Ask HN: Best non-fiction book you read in 2024?

It turns out the Ocean is fascinating, and I learned something crazy:

"Between 1950 and 1973, world fish harvest trippled, but the amount of fish directly consumed by humans stayed the same. The rest went into fishmeal, as a supplemental food for livestock, and this became an essential ingredient for modern industrial farming".

I didn't realize that fishmeal was a primary input to modern animal agriculture. Global fish stocks collapsed not only because people ate fish, but also because of animal agriculture in general. It's fascinating how it's all connected.

Also, sea turtles cry 8 litres of tears an hour.

Needless to say, this book ended up as a permanent fixture on my bookshelf.

It’s a well-researched and original account of immigration at the US Southern border. It tells the story of many individuals and also whole Central/South American countries. The news media will tell you about caravans and people sneaking through Mexico but it’s hard to get a spin-free version of who is actually coming here and why.

It was enlightening and infuriating. Both political parties have lied to us for their benefit, and it made me realize I understood almost nothing about immigration before reading this. Highly recommend. Those of us who were born in the US are very lucky to not have to fight our way in.