Browsing the Nonfiction Aisle.

If you asked people on the street what they think about nonfiction, they’d probably tell you that it’s dry and boring. Why read something so tedious when you can pick up the latest bestseller and escape into a fictionalized world?

Recently, though, nonfiction has been given a bigger emphasis. More authors are writing their subjects in such a way that the average person will pick up the book and feel engrossed in what’s being said. Especially since books like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and The Lost City of Z becoming movies, people are beginning to see nonfiction writing as equal contenders to that in the fiction world.

I have to admit that I don’t read a lot of nonfiction. When I read, I want to get lost in a world not quite like my own so that when I finish reading, I can face the world with new eyes. I’ve noticed when I look back over the years, the few “true” books that I’ve read were on topics that I was already interested in.

Even though I probably won’t completely go over to the dark side, I’ve been trying to read more nonfiction just to see what’s out there. With the right kind of storyteller, nonfiction can read just as quickly as a beach read. Right now, I’ve started reading The Lost City of Z and I hope it will be enthralling.

Trying to find something in the nonfiction aisle that will catch your family? Here are some that I’ve read that has captured my attention:

1. Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family by Amy Ellis Nutt
2. Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary With the Bard by Laura Bates
3. Another Place at the Table by Kathy Harrison
4. Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
5. The Uninvited: The True Story of the Union Screaming House by Steven LaChance
6. Where Am I Now? by Mara Wilson
7. Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley
8. Conviction: The Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars by Juan Martinez
9. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
10. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
11. The Stranger Beside Me: The Untold Story of Ted Bundy by Ann Rule

Are there any nonfiction books you think people should be reading? Let me know by leaving a comment!