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.

Have you looked at The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down?

It isn’t nonfiction, but I think most students would be totally engrossed by Eggers’ The Circle. I have mixed feelings about the book as a whole (one-dimensional characters), but it’s a good read and really raises great questions about social media etc. Also links nicely to the current passion for dystopian fiction.

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 am the opposite. I thought the story of the fair was competently done, but the serial killer stuff was pedestrian and relied more on "Oh, the horror" than actual research. Also, the two stories needed to be integrated more. There's a lot he could have said about the economic conditions of 1893 (severe depression) and the forces that made the victims vulnerable.

Do not get me started on the Eurocentric nonsense that is Guns, Germs and Steel.

The Poisoner's Handbook is a brisk read that not only has lurid crimes but also tells a good story about the rise of modern CSI and the impact a few individuals had on it.

I was charmed by The Ghosts of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, And Other Ecological Anachronisms. I'm frequently irritated by having too much of the writer in modern science books, but Barlow does a great job of mixing science and her own amateur naturalist experiments. She feeds local animals fruits she suspects evolved for megafauna and sees whether they disperse the seeds. She takes things like avocados and osage oranges to museums to see if fossilized jaws could chomp on them.

I think David McCullough is one the best of contemporary historians. I confess a fondness for his early stuff. I'd think The Johnstown Flood would certainly keep students' attention, and it has many elements that apply today: the rise of disaster journalism, the arrogance of the rich, misplaced faith in experts and so on.

My personal campaign is to get everyone to read The Education of Henry Adams, Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery and Han Zinsser's Rats, Lice and History. My success to date has been limited.