Hi, I'm looking for non-fiction recs of a specific type

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

16. For history and biography

take a look at the books by Candice Millard.

River of Doubt is about a trip ex president Teddy Roosevelt took to the Amazon after he left office.

Destiny of the Republic is about the assassination of President Garfield.

Hero of the Empire is about Winston Churchill and the Boer War.

I've actually only ever read Destiny, but it's among the very best books I've ever read. Eventually I'll get to the others.

As far as the very best book I have ever read in my entire life, it's Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser. I suppose I'm biased because I started reading the Little House books when I was about 8, I've reread them many times, and have read the earlier biographies of Laura. This one blows every other one out of the water. It gives a brief history of the Ingalls and Quiner families (her father's and mother's respectively) and then launches into a full and critical biography of Laura. Wow. It won the Pulitzer Prize for biography. Well deserved.

Fraser is also the author of God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church which I've also read and is likewise excellent.

I happen to be very aware that books to prisons in at least some states require they come from Amazon, and I know people will get tripped up because they don't always realize that the book they're ordering from Amazon comes from a third party.

Let us know when you need more suggestions.