Check it Out: Nonfiction for the Rest of Us

True confession: I read more fiction than nonfiction. It’s not because I want to live in a fantasy world (well, mostly not…). It’s because I love storytelling. Intricate, breathtaking plots! Exotic faraway places! Fascinating, colorful people! And words - oh, the flow of the language on the page, that draws me into different realities. Sigh. BUT - did you know that many nonfiction titles have these same qualities?

Let me introduce you to the world of narrative nonfiction. Also called creative nonfiction, narrative nonfiction describes a true story about real people and events that reads like a novel. What a mind- blowing idea! While it does appear across all subject areas, narrative nonfiction lends itself more easily to some subjects than to others. Biographies, for example, as well as autobiographies and personal essays, are told from the point of view of the author/narrator and are about real events and people. Travel and history often have linear timelines and can be related in a story-like format.

Well-written narrative nonfiction also transfers well to movies - books that have recently been made into movies include “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I.” from David Grann’s book (2017), and “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” (from the 2015 book The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill’s Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops by Damien Lewis). There is even another nonfiction bestseller about Churchill’s spy organization - A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell (2020).

If you decide to dip your toes in the pool of nonfiction, here are some titles you can find at the library. 

Authors whose books read like thrillers:

• David Grann (selected titles)
  • The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (2023)
  • Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I. (2017)
  • The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (2009)
• Eric Larson (selected titles)
  • The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War (2024)
  • Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania (2015)
  • The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (2002)

Authors whose books educate AND make you laugh:

• Bill Bryson (selected titles)
  • The Body: A Guide for Occupants (2019)
  • A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003)
  • A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (1997) 
• Mary Roach (selected titles)
  • Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law (2021)
  • Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (2010)
  • Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003)

Authors who make hard science accessible:

• Stephen Hawking (selected title)
  • A Briefer History of Time (with Leonard Mlodinow, 2006)
• Neil deGrasse Tyson (selected titles)
  • Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization (2023)
  • Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (2017)
  • Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries (2007)

New at the Library

Fiction

• Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad: Stories by Damilare Kuku
• Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune
• Shadow Dancing by Julie Mulhern

Nonfiction

• Math for English Majors: And Other Non-Native Speakers by Ben Orlin
• Raising Resilience: How to Help Our Children Thrive in Times of Uncertainty by Tovah P. Klein
• Grand Prix: An Illustrated History of Formula 1 by Will Buxton

Children

• I Am a Potato by Ziggy Hanaor
• Not Nothing by Gayle Forman
• Erno Rubik and His Magic Cube by Kerry Aradhya

This is just a small sampling of the many new titles added each week to the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District collection. Visit the district’s 15 locations, our website at www.fvrl.org , or call (360) 906-5000 to reserve titles or find additional listings.