Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Nonfiction for Novel Lovers

Non fiction sometimes gets a bad rap as being boring or dull. Check out these true stories that read like novels.

Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian American, chooses to ride out Hurricane Katrina in his New Orlean home. After the storm, he travels the city in a canoe rescuing neighbors and caring for abandoned pets until his is arrested by a group of National Guardsmen, accused of terrorist activity, refused contact with his family, and held with charges or trial for 23 days. Dave Eggers tells his story in Zeitoun.
Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger follows a Texas high school football team as they pursue the state championship. The story attempts to understand a football crazy small town where sports overrules academics and most other aspects of life.
Investigative journalist Eric Schlosser examines the local and global influence of the United States fast food industry in Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

Nonfiction for Novel Lovers

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