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.

Rob Sheffield

Love is A Mix-Tape

Crown/Random House


Music and love are one 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. ... a true candidate for the All-Time Desert Island Top 5 Books About Pop Music." Chuck Klosterman says it's “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.

Mark Adams

Turn Right at Machu Picchu

Dutton/Penguin Group


What happens when an adventure travel writer—who’s never actually done anything adventurous—tries to recreate the original expedition to Machu Picchu?  Mark Adams’s riveting book has landed him on “The Daily Show” and in The New York Times.  He’s been praised by A. J. Jacobs, John Hodgman, and Sebastian Junger, who wrote, “The Inca ruins at Machu Picchu are one of the world's enduring mysteries, and Adams has written such a bold, compelling account that many  will be trekking up those same outrageous mountains to see them for ourselves.”

Suzanne Morrison

Yoga Bitch

Three Rivers Press/Random House


In this memoir, a disillusioned New York actress falls hard for yoga and its gorgeous practitioners, flies to Bali to immerse herself in yogi life, only to discover that flexibility and spirituality beget false prophets in tight pants. “Brings the higher path down to earth,” says Kirkus. "A gimlet-eyed look at the ridiculousness of yoga culture, a somewhat reluctant spiritual journey, and a beautifully observed travelogue…a love story,” says Claire Dederer, author of Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Poses.