Fun and Funny Nonfiction: A Reading List
This installment of the Riot Recommendation is sponsored by Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History by Florence Williams.
Did you know that breast milk contains substances similar to cannabis? Or that it’s sold on the Internet for 262 times the price of oil? Feted and fetishized, the breast is an evolutionary masterpiece. But in the modern world, the breast is changing. Breasts are getting bigger, arriving earlier, and attracting newfangled chemicals. Increasingly, the odds are stacked against us in the struggle with breast cancer, even among men. What makes breasts so mercurial—and so vulnerable?
In this informative and highly entertaining account, intrepid science reporter Florence Williams sets out to uncover the latest scientific findings from the fields of anthropology, biology, and medicine. Her investigation follows the life cycle of the breast from puberty to pregnancy to menopause, taking her from a plastic surgeon’s office where she learns about the importance of cup size in Texas to the laboratory where she discovers the presence of environmental toxins in her own breast milk. The result is a fascinating exploration of where breasts came from, where they have ended up, and what we can do to save them.
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Last week, we asked you to share your favorite fun and funny works of non-fiction. You came up with quite a list. Check it out!
Free Country: A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain by George Mahood
The King of the Mild Frontier by Chris Crutcher
Killing Bono by Neil McCormick
Stiff, Gulp and Boink by Mary Roach
A Walk in the Woods, In a Sunburned Country and The Life and Times of Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
The Bear in the Attic by Patrick F. McManus
The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Watching the English by Kate Fox
Born to Kvetch by Michael Wex
Hardcore Zen by Brad Warner
I Can Barely Take Care of Myself by Jen Kirkman
Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster
Judging a Book by Its Lover by Lauren Leto
The Big Necessity by Rose George
Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott
Master of Reality by John Darnielle
Horsemen of the Esophagus by Jason Fagone
Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
The Man with the $100,000 Breasts by Michael Konik
Role Models by John Waters
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron
Rats by Robert Sullivan
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