Recommendations based on When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Presentby Gail Collins

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

    by Nicholas D. Kristof
    Examining the global struggle of women and how to empower them in the face of oppression.

    From two of our most fiercely moral voices, a passionate call to arms against our era’s most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women and girls in the developing world. With Pulitzer ... (Goodreads)

  2. Zeitoun

    by Dave Eggers
    A man's struggle to survive and reunite with his family amidst the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

    Abdulrahman Zeitoun grew up in Syria. After a few years of apprenticeship in the Syrian port city of Jableh , Zeitoun spent twenty years working at sea as a muscleman, engineer and fisherman. During ... (Wikipedia)

  3. Nickel and Dimed: On

    by Barbara Ehrenreich
    A journalist's exploration of poverty in the U.S., exposing the struggles of low-wage workers.

    Millions of Americans work full-time, year-round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which ... (Goodreads)

  4. The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

    by Sandy Tolan
    A true story of two families, one Palestinian and one Israeli, and their connection to a single lemon tree that symbolizes hope and peace.

    In 1967, Bashir Al-Khayri, a Palestinian twenty-five-year-old, journeyed to Israel, with the goal of seeing the beloved old stone house, with the lemon tree behind it, that he and his family had fled ... (Goodreads)

  5. Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

    by Gregory Boyle
    A memoir of Father Boyle's work with gang members in Los Angeles, emphasizing the power of compassion and kinship to heal and transform lives.

    Father Gregory Boyle’s sparkling parables about kinship and the sacredness of life are drawn from twenty years working with gangs in LA. How do you fight despair and learn to meet the world with a ... (Goodreads)

  6. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

    by Jon Krakauer
    An exploration of the fundamentalist Mormon faith, its history, and the power of religious extremism.

    A Story of Violent Faith A multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith. This is vintage Krakauer, an utterly compelling work of ... (Goodreads)

  7. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin

    by Erik Larson
    A family's struggle to cope with the darkness of Nazi Germany, as seen through one man's courage.

    The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. A mild-mannered professor from ... (Goodreads)

  8. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

    by Atul Gawande
    An exploration of the human experience of mortality and the importance of end-of-life care.

    In, Being Mortal, author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending Medicine has triumphed in modern ... (Goodreads)

  9. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time

    by Greg Mortenson
    A man's mission to build schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan to promote peace.

    The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban’s backyard Anyone who despairs of the individual’s ... (Goodreads)

  10. Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right

    by Al Franken
    Satirical look at the right, exposing their lies and hypocrisies.

    Al Franken, one of our savviest satirists ( People ), has been studying the rhetoric of the Right. He has listened to their cries of slander, bias, and even treason. He has examined the Bush ... (Goodreads)

  11. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

    by Michael Pollan
    Exploration of the modern food chain, examining the impact of food choices on our health and the environment.

    What should we have for dinner? The question has confronted us since man discovered fire, but according to Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of The Botany of Desire , how we answer it today, at ... (Goodreads)

  12. Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

    by Tony Horwitz
    Investigative report into the legacy of the American Civil War and its lingering presence in modern culture.

    When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But ... (Goodreads)

  13. I Am America

    by Stephen Colbert
    Humorous exploration of American culture, politics and history.

    Congratulations –just by opening the cover of this book you became 25% more patriotic. From Stephen Colbert, the host of television's highest-rated punditry show The Colbert Report , comes the book ... (Goodreads)

  14. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

    by A.J. Jacobs
    An exploration of faith and morality through the lens of the Bible.

    From the bestselling author of "The Know-It-All" comes a fascinating and timely exploration of religion and the Bible. Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith ... (Goodreads)

  15. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World

    by Steven Johnson
    The discovery of the source of a cholera outbreak in London and its implications for modern science and urban living.

    From Steven Johnson, the dynamic thinker routinely compared to James Gleick, Dava Sobel, and Malcolm Gladwell, The Ghost Map is a riveting page-turner about a real-life historical hero, Dr. John ... (Goodreads)

  16. Between the World and Me

    by Ta-Nehisi Coates
    A letter to his son, exploring the realities of racism in America.

    “This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American ... (Goodreads)

  17. In a Sunburned Country

    by Bill Bryson
    Exploration of the unique and diverse land, people and animals of Australia.

    A CLASSIC FROM THE, NEW YORK TIMES, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF, ONE SUMMER , Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. His previous excursion along the ... (Goodreads)

  18. Eating Animals

    by Jonathan Safran Foer
    An exploration of the ethical and environmental implications of eating meat.

    Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his life oscillating between enthusiastic carnivore and occasional vegetarian. Once he started a family, the moral dimensions of food became increasingly important. ... (Goodreads)

  19. The Gifts of Imperfection

    by Brené Brown
    A guide to self-acceptance, embracing imperfections and finding courage, compassion and connection.

    In this groundbreaking New York Times best seller, Dr. Brené Brown, a research professor and thought leader on vulnerability , courage , worthiness , and shame , shares ten guideposts on the power of ... (Goodreads)

  20. Happiness: The Crooked Little Road to Semi-Ever After

    by Heather Harpham
    A memoir of a woman's journey through unexpected motherhood, illness, and love, finding happiness in the midst of chaos.

    Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine’s April 2018 book pick,A shirt-grabbing, page-turning love story that follows a one-of-a-kind family through twists of fate that require nearly unimaginable ... (Barnes & Noble)

  21. At Home: A Short History of Private Life

    by Bill Bryson
    An exploration of the extraordinary and often overlooked history of the home.

    “Houses aren’t refuges from history. They are where history ends up.” Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has ... (Goodreads)

  22. The Year of Magical Thinking

    by Joan Didion
    A woman's reflections on life and death after the sudden loss of her husband.

    'An act of consummate literary bravery, a writer known for her clarity allowing us to watch her mind as it becomes clouded with grief.' From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of ... (Goodreads)

  23. When You Are Engulfed in Flames

    by David Sedaris
    Humorous reflections on everyday life, navigating the absurdities of the human condition.

    It's early autumn 1964. Two straight-A students head off to school, and when only one of them returns home Chesney Yelverton is coaxed from retirement and assigned to what proves to be the most ... (Goodreads)

  24. David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

    by Malcolm Gladwell
    An exploration of unlikely success stories, examining conventional wisdom and biases.

    In his #1 bestselling books The Tipping Point , Blink , and Outliers , Malcolm Gladwell has explored the ways we understand and change our world. Now he looks at the complex and surprising ways the ... (Goodreads)

  25. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

    by Christopher Hitchens
    Criticism of organized religion, arguing it is the root of much suffering in the world.

    With his unique brand of erudition and wit, Hitchens describes the ways in which religion is man-made. "God did not make us," he says. "We made God." He explains the ways in which religion is ... (Goodreads)

  26. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

    by Eric Schlosser
    An exploration of the industrial food system and its effects on U.S. society.

    Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list ... (Goodreads)

  27. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

    by Daniel James Brown
    An inspiring story of a rowing crew battling against the odds to win gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

    This novel is about the University of Washington eight-oared crew that represented the United States in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and narrowly beat out Italy and Germany to win the gold medal. The ... (Wikipedia)

  28. John Adams

    by David McCullough
    Biography of the second President of the United States and his contributions to the founding of the nation.

    The enthralling, often surprising story of John Adams, one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived. In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous ... (Goodreads)

  29. Hidden Figures

    by Margot Lee Shetterly
    A recounting of the true story of three African-American women's contributions to NASA during the space race.

    The uplifting, amazing true story—a New York Times bestseller This edition of Margot Lee Shetterly’s acclaimed book is perfect for young readers. It is the powerful story of four African-American ... (Goodreads)

  30. Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo

    by Zlata Filipović
    A young girl's diary chronicles her life during the Bosnian War, revealing the horrors and struggles of living in a war-torn city.

    When Zlata’s Diary was first published at the height of the Bosnian War, it became an international bestseller and was compared to The Diary of Anne Frank , both for the freshness of its voice and ... (Goodreads)