Jacob Shymanski

It's very...

there's a causation to everything and that gets really monotonous real fast um but great non-fiction feels like fiction because the authors think in terms of scenes and tension and release and build up and payoff and setup and there's almost a plot to it it just happens to be real

The amazing part of that is that it's all so well sourced.

It's all the work of a very responsible historian with primary sources.

He's journalistic about it.

It sounds like it's just written biographically.

To be narrative, to be narratively engaging.

I think it's because it's hard to actually read out loud books that are written so factually in matter of fact.

When you write narratively, it's literally easier and more pleasant to read out loud, but also just to listen.

Another history book I want to highlight because it's written so narratively, like a movie almost.

I loved this book.

The Wager by David Grant.

I don't know if you've heard about this one.

Amazing book.

Amazing, right?

For people who don't know about it, it follows an expedition from the UK that was meant to go to the eastern Pacific Ocean to defend against Spanish ships or something along those lines.

But

One of the ships gets shipwrecked on an island off the southern coast of Argentina.

And the book follows and reports on the journey of these survivors and how they stayed on the island for months and eventually built a replacement ship, craft, raft, whatever you want to call it.

And they sailed all the way up to Brazil and found their way back home after months and an absolutely grueling journey.