..!