Nonfiction November: Fact and Fiction Book Pairings

November 9, 2015 Uncategorized 45

Nonfiction November 2015It’s time for our second Nonfiction November discussion topic and it’s a good one! This week’s host is Leslie at Regular Ruminations and today we’re talking about book pairings.

Book Pairing: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real history by reading a nonfiction version of the story.

I’ve had a post like this in mind for a while, so I’ve got a lot of suggestions! All of these pairs are connected by topic and with two exceptions, they’re books I’ve read. The exceptions are The Crucible, paired with The Witches based on a recommendation from Jennine at My Life in Books, and The Voyage of the Narwhal, paired with In the Kingdom of the Ice based on a review from Naomi at Consumed by Ink.

Fact or Fiction Book Pairings

What is your favorite nonfiction/fiction pairing?

 

45 Responses to “Nonfiction November: Fact and Fiction Book Pairings”

  1. Amanda

    I will have the Witches on my list for this weeks topic as well – even though I’m only 20 pages or so into it. I have been wanting to read Ship of Brides forever! I’m going to have to add GI Brides to my list to go with it.

    • DoingDewey

      It’s definitely a book that lends itself well to fiction pairings! Ship of Brides wasn’t my favorite book by Moyes, but I really enjoy everything she writes 🙂

  2. Laura Roberts

    Ooh, I like the perfume book pairing you’ve got there! I haven’t read either, but I’m super interested in people who have signature scents and/or work in the perfume industry. Have you ever read “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” by Patrick Suskind? It’s a super interesting book that pays great attention to the often overlooked details surrounding the sense of smell, by focusing on a character who both has a heightened sense of smell and who is, himself, peculiarly odorless.

    • DoingDewey

      I’d not heard of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer before, but I’ll have to look it up. I think the science/chemistry aspect of perfume is really fascinating 🙂

  3. TJ @MyBookStrings

    What great suggestions! I already have The Kingdom of Ice and The Voyage of the Narwhal on my list, and I’ve been eyeing both GI Brides and The Ship of Brides. Now I’ll add The Witches and The Crucible.

  4. Lory @ Emerald City Book Review

    I love this topic — it’s so interesting to see how fiction can play with the same topics and themes as nonfiction. I paired Devil in the White City with Alias Grace, based on a real-life murder case. And I’ve been meaning to read The Voyage of the Narwhal, now I have yet another recommendation to notch up in its favor.

    • DoingDewey

      I love that too! I think it’s fun to get the emotion of a situation from fiction and learn exactly what really happened from nonfiction on the same topic.

  5. Naomi

    My tbr list is soaring from all these pairing posts! I just added a few more, including The Black Count and GI Brides, both of which I have eyed before but had forgotten about them. Great list! And, thanks for linking to my review! 🙂

    • DoingDewey

      My tbr is growing out of control too! I love reading fiction and nonfiction on the same topics, so this week is particularly hard to resist 🙂

  6. Sophie

    I have both The Devil in the White City (I got it after you started book club… perpetually late, eep) and Darkly Dreaming Dexter, so I’m looking forward to reading those and seeing how related they are! I can’t think of any nonfic/fic pairings, so I’m excited to see what others have been able to pair together. 🙂

    • DoingDewey

      No worries! Hopefully you’ll be able to join in sometime 🙂 Seeing everyone’s pairings is one of my favorite parts of Nonfiction November.

    • DoingDewey

      Thanks! I would guess there may be a more similar serial killer book out there, because I haven’t read very many, but what made me pair these is that they’re both about serial killers who are creepily likable.

  7. Rachel

    Wow. You’re good at that. I was proud to come up with the one pair I managed. I later thought of The Witches with Crucible, too. But decided not to change. 🙂

    • DoingDewey

      Thanks! I ended up with so many this year because I’ve been keeping a list since last year and I’ll probably keep doing the same thing 🙂

    • DoingDewey

      The fact that I enjoyed The Kingdom of Ice so much is a big part of why I’m so excited to get to Voyage of the Narwhal. I think it would be fun to learn more about arctic exploration 🙂

    • DoingDewey

      Thanks Tara! I think I read The Monuments Men shortly after The Girl You Left Behind, so the connection of both to art looted during WWII really stood out to me.

    • DoingDewey

      Thanks! Jennine’s suggestion of pairing the Crucible with The Witches reminded me that that’s a classic I’d still like to read 🙂

  8. Sarah @ The Country Bookworm

    I love this topic and could do this forever! The Witches has been on my “to buy” list. Maybe for christmas 🙂 I LOVE the Count of Monte Cristo. It’s one of my favorite classics. I haven’t read it in about 8 years, so maybe I’m due for a reread and then a read of The Black Count.

    • DoingDewey

      Me too! I’ve actually been working on building a list since last year, because I think pairing books up is so much fun 🙂 I didn’t love the Count of Monte Cristo, but The Black Count is one of my favorite narrative nonfiction reads ever.

  9. Guiltless Reading

    Oooh, Katie, yet another amazing list of book recs! I love that you’ve read most of them so going through your reviews for each one will certainly be helpful. Count of Monte Cristo is one of my all time faves so I’ll definitely look up Black Count.

    • DoingDewey

      Black Count is one of my favorite narrative nonfiction reads, so I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who loves the Count of Monte Cristo 🙂

  10. iliana

    Oh these are great pairings! I keep hearing about The Devil in White City lately. Will have to add a lot of these to my TBR radar.

    • DoingDewey

      I’d been wanting to get to an Erik Larson book for a long time before picking up White City and it was just as entertaining as I had hoped! I would have liked slightly greater transparency about the bits the author was filling in without sources, but I’d still recommend it as a really fun read 🙂

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