I like Jon Krakauer books -- Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, yes, but also Missoula, which is a devastating book about date rape culture.

I second Random Family and Henrietta Lacks. Isabel Wilkerson’s books are history but so readable (and they focus on stories of individuals). Yes to Empire of Pain and (especially) Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe. You might enjoy Svetlana Aleixievich if you like narrative nonfiction. Ghettoside by Jill Loevy is really good. Alex Kotlowitz, especially There Are No Children Here, a classic.

Anonymous wrote:Behind the Beautiful Forevers (about life in a Mumbai slum) and American Fire about a small town in Virginia's Northern Neck.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers is the best book I've ever read. (And if you don't trust me, look at the "Praise for" section here: https://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/16017/), which includes blurbs such as "The best work of narrative nonfiction I’ve read in twenty-five years..

Behind the Beautiful Forevers (about life in a Mumbai slum) and American Fire about a small town in Virginia's Northern Neck.

Anonymous wrote:Random Family is an amazing book about a family and neighborhood in the Bronx; riveting and novelistic and full of empathy.

This is one of my favorite books! I recommend it to everybody. Invisible Child is a more modern version, but I didn't like that quite as much.

Hidden Valley Road
From one of the originators of the genre- In Cold Blood

My Lobotomy