Auckland Council Libraries: Annie’s top quirky non-fiction picks

Annie’s top quirky non-fiction picks

Ngā Tino pukapuka paki whanokē e ai ki a Anne

Browse Annie's current top quirky nonfiction picks*.*subject to change at a moment's notice.

Cannibalism

Bill Schutt

Book

Eating one's own kind is completely natural behavior in thousands of species, including humans. Throughout history we have engaged in cannibalism for reasons relating to famine, burial rites, and medicinal remedies.

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Norse mythology

Neil Gaiman

Book

The great Norse myths are woven into the fabric of our storytelling - from Tolkien, Alan Garner and Rosemary Sutcliff to Game of Thrones and Marvel Comics. They are also an inspiration for Neil Gaiman's own award-bedecked, bestselling fiction.

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When books went to war

Molly Guptill Manning

Book

When America entered World War II in 1941, they faced an enemy that had banned and burned over 100 million books. Outraged librarians launched a campaign to send books to troops. In 1943, the War Department and the publishing industry stepped in.

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Noise

David Hendy

Book

What if history had a sound track? What would it tell us about ourselves? Based on a thirty-part BBC Radio series and podcast, Noise explores the human dramas that have revolved around sound at various points in the last 100,000 years.

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The ghost map

Steven Johnson

Book

A chronicle of Victorian London's worst cholera outbreak traces the day-by-day efforts of Dr. John Snow, who put his own life on the line in his efforts to prove his previously dismissed contagion theory about how the epidemic was spreading.

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Making sense of science

Cornelia Dean

Book

Cornelia Dean draws on her 30 years as a science journalist with the New York Times to expose the flawed reasoning and knowledge gaps that handicap readers when they try to make sense of science.

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A brief history of everyone who ever lived

Adam Rutherford

Book

This is a story about you. It is the history of who you are and how you came to be. It is unique to you, as it is to each of the 100 billion modern humans who have ever drawn breath. But it is also our collective story.

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We are all stardust

Stefan Klein

Book

Nineteen brilliantly led conversations with a sterling roster of natural and social scientists, shedding new light on their ideas, discoveries and lives.

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Moa

Quinn Berentson

Book

The moa were the most unusual and unique family of birds that ever lived, a clan of feathered monsters that developed in isolation for many, many millions of years.

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How to be a Tudor

Ruth Goodman

Book

We know about the historical dramas of Tudor times - the court of Henry VIII and the break from Rome. But what was life really like for a commoner like you or me? Ruth Goodman has spent months sleeping, eating and (not) washing like a Tudor.

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Wild things!

Betsy Bird

Book

Did Laura Ingalls cross paths with a band of mass murderers? Why was a Garth Williams bunny tale dubbed "integrationist propaganda"? For adults who are curious about children's books and their creators.

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Grandma Gatewood's walk

Ben Montgomery

Book

This is the biography of Grandma Gatewood, hiking celebrity. Emma Gatewood was the first woman to hike the Appalachian Trail alone, as well as the first person, man or woman, to walk it twice and three times - and she did it all after the age of 65.

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The end of your life book club

Will Schwalbe

Large Print

Mary Anne returned from a trip suffering from what doctors believed was rare hepatitis. Then she was diagnosed with a form of advanced pancreatic cancer. This is the true story of a son and his mother, who start a book club that brings them together.

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What are you doing out here

Norman Harris

Book

This book may be tiny – less than 60 pages of text – but I challenge you to read it without teary eyes. Read and remember why sport – cricket in particular – is so much a part of the New Zealand psyche.

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Book list by:

Anne Coppell.

Annie

LibrarianHelensville Library

Auckland Council Libraries:Book list Recommended reading lists about different topics and genres to help you find new books to read.