If you tell by Greg Olson. Googled everyone while I was reading cause I was blown away that this wasn’t a bigger story/more well known.
Wizard_of_Claus on
Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn
and
The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown (It’s about the Donner Party)
Texan-Trucker on
“The Flower Sisters” by Michelle Collins Anderson. It’s a “possible cause” fictional story about a true event where the location is also made up. Great first person narration style of maybe 5 different perspectives. Great audiobook.
Also recommend “Before We Were Yours” and “Shelterwood” both by Lisa Wingate. Also best experienced by audiobook. These are both historical fiction with composite characters and first person.
Due-Secret-3091 on
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
bixgdm27 on
I don’t know if this is exactly what you meant but when I read Daisy Jones and The Six (I picked it up randomly at the bookstore before all the hype so I didn’t really know what I was getting into) by Taylor Jenkins Reid, I searched for the band’s album on Spotify as soon as I finished it and was absolutely shocked that they did not exist. Her other books in this “multiverse” (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Malibu Rising, and Carrie Soto is Back) also give this feeling of “omg how is this person not real”.
Rutabaga_Winter on
Human acts by Han Kang
I didn’t know 😭
Cassie2202 on
The Flashman Papers series
raspy27 on
The Land That Never Was … a 19th century scam in which the con man, Gregor MacGregor, invented a fabled, peaceful, enlightened kingdom in Central America, took a bunch of peoples’ money and possessions and then sent them there only for them to discover it was all a fraud.
FloridaFlamingoGirl on
The Feather Thief
skankin22jax on
Robert Moses in The Power Broker.
IntroductionOk8023 on
The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict is fiction, but the story of real person Hedy Lamarr. I went into it knowing nothing then after I was like ‘no way she was that beautiful and that really happened’. I looked her up and it did happen and she was that beautiful!
pedaleuse on
An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole. Even if you don’t ordinarily read romance, it’s great. Multiple characters/plots based on real people and events, including Mary Bowser and Robert Smalls.
OldDudeNH on
“Unbroken”.
Harry_Iconic_Jr on
Any book about Henry Knox (and there are several) – the 26 y/o Boston bookseller who saved the American Revolution by dragging 59 cannons (120,000 pounds worth) over 300 miles, from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston, thru snow-bound mountains in the dead of winter. it’s a remarkable story that will make you wonder why you never heard it before.
emaeder on
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
-Maggie-Mae- on
Anything about the Bone Wars, Michael Crichton’s Dragons Teeth comes to mind first even though it’s a fictionalized account.
__ducky_ on
Nickel Boys
Kooky_Pressure on
Life of Pie. I had no idea that was based on a true story.
toomany_problems on
You Glow in the Dark by Liliana Colanzi, it’s based on a terrible and eerie radioactive waste contamination accident
zmayes on
The lost city of Z
Independent-Tie6132 on
I just finished Dead Mountain by Donnie Eichar. The audiobook is read by the author.
DaysOfParadise on
The Prince and the Coyote. I cannot say enough good about this book!
“The Mastermind is based on the bizarre real-life story of Rodrigo Rosenberg, a Guatemalan attorney who, in 2009, planned his own assassination after leaving behind a video accusing Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom of his murder. (In April 2011, the New Yorker published an article by David Grann about Rosenberg which has been optioned by Matt Damon for his directorial debut.) This is a fascinating depiction of modern-day Guatemala and the corrupt, criminal, and threatening reality that permeates its society.”
hmmwhatsoverhere on
*The Jakarta method* by Vincent Bevins
ButtonNo7337 on
Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker was one of those for me. Just wild that one family could be impacted so severely by schizophrenia.
And Dead Wake by Erik Larson was another. I knew a little about the Lusitania, but this book had so many details and things I’d never heard about.
26 Comments
If you tell by Greg Olson. Googled everyone while I was reading cause I was blown away that this wasn’t a bigger story/more well known.
Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn
and
The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown (It’s about the Donner Party)
“The Flower Sisters” by Michelle Collins Anderson. It’s a “possible cause” fictional story about a true event where the location is also made up. Great first person narration style of maybe 5 different perspectives. Great audiobook.
Also recommend “Before We Were Yours” and “Shelterwood” both by Lisa Wingate. Also best experienced by audiobook. These are both historical fiction with composite characters and first person.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
I don’t know if this is exactly what you meant but when I read Daisy Jones and The Six (I picked it up randomly at the bookstore before all the hype so I didn’t really know what I was getting into) by Taylor Jenkins Reid, I searched for the band’s album on Spotify as soon as I finished it and was absolutely shocked that they did not exist. Her other books in this “multiverse” (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Malibu Rising, and Carrie Soto is Back) also give this feeling of “omg how is this person not real”.
Human acts by Han Kang
I didn’t know 😭
The Flashman Papers series
The Land That Never Was … a 19th century scam in which the con man, Gregor MacGregor, invented a fabled, peaceful, enlightened kingdom in Central America, took a bunch of peoples’ money and possessions and then sent them there only for them to discover it was all a fraud.
The Feather Thief
Robert Moses in The Power Broker.
The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict is fiction, but the story of real person Hedy Lamarr. I went into it knowing nothing then after I was like ‘no way she was that beautiful and that really happened’. I looked her up and it did happen and she was that beautiful!
An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole. Even if you don’t ordinarily read romance, it’s great. Multiple characters/plots based on real people and events, including Mary Bowser and Robert Smalls.
“Unbroken”.
Any book about Henry Knox (and there are several) – the 26 y/o Boston bookseller who saved the American Revolution by dragging 59 cannons (120,000 pounds worth) over 300 miles, from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston, thru snow-bound mountains in the dead of winter. it’s a remarkable story that will make you wonder why you never heard it before.
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Anything about the Bone Wars, Michael Crichton’s Dragons Teeth comes to mind first even though it’s a fictionalized account.
Nickel Boys
Life of Pie. I had no idea that was based on a true story.
You Glow in the Dark by Liliana Colanzi, it’s based on a terrible and eerie radioactive waste contamination accident
The lost city of Z
I just finished Dead Mountain by Donnie Eichar. The audiobook is read by the author.
The Prince and the Coyote. I cannot say enough good about this book!
[The Mastermind](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/26196104-the-mastermind) – David Unger
“The Mastermind is based on the bizarre real-life story of Rodrigo Rosenberg, a Guatemalan attorney who, in 2009, planned his own assassination after leaving behind a video accusing Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom of his murder. (In April 2011, the New Yorker published an article by David Grann about Rosenberg which has been optioned by Matt Damon for his directorial debut.) This is a fascinating depiction of modern-day Guatemala and the corrupt, criminal, and threatening reality that permeates its society.”
*The Jakarta method* by Vincent Bevins
Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker was one of those for me. Just wild that one family could be impacted so severely by schizophrenia.
And Dead Wake by Erik Larson was another. I knew a little about the Lusitania, but this book had so many details and things I’d never heard about.
The wolf of Wall Street!