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My favourite non-fiction ebooks:
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich: journalist goes 'undercover' as a minium wage earner to see how people survive in low-paying jobs in America.
No Impact Man by Colin Beavan: Man and his family spend a year living in New York City and trying to make zero impact on the environment.
Nurture Shock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merriman: examines research on how children learn. Chapter on 'race' was excerpted widely on-line and is very good.
Relentless Pursuit by Donna Foote: follows four new recruits in the 'Teach for America' program as they progress through their first year.
The Winter of our Disconnect by Susan Maushart: journalist disconnects herself and three teenage children for all things electronic for six months.
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin: woman tries to improve her happiness by focusing on one area of her life each month.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot: biography of the woman who accidentally spawned the first 'immortal line' of cells in medical research; follows her family (who did not know what happened) to the present day.
Why we Buy by Paco Underhill: studies the psychology of how men and women shop. A sequel, looking at shopping malls, was not as good.
The Sex Lives of Cannibals by Maarten Troost: man and his girlfriend move to remote Pacific island country for a year.
I really enjoy memoir-type books and lately have been reading a spate of 'blogger or journalist embarks on project to do X for a year' type stories. Some of them (e.g. 'On the Outside Looking Indian by Rupinder Gill') have been surprisingly good. Some of them (e.g. Petite Anglaise by Catherine Sanderson) have been awful.
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