Non-Fiction That Reads Like Fiction
Non-Fiction That Reads Like Fiction (Wilmette Public Library, IL): Author, title, publication year, page count, summary for about 45 books, from Tami Oldham Ashcroft's Red Sky in Mourning to Simon Worrell's The Poet and the Murderer. Compiled July 2006. Also, Part II of the same list, compiled Sept. 2004.
Nonfiction That Reads Like Fiction (Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center): Author, title, and summary of about 50 books, from All Over But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg to Who Killed My Daughter? by Lois Duncan.
Bruce Dobler's Creative Nonfiction Compendium: Top 40: Author, title, and generous summary of 40 book-length works of creative non-fiction, from James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men to Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life. Updated May 2006.
Non-Fiction that Reads Like Fiction (Wake County Public Libraries, NC): Author, title, webcat link, and summary for about 20 books, including Expecting Adam by Martha N. Beck, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer, and Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett. Updated Dec. 2005.
Nonfiction That Reads Like Fiction (Denver Public Library): Author, title, webcat link, and summary for about 35 books, organised by category: memoirs, adventure books, science, history, true crime, other cultures. Updated Nov. 2006.
True Stories for Fiction Fans (Adult Reading Round Table): Author, title, page count, publication year, and summary for about 35 books, from Caroline Alexander's The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition to Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Nonfiction That Reads Like Fiction (Santa Monica Public Library, CA): Author, title, webcat link, summary for 12 books, plus author, title, webcat link (no summaries) for 10 others. Updated June 2005.
Non-Fiction that Reads Like Fiction (Fort Vancouver Regional Library District, WA): Author, title, and summary for more than 20 books, such as All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot, Somerset Homecoming: Recovering a Lost Heritage by Dorothy Spruill Redford, and Ex libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman.
Great Non-Fiction for Fiction Lovers (Weber County Library, Utah): Author, title, and brief summary for more than 20 books, from Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie to Yoshiko Uchida's Desert Exile. Followed by Great Non-Fiction for Fiction Lovers, Part 2, with 22 more titles.
Non-fiction That Reads Like Fiction (Kingston Frontenac Public Library, Ontario): Author, title, webcat link, brief summary for about 25 books, from Postville: A clash of cultures in heartland America by Stephen G. Bloom to Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk.
Nonfiction books that read like fiction (Westmount Public Library, Quebec): 2-page PDF file. Author, title, publication year, and summary for about 20 books (categorised as history, biography, literary, or social commentary). All books published 1997-2003. Compiled April 2005.
Get Real 2: Nonfiction for Fiction Lovers (Lori Sennebogen, Downers Grove Public Library, IL): Author, title, summary, page count, publication date, and webcat link for more than 15 works of non-fiction that read like fiction, from Close to Shore: A True Story of Terror in an Age of Innocence by Mike Capuzzo to Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent. Compiled Sept. 2004. Previously: Get Real: Nonfiction for Fiction Lovers, listing 15 books from Jo Ann Beard's The Boys of My Youth to Annie Spiegelman's Annie's Garden Journal: Reflections on Roses, Weeds, Men, and Life, compiled 1999.
Reads Like Fiction... (Heights Libraries, Cleveland Heights, OH): Author, title, summary, book cover image, and webcat link for about a dozen books. Compiled 2006.
Non-Fiction That Reads Like Fiction (Boone County Public Library, Kentucky): Title and webcat link for about 65 non-fiction books, in title order, from Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths by Bruce S. Feil to The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman.
Non-Fiction That Reads Like Fiction (Timberland Regional Library, WA): Author, title, summary or link to summary for about 20 titles, from Ishmael Beah's A long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier to Simon Winchester's The professor and the madman : a tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English dictionary. Compiled June 2007.
Non-fiction That Reads Like Fiction (Hershey Public Library, PA): Author, title, summary for about a dozen 'non-fiction works [that] are written so well they appeal even to dedicated readers of fiction.' Compiled Sept-Oct. 2005.
Nonfiction That Reads Like Fiction (Overbooked, Chesterfield County (VA) Public Library): Page-turning non-fiction. Author, title, publication info, summary/reviews for 10 starred books, from Oath: The Remarkable Story of a Surgeon's Life Under Fire in Chechnya by Khassan Baiev to Blood Done Sign My Name: A Memoir by Timothy B. Tyson.
Historical Narrative (Ocean County Library, Toms River, NJ): Author, title, summary for 10 titles, including books about Lincoln, FDR, the founding fathers, the Civil war, and the New Jersey Turnpike. Compiled April 2005.
Non-Fiction That Reads Like Fiction (San Mateo County Library, CA): Author, title, summary and webcat link for 8 books, including The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman and Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game by Michael Lewis. Compiled Dec. 2003.
Non-Fiction That Reads Like Fiction (West Bloomfield Township PL, MI): Author, title, webcat link, and summary for 5 titles.
Nonfiction that Reads Like Fiction (Salina Public Library, KS): Author and title only for about 100 books, from Abraham by Bruce Feiler to Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competetive Scrabble Players by Stephen Fatsis.
Nonfiction That Reads Like Fiction Pt.1 (Vicki Novak, Fiction-L): Compiled in 1998. Author and title (and a few annotations) for 'nonfiction in which the pacing, character development, writing style, etc. will please even someone who normally reads just fiction.' About 75 titles, from 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff to Young Men And Fire by Norman Maclean.
Nonfiction That Reads Like Fiction Pt.2 (Ann C Jarvis, Fiction-L): Compiled in 2003, an update to the previous entry. Author and title (and a few annotations) for 'nonfiction in which the pacing, character development, writing style, etc. will please even someone who normally reads just fiction.' About 115 titles, such as Wide As the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired by Benson Bobrick, Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen by Bob Greene, and In the Kingdom of the Fairies: A memoir of a Magical Summer and a Remarkable Friendship by Susan Coyne.
NonFiction That Reads Like Fiction (Madison Public Library, WI): Author and title only for over 100 books, from Caroline Alexander's The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty to The Poet and the Murderer: A True Story of Literary Crime and the Art of Forgery by Simon Worrall.
Truth is Stranger Than Fiction (Monroe County Public Library, IN): Author, title, webcat link for about 40 nonfiction books whose titles sound like fiction, from Geoffrey Abbott's The Executioner Always Chops Twice to Bob Tarte's Enslaved by Ducks. (The books don't necessarily read like fiction.) Compiled Sept. 2004.
Non-Fiction that Reads Like Fiction (Wauconda Area Library, IL): Author, and title only ('check catalog' isn't book-specific) for about 20 titles, from John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil to Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff.
Non-fiction for Fiction Lovers (Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library, NY): Author and title for 17 non-fiction books, in no particular order. The list seems to be well-selected, including books by Jeanette Walls, Anne Fadiman, Adam Gopnik, Ruth Reichl, Asne Seierstad, Erik Larson, Jennifer Finney Boylan, Caroline Alexander, Augusten Burroughs, and others.
Nonfiction Narratives (Lake County Public Library, Merrillville, IN): 'Compelling true stories selected from reportage, essays and memoirs.' Author and titles for about 40 books. Updated Nov. 2005.
Fiction Based on Real People and Events (Kitchener Public Library, Ontario, Canada): Fiction rooted in real life. Author, title, webcat link for about 65 novels, from Karl Alexander's Time after Time to Janice Woods Windle's True Women. Updated June 2006.
Freakonomics Readalikes (Candice Michalik, Fiction-L): Compiled Dec. 2006. Author, title, and often a description for about a dozen titles, including Tim Harford's Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor -- and Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car!, Chris Anderson's The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, and John Allen Paulos's A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper.
Narrative Science Non-Fiction (Jennifer Hills, Fiction-L): Compiled May 2007. Author and title for about 100 titles, from Carolyn Abraham's Possessing Genius: The Bizarre Odyssey of Einstein's Brain to Carl Zimmer's Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures.