re: Excellent Non-Fiction Book Suggestions

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Country was the first book published by Rolling Stone magazine critic Nick Tosches. Released in 1977 under the title Country: The Biggest Music in America, it was retitled in later editions as Country: Living Legends and Dying Metaphors in America's Biggest Music and Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock and Roll.

Rather than a detailed, chronological study of country music, the book is arranged like a fan's scrapbook, leaping across time and subject. Throughout Country, Tosches makes a point of paying tribute to pivotal but undersung figures in country, hillbilly, and blues music, including Emmett Miller, Cliff Carlisle, and Val and Pete. He also pays tribute to early music writers, such as Emma Bell Miles, whose 1904 essay Some Real American Music Tosches called "the most beautiful prose written of country music."

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Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams is a biography of Dean Martin written by Nick Tosches. It draws heavily from interviews Tosches did with Jerry Lewis, and with Martin's second wife and lifelong friend Jeanne Biegger. The story begins with the births of Martin's grandparents in Italy and follows his entire life up to the point of publication. It also includes sections in which Tosches writes in the first person from the point of view of Martin, a gonzo journalism style which would be used more frequently in his later non-fiction works.

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