Non-fiction with Heart...and Some Other Stuff

Try these books if you're looking for:

• non-fiction 
• memoirs 
• books dealing with relationships 
• action 
• humor 

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of the Princess Bride 
Cary Elwes
791.4372 ELW 2014
Even if you don’t have a crush on Cary Elwes, you’ll enjoy this vivid behind-the-scenes account of the making of The Princess Bride. His stories, especially those involving Andre the Giant, will leave you in stitches. Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Billy Crystal, and others also recount their experiences. An amusing account of a group of performers who came together to make a heartfelt film that is loved by many. -- Emily Weiss for LibraryReads.

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions 
Randall Munroe
500 MUN 2014
"Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have a large and passionate following. Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by signature xkcd comics. They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion. The book features new and never-before-answered questions, along with updated and expanded versions of the most popular answers from the xkcd website. What If? will be required reading for xkcd fans and anyone who loves to ponder the hypothetical. "--Provided by publisher.

Food: A Love Story 
Jim Gaffigan
818.602 GAF 2014
Stand-up Comedian and author Jim Gaffigan rhapsodizing over the most treasured dishes of the American diet.

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the U.S.S. Jeannette 
Hampton Sides
910.452 SID 2014
On his first Polar voyage in 1873, nothing in the frigid north appealed to Lieutenant George De Long, but he soon became obsessed. A few years later, leading an 1879 Arctic expedition and tasked with finding a mythical open-sea passage, De Long and his crew faced deadly trouble when their ship became trapped in the ice. Using letters, diaries, expedition records, newspaper reports, and other documents, bestselling author Hampton Sides provides a dramatic account of what happened to De Long and his crew in this gripping nautical tale. -- Description by Dawn Towery.

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia 
Candace Fleming
947.083 FLE 2014
Traces the story of the Russian Revolution, the lives of the Romanov family, and the story of their tragic deaths, in an account that draws on primary source materials and includes period photography.