Hey everyone,

This is my first post! I figured a source like this would be my best chance at finding what I am looking for in a good read. I haven't been able to find a something to read for a long time, because it's tough to know if you've found the book unless you've spoken to someone who has read it!

I love reading and getting caught up in a book, but I love even more when I can do this AND learn something, especially about something that really happened. I like books that are or are very close to being entirely true. This sounds strange but I have a hard time getting into things that didn't 'really' happen. My absolute ideal book would be one that is 100% real and at the same time, teaches me something and keeps me very engrossed. An example would be a totally compelling autobiography (Night, by E Wiesel is a tremendous example of this; as would be "A Million Little Pieces" if it was 100% true!). Another example would be the Enron story-a little less jam-packed excitement but real and very interesting nonetheless. I'm open to learning on either a personal/emotional level, or on a particular topic (anything really, although I do plan to go to law school and would love to learn about legal issues / case history / etc). I just want it to read like a story, not a non-fiction-they bore me!

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions for me I would greatly appreciate it! I want to be moved and impacted by a book, and do this best when I know it really happened. On a relevant note, I'm going through an incredibly tough time in my life at the moment, and don't want to read anything depressing or a pure mindless escape-either side of the scale doesn't help too much when you just need to feel grounded.

Thank you all for being avid readers and helping me out

Canada

I found Mountains Beyond Mountains The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World rather inspiring. It's amazing sometimes how one extraordinary, dedicated individual can accomplish.

I really enjoyed The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World's Most Famous Cooking School. It's about a woman who gets fired from her job, and instead of crying about it, she packs up and moves to Paris to fulfill her lifelong dream of going to Le Cordon Bleu. I found it very inspiring (but then again, I love to cook and would love to do the same thing someday!)

Though I have not read it, I've also heard people say Dewey The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World is an enjoyable read.

I hope you find something you enjoy!

Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammett is the life story of an autistic savant with Asperger's Syndrome. Everything to him is associated with colors, thus the title.

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time by Greg Mortensen. About a mountain climber who was nursed back to health for by Pakistanis in a small village; in return, he promised to build the town's first school, and went on to help build more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.

How about:

The Radioactive Boyscout by Ken Silverstein. It's about a young boy who was on a quest to obtain an atomic-energy merit boy scout badge and set out to accomplish this by building a model breeder reactor in his backyard. In the potting shed, to be precise.

I really liked Love Is a Mix Tape Life and Loss, One Song at a Time. If you're a music fan, you'll like it as well. It's got a little bit of everything in it and while it's ultimately about a man who loses his wife, there are humurous bits as well.

Wow-thanks so much for the responses! I'm so happy I found such an active group of book fanatics. I wish this was the 'real world' so we could hang out all the time and talk about this stuff :)

I love the suggestions and will look into them immediately. Quick adjustment to my original request-the books don't neccessarily have to be about a story of great achievement or world change (although these are appreciated as well). I would be perfectly content reading a gripping true story or a reflection of a dramatic experience(s). I would adore these suggestions as well.

Thank you all and keep the recommendations coming!

How about The Great Bridge The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge, by David McCullough?

The Zookeeper's Wife A War Story
I loved this story.

Canadian,
If you're going to law school, you might like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. It's non-fiction, but is as intriguing as any fictional murder mystery could be.

The book mainly focuses on two things: Savannah, Georgia and it's quirky and mysterious inhabitants, and the death of a local boy at the hands of rich and eccentric Jim Williams and the following trial.

Definitely worth reading. :)

I'm not much into non-fiction, but I've had people with diverse tastes recommend Jon Krakauer to me, especially Into Thin Air. I haven't read it yet, but it's on my list.

I happened to really love The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough. I think I'm going to have to look up some of the other books mentioned here, they sound great!

I've yet to read a book by David McCullough that I haven't liked. I think The Great Bridge and Mornings on Horseback The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt are my favorites of his.

Guess I know what to add to my TBR list...thanks!

What about Into the Wild. I enjoyed that one, also by Jon Krakauer. or Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail.

I'm just finishing The Zookeeper's Wife and am recommending it to everyone. Excellent and very engrossing!

"The Weight of Water" by Anita Shreve is very good, a bit different from her other books, and is based on real events.

"Toast: The Story of A Boy's Hunger" by Nigel Slater is a true story, a memoir. I wasn't sure I would like it, but found it hard to put down, and I find myself telling others about it. Came to me last year on a Bookcrossing book ring.

Here's a great one - I recently finished it and LOVED it, and learned so much !! It at times reads like fiction, because you can't believe it really happened.

Wesley the Owl The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl

So heartwarming! Perfect if you're going through some rough stuff!

(BTW, hope things get better soon for you.)

:)

I have four recommendations:

Indian Creek Chronicles by Pete Fromm
In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen
Manhunt by A. Swanson

All kept me riveted and were hard to put down.

How about:

When God Looked the Other Way An Odyssey of War, Exile, and Redemption by Wesley Adamczyk

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Fiend The Shocking True Story Of Americas Youngest Serial Killer by Harold Schechter

Sickened The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood by Julie Gregory

Fascinating, interesting and hard to set aside once you get started. Sickened and Fiend The Shocking True Story Of Americas Youngest Serial Killer are very disturbing.

Kind of depressing, but A Child Called It by Dave Pelsor was very good. One Child by Tory Hayden is also interesting. Being in education, these are ones that applied to my field.

Forgot about this one. The writing is not very good but the story made me laugh out loud and have tears running down my nose:

The Cowboy and his Elephant by M. McPherson(?) (at least I think that is the author's name)

These are humorous memoirs, the first is a travel memoir of 1920s Europe and the latter the story of a summer working at Tiffany's in 1940s. The girls in Europe meet some famous people and see some amazing sites, but the book is laugh out loud funny. In the latter, it touches on WWII so it has some "substance" but isn't depressing-feeling.

Our Hearts Were Young And Gay An Unforgettable Comic Chronicle of Innocents Abroad in the 1920s

Summer at Tiffany

Kathryn wrote: "These are humorous memoirs, the first is a travel memoir of 1920s Europe and the latter the story of a summer working at Tiffany's in 1940s. The girls in Europe meet some famous people and see som..."

I think I'll have to check these out myself.
P

If you are going to law school you might be interested inThe Buffalo Creek Disaster: How the survivor's of one of the worst disasters in coal mining history brought suit against the coal company-and won by Gerald M. Stern. I had to read it for a business law class in college and while there were certain parts were the legal aspects bored me, I still enjoyed the story.

I thought "Lucky Man" Michael J. Fox was an inspiring book.

I liked Blackout Girl Growing Up and Drying Out in America. The writing wasn't the best, but the story was good.

I really loved Steve and Me by Terri Irwin.

'Gone Are The Days' by W. Bruce Bell is hilarious if you can find it--it's out of print.

'My Family and Other Animals' by Gerald Durrell (or almost anything else by him)

'The Sex Lives of Cannibals' or 'Getting Stoned With Savages' by J. Maarten Troost

Want to read about a really unusual person? Try 'Peninsula of Lies' by Edward Ball.

Sarah Vowell is fun to read, so is Bill Bryson.

Betty Mcdonald's 'The Egg & I' and 'The Plague and I' are still fun reads.

'Kitchen Confidential' by Anthony Bourdain

'The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down' by Ann Fadiman

Ruth Reichl's 3 memoirs, 'Comfort Me With Apples' 'Tender At The Bone', and 'Garlic and Sapphires'

Canadian - here is another that you might not want to miss: The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wall. Excellent.

Judy wrote: "I'm just finishing The Zookeeper's Wife and am recommending it to everyone. Excellent and very engrossing!


"

I am at about page 100 of this story and it really is an engrossing read. I love it when I am able to learn while also enjoying a book. Remarkable people, Jan and Antonina.

Canadian-

I second Sarah Vowell and Bill Bryson. And Michael J. Fox's Lucky Man (he has a new book coming out next week).

An excellent true story novel was The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston. He's a fiction author who got caught in the middle of a serial killer investigation in Florence, Italy. It's an unbelievable story, and he's a funny guy.

I have a couple of Mary Roach's books on my list--anyone read them and recommend? The one I own (but haven't read yet) is Stiff The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.

There's another book of short medical factoids called The Woman Who Swallowed a Toothbrush And Other Weird Medical Case Histories. That was a quick, interesting read.

I read Mary Roach's Spook Science Tackles the Afterlife last fall and quite enjoyed it. I also have Stiff The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers waiting to be read.