The 7 Best Books From Nobel Prize Winners Who Didn't Win Their Medal For Literature (PHOTOS)

Orhan Pamuk, Toni Morrison, Seamus Heaney, Saul Bellow, Pablo Neruda ... all great authors honored by the Nobel Committee with a Nobel Prize in Literature.

But the winners of the Nobel for Literature aren't the only Nobel laureates to have written books. From Nelson Mandela to Elie Wiesel, winners of the Prize in fields from Peace to Medicine to Economics have written excellent books that transcend a specific field.

So, which books are the best of the best? We've gathered five of our favorite books written by Nobel Prize winners not in the field of Literature.

Who did we leave out? Which books do you recommend by other Nobel Prize winners?

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'Dreams from My Father' by Barack Obama

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President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." He is also the author of three books, "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream" and the soon-to-be-released children's picture book "Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters." Among these, "Dreams from My Father," a poignant memoir written years before Obama began a political career, sheds an uncommon light on the commander in chief.

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President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." He is also the author of three books, "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream" and the soon-to-be-released children's picture book "Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters." Among these, "Dreams from My Father," a poignant memoir written years before Obama began a political career, sheds an uncommon light on the commander in chief.

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This Book

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Ignore It Worthy Of Its Own Prize

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Comments

[lookoutnow]

10:24 PM on 10/07/2010

Still can't believe President Obama got the Nobel for...I'm still trying to figure that one out. For what he was going to do? They could've at least waited a few years to see what kind of President he was going to be. I think we can all agree that things haven't gone they way we thought they would so far.

[smit9187]

08:33 PM on 10/08/2010

Nope, we can't all agree.

[lookoutnow]

11:25 PM on 10/08/2010

I stand corrected.

[JKPHILLY]

10:45 AM on 10/11/2010

I do not agree at all.

[HSans]

04:24 PM on 10/07/2010

I believe that Margaret Atwood, Mavis Gallant and are just two of the many overlooked Canadian Nobel Literary Prize winners. Unfortunately it is too late now for Robertson Davies and Mordecai Richler.

Congratulations to Mr Llosa - A well-deserving Prize winner.

[DoyouhaveaflagUK]

02:09 PM on 10/07/2010

Dream luncheon with all three of these wonderful men!

[roshni]

07:56 AM on 10/07/2010

I love Long Walk to Freedom, Night and Dreams from my Father. All make for thoughtful reading.

[cubanogm]

08:56 PM on 10/06/2010

It is really ridiculous how the people think.Nelson Mandela is supposed to represent freedom but the man is intimate friend with one of the cruelest and most despotic dictators of the modern world,a second half of the 20th century Hitler,no other than FIDEL CASTRO.Nelson Mandela has never spoken openly to Fidel castro about Castro's human rights violations and inhumane treatment of the political prisioners.That is what I do not understand.How a person that people equates with freedoms can stand aside and see other people oppresed but never say anything about it.It was the western companies embargo,from all western countries,what brought aparthaism down but in the case of Cuba all the western companies laughed at the call by the USA for the same treatment to Castro and did and do business with the cuban dictator,condemn the USA for not trading with Cuba and so perpetuate the barbaric and inhumane and despotic Fidel Castro regime.It is a shameful situation and Nelson Mandela is part of the problem by staying silent.I just wish the dinosaure the worse and joyjusly is happening with his family.Thank God there is a God.

[Elmer Clayton]

02:07 AM on 10/07/2010

I did agreed with you until you mentioned god. Mandela is just a name, in fact, the ghetto of Soweto triple in size during his term. Not even decent housing which is fairly easy to accomplish. In term of accomplishments Mandela rank far behind Castro.

[VanessaFas]

03:34 PM on 10/06/2010

Elie Weisel's "Night" should be required reading for every child in 6th grade and up. And their parents. In no other book can you find the idea, the understanding, that the Holocaust was full of hate...and hope. The book is short, under 150 pages, and while many students in Jewish or International Studies read it, most students have never heard of it. Between this book, and Vonnegut's "Slaughter House Five", you can try to find the humanity in the evil that is war.

[madgrrl]

11:53 PM on 10/06/2010

What a haunting book - I think 6th grade might be young because for me, I found it both disturbing and hopeful - and a burden that stayed with me for many, many days following. How quickly humans - some with strength and honor - can quickly descend into animals when faced with dire situations. When faced with survival how we can abandon those we love. Who knows, they may not "get it" until later.

[Algrokos]

12:32 PM on 10/06/2010

To bad stiglitz didn't win a nobel prize. Oh you mean his award for economic sciences in honor of alfred nobel? not quite the same thing. Nobel established only 6 catagories and this 7th is actually payed for by a bank not by Nobel's trust fund.

[peterg76]

12:04 PM on 10/06/2010

The economics prize is not a real Nobel.

[rifraf1001]

11:19 AM on 10/06/2010

Couple of comments. One while these are all fine books they are also all but one biographies or accounts of the authors philosophies for which they received their Nobel prizes, with a heavy emphasis on Peace prize winners. When I saw the headline I was hoping for something like the Nobel prize winner in chemistry that wrote a great fiction novel.

Not sure Stiglitz even belongs here. His book title (I'll admit I have not read it) sounds like economics to me.

[CristineN]

10:53 AM on 10/06/2010

I was surprised to see, I've read each one of these... and enjoyed them.

[AmratheLion]

10:26 AM on 10/06/2010

Does anyone really believe he wrote those books? It seems almost criminal to claim you wrote something when you didn't.

On another note, I would really, REALLY like to know what this means. "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." Does anyone know exactly how was this accomplished?

[Venus De Kitty]

10:41 AM on 10/06/2010

Yes. I believe he really wrote those books. You 'baggers are always trying to find something criminal about him. Figures.

Here's a suggestion. Go read a book. Any book.

[AmratheLion]

10:46 AM on 10/06/2010

Ahh you poor little misguided soul. Go ahead and place a label on me because I view the world differently than you. I'll go ahead and place a label on you......... tool. There you go, now you have a name too.

[Kathryn Maver]

12:24 PM on 10/06/2010

On the authorship issue: I assume you're talking about President Obama. The man is an Ivy League graduate twice over and a University of Chicago professor who is quite capable of self-reflection and critical thought and he can clearly put an eloquent sentence together. Why would we NOT believe he wrote those books? I'm sure Karl Rove would have figured out and publicized the supposed ghost writer by now, if there had been one.

[Vampire Blues]

09:19 AM on 10/06/2010

surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman

[ConfuciusSay-]

06:01 PM on 10/05/2010

Have only read one of these. Better get cracking.

[Tails]

04:30 PM on 10/05/2010

So, it's probably safe to bet that baggers view this as the start of a "Books To Burn". list.

[Occam123]

01:35 AM on 10/06/2010

Groan... there's always a dour one in the bunch.

[Tails]

08:27 AM on 10/06/2010

Sadly, I really don't think I'm wrong.