The ongoing coronavirus outbreak has put us under the house arrest – something that’s not easy even for best of introverts. While we are isolating with no sign of things changing anytime soon, there’s a level of tedium where the days all blend together. This is where reading a good nonfiction book can help to transport you to another time and place with fine details of colourful writing. Also, being introduced to the right book at this time can calm fears and help you adjust to this new world of social distancing. Unite For Vitiligo has some recommendations. Read on –
THE WRIGHT BROTHERS by David McCullough
When Wilbur and Oliver Wright flew the world’s first aircraft in December 1903, no one could have imagined the strides that aviation will take in the next few decades. David McCullough’s definitive account of the early adventures of the Wright Brothers’ – belonging to a remarkable family in Ohio, US — shows just how important their contribution has been.
GOLDENEYE: Where Bond was Born: Ian Fleming’s Jamaica by Matthew Parker
Golden Eye is the name of both a Bond movie and the Jamaican home of Ian Fleming, who created the iconic character of James Bond. Ian Fleming lived in his cliff-top house on Jamaica’s stunning northern coast for two months every year, from 1946, to his death in 1964. It is here that he wrote all the James Bond novels and stories. Parker’s well-received book explores the leading role played by Jamaica and ‘Golden Eye’ in the creation of Fleming’s iconic post-World War II hero.
BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME by Ta-Nehisi Coates
It seems like déjà vu. Ta-Nehisi Coates writes with a command and austerity that was last seen in Barack Obama’s writing style. A winner already, with the National Book Award in nonfiction, this nonfiction book deals with a momentous subject – racial strife and tensions – through the prism of personal experiences. And that makes it more than a work of observation or a mere commentary. As Coates says, “racism is a visceral experience. . . . It dislodges brains, blocks airways, rips muscles, extracts organs, cracks bones, breaks teeth.” The reader experiences all this first-hand and is changed forever.
UNDERGROUND IN BERLIN: A Young Woman’s Extraordinary Tale of Survival in the Heart of Nazi Germany by Marie Jalowicz Simon
Struggling to survive under the Nazis in Berlin, Marie Jalowicz found out that her best hope was to disappear. How she manages to do so makes this tale of extraordinary courage and indomitable spirit inspiring beyond words. This memoir provides an unprecedented insight into the psychology of both willing helpers and staunch antagonists.
BLACK FLAGS, The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick
A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at The Washington Post, Joby Warrick explains the rise of the Islamic State in 2004. Believed to have been founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian national, Islamic State has been notorious for carrying out deadly terror strikes across the world. Warrick takes an in-depth look at al-Zarqawi’s role in unleashing terror and how repeated mistakes by the US and Jordanian governments led to his rise as a ‘terrorist superstar’. A must-read nonfiction book indeed!