Devil in the White City by Erik Larson: Story of the Chicago World's Fair of 1892 and a serial killer stalking female fairgoers Eight Men Out by Eliot Asinof: Life in the post-World War I world and how the Chicago White Sox were paid by gamblers to lose the 1919 World Series Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann: Osage Nation reservation in Oklahoma, money, murder and birth of the FBI Hard Times by Studs Terkel: Oral history of the Great Depression Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand: Tale of sports and redemption set during the Great Depression Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose: World War II story of Easy Company, 101st Airborne during World War II Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand: A former Olympic athlete and his hard times during World War II Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides: Story of the amazing rescue of American POWs in the Philippines during World War II The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe: Story of the original Mercury 7 astronauts October Sky by Homer Hickam: Autobiography of a NASA scientist and his rough childhood in coal country In Cold Blood by Truman Capote: Classic crime story about a murder in Kansas The Fifties by David Halberstam: Comprehensive history of the 1950s I Was Right on Time by Buck O'Neil: Life in segregated America as told by a baseball lifer Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley: Civil Rights History Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi: History of gangsters in Las Vegas and the city's transition to corporate ownership The Fight by Norman Mailer: Tale of the boxing match between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali that took place in Zaire in 1974. Also a social history of the civil rights movement Heaven is a Playground by Rick Telander: A journalist moves to Brooklyn to and learns of playground basketball and New York City life in the 1970s. Loose Balls by Terry Pluto: Oral History of the American Basketball Association, a rival league to the NBA between 1967-1975. The Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam: About the NBA in the 1970s and a social history of the US in the 1970s. Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell: Stories about important assassinations in American history Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin: Story of the 2008 Wall Street crisis .