Stephen V. Ash, A Year in the South: Four Lives in 1865.
A Confederate veteran, a planter’s son, a war-widow and an escaped slave—each struggles to survive the chaotic last days of the Civil War. As peace is re-established, these well-rounded, sympathetic, very different individuals attempt to rebuild their lives under new and difficult circumstances. (TS)

Tami Oldham Ashcroft with Susea McGearhart, Red Sky in Mourning.
Newly engaged and in love with sailing , Tami and Richard are delivering a yacht from Tahiti to California when hurricane Raymond strikes. “Oh my God” are the last words Tami hears Richard speak. The next thing she knows, she’s awakened in calm seas, covered in blood, with two feet of water in the cabin, both masts broken. Richard is gone. How she survives--both physically and emotionally--is a harrowing story. (MM)

Melinda and Robert Blanchard, A Trip to the Beach.
A humorous chronicle of mishaps, at times quite poignant, takes shape as the Blanchards try to open a restaurant on the tiny Caribbean island of Anguilla. They meet face to face with pampered patrons, no electricity, and a devastating hurricane, all to the beat of “island time.” At Blanchard’s Table: A Trip to the Beach Cookbook (2003) is the logical follow-up to A Trip to the Beach. It is primarily a cookbook, but it also includes short humorous stories about running a restaurant in the Caribbean Islands. (JO)

Stephen G. Bloom, Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America.
When Orthodox Lubavitcher Jews move into the tiny town of Postville, Iowa, to establish a kosher meat processing business, the townspeople are less than welcoming and the Jews are openly hostile toward the Postville residents. Enter Stephen Bloom, a secular Jew, who writes a fascinating account of the increasing tension between the groups, while reflecting on his own faith and providing insight into a unique and difficult situation. (LS)

Judy Blunt, Breaking Clean.
Judy Blunt grew up on a Montana ranch in the 1960s, an independent girl in a man’s world. Her novel-like memoir of her spare-the-rod spoil-the-child upbringing, marriage after high school to an older rancher, and eventual divorce, is a vivid picture of life at the mercy o f nature on the one hand and iron-clad tradition on the other. Her description of the blizzard of 1964 is absolutely gripping and unforgettable. (MM)

Angela Bourke, The Burning of Bridget Cleary.
In the changing world of Ireland in 1895 the burning of Bridget Cleary is a clash between the old beliefs of folklore and the modern world. Was the burning of Bridget Cleary an attempt to rid the victim of faery magic? Or was it actually punishment for being childless, too independent and suspected of having an affair? (ME)

Thad Carhart, The Piano Shop on the Left Bank.
Thad Carhart steps through the doors of a mysterious Paris storefront to discover a backroom of pianos, all waiting to be repaired, reassembled and delivered to the perfect owner. As Carhart chooses a piano for himself, he rediscovers his passion for the piano. A bit of history and a love of music combine perfectly with the charming sights and sounds of Paris. (NB)

Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential.
For everyone who’s wondered what goes on behind the scenes of their favorite eatery, Bourdain offers a culinary journey into the heart of restaurants and cafes, by profiling the front line cooks and the food handlers who prepare our collective meals. A flavorful mix of food, culinary wizardry and real life can be found in this spicy narrative. (SB)

James Bradley and Ron Powers, Flags of Our Fathers.
For many of us, the photo of the American flag being raised on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi by six U.S. Marines in 1945 remains an indelible image of World War II. The authors take us behind-the-scenes of the photograph, exploring the lives of each of the six flagbearers, one of whom was Bradley’s father. This is a very personal story of heroes, and the reality they faced upon their return home from the war. (SB)

Rick Bragg, All Over but the Shoutin'.
Rick Bragg grew up dirt-poor in Alabama with two brothers, a drunken father who was mostly absent, and a dedicated mother who picked cotton and took in laundry to support her sons. A heartfelt tribute to her, his book is full of funny and sad stories of his childhood and his rise to become a Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter for the New York Times. (JT)

D. Graham Burnett, A Trial by Jury.
A Princeton University professor writes a you-are-there account of a murder trial in which he served as foreman of the jury. As the twelve jurors fight their way to a verdict, they come to understand the crucial difference between justice and the law, and what they learn changes their attitude toward criminal justice. (MM)

Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization.
Thomas Cahill tells the story of how Europe changed from the classical age of Rome to the medieval era. During this time Irish monks and scribes were busy maintaining and storing all of the written works of western civilization. They copied manuscripts of Greek and Latin writers, both pagan and Christian, while other libraries were forever lost. (DH)

Fern Chapman, Motherland: Beyond the Holocaust: A Mother-Daughter Journey to Reclaim the Past.
The author of this riveting memoir grew up in a home where the past was not discussed. She did not know that her mother had survived the Holocaust when her parents sent her as a child to live with relatives in Chicago. In Motherland, mother and daughter travel back to Germany. Their story is one of exploration, understanding and ultimately, forgiveness. (DH)

Evelyn Doyle, Tea and Green Ribbons.
Evelyn Doyle's father placed his six young children in state-run religious schools when their mother deserted the family and he had to leave Ireland temporarily to find work. When he returned months later, he was shocked to learn that he faced an epic court battle to regain custody of his children. The movie Evelyn, starring Pierce Brosnan, merely scratched the surface of the Doyle family's real story. (JT)

Joseph Ellis, Founding Brothers.
Ellis focuses on six crucial moments in the life of the new nation and the men who played a huge part in creating it; John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Washington. This detailed and compelling narrative shows us the public and private personas of our nation’s first leaders. (DH)

Laura Fraser, An Italian Affair.
Stunned when her husband of barely a year left her for his high school sweetheart, Laura Fraser fled to Italy to recover. On the island of Ischia she met a sophisticated, married Parisian art professor. Their subsequent meetings in a variety of sumptuous locations from London to Marrakech form the basis of this globetrotting love story. (JT)

Atul Gawande, Complications: a Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science.
What is the view from the other side of the stethoscope? A surgical resident does a wonderful job of describing the high-stakes pressure of being a doctor-in-training. We learn what it’s like to wield the scalpel the first time, what makes a good doctor, and what makes a good doctor go bad. Filled with scary, funny, and poignant case histories, Complications is “refreshingly honest, if not always reassuring.”—Ellen Goodman (MM)

Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone, Out of the Flames: The Remarkable Story of a Fearless Scholar, a Fatal Heresy, and One of the Rarest Books in the World.
This book tells two stories. One is of Michael Servetus, a 16th century theologian and scientist, whose book challenging the Christian concept of the Trinity earned him the enmity of John Calvin and the fate of being burned as a heretic. The second follows the trail of the three surviving copies of Servetus’ banned book to their present day locations. Peppered throughout are intriguing facts and tangents that make this a fascinating read. (EC)

Katharine Graham, Personal History.
In this Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Katharine Graham, former publisher, president and chairperson of The Washington Post, candidly shares her struggles and her triumphs, ranging from battling her husband’s inner demons, to presiding over the controversial coverage of the Watergate scandal in the 1970s. A very readable, personal story. (SB)

Doris Haddock with Dennis Burke, Granny D: Walking Across America in my 90th Year .
Nearing age 90, Doris Haddock set off on a walk across t he U.S. to draw attention to the issue of campaign finance reform. Don’t worry if you don’t care very much about campaign finance. Her story is an inspiring chronicle of the people she met and the hardships she overcame. Starting out in the desert, she writes, “There is an urge to just walk into the desert, away from the road, and be done with it. There is also an urge to have some ice cream with chocolate sauce. Life is what we patch together between those competing desires.” (MM)

William Hallahan, The Day the American Revolution Began.
This fast moving story travels with the Express Riders as they alert the colonials to the approaching British army. Eyewitness accounts of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. and short bursts of narrative evoke the emotional turmoil and the thuggery, media wars and terror at the start of the revolution. (ME)

Tony Hawks, Round Ireland with a Fridge.
This book will give you the giggles as the author describes his attempt to hitchhike around the circumference of Ireland with a small refrigerator in tow…all to win a bet with friends. Tony finds the fridge taking on an identity all its own as the two intrepid travelers meet a real prince, a bogus prince, surfers and even enter a bachelor festival. Read and laugh aloud. (JO)

Peter Hessler, River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze.
As a Peace Corps volunteer in the isolated Chinese town of Fuling, Hessler teaches English at a small college. He closely observes local life, first through the eyes of his students, and then, as his language skills improve, from a wider perspective. As his understanding of Chinese ways increases, he moves from isolated outsider to moments of honesty and friendship. (TS)

Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit: an American Legend.
This is the story of a homely, Depression-era racehorse that captured the public’s imagination and heart as he competed to be best in the land. Hillenbrand’s entrancing tale of the horse, his trainers and jockeys, and the conditions they inhabited has something for everyone: drama, adventure, suspense, and history. (EC)

Tony Horowitz, Blue Latitudes.
Tony Horowitz endured all sorts of discomfort while retracing the routes of Captain James Cook’s three great voyages of discovery. In this funny and thought-provoking account, Horowitz takes readers along on his travels to remote parts of the world to find out what the inhabitants think about the impact the British explorer had on their ancestors’ lives. (PT)

Peter Huchthausen, October Fury.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis Huchthausen served as a junior officer aboard a Navy destroyer. Combining U.S. officers’ first-hand experiences with those of many of the Soviet officers they opposed, he tells the tense tale of the naval showdown in the Caribbean—one in which U.S. forces hunted Soviet submarines armed with nuclear-tipped torpedoes. (TS)

Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild.
The emaciated body of Chris McCandless, a 24-year-old native of Virginia was found in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness in September 1992. How did he die? Krakauer, the author of Into Thin Air, pieces together McCandless’ haunting story from the observations of those who met the young college graduate on his doomed adventure in the wild. (SB)

Erik Larson, Devil in the White City.
Murder and madness make for great fiction and for even more fascinating true stories. Set in turn-of-the-century Chicago, Devil in the White City tells the story of the building of Chicago's 1893 Colombian Exposition, and the grisly tale of H. H. Holmes, the serial killer who preyed upon young women drawn to life in the big city. (RS)

Jennifer Lauck, Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found.
Jennifer Lauck conveys the perceptions, thoughts, and emotions of a frightened child with conviction and immediacy in her remarkable memoir of the six years during which both of her parents died. It is a journey which Jennifer survived through utter determination. (DH)

Adrian Levy, Stone of Heaven: Unearthing the Secret History of Imperial Jade.
Investigative reporters Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark risked their lives to visit the remote valley in Burma where jade is still being mined. Their story interweaves a shocking expose of the working conditions of jade miners today with the secrets and myths surrounding the history of this precious stone. (JT)

Stephen Lewis, Hotel Kid: A Times Square Childhood.
Ever wonder what it would have been like to grow up in a big Manhattan hotel with all your meals delivered by room service? Stephen Lewis and his brother Peter lived that wonderful but strange existence when their father managed the Taft Hotel during the 1930s and ‘40s. Stephen's light-hearted memoir brings to life those days in the elegant hotel and its colorful Times Square neighborhood. (JT)

Ben Macintyre, The Englishman's Daughter: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in World War I.
A small band of British soldiers successfully hid in a tiny French village from 1914 to 1916 thanks to their own cunning and the aid of local villagers. Eventually, though, someone turned them in to the German occupiers. Ben Macintyre's book is a fascinating attempt to solve the mystery of who betrayed them and why. (JT)

James McBride, The Color of Water.
McBride is one of 12 black children who were raised by their widowed white mother in the dangerous housing projects of New York in the 1960s. In his compelling and inspirational memoir, McBride focuses on the issue of race in his life, and how his mother, through sheer strength of will, raised all of her children to graduate from college. (RS)

Sy Montgomery, Search for the Golden Moon Bear.
Journalist Montgomery and Gary J. Galbreath, professor of evolutionary biology at Northwestern University, embark on an expedition to find out if the elusive golden moon bears of Southeast Asia are a rare “color phase” or a new species. Their search is severely hampered by the ravages of war in Laos, but they encounter many heroic people trying to save these unique creatures. (DH)

Craig Nelson, The First Heroes: The Extraordinary Story of the Doolittle Raid—America’s First World War II Victory.
In a daring counter to Pearl Harbor, sixteen medium bombers fly a one-way trip from the deck of an aircraft carrier to target Tokyo. Then, attempting to reach unoccupied China, most of the planes crash into Japanese territory. First Heroes dramatically recounts the mission. (TS)

Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex.
Herman Melville based the classic sea-faring tale, Moby Dick, on the real-life sinking of the Whaleship Essex in 1820 after it was attacked by an enormous sperm whale. Philbrick combines the first-hand accounts of the ship’s first mate and its cabin boy, along with history of the whaling industry, to weave this riveting and vivid story of survival at sea. (SB)

Ruth Reichl, Tender at the Bone: Overcoming Obstacles by Learning to Cook Well.
Gourmet Magazine editor and former New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl writes with engaging immediacy and infectious humor of the memorable characters who shaped her life. Her descriptions of food preparation, from early disasters to later triumphs, are so vivid the reader can almost taste the results. Recipes abound. (JT)

Ruth Reichl, Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table.
In this sequel to Tender at the Bone, Ruth Reichl recounts her years as a food critic for the Los Angeles Times, including her marriages, travels (notably to Paris, China and Thailand), and encounters with celebrities such as Wolfgang Puck and MFK Fisher. Her gustatory and romantic adventures are presented in sensual detail and recipes are included. (JT)

Mort Rosenblum, The Secret Life of the Seine.
Mort Rosenblum was a seasoned AP correspondent living in Paris. When he and his wife were kicked out of their apartment, they purchased a leaky old houseboat on the Seine. Here he shares his observations of life along the Seine. Some anecdotes are contemplative, some humorous, and all are fascinating. (JO)

Terry Ryan, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio.
Terry Ryan's biography of her mother Evelyn could have been grim--after all, Evelyn had an alcoholic husband and ten children to feed in the 1950s, when women were expected to be nothing other than housewives. But Ryan's book is instead a heartwarming tribute to her mother's clever resourcefulness at supporting the family through winning jingle-writing contests. The antics of the children and their pets are often laugh-out-loud funny. (JT)

Lawrence Schiller, Cape May Court House.
The airbags are blamed when Tracy Thomas is killed in an automobile accident and Eric Thomas files a wrongful death suit against Ford Motor Company. The story develops into a page-turning, real-life whodunit as accusations of an extramarital affair, a sudden spending spree and frequent unexplained trips cast doubt on Eric’s story. (ME)

David Shenk, The Forgetting: Alzheimer’s: Portrait of an Epidemic.
Thgis true medical thriller by a contributing writer to the New Yorker and Harper’s is a page-turning portrait of Alzheimer’s disease. In gripping anecdotal style, it details the latest progress in scientists’ race for a cure (or at least a treatment), recounts the disease’s toll on famous historical figures, and considers the heartbreaking significance of an illness that is “our best lens on the meaning of loss.” (MM)

Hampton Sides, Ghost Soldiers.
This book is all about heroes. It is a riveting, detailed account of a few specially selected troops from the elite 6th Army’s Ranger Battalion. Their mission? To rescue 513 U.S. and British prisoners-of-war who were in hell—a prison camp named Cabanatuan in the Phillippines during World War II. The story provides great insight into the resilience of the human spirit in times of horror. (JO)

Bob Smith, Hamlet's Dresser.
Bob Smith's fascinating memoir interweaves growing up with a beloved, profoundly disabled sister, his recent work sharing his love of Shakespeare with senior citizens, and his years as a young man working as a dresser for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Katherine Hepburn, Jessica Tandy, Bert Lahr and other familiar figures co-star as he gives the reader an intimate picture of life behind the scenes at the festival.(JT)

Don Snyder, The Cliff Walk: A Memoir of a Job Lost and a Life Found.
Don Snyder was an English professor at Colgate University when the unthinkable happened: he was fired. Confident that he would find work quickly, Don was nearly shattered when he received over 100 rejection letters. The Cliff Walk is Don's emotional story of not only finding a new profession, but of learning to appreciate life with all its twists and turns. (LS)

James B. Stewart, Blind Eye: How the Medical Establishment Let a Doctor Get Away with Murder.
Blind Eye is a truly scary story about Dr. Michael Swango, nicknamed “Dr. Death,” who committed murders and continued practicing medicine, slipping through the cracks of the system. The book reads like a thriller as it delves into Swango's psyche while recounting the chilling story of his killing spree and failure of authorities to catch up to him. (LS)

Wendy Swallow, Breaking Apart: A Memoir of Divorce.
What is it like to go through a divorce? A journalist shares the five-year period of her life when she and her two young sons barely held themselves together while her marriage was breaking apart. “There are those who believe it is simple selfishness that leads people to divorce. For those of us who have lived it, it’s hard to see why anyone would rip out their veins for some immature or narcissistic desire to get what they want, because that is what it feels like.”

Paul Theroux, Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town.
As a young man in the 1960s Theroux came of age in Africa, serving in the Peace Corps and later as an English teacher. Decades later, as he travels the length of the continent using only locally available transportation, he finds an Africa very different from the one seen in wildlife safaris and tourist centers—an Africa often painfully different from that of his youth. (TS)

Tizian Terzani, A Fortune Teller Told Me.
Terzani, a journalist based in Asia, was told in 1976 by a Hong Kong fortune-teller not to fly during 1993. During that fateful year the author felt compelled to travel only on land or water. His earth- bound wanderings gave him a new perspective on the countries he visited. Then on March 20th 1993 the Hong Kong prophecy came back to haunt him. (PT)

Nick Thorpe, Eight Men and a Duck: An Improbable Voyage by Reed Boat to Easter Island.
Journalist Nick Thorpe joined a crew determined to sail from Chile to Easter Island in a small, slowly sinking reed boat. The ineptitude of the crew reduced the attempt a comedy of errors, made worse by food shortages, personality clashes and a vicious storm. Read Thorpe's book to find out if they triumphed against the odds. (JT)

Patricia Van Tighem, The Bear’s Embrace: A Study of Survival.
Hiking in the Canadian Rockies, Patricia Tighem and her husband are savagely attacked by a grizzly bear. Trained as a nurse, Van Tighem endures multiple reconstructive surgeries. Her disfigurement is a personal and professional ordeal. She worries that it will cause employers to doubt her abilities. “What I see isn’t even me.” Her achingly honest account of despondence and ultimate recovery leaves the reader amazed at the strength of the human spirit. (NB)

Simon Winchester, The Map that Changed the World.
Brilliance, plagiarism, and debt are the engines that move this story. William Smith was a self-taught country boy who mapped the geology of the earth. George Belles Greenough, president of the Geology Society, plagiarized the map and deliberately discredited Smith's version of the map, relegating Smith to bankruptcy and debtor's prison before he is finally vindicated. (ME)

Simon Worrell, The Poet and the Murderer.
Follow Simon Worrell as he unravels the mystery of a forged Emily Dickinson poem that appears so authentic that it fools the experts at Sotheby’s. The skills of master forger, Mark Hofmann, don’t stop at Emily Dickinson. He skillfully replicates writing by George Washington, Daniel Boone, and others. His forgery of the Salamander letter, a document that could rock the Mormon Church to its foundations, would lead to murder. (ME)

Following the trail blazed by the Adult Reading Round Table in creating the bibliography “True Stories for Fiction Fans,” this bibliography was compiled by the following North Suburban Library System member library staff: Sandy Beda (Warren Newport PL), Nancy Bishop (Northbrook PL), Ellen Clark (Wilmette PL), Mary Ellen Essig (Niles PL), Debbie Hoffman (Warren Newport PL),Patti Lollar (Lake Forest Academy Library), Mary Munday, (Northbrook PL), Jennifer Owens (Grayslake PL), Ruth Schuster (Niles PL), Lori Schwab (Barrington PL), Tom Sievers (Vernon Area PL), Jane Trump (Cook Memorial PL), and PatriciaTunstall (Indian Trails PL).