A challenge of relative ease and merriment discussion

I thought it might be good to have a topic for the trickier categories where you can ask for recommendation based on what you like. Feel free to add new topics yourselves too! You don't have to stick to the ones I make.

Non-fiction and microhistories/social histories of one thing seems to be a tricky one for a lot of you. Personally it's one of the easiest ones, and as such I thought I'd open up this topic for those of you who don't read much non-fiction. Tell us your interests and what kind of non-fiction you might want to try and the other group members might be able to suggest some titles!

If you haven't noticed I have added "social history of one thing" to the microhistory category. That is cause the genre of microhistory seems to have gotten an additional meaning the last few years. As a research subject it deals with very narrow parameters like one family or one specific event, but lately it seems to have gotten the additional meaning of the (social) history of one specific thing (which is how I came in contact with it too). That could be a commodity (like salt, coffee, or spices), a disease (like cancer or smallpox), a concept (I once picked up a book on virginity), etc. And to be technical, since most of those are histories on a grander scale - spanning centuries and continents, they kinda are macrohistories. But the "micro" has come to refer to the object itself fitting in a very narrow frame (a book about only potatoes is pretty specific after all), rather than narrow time and space. I personally like to think of this new meaning and relatively new genre as books which could have almost one word titles like the classic "Salt", with the subtitle often being something like "the history of how X changed the world" (see what I mean by actually a grand scale?).

Anyways, same goes for this tricky category: tell us what you like and we'll see what we can find!

If I read about diseases I'd bring my inner hypochondriac to life. I think my micro history will be about something less scary. Like spoons or something.

@Cathrin: is it Pox Americana? I know I saw that on the microhistory list. Which reminds me that I kinda want to read Pox, which is rather about syphilis. But I think I had a hard time finding a good copy when I did need it for a school project.

@Sofie: there are so many about food! Or why not join me in reading one about murder and the world fair?

Great! I'm open for any suggestions, a good book is a good book :) But to make it a bit easier...
I probably won't enjoy a book about:
- War (stuff related to war is ok though)
- Space (scares the shit out of me)
- Diseases (hypochondriac)

What I find interesting:
- non-western cultures
- Psychological disorders
- Computers
- Lingustics

@Elin

A friend of mine read In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build a Perfect Language

and really liked it. Maybe that would appeal to your linguistics interest?

That sounds very interesting. I will definitely look it up :)

This may or may not be of interest to you, Elin, or anyone else, but a great book that I read some time ago and I think would qualify as a microhistory is The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down. It sounds somewhat like it's just about the featured girl, but it goes deep into Hmong history, Hmong culture, why there are concentrations of Hmong people in the US to begin with, why Hmong culture can clash with what seems like "obvious" medical treatment, and much more. It's really epic. (Trigger warning that there is some medical stuff, and I found some of it scary, but it may be safe on the hypochondriac scale because I don't think it's likely to suddenly get epilepsy as an adult.)

For anyone:
This may be a little obvious, as it got a lot of attention, but I really enjoyed The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks. (I would trigger-warn you about it, Elin, or anyone else who is a hypochondriac. It's very medical, and the 1950s treatment of cervical cancer seemed barbaric to me.)
I love Nickel and Dimed, or probably anything else that author has written. I've been meaning to read her book "Bright Sided," about negative effects of positive-thinking culture, for ages!
For outdoorsy types, or types who want to bolster your commitment to staying indoorsy (I'm the latter), Into The Wild was an entertaining read about hardcore-survivalist topics. I wouldn't have thought it was a social history, per se, but it's on that Microhistory shelf!
For those who would kind of enjoy giving the side-eye to an unpleasant author while also learning, I liked hating Victorian Secrets, which is about one woman's commitment to anachronistic living, plus the history of corseting.

I feel like there are some really obvious ones I'm leaving out, because I do love this type of book. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night and am spacey.
For my microhistory, I'm reading The Great Beanie Baby Bubble, and it's fascinating! It goes into a lot of the history of plush toys and stuff, and I think it definitely qualifies. It is also just bonkers!!

<-- currently reading.

It is about the photographer William Mumler who claimed he could photograph spirits, which he made a great deal of money from turning into a business. I was supposed to read it for a thesis in art history that I never finished, but now I've distanced myself enough from that failure to read this book just because it's an interesting subject :) I think this must count as a micro history as it is about one person and his little spiritual photography business? Well, it's also fits into the history of art, photography and religion. But still?

I think that could probably count as a microhistory yeah.

I'm currently on a Mary Roach spree and I highly recommend all her books (even if I've only read first three listed down there so far). So if one is about a subject you think seems relatively interesting, I say go for it! Personally I wouldn't count them as microhistories as they're a bit too wide in their scope, but absolutely excellent non-fiction!


She's releasing another one later this year about the military and I'll most likely end up reading that one too