Staff Recommended Non-Fiction

Here if You Need Me by Kate Braestrump (Marci – Duraleigh)
Ten years ago, Kate Braestrup, mother of four, suddenly lost her husband, Drew. Stunned and grieving, Kate decided to pursue what had been her husband's dream and became a minister. And soon she found a most unusual calling: serving as chaplain for search-and-rescue missions in the Maine woods, giving comfort to people whose loved ones are missing – and to the wardens who sometimes have to deal with dreadful outcomes.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (Donna – Zebulon)
Known for his humorous travelogues, in this go-around, Bryson chronicles his experiences walking the Appalachian Trail with his friend Katz.

The Art of Happiness at Work by Dalai Lama (Dan – North Regional)
The Dalai Lama's responses to questions posed about finding happiness in the workplace, the focus being on our motivations for working and how that determines our level of satisfaction.

The Case for Peace by Alen Dershwitz (Celia – East Regional)
Dershowitz identifies 12 geopolitical barriers to peace between Israel and Palestine–and explains how to move around them and push the process forward. From the division of Jerusalem and Israeli counterterrorism measures to the security fence and the Iranian nuclear threat, his analyses are clear-headed, well-argued, and sure to be controversial. According to Dershowitz, achieving a lasting peace will require more than tough-minded negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. In academia, Europe, the UN, and the Arab world, Israel-bashing and anti-Semitism have reached new heights, despite the recent Israeli-Palestinian movement toward peace. Surveying this outpouring of vilification, Dershowitz deconstructs the smear tactics used by Israel-haters and shows how this kind of anti-Israel McCarthyism is aimed at scuttling any real chance of peace.

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller (Lynn – Eva Perry)
Fuller remembers her African childhood with candor and sensitivity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller's endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fuller's debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time.

The Symphony (Great Courses) taught by Robert Greenberg (Sue S. – Cameron Village)
In a series of lectures, Greenburg explains the theory and history of the symphony (3 parts).

Marley and Me by John Grogan (Liz – Cary)
John and Jenny were just beginning their life together. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow furball of a puppy. Life would never be the same. Marley grew into a barreling, ninety-seven-pound streamroller of a Labrador retriever. He crashed through screen doors, gouged through drywall, and stole women's undergarments. Obedience school did no good – Marley was expelled. But just as Marley joyfully refused any limits on his behavior, his love and loyalty were boundless, too. Marley remained a model of devotion, even when his family was at its wit's end. Unconditional love, they would learn, comes in many forms.

The Great Fire of London by Neil Hanson (Beth – Cameron Village)
In 1666, London is still recovering from its latest bout with bubonic plague, and memories of the Black Death are still fresh. When a small fire breaks out in a downtown bakery, it spreads with alarming speed through the crowded city streets from one dessicated wooden structure to the next.

Father Joe: the Man Who Saved My Soul by Tony Hendra (Kathryn – Cameron Village)
In this intimate memoir, Tony Hendra tells of meeting his friend and mentor Father Joe in a monastery after getting into trouble as a teen. Toward the end of Father Joe's life, the relationship strengthens once again, ending simultaneously in the deepest kind of loss and the most heartening redemption imaginable.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (Cheryl – Library Administration)
When Kingsolver and her family move from suburban Arizona to rural Appalachia, they take on a new challenge: to spend a year on a locally produced diet, paying close attention to the provenance of all they consume. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle follows the family through the first year of their experiment.

Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Kristen – West Regional, Beth – Cameron Village)
Bringing Chicago circa 1893 to vivid life, Erik Larson's spellbinding bestseller intertwines the true tale of two men – the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 World's Fair, striving to secure America's place in the world; and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.

Stranger than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk (Megan – West Regional)
Chuck Palahniuk's world has always been, well, different from yours and mine. In his first collection of nonfiction, Chuck Palahniuk brings us into this world, and gives us a glimpse of what inspires his fiction. At the Rock Creek Lodge Testicle Festival in Missoula, Montana, average people perform public sex acts on an outdoor stage. In a mansion once occupied by The Rolling Stones, Marilyn Manson reads his own Tarot cards and talks sweetly to his beautiful actress girlfriend. Across the country, men build their own full-size castles and rocketships that will send them into space. Palahniuk himself experiments with steroids, works on an assembly line by day and as a hospice volunteer by night, and experiences the brutal murder of his father by a white supremacist.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris (Ann – West Regional)
Sedaris returns to his deliriously twisted domain: hilarious childhood dramas infused with melancholy; the gulf of misunderstanding that exists between people of different nations or members of the same family; and the poignant divide between one's best hopes and most common deeds.

A Short History of World War I by James Stokesbury (Wendy – East Regional)
An analysis of the Great War, including the politics of the era that shaped it and the technological innovations that occurred throughout the war.

A Short History of World War II by James Stokesbury (Wendy – East Regional)
A one-volume survey of the second World War, reaching from the peace settlements of World War I to the drastically altered postwar world of the late 1940s.

Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson (Sue W. – Cameron Village)
Dramatically portraying John Wilkes Booth's brutal crime and pulse-pounding escape, Swanson takes listeners on the unrelenting chase for the killer. Trying to soothe the stunned nation, federal and local authorities launch a manhunt through Maryland and Virginia. But on day 12 of this bizaare hunt, what really happens?

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls (Teddy – Eva Perry Regional)
Jeannette Walls tells the story about her childhood. She talks about living like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Retreating to the dismal West Virginia mining town – and the family – her father, Rex Walls, had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester (Bob – East Regional)
An examination of the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic eruption off the coast of Java of the world's most dangerous volcano – Krakatoa.

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester (Bob – East Regional)
The story of the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, with the surprising revelation that thousands of the dictionary's entries were submitted by an American physician locked in an insane asylum for murder.