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.

Books about People's Lives

Try these books if you're looking for:

• books about people's lives
• memoir or fiction
• read like Haven Kimmel, Barbara Kingsolver, Jeanette Walls, Mitch Albom

The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels 
By Ree Drummond
DRUMMOND 2011
American blogger and food writer Ree Drummond relates the real life story of how she met and married her "Marlboro Man." Her stories about her husband, family, and country living paint a humorous and poignant picture of life on an Oklahoma ranch. You may also enjoy her cookbooks.

Season to Taste 
By Molly Birnbaum
BIRNBAUM 2011
Written with good cheer and great charm, this work is an aspiring chef's moving account of finding her way--in the kitchen and beyond--in the wake of a devastating accident that left her unable to perceive smell.

The Year of Living Biblically 
By A.J.Jacobs
220 JAC 2007
The author documents his quest to live one year in literal compliance with biblical rules, from being fruitful and multiplying to growing a beard and avoiding mixed-fiber clothing. His memoir is highly entertaining and thought-provoking.

Mao’s Last Dancer 
By Cunxin Li
LI 2003
Chosen from millions of children to serve in Mao's cultural revolution by studying at the Beijing Dance Academy, Li knew ballet would be his family's best opportunity to escape the bitter poverty in his rural China home. From one hardship to another, Li persevered, never forgetting the family he left behind.

Memoirs and Biographies

Try these books if you're looking for:

• memoirs and biographies

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon 
By David Grann
918.1104 GRA 2009
Interweaves the story of British explorer Percy Fawcett, who vanished during a 1925 expedition into the Amazon, with the author's own quest to uncover the mysteries surrounding Fawcett's final journey and the secrets of what lies deep in the Amazon jungle.

Night 
By Elie Wiesel
BIO WIESEL 2006
This memoir recounts Eli Wiesel's experiences as a young teenage boy during the Holocaust. It includes his time in a small ghetto in Hungary, his transportation to Auschwitz, his days in the Buna labor camp and the forced march to Buchenwald before it was liberated in April of 1945.

Where Nothing is Long Ago: Memories of a Mormon Childhood 
By Virginia Sorensen
BIO SORENSEN 1998
A collection of charming and delightful stories from the Sorensen’s childhood growing up in a small town in Utah.

Three Memoirs and Three Westerns

Try these books if you're looking for:

• memoirs
• westerns

A Natural Woman: A Memoir 
By Carole King
BIO KING 2012
This book is a memoir by the iconic singer-songwriter chronicling her story from her beginnings in Brooklyn through her remarkable success as one of the world's most acclaimed musical talents, to her present day as a leading performer and activist. 

The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels--A Love Story 
By Ree Drummond
BIO DRUMMOND 2011
American blogger and food writer Ree Drummond relates the real life story of how she met and married her "Marlboro Man." Her stories about her husband, family, and country living paint a warm and touching picture of life on an Oklahoma ranch. 

The Glass Castle: A Memoir 
By Jeannette Walls
BIO WALLS 2005
The child of an alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family's nomadic upbringing, during which she and her siblings fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors and the authorities. 

Close Range: Wyoming Stories 
By Annie Proulx
F PROULX
Annie Proulx is an award winning author and a journalist. Her "westerns" are not typical at all--nevertheless they are evocative and beautifully written stories of the West featuring compelling characters, bleak landscapes, and interesting storylines. 

All the Pretty Horses 
By Cormac McCarthy
F MCCARTHY
McCarthy is a literary Western author whose psychological stories focus on characters. The stories are invariably set in the Southwest and are often both picturesque and bleak. This story features John Grady Cole and a friend who head across the Texas border into Mexico looking for adventure. 

Cold Mountain 
By Charles Frazier
F FRAZIER
Frazier skillfully captures the landscapes and mindset of 19th-century America, with evocative details of the mountains, farmland, and frontier wilderness of rural North Carolina and its inhabitants' rough, melodic speech. This story, winner of the 1997 National Book Award, tells of Inman, a Civil War soldier who escapes from a war hospital in 1864 and starts walking to Cold Mountain.

Science Fiction/Memoir for the Well-Read Reader

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Science fiction
• Memoir
• Well-written
• For the well-read reader

Ready Player One 
By Ernest Cline
SCI-FI CLINE
In a bleak 2044, Wade Watts, an impoverished high school student lives primarily online alongside billions of others via a massive online game, OASIS, where players race to unravel the puzzles OASIS creator James Halliday built into the game before his death, with the winner taking control of the virtual world's parent company, as well as staggering wealth. When Wade stumbles on a clue taken from a 1980s video game , he's plunged into high-stakes conflict with a corporation dedicated to unraveling Halliday's riddles. 

Zorro 
By Isabel Allende
F ALLENDE
Diego de la Vega, the son of an aristocratic Spanish landowner and a Shoshone mother, returns to California from school in Spain to reclaim the hacienda on which he was raised and to seek justice for the weak and helpless. 

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: a Novel
By Edgar Wroblewski
F WROBLEWSKI
A tale reminiscent of "Hamlet" that also celebrates the alliance between humans and dogs follows speech-disabled Wisconsin youth Edgar, who bonds with three yearling canines and struggles to prove that his sinister uncle is responsible for his father's death. 

Daughter of the Forest 
By Juliet Marillier
SCI-FI MARILLIER Sevenwat #1
To reclaim the lives of her brothers, Sorcha leaves the only safe place she has known and starts on a journey of pain, loss, and terror. This is the first of six books in the Sevenwaters series. 

Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Meth Addiction 
By David Sheff
BIO SHEFF
Bright and athletic, Nic Sheff excelled in any setting. But during his teenage years he was seduced by the illicit world of drugs and alcohol and found himself caught in the clutches of addiction. Beautiful Boy is Nic’s father’s recounting of the story of his son. Tweak: (Growing Up on Methamphetamines) by Nic Sheff (BIO SHEFF) reveals the story of addiction and recovery from Nic’s point of view. 

The End of Your Life Book Club 
By Will Schwalbe
NEW BOOKS - NONFICTION SCHWALBE 2012
The inspiring story of a son and his dying mother, who form a "book club" that brings them together as her life comes to a close. 

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore 
By Robin Sloan
NEW BOOKS – FICTION SLOAN
The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a San Francisco web - design drone and landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. But after just a few days on the job, Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than the name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything. Soon he embarks on a complex analysis of the customers' behavior and ropes his friends into helping him figure out just what's going on.