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Collection of the Pulitzer Prize winning books and finalists for general non-fiction.
Score
A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
| 1 |
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Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by
4.04 avg rating — 449,701 ratings
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| 2 |
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The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
by
Elizabeth Kolbert (Goodreads Author)
4.15 avg rating — 78,143 ratings
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| 3 |
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Empire of the Summer Moon
by
4.25 avg rating — 65,431 ratings
score: 785,
and
8 people voted
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| 4 |
|
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
by
Lawrence Wright (Goodreads Author)
4.36 avg rating — 36,677 ratings
score: 593,
and
6 people voted
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| 5 |
|
Master of the Senate (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #3)
by
4.43 avg rating — 23,865 ratings
score: 586,
and
6 people voted
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| 6 |
|
The Guns of August
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4.18 avg rating — 83,439 ratings
score: 543,
and
6 people voted
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| 7 |
|
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
by
Jon Krakauer (Goodreads Author)
4.26 avg rating — 557,257 ratings
score: 486,
and
5 people voted
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| 8 |
|
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
by
4.34 avg rating — 112,381 ratings
score: 474,
and
5 people voted
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| 9 |
|
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
by
3.92 avg rating — 291,705 ratings
score: 408,
and
5 people voted
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| 10 |
|
Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation
by
Dan Fagin (Goodreads Author)
4.09 avg rating — 4,647 ratings
score: 381,
and
4 people voted
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| 11 |
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Chaos: Making a New Science
by
James Gleick (Goodreads Author)
4.03 avg rating — 40,541 ratings
score: 372,
and
4 people voted
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| 12 |
|
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
by
4.31 avg rating — 18,532 ratings
score: 360,
and
4 people voted
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| 13 |
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Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
by
4.11 avg rating — 3,586 ratings
score: 354,
and
4 people voted
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| 14 |
|
The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
by
4.19 avg rating — 15,574 ratings
score: 351,
and
4 people voted
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| 15 |
|
Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45
by
4.16 avg rating — 3,711 ratings
score: 335,
and
4 people voted
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| 16 |
|
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
by
4.38 avg rating — 13,536 ratings
score: 313,
and
4 people voted
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| 17 |
|
Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America
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4.16 avg rating — 8,553 ratings
score: 304,
and
4 people voted
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| 18 |
|
The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature
by
David George Haskell (Goodreads Author)
4.24 avg rating — 4,261 ratings
score: 299,
and
3 people voted
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| 19 |
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Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
by
4.29 avg rating — 51,989 ratings
score: 296,
and
4 people voted
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| 20 |
|
Basin and Range (Annals of the Former World, 1)
by
4.19 avg rating — 4,088 ratings
score: 277,
and
3 people voted
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| 21 |
|
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
by
4.40 avg rating — 15,897 ratings
score: 275,
and
3 people voted
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| 22 |
|
Gulag: A History
by
4.28 avg rating — 13,031 ratings
score: 273,
and
3 people voted
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| 23 |
|
The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
by
4.10 avg rating — 101,567 ratings
score: 272,
and
3 people voted
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| 23 |
|
On Human Nature
by
4.14 avg rating — 3,585 ratings
score: 272,
and
4 people voted
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| 25 |
|
The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
by
4.19 avg rating — 21,296 ratings
score: 268,
and
4 people voted
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| 26 |
|
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
by
4.40 avg rating — 24,099 ratings
score: 258,
and
4 people voted
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| 27 |
|
The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq
by
4.05 avg rating — 3,196 ratings
score: 257,
and
3 people voted
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| 27 |
|
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
by
4.08 avg rating — 29,345 ratings
score: 257,
and
3 people voted
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| 29 |
|
The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, The Novel as History
by
3.61 avg rating — 3,420 ratings
score: 241,
and
3 people voted
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| 30 |
|
Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam
by
4.08 avg rating — 2,394 ratings
score: 239,
and
3 people voted
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| 30 |
|
Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence
by
3.91 avg rating — 261 ratings
score: 239,
and
3 people voted
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| 32 |
|
The Rising Sun: The Decline & Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-45
by
4.30 avg rating — 6,010 ratings
score: 232,
and
3 people voted
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| 33 |
|
Rousseau and Revolution (The Story of Civilization, #10)
by
4.30 avg rating — 956 ratings
score: 225,
and
3 people voted
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| 34 |
|
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
by
Steven Pinker (Goodreads Author)
4.09 avg rating — 25,165 ratings
score: 224,
and
3 people voted
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| 34 |
|
Annals of the Former World
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4.37 avg rating — 4,310 ratings
score: 224,
and
3 people voted
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| 36 |
|
The Age of Napoleon (The Story of Civilization, #11)
by
4.36 avg rating — 1,046 ratings
score: 222,
and
3 people voted
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| 37 |
|
Rising from the Plains (Annals of the Former World, 3)
by
4.24 avg rating — 1,941 ratings
score: 216,
and
3 people voted
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| 38 |
|
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
by
3.69 avg rating — 183,110 ratings
score: 213,
and
3 people voted
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| 39 |
|
War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton and the Generals
by
3.93 avg rating — 820 ratings
score: 199,
and
3 people voted
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| 40 |
|
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
by
3.87 avg rating — 34,816 ratings
score: 194,
and
2 people voted
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| 41 |
|
Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
by
4.25 avg rating — 8,756 ratings
score: 180,
and
2 people voted
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| 42 |
|
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
by
Nicholas Carr (Goodreads Author)
3.89 avg rating — 32,573 ratings
score: 173,
and
2 people voted
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| 42 |
|
The Soul of a New Machine
by
4.12 avg rating — 9,333 ratings
score: 173,
and
2 people voted
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| 44 |
|
The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945
by
4.24 avg rating — 1,628 ratings
score: 169,
and
2 people voted
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| 45 |
|
Endless Enemies
by
4.15 avg rating — 67 ratings
score: 165,
and
2 people voted
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| 46 |
|
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
by
3.98 avg rating — 115,637 ratings
score: 160,
and
2 people voted
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| 47 |
|
Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families
by
4.32 avg rating — 2,743 ratings
score: 158,
and
3 people voted
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| 48 |
|
The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide
by
4.35 avg rating — 2,545 ratings
score: 157,
and
2 people voted
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| 49 |
|
Children of Crisis, Volume 2: Migrants, Sharecroppers, Mountaineers
by
4.30 avg rating — 20 ratings
score: 156,
and
2 people voted
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| 50 |
|
Children of Crisis, Volume 3: South Goes North
by
4.36 avg rating — 11 ratings
score: 154,
and
2 people voted
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| 51 |
|
The Denial of Death
by
4.05 avg rating — 15,471 ratings
score: 153,
and
2 people voted
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| 52 |
|
The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy
by
David E. Hoffman (Goodreads Author)
4.15 avg rating — 5,484 ratings
score: 149,
and
2 people voted
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| 53 |
|
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
by
4.38 avg rating — 7,070 ratings
score: 148,
and
2 people voted
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| 54 |
|
A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
by
4.24 avg rating — 12,460 ratings
score: 142,
and
3 people voted
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| 55 |
|
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
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4.10 avg rating — 15,782 ratings
score: 140,
and
2 people voted
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| 56 |
|
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq
by
4.09 avg rating — 7,839 ratings
score: 137,
and
2 people voted
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| 57 |
|
The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture (The Problem of Slavery, #1)
by
4.02 avg rating — 165 ratings
score: 136,
and
2 people voted
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| 58 |
|
The Ants
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4.60 avg rating — 836 ratings
score: 133,
and
3 people voted
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| 59 |
|
Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris
by
Richard Kluger (Goodreads Author)
3.92 avg rating — 294 ratings
score: 130,
and
2 people voted
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| 60 |
|
"A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide
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4.26 avg rating — 10,934 ratings
score: 126,
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2 people voted
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| 61 |
|
Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution
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4.21 avg rating — 1,049 ratings
score: 121,
and
2 people voted
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| 62 |
|
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan
by
3.86 avg rating — 3,333 ratings
score: 116,
and
2 people voted
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| 63 |
|
Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
by
4.14 avg rating — 10,191 ratings
score: 115,
and
2 people voted
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| 64 |
|
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
by
4.15 avg rating — 5,079 ratings
score: 111,
and
2 people voted
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| 64 |
|
Looking for a Ship
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4.16 avg rating — 1,587 ratings
score: 111,
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2 people voted
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| 66 |
|
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power
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4.44 avg rating — 12,218 ratings
score: 109,
and
2 people voted
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| 67 |
|
Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire
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4.26 avg rating — 5,256 ratings
score: 102,
and
2 people voted
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| 68 |
|
Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
by
4.14 avg rating — 10,191 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
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| 68 |
|
Pinckney's Treaty
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3.57 avg rating — 14 ratings
score: 100,
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1 person voted
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| 68 |
|
Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
by
4.36 avg rating — 14,955 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
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| 71 |
|
The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time
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4.17 avg rating — 9,851 ratings
score: 99,
and
2 people voted
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| 71 |
|
History of the American Frontier - 1763-1893
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3.84 avg rating — 252 ratings
score: 99,
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1 person voted
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| 73 |
|
A History of the United States: The War for Southern Independence 1849-1865 Vol VI
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4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings
score: 98,
and
1 person voted
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| 74 |
|
Mrs. Harris: The Death of the Scarsdale Diet Doctor
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3.11 avg rating — 47 ratings
score: 96,
and
1 person voted
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| 75 |
|
The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism
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4.04 avg rating — 567 ratings
score: 94,
and
2 people voted
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| 76 |
|
How the Mind Works
by
Steven Pinker (Goodreads Author)
3.99 avg rating — 20,960 ratings
score: 93,
and
1 person voted
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| 76 |
|
The Fate of the Earth
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3.94 avg rating — 300 ratings
score: 93,
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1 person voted
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| 78 |
|
Terrorists & Novelists
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2.75 avg rating — 4 ratings
score: 92,
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1 person voted
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| 79 |
|
The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher
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4.09 avg rating — 1,867 ratings
score: 91,
and
2 people voted
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| 79 |
|
The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination
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4.21 avg rating — 4,080 ratings
score: 91,
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2 people voted
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| 79 |
|
Is There No Place on Earth for Me?
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3.86 avg rating — 1,292 ratings
score: 91,
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1 person voted
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| 82 |
|
Wild Justice: The Evolution of Revenge
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3.73 avg rating — 11 ratings
score: 90,
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1 person voted
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| 83 |
|
Conversations With the Enemy: The Story of PFC Robert Garwood
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4.07 avg rating — 43 ratings
score: 89,
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1 person voted
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| 84 |
|
The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The Rise of a Sovereign Profession and the Making of a Vast Industry
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4.17 avg rating — 1,391 ratings
score: 88,
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1 person voted
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| 85 |
|
Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era; Fiction
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4.32 avg rating — 91 ratings
score: 86,
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1 person voted
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| 86 |
|
The Evolution of God
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3.94 avg rating — 7,968 ratings
score: 85,
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1 person voted
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| 86 |
|
The Good War: An Oral History of World War II
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4.30 avg rating — 4,788 ratings
score: 85,
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2 people voted
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| 88 |
|
No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes
by
Anand Gopal (Goodreads Author)
4.47 avg rating — 4,062 ratings
score: 84,
and
1 person voted
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| 89 |
|
Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay
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4.14 avg rating — 1,543 ratings
score: 81,
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1 person voted
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| 90 |
|
The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War
by
Fred Kaplan (Goodreads Author)
4.08 avg rating — 731 ratings
score: 80,
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1 person voted
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| 90 |
|
Why Survive?: Being Old in America
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3.30 avg rating — 20 ratings
score: 80,
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1 person voted
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| 92 |
|
One Hundred Names for Love: A Memoir
by
Diane Ackerman (Goodreads Author)
3.85 avg rating — 1,779 ratings
score: 78,
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1 person voted
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| 93 |
|
Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men
by
Mara Hvistendahl (Goodreads Author)
3.83 avg rating — 1,445 ratings
score: 77,
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1 person voted
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| 93 |
|
Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land
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4.05 avg rating — 833 ratings
score: 77,
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2 people voted
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| 95 |
|
How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities
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4.06 avg rating — 2,945 ratings
score: 74,
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1 person voted
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| 96 |
|
Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age
by
4.12 avg rating — 1,402 ratings
score: 72,
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1 person voted
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| 97 |
|
The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe
by
3.90 avg rating — 448 ratings
score: 71,
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1 person voted
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| 97 |
|
So Human an Animal: How We are Shaped by Surroundings and Events
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3.92 avg rating — 209 ratings
score: 71,
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1 person voted
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| 99 |
|
The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America
by
4.08 avg rating — 491 ratings
score: 70,
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1 person voted
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| 100 |
|
Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness
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4.27 avg rating — 4,015 ratings
score: 68,
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1 person voted
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137 books ·
35 voters ·
list created July 3rd, 2015
by Alex Anderson (votes) .
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