Biographies & True Stories Books

Animal life stories
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Reportage, journalism or collected columns
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  • The Art of Libromancy
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    The Art of Libromancy

    **One of Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2023****Esquire's August 2023 Book Club Pick** 'If books are important to you because you're a reader or a writer, then how books are sold should be important to you as well...
    $30.00

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  • All Things Move
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    All Things Move

    Contemporary themes: the search for meaning and for spirituality in a secular world; the art of attention; reconciliation with the Catholic Church; the meaning and value of art (and the humanities) in the 21st century, especially art from cultures and...
    $35.00

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  • On Failure
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    On Failure

    Writing is, and always will be, an act defined by failure. The best plan is to just get used to it.Failure is a topic discussed in every creative writing department in the world, but this is the book every beginning writer should have on their shelf to...
    $23.00

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  • Best Canadian Essays 2022
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    Best Canadian Essays 2022

    Selected by editor Mireille Silcoff, the 2023 edition ofBest Canadian Essaysshowcases the best Canadian nonfiction writing published in 2021."Our current, tumultuous age" writes editor Mireille Silcoff, "is an important time for essayists, because in...
    $30.00

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  • Big Men Fear Me
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    Big Men Fear Me

    Nominated for the 2023 Heritage Toronto Book Award Finalist for the 2023 Ottawa Book Award in English Nonfiction Longlisted for the 2023 National Business Book Award The remarkable true story of the rise and fall of one of North America's most...
    $35.00

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  • A Factotum in the Book Trade
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    A Factotum in the Book Trade

    The bookshop is, and will always be, the soul of the trade. What happens there does not happen elsewhere. The multifariousness of human nature is more on show there than anywhere else, and I think it's because of books, what they are, what they release...
    $30.00

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  • The Kingdom of Redonda
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    The Kingdom of Redonda

    Shortlisted for the 2023 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize On his fifteenth birthday, in the summer of 1880, future science-fiction writer M.P. Shiel sailed with his father and the local bishop from their home in the Caribbean out to the nearby...
    $35.00

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    Reaching Mithymna

    Reaching Mithymna describes the Syrian refugee crisis from a Canadian volunteer's perspective. Secondary theme of the search for identity, familial and ethnic or cultural: Heighton's mother emigrated from Greece.Will appeal to politically-minded readers...
    $30.00

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    The Erotics of Restraint

    Why do we read? What do we cherish in a book? What is the nature of a masterpiece? What do Alice Munro, Albert Camus, and the great Polish experimentalist Witold Gombrowicz have in common? In the tradition of Nabokov, Calvino, and Kundera, Douglas...
    $30.00

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  • Crying Wolf
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    Crying Wolf

    Shortlisted for the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction It's a tale as old as time. Girl meets boy. Boy wants girl. Girl says no. Boy takes what he wants anyway. After a violent sexual assault, Eden Boudreau was faced with a choice: call...
    $40.00

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  • Good Mom on Paper
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    Good Mom on Paper

    The experience of motherhood is monumental, yet rarely discussed in connection with literary or creative life. How do we navigate the twin devotions of love and art? How does motherhood disrupt the creative process? How does it enhance it?Good Mom on...
    $40.00

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    The Weight of Sand

    A radiant, unforgettable memoir of one woman's 450 days spent in captivity, and her defiant refusal to have her humanity stripped away.When Edith meets Luca in a small Northern town, the two connect instantly. Under the Northern Lights, they develop a...
    $50.00

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    The Ocean's Whistleblower
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    The Ocean's Whistleblower

    "[Daniel Pauly] is an iconoclastic fisheries scientist ... who is so decidedly global in his life and outlook that he is nearly a man without a country."-NEW YORK TIMES"Daniel Pauly is a friend whose work has inspired me for years."-TED DANSONDaniel...
    RRP: $59.99
    $59.00

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  • The Incredible Voyage
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    The Incredible Voyage

    'Exciting, funny, and occasionally heart-stopping...readers can stay home and dry, but feel like they are on the high seas.' BOOKLISTA man and his chicken sail 45,000 nautical miles in this powerful story of following your dreams no...
    $48.00

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  • A Year in the Woods
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    A Year in the Woods

    From the acclaimed author of In Praise of Paths comes a humorous and modest Walden for modern times.As nature becomes ever more precious, we all want to spend more time appreciating it. But time is often hard to come by. And how do we appreciate nature...
    $40.00

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  • The Boy and the Mountain
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    The Boy and the Mountain

    In this engrossing book, a father and son ascend a mountain together, retracing the steps of a boy who went missing there a century earlier - a quest that spawns a tender meditation on nature, family, and the joy of discovery.Six-year-old Hans Torske...
    $40.00

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    Voice of Rebellion

    The first-ever biography of Mozhdah Jamalzadah: refugee, pop singer, and champion of women's rights.Many have tried to silence her, but Mozhdah Jamalzadah remains the most powerful female voice of her generation in Afghanistan, boldly speaking out about...
    $48.00

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  • Buffy Sainte-Marie
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    Buffy Sainte-Marie

    A powerful, intimate look at the life of a beloved folk icon and activist.Folk hero. Songwriter icon. Living legend. Buffy Sainte-Marie is all of these things and more. In this, Sainte-Marie's first and only authorized biography, music critic Andrea...
    $50.00

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    Ron Thom, Architect
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    Ron Thom, Architect

    A definitive biography of an iconic Canadian architect-and a social portraitof the midcentury design world he lived in.Ron Thom came of age in the mid-20th century, just as the modern movement and an impending building boom were about to reshape the...
    RRP: $59.99
    $59.00

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  • Inspiring Canadians
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    Inspiring Canadians

    Forty influential and diverse Canadians with expertise in subjects such as Indigenous rights, climate change, social justice and race, gun control, higher education and poetry reflect on everything Canada is getting right-and what still needs to change...
    $45.00

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  • How to Lose Everything
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    How to Lose Everything

    Disability, death and divorce are part of a string of losses that leave this award-winning musician fundamentally changed as she learns to navigate her grief and find a way forward.Christa Couture lost a piece of herself-in more ways than one. She lost a...
    $30.00

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  • Chasing Africa
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    Chasing Africa

    Chasing Africa delicately explores the loss of identity, the gift of health and adventure, and the courage to put oneself first despite guilt, fear, and the pull of family.As a teenager, Lisa couldn't wait to escape suburbia and travel the world. Years...
    $45.00

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  • A Time of Light and Shadow
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    A Time of Light and Shadow

    An inspiring travel adventure memoir that explores a young woman's quest to live life on the front lines, chasing adventure, and confronting the harsh realities of crisis work in Asia and Africa.In 1975, a time of new freedom for women, Ella Harvey lived...
    $45.00

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    The Art of Misadventure

    Experience the quirky missteps, humorous adventures, and professional development of a renowned Canadian photographer in this entertaining memoir.Join Canadian photographer, explorer, Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, father, and writer...
    $45.00

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  • Lights to Guide Me Home
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    Lights to Guide Me Home

    This debut memoir is at once a captivating travelogue and an introspective look at what it takes to navigate the unfamiliar and find your way back home.Meghan J. Ward was 21 years old when she journeyed across the country for a summer job in the Canadian...
    $45.00

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    Casting Back

    Through the pages of Casting Back Peter McMullan takes the reader from his youthful Irish beginnings in the 1940s to his time as a young journalist in Northern Ireland during the mid-1950s, through the 1960s and into today's western Canada and a totally...
    $45.00

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  • Lucky Dog
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    Lucky Dog

    Lucky Dog is a hilarious and heartwarming memoir by a renowned veterinary oncologist who tells us what we can learn about health care and ourselves from our most beloved pets.What happens when a veterinary surgical oncologist (laymen's term: cancer...
    $25.00

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  • The Naturalist
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    The Naturalist

    ** Shortlisted, 2023 NSW Premier's History Awards, NSW Community & Regional History Prize ** For lovers of natural history, this is the first book to explore Allan Riverstone McCulloch's scientific genius, artistic talents and his crucial...
    $35.00

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  • Suburban Noir
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    Suburban Noir

    ** Shortlisted, The Age Book of the Year Award 2023, Non-fiction **** Shortlisted, The Danger Awards 2023, Non-fiction **Nothing in the post-war decades reveals the underbelly of Australian life the way police records do.Small time heists. Failed...
    $35.00

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  • The Best Australian Science Writing 2022
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    The Best Australian Science Writing 2022

    What can a microbial gravesite on a moon teach us? Why is a group of scientists risking their lives to safeguard a seed bank? How does a virus detective story show us why we need to be vigilant about the next disease outbreak?Great science writing has...
    $33.00

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  • Provocations
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    Provocations

    'Genuine radicalism provides hope. It provokes through a scandalous insistence that life can be otherwise, that we aren't doomed to economic and environmental decline, and that we can make our future better than our past.'Why did politicians think an...
    $33.00

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  • Sneaky Little Revolutions
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    Sneaky Little Revolutions

    'I know it's a daring suggestion, but I'll make it anyway.'Charmian Clift was a writer ahead of her time. Lyrical and fearless, her essays seamlessly blended the personal and the political.In 1964, Charmian Clift and her husband George Johnston returned...
    $35.00

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  • Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters
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    Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters

    ** Shortlisted, The Age Book of the Year Award 2023, Non-fiction **The trailblazing McDonagh sisters were the first women in Australia to form their own film production company. Between 1926 and 1933, while they were in their mid-twenties, these sassy...
    $40.00

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  • Root & Branch
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    Root & Branch

    ** Winner, Victoria Premier's Literary Awards 2023, Non-fiction ** I have come to see that I am an argumentative person who is frequently convinced that my angle, my take, on a matter, is the right one. This kind of delusional self-belief is not rewarded...
    $30.00

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  • Dear Prime Minister
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    Dear Prime Minister

    'I am sir [sure] you will act as human bean', wrote one distressed pensioner to Prime Minister Robert Menzies in 1953, pleading for assistance.Robert Menzies received 22,000 letters during his record-breaking 1949-1966 second term as Australian Prime...
    $40.00

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  • The Education of Young Donald Trilogy
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    The Education of Young Donald Trilogy

    A compelling insight into the making of one of Australia's foremost public intellectuals.A classic of Australian literature, The Education of Young Donald Trilogy combines Donald Horne's three autobiographies The Education of Young Donald (1967),...
    $40.00

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  • Eating With My Mouth Open
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    Eating With My Mouth Open

    'To eat is to build upon our collective story. We use food to say, again and again, who we are.'Eating with My Mouth Openis food writing like you've never seen before: honest, bold, and exceptionally tasty. Sam van...
    $30.00

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  • Beyond Climate Grief
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    Beyond Climate Grief

    How do we find courage when climate change overwhelms us?In this magical, often funny and deeply moving personal story, award-winning science reporter Jonica Newby explores how to navigate the emotional turmoil of climate change.After researching what...
    $30.00

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  • The Missing Among Us
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    The Missing Among Us

    In Australia 38 000 people are reported missing each year and in the US it's over 600 000. In the UK someone is reported missing every 90 seconds. Many of these cases are never resolved.Blending long-form journalism with true crime and...
    $33.00

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  • Hysteria
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    Hysteria

    *Shortlisted for the Australian Book Design Awards 2021: Best Designed Autobiography/Biography/Memoir Nonfiction Cover*When Katerina Bryant suddenly began experiencing chronic seizures, she was plunged into a foreign world of doctors and psychiatrists,...
    $30.00

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  • Picturing a Nation
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    Picturing a Nation

    The untold story of a major Australian artist. Regarded in his day as an important Australian impressionist painter, A.H. Fullwood (18631930) was also the most widely viewed BritishAustralian artist of the Heidelberg era.Fullwood's illustrations...
    $50.00

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  • Caroline's Dilemma
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    Caroline's Dilemma

    Shortlisted for the 2020 Ernest Scott Prize for HistoryCaroline Kearney faced a heart-breaking dilemma.Caroline was a 31-year-old mother of six when her husbanddied in Melbourne in 1865. Having no legal rights herself to the sheep stationin Wimmera,...
    $35.00

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  • Into the Loneliness
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    Into the Loneliness

    Shortlisted, National Biography Award 2022Shortlisted, Margery Medal for Biography 2022Shortlisted, Chief Minister's NT Book Awards 2022Shortlisted, Queensland Literary Awards 2021, Nonfiction Book AwardAn original and riveting biography of two of the...
    $35.00

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  • The Crow Eaters
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    The Crow Eaters

    'Ben Stubbs uncovers the sheer delight and surprise of discovering what's in your own backyard.' - Bob Byrne, author of Adelaide Remember When and Australia Remember WhenOutsiders thinkof South Australia as...
    $35.00

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  • The Thinking Woman
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    The Thinking Woman

    WINNER of the Australian Book Design Awards 2020 Best Designed Autobiography/Biography/Memoir Nonfiction CoverHighly Commended for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award 2019 for Non-FictionOne of the age-old questions of philosophy is what does...
    $35.00

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  • Misfits & Me
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    Misfits & Me

    'I fellin love with my first misfit at the age of three. He was a disabled man in a wheelchairwho sold newspapers every afternoon outside the Empire Hotel in Annandale.Whenever I glimpsed him in the distance I would break into a run, jump onto hislap,...
    $35.00

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  • A Certain Style
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    A Certain Style

    Beatrice Davis, 1909-1992, was general editor at Angus and Robertson the main Australian publishing company from 1937 to 1973. There she discovered and published such writers as Thea Astley, Miles Franklin, Patricia Wrightson, Xavier Herbert and Hal...
    $35.00

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    The Western Front Diaries of Charles Bean
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    The Western Front Diaries of Charles Bean

    Australia's official First World War correspondent, Charles Bean, saw more of theAustralian Imperial Force's actions and battleson the Western Front than anyone. Bean'sextensiveprivate wartime diaries, held by the Australian...
    RRP: $79.99
    $79.00

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Biographies & True Stories | Inspirational Real Life Stories & Books Based on True Events Australia

Discover a powerful collection of inspirational real life stories books and famous Australian biographies to read on BookLoop. Whether you're fascinated by historical figures, inspired by sports legends, or drawn to heroic survival stories, our collection will move you, challenge you, and stay with you.

What's Hot in Biographies & True Stories

Our current bestsellers include gripping true story books for adults, emotionally rich memoirs of survival, and books based on true events Australia. Readers are loving titles that explore abuse survival, war stories, and memoirs of personal growth.

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Use our extensive categories to browse Biographies, Memoirs, True Stories, Diaries, and more.

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Bestselling Books

One Day at a Time

There Must Be More

The Eyes of Gaza

Till Death Do Us Part

Always Home, Always Homesick

Frog

My Next Breath

Your Story, Mum

Behind the Badge

Fahrenheit-182

Australian Political Memoirs

Delve into the lives of Australia’s most influential figures with historical and political biographies, including biographies about world leaders and Australian prime ministers.

Sport Biographies

From tennis courts to footy fields, explore sports biographies that chronicle the triumphs, defeats, and grit behind athletic greatness.

Literary Biographies

Get a peek behind the scenes of your favourite writers’ lives with biographies and autobiographies of writers.

True Stories of Heroism

Experience best non-fiction survival stories that showcase bravery in the face of disaster, violence, and impossible odds. Browse the full collection here.

Australian Stories

Read authentic accounts from everyday Australians and icons alike with true stories and memoirs set in Australia.

Travel Writing

Step into the shoes of global wanderers, explorers, and nomads with adventurer biographies and their tales of lands unknown.

Film and TV Tie Ins

Explore books that inspired major films and series—perfect for fans of adaptations and real-life dramas.

True War and Combat Stories

Relive gripping accounts from the front lines in true war and combat stories that bring history to life.

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