|
|
Nonfiction That Reads Like Fiction Pt.2
Return to Fiction_L Booklists Menu
December 2003
Compiled by Ann C Jarvis,
of Grace A. Dow Memorial Library, Midland MI, from contributions by the members of Fiction_L.
(To use this list in your library, book club, etc., please include the following credit line: "Compiled by the subscribers of the Fiction_L mailing list." This list may not be used for commercial purposes.)
Nonfiction in which the pacing, character development, writing
style, etc. will please even someone who normally reads just fiction.
Abraham by Bruce Feiler
Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point by David Lipsky
The Adversary: A true story of monstrous deception by Emmanuel Carrere
All Your Fault: Adventures of the Hollywood Assistant by Bill Robinson
Amazing Gracie: A Dog's Tale by Dan Dye
Ambulance Girl: How I saved myself by becoming an EMT by Jane Stern
As I Live and Breath: Notes of a Patient-Doctor by Jamie Weisman, M.D.
Ava's Man by Rick Bragg
Ballad of Gussie and Clyde: a true story of true love by Aaron Latham
Bean Blossom Dreams: A City Family's search for a Simple Country Life by Sallyann J. Murphey
Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson
Blind Eye: How the Medical Establishment Let a Doctor Get Away with Murder by James B. Stewart
Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz
(Captain Cook)
Bounty: True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander
Braving Home: Dispatches from the Underwater Town, the Lava-Side Inn, and Other Extreme Locales by Jake Halpern
Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich
The Broke Diaries by Angela Nissel
(diary of struggling financially while in college)
Brunelleschi's Dome : How a Renaissance genius reinvented architecture by Ross King
Cape May Court House by Lawrence Schiller
(true crime)
Cat from Hue by John Laurance
(Vietnam war)
Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile
(United States/ Afghanistan military history)
Close to Shore: The terrifying shark attacks of 1916 by Michael Capuzzo
Complications: a Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande
The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945 by Michael Beschloss
Cop World by James McClure
(portrayals of individual police officers)
The Cowboy and his Elephant: the Story of a Remarkable Friendship by Malcolm MacPherson
The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll
(computer espionage)
Death at the Priory by James Ruddick
(Victorian crime)
The Demon In the Freezer by Richard Preston
(Smallpox)
Devil in the White City: Murder, magic and madness at the fair that changed America by Erik Larson
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp
Driving Mr. Albert by Michael Paterniti
(pathologist who stole Einstein's brain)
Dry: a Memoir by Augusten Burroughs
The Emperor of Scent: a story of perfume, obsession, and the last mystery of the sense by Chandler Burr
Enslaved by Ducks: How one man went from head of the household to the bottom of the pecking order by Bob Tarte
The Exact Same Moon: Fifty Acres and a Poodle by Jeanne Marie Laskas
(farm life)
Flight of Passage by Rinker Buck
(aviation)
Flu by Gina Kolata
(1918 pandemic)
Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel
Germs by Judith Miller
(biological weapons)
Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission by Hampton Sides
A Girl Called Zippy by Haven Kimmel
God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible by Adam Nicolson
The Greatest Experiment Ever Performed on Women by B. Seaman
(about estrogen)
A Good Place to Live: America's Last Migration by Terry Pindell
Hacker Cracker: A Journey from the Mean Streets of Brooklyn to the Frontiers of Cyberspace by Ejovi Nuwere
Home Town by Tracy Kidder
(Northampton, Massachusetts)
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon.
How to Build a Tin Canoe: confessions of an old salt by Robb White
An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America by Henry Wiencek
In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton
(WWII tragedy)
In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
(whaling ship)
In the Kingdom of the Fairies : a memoir of a magical summer and a remarkable friendship by Susan Coyne
In the Little World: A True Story of Dwarfs, Love, and Trouble by John Richardson
The Island of Lost Maps by Miles Harvey
(map theft)
It's Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong
It Takes a Worried Man by Brendan Halpin
(wife with cancer)
John Adams by David McCullough
The Killing Season: A Summer Inside an LAPD Homicide Division by Miles Corwin.
Let's Roll! by Lisa Beamer
The Lobster Chronicles by Linda Greenlaw
Longitudes and Attitudes by Thomas L. Friedman
(terrorism)
Lost at Sea: an American Tragedy by Patrick Dillon
Lost In America by Sherwin Nuland
Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox
Master of the Senate by Robert A. Caro
(Lyndon Johnson)
The Maul and the Pear Tree by P.D. James
(true crime)
The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester
(Oxford English Dictionary)
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
(physician biography)
The Mummy Congress by Heather Pringle
The Murder of Sir Edmond Godfrey by John Dickson Carr
(historic crime)
My Losing Season by Pat Conroy
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orleans
Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen by Bob Greene
On Writing by Stephen King
Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik
(Paris)
The Poet and the Murderer by Simon Worrall
(literary forgery)
Population 485 by Michael Perry
(Volunteer fireman/EMT in rural Wisconsin)
Positively Fifth Street by James McManus
(about the world series of poker)
Postville: A Clash of a Culture in Heartland by Stephen Bloom
Predators, Prey, & Other Kinfolk: Growing Up in Polygamy by Dorothy Allred Solomon
The Prize Winner of Definace Ohio by Terry Ryan
The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
(Oxford English Dictionary)
Pure Cop by Connie Fletcher
Rachel Calof by Rachel Calof
(Jewish homesteader in Nebraska)
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher
The Ride Together: A Brother and Sister's Memoir of Autism in the Family by Judy Karasik & Paul Karasik
Riding the Bus with My Sister by Rachel Simon
A Round-Heeled Woman by Jane Juska
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
Sailor to the End: The deadly Fire on the USS Forrestel by Gregory Freeman
Sandy Koufax by Jane Leavy
(baseball)
Save Karyn: One shopaholic's journey to debt and back by Karyn Bosnak.
Seabiscuit byLaura Hillenbrand
(horse racing)
The Sexual Life of Catherine M. by Catherine Millet
She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Slow Motion by Dani Shapiro
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Ann Fadiman
Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir
Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk
Tender at the Bone & Comfort Me with Apples both by Ruth Reichl
Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Gildine
True Notebooks by Mark Salzman
(teaching writing to juvenile delinquents)
An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan by Jason Elliot
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
A Venetian Affair by Andrea di Robilant
(18th century love affair)
Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Mary Hornbacher
Wide As the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired by Benson Bobrick
Word Freaks by Stephen Fatsis
(high-level Scrabble players)
Books by these authors:
Ann Rule
Alison Weir biographies
Gerald Durrell
|
|
