Name a fiction book that taught you something factual that you did not know about.
Scott
Time and Again by Jack Finney
It taught me a large number of things about Manhattan, NYC, and the Statue of Liberty that aren't normally known by everyone.
Rosalie Ciardullo
What I did not know is the existence of a place called Big Stone Gap, Virginia. I was born and grew up in New York and had traveled the east coast extensively --- or so I thought. After reading the very enjoyable Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani, I realized I had never even heard of this scenic, quaint place.
Now living in Arizona, I'm tempted to take a trip back east for a short stay in Big Stone Gap, and I'd love to see firsthand the Mutual Pharmacy, the open-air amphitheater for the Trail of the Lonesome Pine Drama, and of course, the house in which Ms. Trigiani grew up.
It might be fun to observe some of the Gap's current residents and to decide if any of them are anything like some of the characters in the novel.
c_orrell@msn.com
Any of the Dan Brown books have you running to the computer to verify what you're reading and all of them have truths stranger than fiction.
DaveRudy@aol.com
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I learned a lot about the care of bees and the harvesting of the honey.
Trish Harrison, Concord, CA.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon taught me a lot about autism.
Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series taught me a lot about the conflict between England and Scotland as well as the customs of the Scots and their way of life in the eighteenth century.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd taught me a lot about bees.
Corky Lee
I recently read Lost Boys by Orson Scottt Card and learned quite a bit about the Mormon faith.
catlvr14@aol.com
That would have to be The Da Vinci Code.
sschmooch2@comcast.net
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I learned about beekeeping.
Connie Burrus
I always find factual information invaluable in books by Alan Furst. His books, set in Europe during World War II, are very carefully researched, and there are always "sources used" cited at the ends of his books. Most recently I read his latest book, Dark Voyage.
Susan L
Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
Myrnapen@aol.com
Angels & Demons. The selection process of a new Pope.
Ahab's Wife. Whaling and extraction of oil from whales.
The Quality of Life Report. The Midwest's problem with methamphetamines
linksch@tds.net
Pearl Buck's The Good Earth taught me so much about Chinese culture. I have read this book many times and continue to enjoy it, as well as the other books Pearl Buck has written.
gmetz@westco.net
I just finished an ARC of The Black Angel by John Connolly that contained information about Sedlec, which is a church of bones in Eastern Europe. This was very interesting to read about a chapel and ossuary decorated with bones from people that had been buried there earlier. I also learned some about Biblical apocrypha, which I would like to find out more about after finishing the book.
KKbarash@aol.com
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson taught me about the Chicago World's Fair, an event of which I had no prior knowledge.
OLTLFREAK@aol.com
East of Eden. The story of Cain and Abel in the Bible.
Connie Williamson
Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult is teaching me all I'd ever need to know about producing crystal meth. Although I am REALLY enjoying this book, I'm hoping not very many impressionable teenagers and young adults are reading it. It's also teaching me about life in jail, what people go through in there, in this case, somebody who hasn't even been convicted yet. How awful. I know, I know, people make their bed and then they have to lie in it, but for God's sake, couldn't prison be more controlled?
This is a wonderful book. I don't want it to end.
Sally B., San Antonio TX
Well, right now for our bookclub, we're reading AD 62: Pompeii by Rebecca East. The main character travels back in time and becomes a slave in the household of a prominent citizen. I've learned a lot about everyday matters during the 1st century reading this book --- such as when they dine, they recline on sofa-type couches and everyone picks their food with their fingers from the communal platter of food in front of them. Bones, pits, etc. are discarded under the table for the slaves to clean up afterwards.
mtc350@hotmail.com
Fiction books that have taught me something: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Far Pavilions by M M Kaye, and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
Rickimc@aol.com
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
KTMPAL@aol.com
Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult. I learned where the term "proof" of alcohol comes from. But you'll have to read it to find out. She's always great.
Woodhead9@aol.com
The Kite Runner taught me about being an Afghan immigrant.
Ldywhicoat@aol.com
A book I read recently (and it is not a new book either) where I learned many facts and stats about the Vietnam War that I did not know was A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. A great book and one I wish I'd found sooner. But better late than never.
awright55@kc.rr.com
I enjoyed The Red Tent because, although I had a general knowledge of some of these women, I had never really pursued their biblical stories until I read the book.
Also, everytime I read Sharon Kay Penman I learn something about the Middle Ages. Her books are amazing!
bookworm1957@adelphia.net
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
MA2PETENTY@aol.com
The Chamber by John Grisham. I learned things about the death penalty and death penalty methods that I did not know. It made me really think about the death penalty too.
Kbad6677@aol.com
The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
HiJanelle@aol.com
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Alize55@aol.com
I am not normally a fan of books that take place long ago but I have found that these are some of the best general fiction books and not always necessarily full of historical blahness :)
I read Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. It was one of my favorite books and I feel like I learned a lot about life back then…especially in Georgia and much about bee farms.
Sulebol@aol.com
I'm currently reading a fantastic book that's a perfect example:Fires in the Dark by Louise Doughty. It's a fictionalized account of a European Gypsy family during World War II. Everyone is aware of Hitler's attempts to exterminate the Jews, but the European Gypsies were also targeted and this was all-new info for me. Heartwrenching but definitely 4 1/2 stars!
Anne in Austin
There have been many, many fiction books that taught me either fact or facts of real life or history. One of the first that comes to mind is The Alienist by Caleb Carr with the use of fingerprinting as a method of crime solving. Great stuff!
dolphin_lady_5@yahoo.com
That would be The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, of course. It tells all about the Vatican, the conclave, the ashes, sweeping for bugs. Of course, unfortunately we all know these things now. But at the time I certainly did not.
WBtrez@aol.com
I learned a great deal from The Da Vinci Code. Now I am readingBrimstone and I am learning a lot from that.
JCAMP2020@aol.com
The Secret Life of Bees...who didn't learn something about bees from Sue Monk Kidd's book?
P.S. For my students, they always learn something about surviving and being able to depend upon themselves from Gary Paulsen's Hatchet.
RMMaire@aol.com
The Prize by Irving Wallace is an old book that was recommended by a friend. Lots of research went into this and it gives an interesting mix of fact and fiction on the Nobel Prize.
vicklea@earthlink.net
I learned a lot about bone marrow donation and the trauma it causes the donor from Jodi Picoult's book My Sister's Keeper.
Noreen Brown
In Lisa Scotoline's Killer Smile I found out that 10,000 Italian-Americans and Italians were interred in U.S. camps. It just wasn't Japanese-Americans.
jscady@efieldguide.com
I read with a dictionary and atlas at my side knowing I will always learn something while reading fiction. In the last few months I have learned Korean War history from W.E.B. Griffin's Retreat, Hell, early English history from Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom, and the fact that Iditarod Race mushers must carry a package of mail on the race from Sue Henry's Murder on the Iditarod. Just to name a few.
catslady5@aol.com
Gone with the Wind. There were tons of facts about the Civil War.
Corkster999@aol.com
Conviction by Richard North Patterson. I was not aware that, in the words of an unnamed Supreme Court justice being interviewed by Patterson (regarding our system of capital punishment), "the only legal thicket of similar obscurity is patent law." The law of capital punishment is far more complicated and emotionally complex than ever imagined by the public…
Diane Addante, Naperville, IL
The fictional book I've read that taught me things I didn't know was The Autobiography of King Henry VIII. Loved that book!
psalwen@lycos.com
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
MizMSCYC@aol.com
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. It teaches one about beekeeping.
Anup Sinha, Rancho Cucamonga, CA
I find Michael Crichton's fiction books to be the most "educational" because of his painstaking research. The Great Train Robbery, The Sphere, Jurassic Park, and The Congo were particularly enlightening to me.
swissmandy@hotmail.com
Most recently it was Social Code by Cass Tell in that it taught me to take a new look at the power of the Internet in our lives. The book is in fact a fun to read story written in a very efficient minimalist style, yet underneath are themes of how the Internet might be used to control people, of using the Internet to create cults, Internet addiction, and how the Internet has impacted our sense of community. I must say that this book taught me to perceive the Internet in a different way.
canterburypl@snet.net
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Victoise@nyc.rr.com
My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki
nicmax@tampabay.rr.com
Alone by Lisa Gardner
Jatrim@aol.com
Every book Barbara Kingsolver has written.
Ella480@aol.com
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
jennifer.beddoe@aaipharma.com
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
lisaavila2000@yahoo.com
Lois Lamour's books always had a tidbit you could use. One in particular that I remember was if you're in the desert and your mouth is dry, find pebbles and put them in your mouth and your mouth will water. It works.
NFrazelle@aol.com
The Red Hat Rides Again by Haywood Smith. By all means readThe Red Hat Club first!
Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. The basic workings within the Vatican and the guides as well.
caroline@swtexas.com
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown!!!!!!!
BGust1805@aol.com
I learned "guerrilla" is Spanish for "little war" from Tom Clancy'sShadow Warriors.
tgarrett@arkansas.net
I think a great fiction book that I read recently that I learned something factual from was The Secret Life of Bees. It was interesting to read the facts about bees at the beginning of each chapter and see how it pertained to the overall story.
johnsmit@tiscali.nl
The Murder Artist by John Case. Information about magic.
Magster2@cox.net
That would have to be The Face of Deception by Iris Johansen. The fascinating science of forensic sculpture is brought to life in her Eve Duncan novels.
lket@johnroberts.com
I learned many new points of view from The Four Spirts by Sena Jeter Naslund. A fabulous book based on the civil rights struggle in Birmingham, AL.
Roscoe@drizzle.com
It's easier to cite author/series for this question. One reason I read mystery fiction is to learn things; just off the top, two mystery authors who've taught me a lot about things --- brilliant research, seamlessly presented (not in those awful lumps of description) are Miriam Grace Monfredo (the Underground Railroad, women during the Civil War, the Iroquois and Seneca people) and Barbara D'Amato (state lotteries, street prostitution, trauma medicine). Other recent writers would include Naomi Hirahara (Hiroshima survivors) and Judy Clemens (dairy farming). There's dozens of examples.
Peggy from Norfolk
Earthly Joys by Philippa Gregory told the story of John Tradescant who served as gardener to the British Stuart Kings. There was a lot of history, but the most fascinating thing for me was the information on plants, especially tulips. Tulips were traded as comodities on sort of a stock exchange in Holland, sometimes with a special bulb selling for as much as one thousand pounds. This rage was named "tulipmania" and many people lost their fortunes when the bubble burst. I seemed to have caught a little Tulipmania myself. I read some nonfiction books on tulip gardening and planted tulip bulbs in my flower garden.
Fafajane@aol.com
Prodigal Summer taught me about Africa and its people and lifestyles. It also gave me additional information about the Bible.
Kathy Franzino
I loved The Lady and the Unicorn when I read it last year, but didn't realize that I had learned a lot from it until I visited Paris this past February. There we were in the Cluny Museum surrounded by a series of gorgeous tapestries. I began to expound on the depiction of the five senses and stopped myself with a question: "How do I know this?" I said to my husband. He's used to this by now; I do know an awful lot of random stuff because I am a voracious reader. He waited patiently while I figured it out. Ah ha --- an epiphany --- I knew the tapestries from a book! (No surprise to him --- he was waiting for the title.) I have just bought the novel in paperback to give to a friend --- a recent widow --- who will be visiting Paris this fall. I hope she learns as much from it and has as much fun with it at the Cluny Museum as I did.
RBailleu@aol.com
The Da Vinci Code. As a Protestant that book was full of things that I didn't know about the Catholic Church, Rome, art and history.
Linda Atamian
One book among many that gave me information I did not know about was Some Came Running by James Jones. I learned about "Old Mizzou" and subsequently graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Kellyw31@aol.com
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
m.mcdermid@mchsi.com
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. The plague in a small English village and the story of death and survival is worthy of a golden #5.
sonia.chopra@worldnet.att.net
I did not know anything about hearts and heart transplants until I read all about the entire procedure from start to finish in Jodi Picoult's Harvesting the Heart. And all that knowledge from a fiction book, too :)
Nono203@aol.com
The Secret Life of Bees. l learned about bee colonies and the queen bee. It was a great book, I really enjoyed it.
bhauer@westervillelibrary.org
In Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, I learned how the artists such as Johannes Vermeer used the camera obscura, a new invention at the time, to help them see more clearly while painting.
baxtergr@msn.com
I learn much from many fiction books. One that I read recently was The Mango Season by Amulya Malladi. In this delightful book about a woman from India who has lived in the United States for seven years and is making her first visit since leaving India, I learned that even within the Indian population skin color is important, the lighter the skin tones the better. Also that middle-class Indian families are still arranging marriages for their children when the children are pliant enough to allow that.
Britadon@aol.com
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I had no idea that there was such a thing as purple honey or that bees would actually live in between the walls of houses.
hstay@direcway.com
The title that comes to mind is Vertical Burn by Earl Emerson. There have been earlier ones of his but this is more recent, and I can still feel the heat from the fires, understand some of the complexities firefighters must battle, the number of times they come so close to death while risking their lives to save others. We all know this, but Vertical Burn just made it so much more intimate and real. Oh, and the politics, that part surprised me.
EdMall@aol.com
James Michner's Chesapeake describes the difference between (and gives recipes for) he and she oyster stew. Good stuff.
Gina Mitchner from Books & BS Book Group
Our book group read The Da Vinci Code and it taught us many new things about the Vatican's history, Rome, and the electing of a new Pope. Very interesting indeed!!
Kahoho@aol.com
In The Ambassador's Son by Homer Hickam, I learned about the Solomon Islands, Guadalcanal, and the part this locale played in WWII.
Avery85282@aol.com
Every well-written book by a serious writer has taught me something I didn't know. Even a new mystery called Lake of Sorrows has taught me something new, even if it wasn't that well-written.
Patricia Sanders
The Amber Room by Steve Berry taught me about something that I did not know about. I was fascinated by the subject and went on to read a history book on the topic.
SusanVaille
I just finished reading Second Glance by Jodi Picoult. In it I learned about the Eugenics societies that existed in the United States and Europe. I didn't know about these organizations, and it really surprised me that they existed.
Sunshin444@aol.com
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd taught me about beekeeping. Very interesting!
cwenz@carmel.lib.in.us
Liam Callanan's The Cloud Atlas taught me about the balloon bombs used by the Japanese in North America during WWII. Fascinating!
diane2@cinci.rr.com
Jimmy Carter's Hornet's Nest, which dwelled on the Revolutionary War; part fact, part fiction. Great book! I learned a lot about the Revolutionary War that I did not know. I was amazed at what I did not know.
ksswabb@woh.rr.com
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
Taught me about how the Catholic Church elects a Pope.
bookmark60@sc.rr.com
I read The Chosen by Chaim Potok. I found out that orthodox Jews don't believe there is an existence of Israel. They feel they will get the land from the holy one himself, not from wars. Other sects of Judaism feel totally different.
EZREADER1265@aol.com
I have learned something new from each of the books by Susan Wittig Albert. I have a big interest in herbs and she always provides something new and interesting about each of the herbs featured in her books.
