Narrative Nonfiction & Memoir
The media tells us that narrative non-fiction is the novel of these times, and we certainly have first-hand evidence of its new dominance. Our narrative-nonfiction authors write from the front-lines and the back offices, illuminating with candor and lyrical prose worlds heretofore hidden from view. New York Times bestselling Miracle in the Andes is the harrowing account of Nando Parrado's seventy-two day survival after the plane carrying his Uruguayan rugby team crashed in the Andes. Another survivor is This American Life contributor Cheryl Wagner, whose Plenty Enough Suck to Go Around is a dark but funny account of rebuilding her home in New Orleans. In The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, journalist Allison Bartlett brings us into the world of rare books, and into contact with collectors, thieves, and "bibliodicks."
A Wide Range
To learn more about the books to your left, roll over their covers with your mouse.
A Wide Range
To learn more about the books to your left, roll over their covers with your mouse.
Allison Bartlett
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much
Riverhead/Penguin
The true story of a prolific rare book thief and the “bibliodick” out to find him, The Man Who Loves Books Too Much has received rave advance reviews from, among others, Larry McMurtry and Erik Larsen, who calls it “compelling with elegant suspense.” Bartlett’s debut book is a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick. Shet has written forThe New York Times, The Washington Post, Salon.com, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, and San Francisco magazine, and works at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, a collective studio.
Carol Leifer
When You Lie About Your Age, The Terrorists Win
Villard/Random House
Comedienne and “Seinfeld” writer Carol Leifer is by turns funny, heartwarming, and enlightening in this collection of essays on aging, love, and life. When You Lie About Your Age, the Terrorists Win has been praised by Ellen DeGeneres, Jerry Seinfeld, Garry Shandling, Chris Rock, Bill Maher, and Larry David, who calls it “profound, insightful, and hilarious.” Carol Leifer and the book were featured on “The View,” “Today” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
Rob Sheffield
Love is A Mix-Tape
Crown/Random House
Music and love are one and the same in this heartfelt memoir by pop culture journalist and Rolling Stone contributing editor Rob Sheffield. Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time uses the power of pop music to tell the story of Sheffield’s devoted relationship to his late wife, Renée. Kirkus calls the book “a lightly-handed, skillful and sincere celebration of pop, of love, sad songs, bad songs and the long, nearly unbearable ache of being a young widower. Witty and wise; a true candidate for the All-Time Desert Island Top 5 Books About Pop Music." Chuck Klosterman calls the book “the happiest, saddest, greatest book about rock n’ roll that I’ve ever experienced.”
Michael Datcher
Raising Fences: A Black Man's Love Story
Riverhead/Penguin
In his national bestseller – also a pick of "The Today Show" Book Club -- journalist and spoken-word poet Michael Datcher recounts his fatherless childhood, growth to manhood, and search for the “picket-fence” love he never knew growing up. Junot Díaz calls the book “beautiful and heartrending” and the Los Angeles Times praises its “raw truth-telling…It’s shared testimony for young men who struggle with the weight and purpose of the armor that they carry, the protective layers that keep them from getting hurt—on the street and off.”
Nando Parrado
Miracle in the Andes
Crown/Random House
This gripping tale of tragedy, friendship, endurance, and love is an autobiographical account of the Uruguayan rugby team’s plane crash in the Andes in 1972, written by survivor Nando Parrado. The New York Times bestselling Miracle in the Andes has been praised by authors Jon Krakauer, Aron Ralston, Peter Stark, Peter Hillary, and Piers Paul Reid, the author of Alive.
John Wilcockson
Lance
Da Capo
This New York Times bestseller, based on Wilcockson’s unfettered access to friends and family members, is the authoritative biography of Lance Armstrong. According to the New York Times “Another Armstrong book? . . .Is there anything left to say or explain? Yes, there is, and Wilcockson says it and explains it meticulously, even controversially….Well-known Armstrong traits are explored at length by Wilcockson in a series of interviews with figures in the rider’s past….Lance lets them all speak as Wilcockson blends their stories into a skillful portrait.”