Peter Steinberg's Favorite Non-Fiction

This book is everything a biography should be: comprehensive, accurate, and extremely, extremely interesting.

Generally recognized as one of the best, if not THE best, "popular" presidential biographies, this book is credited for kicking off a modern rehabilitation of Truman's reputation. Oh yeah, and it won the Pulitzer Prize.

Finally, if you're ever near Kansas City, Missouri, head about 5 or 10 miles east to Independence — home of the Truman Presidential Library. In my opinion, it's the single most interesting and engaging museum in the country.

I first read this sweet love story in the Summer of 1990 while working in a little bookstore. I had a mad crush on a co-worker and tried to woo her with passages from this book. (It sort of worked... we went on to have an on-and-off-again relationship over the next 12 years.)

While she and I are no longer in touch, this memoir — which reads like a novel — remains one of my favorite love stories of all time.

As someone who's made his home in New York for the last 9 years — and literally watched the first of the Twin Towers fall — reading about 9/11 can be extremely difficult. This title — a literal minute-by-minute account from the moment the first plane struck to the moment the 2nd tower fell — strikes me as the perfect balance of dispassionate, inspiring and honest.

I very occasionally come across a book I enjoy so much, that I buy copies for friends and more or less force them to read it. This is one of those books.

The book is pretty straightforward. Pollan follows 4 kinds of meals from planting (or birth), through harvest (or slaughter), and onto the table. The 4 kinds are: Fast Food (a McDonald's Happy Meal), "Industrial" Organic (the organic food you see at major supermarkets), "Beyond Organic" (the food you see at health food stores and farmer's markets) and "Hunter/Gatherer" (Yep, he gathers mushrooms, picks cherries, and hunts a wild boar).

The book's not preachy (he saves that for In Defense of Food), it's not especially gross (that was covered by Schlosser's Fast Food Nation), and it's very, very important. Read it.

This book is about history... biology... the spread of species... geography's role in shaping the rise and fall of civilizations... it's hard to say exactly, so you'll just have to trust me when I say it's one of the best books I've ever read. (And yes, despite being an amazing read, the last chapter could be dropped or edited down dramatically. Feel free to just skim it.)