Here are my favorite secular nonfiction books.

• From Beirut to Jerusalem (Thomas Friedman). Part Lebanon, part Israel. Beautifully written.
• Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen Covey). Continues to influence me. Great wisdom.
• Good Morning Merry Sunshine (Bob Greene). Greene’s journal of his daughter’s first year of life. Fascinating.
• The Right Stuff (Tom Wolf). A masterpiece of literary nonfiction.
• The Good War (Studs Terkel). An oral history of World War II.
• The Mother Tongue (Bill Bryson). The evolution of the English language told with a great deal of humor.
• Conscience & Courage (Eva Fogelman). Amazing stories of people who sheltered Jews during WW2.
• Into Thin Air (Jon Krakauer). An Everest climb goes bad. Beautifully written.
• On Writing Well (William Zinzer). A masterpiece about how to write.
• The Content of Our Character (Shelby Steele). Steele talks candidly about race.
• The Perfect Storm (Sebastian Junger). An amazing piece of journalism.
• In Cold Blood (Truman Capote). The first piece of literary journalism; the model for everyone since.
• The Dark Side (Jane Mayer). She tells the story of the Bush Administration’s descent into torture, obstruction of justice, and so much more.
• A Short History of the World (Christopher Richard Lascelles). Exactly what the title says, and written wonderfully. I learned a lot.
• Ordinary Men (Christopher Browning). The amazing story of a German police reserve battalion that participated in exterminating Jews.
• Skunkworks (Ben Rich). About the secret development of the U2, SR-71, and Stealth planes (and much more).
• Hallowed Ground (James MacPherson). A superb, short history of the battle of Gettysburg.