What should I get next?

[Miss Jessie]

So...I'm thinking about buying a new book. I want one on ancient monarchs or historical figures that lived that time...something non-fiction, but that tells a story, a true story, and an interesting one. Something that has good moral lessons to learn, and (preferably) spiritual ones too. Preferably from a Christian perspective or at least looking on Christianity favorably or at least not skeptically.

But I don't know if such a book exists. Any ideas? Have you read any that fit that description? You can give me a whole list and description, if you have one...or one idea. However many you have.

Please?

Thank you!

[Gail]

The trouble with a biography of someone who lived long ago is that there will be some filler material, simply because none of us were there to take notes. The filler material is needed for dialogues and to create the storyline.

A friend of mine who just finished two historical novels believes that a good one has more fact than filler. Her novels are far more than stories because her research was so extensive.

Even the facts recorded in history books are biased.

[Miss Jessie]

Thank you.

I don't mind bias and I don't mind fillers so much, unless they are completely misleading. What bothers me is a made up work of fiction. Like the character really exists, but let's say half of the stuff didn't happen, or didn't happen that way. I like them to stick close to the facts. Take for example the books about Nikki Cruz and Israel Naravez, all three tell a slightly different story, and even some of the details are different. For example, in The Cross and the Switchblade, it's said that Israel came out of prison believing in God (unless I misread that), but Israel and Nikki both tell slightly different stories, and Israel remembers it as not wanting to have anything to do with religion even right after getting out of prison, until he told his testimony in an interview, and came back to the Lord. Little details also, like Israel said he was given a bag of fruit, the preacher recorded it as being a plate of fruit waiting for him...

I'm more likely to believe that which was written by or guided by the one who had the experience himself/herself. But both of them are similar, and the fact is that fruit was involved, and Israel came back to God after getting out of prison.

So it would be nice if the books were based off of, for example, the testimonies/diaries/writings/etc of the characters involved, or those who knew them, but I'd except some biography that's based off of thorough research, too.