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True crime stories! So many die-hard fans! Besides Steve B’s 12 New Zealand true stories, you could try these greats: “In cold blood”, “The executioner’s song”, “Helter skelter”, “All the president’s men”, and “The great New Zealand robbery”.
Animal stories! Fascinating, surprising, enlightening. Try searching the catalogue for “Animal Intelligence” to find books like this, looking at the genius of birds in terms of their “social savvy”, “vocal virtuosity” and “aesthetic aptitude”.
Funny stories! A good place to find these is in “comedy memoirs”. Besides the Bloggess, try Shane Dawson, Amy Poehler, Dawn French, Bill Oddie, David Sedaris, and new craze Sarah Millican.
Travel writing! Stories from professional voyagers, man vs nature stories, stories of dream homes in romantic locales, or maybe this book of stories about container ships and the men who slog on them, winner of the Dolman Best Travel Book Award.
Inspirational writing! Stories of people overcoming adversity or vulnerability, or making life-changes, or finding their way. Most often they’re in the biography/autobiography section, as with this wonderful story of hope, courage and recovery.
Good health stories! Did you know what our most underrated organ is? You might like to browse our nonfiction shelves more! Try also “Gulp: adventures on the alimentary canal” by Mary Roach, the science writer who loves to ask the taboo questions.
Politics! Informed citizens are good citizens. Be enlightened by the stories in our many books by political thinkers. If you’d like to go more global, try Pankaj Mishra’s new “Age of anger: a history of the present” or search for “world politics”.
History! Did you think the word derived from ‘story’? It’s the other way around. History derives from the Greek for ‘inquiry’. And then we tell or write the stories. Like this ‘meticulous, respectful narrative’ (in the words of Robert Sullivan).
Life stories! Biographies are not always about famous people. This one’s about a recluse determined to live life his own way. But 2017 also brought new books on David Bowie, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Stephen Hawking, Adebayo Akinfenwa and many others.
Personal stories! If you still think of essays as academic arguments, prove yourself wrong with Martin Edmond et al in this book, or Paula Morris (“False river”), Teju Cole (“Known and strange things”) or Ashleigh Young (“Can you tolerate this?”).
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