Just read one I quite enjoyed: "The Speckled Monster"--about smallpox and London and Boston starting to innoculate, way back when. It was written to read quite easily, but there were a surprising number of endnotes (I figured she was making up 90% of it since there was a fair bit of dialogue and "he thought" and stuff, but apparently a lot of it was actually taken from letters those people wrote and/or diaries).

Amy, for students, Devil in the White City is entirely boggy in the parts about the building. They love the serial killer stuff but the rest is boring for them (and me).

I read a lot like an average high school kid in what entertains me personally. Like I know where they get hung up and where they get bored.

For example, we have In Cold Blood which is excellent, but there are chunks that are just too slow. Ditto To Kill a Mockingbird (which is, of course, fiction, but there is that whole middle part where I lose kids).

In some ways, the best nonfiction for my students are ones where the writer/researcher is also overtly but tangentially part of the story. So Stiff? Mary Roach is looking at this info because she's interested but also because she is contemplating her own mortality. Plus, gross. So they love it.

I have to get The Speckled Monster because that looks good.

For long form (as opposed to book length), I'm desperate to teach the Atlantic piece on fraternities, but it too is boggy and the opening talks about some frat boy trying to fire a bottle rocket out of his ass. So maybe not? But fascinating and funny. And the author's tone? So overt and snide.

But then they would know not to fire a bottle rocket out of their asses ...?

Yeah, I didn't think about the boggy parts. I tend to skim them when it's just me, but for class it would a little different.

The audiobook for Candy Freak is good fun.

Stiff made me decide to go the full-bore "here, take the whole thing" route for when I die. the University of Utah has a body donor program.

Loved Candy Freak. Love the story in Devil in the White city, but found the prose terribly purple in parts.

My favourite non-fiction of the last few years has been Pulphead, by John Jeremiah Sullivan. It's a anthology of his essays though, not a comprehensive story.

Also love Year of Magical Thinking, but probably not so relatable to high school kids.

Kat - any science writers, like Richard Preston (FIrst Light, Into the Trees (I think, not in front of me) or David Quammen (There are a few, Song of the Dodo is too huge) - or am I misunderstanding the NonFiction slant?

Henrietta Lacks is amazing.

I love David Quammen, but were looking for full length as opposed to essay anthologies. In terms of natural writing we have Pilgrim at Tinker Creek which is excellent, but no one has ever taught it, which is a problem.

In terms of science, I think that Atul Gawande is incredible, but again, we have the essay issue. We do a ton of essay/article/long form work already, and we're looking for full-length NF because there are some unique skills to apply to that.

Part of the issue is that I'm buying for a whole department and need to get people on board with whatever I choose.

Guns, Germs, and Steel?

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a tough book for high school. I sat in on a college class that read it a couple of years ago, and it was tough for them.