Well-written Contemporary Nonfiction or Biographies about the Midwest and Gulf States

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Nonfiction
• Biographies
• Midwest or Gulf States setting

Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
By Erik Larson
364.1523 LAR 2003
An account of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 relates the stories of two men who shaped the history of the event--architect Daniel H. Burnham, who coordinated its construction, and serial killer Herman Mudgett.

A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana
By Haven Kimmel
BIO KIMMEL 2002
The author offers a chronicle of growing up in a small town in America's heartland, offering portraits of her family and her encounters with the complexities of the adult world, romance, and small-town life during the 1960s and 1970s.

Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression
By Mildred Armstrong Kalish
BIO KALISH 2007
A memoir from a schoolteacher of growing up in the heart of the Midwest during the Great Depression describes life on an Iowa farm during a time of endless work, resourcefulness, no tolerance for idleness or waste, family, and kinship.

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less
By Terry Ryan
BIO RYAN 2005
The author describes her mother Evelyn's struggles with poverty in the 1950s as she tried to build a happy home for her ten children, with the help of wit, poetry, and prose during the contest era of the 1950s and 1960s.

The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square
By Ned Sublette
976.335 SUB 2008
Tells the story of one of America's most complex cities, with an emphasis on New Orleans's musical heritage and its first century filled with war, religious conflicts, slavery, and its struggles with France, Spain, and England.

Historical Fiction with a Hint of Mystery

Try these books if you like:

• Historical fiction
• Mysteries
• Clean reads

Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor
By Stephanie Barron
MYSTERY Barron Jane Aus #1
Fleeing from a broken engagement, Jane Austen has scarcely arrived in Scargrave when the local earl is felled by a mysterious ailment that is far too agonizing and fatal to be credited to his fondness for claret and pudding. The earl's widow asks Jane to investigate.

A Duty to the Dead
By Charles Tood
MYSTERY Todd
Independent-minded Bess Crawford's upbringing is far different from that of the usual upper-middle-class British gentlewoman. At the outbreak of WWI, she volunteers for the nursing corps, serving from the battlefields of France to the doomed hospital ship Britannic. On one voyage, she promises to a deliver a message from a dying officer to his brother. Once she's able to do so, she's disturbed at the brother's indifferent reception of the message, and when an unexpected turn of events provides her with an opportunity to stay with the family for a short time, she takes it.

Mount Vernon Love Story
By Mary Higgins Clark
F Clark
Follows the story of George Washington from the time he steps down from the presidency to return with Martha to his beloved Mount Vernon home, a period during which the couple shares a renewal of feelings from the early years of their marriage.

Clara and Mr. Tiffany
By Susan Vreeland
F Vreeland
Hoping to honor his father and the family business with innovative glass designs, Louis Comfort Tiffany launches the iconic Tiffany lamp as designed by women's division head Clara Driscoll, who struggles with the mass production of her creations.

Last Dickens
By Matthew Pearl
MYSTERY Pearl
When Daniel Sand's body is discovered by the docks where he awaited Charles Dickens's unfinished novel, publishing partner James Osgood and Rebecca Sand, Daniel's sister, attempt to uncover Dickens's final mystery.

Teen Nonfiction for Boys

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Books for teen boys
• Nonfiction
• Books with less than 250 pages
  

The Dark Game: True Spy Stories
By Paul B. Janeczko
YA 327.73 JAN 2010
A collection of true spy stories from throughout the history of the United States, discussing personalities, missions, traitors, technological advances and more.

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World
By Jennifer Armstrong
YA 919.89 ARM 1989
Describes the events of the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition when, after being trapped in a frozen sea for nine months, their ship was finally crushed, forcing Shackleton and his men to make a very long and perilous journey across ice and stormy seas to reach inhabited land.

The War to End All Wars
By Russell Freedman
YA 940.3 FRE 2010
This book describes the situations that led to WWI, the wars progression and how the peace treaty actually set the world up for the next world war. This book is entertaining and informative and helps bring history to life.

The Great Fire
By Jim Murphy
YA 977.3 MUR 1995
An account of the Great Chicago Fire combines archival photographs and drawings with personal accounts by its survivors and historical documents.

Chasing Lincoln’s Killer
By James L. Swanson
YA BIO BOOTH
Recounts the escape of John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, and follows the intensive twelve-day search for him and his accomplices.