I love the saying “Truth is stranger than fiction” because often times when I’m reading a non-fiction book I have to be like, hang on, really? I had no idea that could even happen. For my book choices this week, I literally googled strange non-fiction and browsed what came up in the results – so like most of my reading, its fairly eclectic.
Asleep – Molly Caldwell Crosby
I love medical mysteries and how people solve or attempt to solve them – this shouldn’t be any surprise considering that House was one of my favorite shows when it was on TV. I remember clearly the one episode in house where the wife is ultimately diagnosed with a sleeping sickness – and reading the description of this book it is that episode that came to mind. I found it interesting in the description that the diagnosis of encephalitis lethargica didn’t just result in never-ending sleep but also catatonia, insomnia (which seems very counter to the name of the disease) and Parkinson’s.
Island of the Lost – Joan Druett
I’ve always been fascinated by people who survive shipwrecks, steaming back to my childhood when I read (and loved) The Cay as well as the perennial classic, The Swiss Family Robinson. Island of the Lost also seems to tie in well to my enjoyment of understanding psychology and behavior when faced with challenges. The description reminds me some of how different clans/common groups of people are formed and how they react (or don’t react) in the face of certain stimuli. Bonus, its free to read in Kindle Unlimited if you have a subscription, so its going to the top of my pile.
Driving With Dead People – Monica Holloway
When I first saw the title of this book, I immediately thought about one of my favorite paranormal romance authors, Molly Harper – she has a vampire romance called Driving Mr. Dead, and while I knew they weren’t related, the idea of someone voluntarily driving in a hearse and picking up bodies just made a shiver go up my spine. It seems to also pair well with Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty which I read a few years ago. Plus the cover with 2 girls sitting on a hearse just made me giggle (much better than some of the other covers for this book that I saw on Goodreads).
The Trials of Nina McCall – Scott W. Stern
One of my favorite non-fiction books from this past year was The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore about Elizabeth Packard who was sent to a mental asylum in the 1860’s for disagreeing with her husband – while The Trials of Nina McCall occurs nearly 60 years later, it seems to have some common themes to the Kate Moore book – I’ve never heard “American Plan” referenced in any of my studies of history (not that I’m actually surprised by that) and it makes me want to read some more on it but as one Goodreads reviewer pointed out finding evidence of it isn’t common because its just not talked about. My academic interests have tended towards public policy in the recent past, so I know i’m going to dig some more in to this.
What Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction books do you recommend?
So this is my first year participating in Nonfiction November and i’ll be honest, I think its the first time I’ve ever heard it referenced on blogs – maybe I just wasn’t reading the right ones (because lets face it, nonfiction is not a topic that lots of people read and review exclusively). But now that I know about it, it will be making an appearance on my blog in future years. This year, Nonfiction November is being hosted by Kim (
So this part of the prompt was a non-brainer – but far my favorite non-fiction read from the past year is also one of the books that I have probably also recommended the most since I read it. But first, a bit of the backstory, whenever I go to the library (which is much more often that I care to admit some weeks…I’m basically on first name basis with all the staff there), I tend to do a quick look of all the new purchases the library has made in both fiction and nonfiction (and its not uncommon that at least one – or more – books get added to my check out pile). Anyways, in August, I did just that and a book called 
My nonfiction reading is always kind of diverse – mostly because a lot of the stuff I read is for different challenges on both Goodreads and other websites. A quick analysis of the 16 books I read in the past year were: Science/Math: 5 books; Biography/Memoirs: 7 Books (further broken down into Celebrity /Performers (1), Historical Persons/Groups (3); Current Persons/Groups (3); Travel/Adventure: 3 Books; Self-Help: 2 books and True Crime: 1. I guess if I had to pick, I would say that I’ve been more prone to picking up science/math type books recently (I’m counting psychology, math, economics all under this general umbrella).
See my comment above about my favorite book from the last year – as soon as I got done with reading my copy from the library – I walked in, handed it to the librarian and said “READ THIS” – thankfully, most of them listen to me (or at least I think they do) when I recommend books. He also turned around and recommended a similar book to me that is part of the 
Dee's Book Blog 