Today the Managing Editors of Inside Pages (Stephanie Smith) and River North Fiction (Natalie Myers) are trading guest posts to round up some of the best in both fiction and non-fiction! Visit www.insidepages.net to read “5 Fiction Books for Non-Fiction Readers.” Also, keep an eye out for In the Land of Blue Burquas, a non-fiction book releasing from Moody Publishers with the help of the River North team.

Stephanie S. Smith is a 20-something addicted to print and pixels. She is a writer, editor, and book publicist through her business (In)dialogue Communications and manages the blog of Moody Publishers www.insidepages.net on faith, publishing, and literary culture. When she’s not working with words, you can find Stephanie in the kitchen—cooking up a good meal from scratch and a royal mess. Catch her tweeting @stephindialogue.

Who doesn’t love a good story? The characters, the cliffhangers, the action, the budding romance and the thickening plot. But the imagination is not bound by genre, and the truth and emotion we love so much in fiction can be found in nonfiction as well.

As C.S. Lewis famously said, “We read to know we are not alone,” and as we turn the pages of a good novel, the biblical narrative, and nonfiction alike, we often find a kindred company of characters who challenge and inspire us to live a good story ourselves.

For fiction lovers breaking into the world of nonfiction, here are 5 recommendations I think you may enjoy:

The Anxious Christian by Rhett Smith

Licensed Marriage and family Therapist Rhett Smith echoes the epic of the Israelites through his own story in developing deep-seated anxiety, and wrestling to understand that God speaks to us through our anxiety, and uses it as a catalyst for spiritual growth. Weaving together both biblical narrative and personal testimony, The Anxious Christian is an honest and insightful read that you won’t want to put down.

The Road Trip that Changed the World by Mark Sayers

Mark Sayers takes a new and creative angle on Jack Kerouac’s iconic work, On the Road, by interpreting its ripple effect of wanderlust and the quest for significance into our culture today. Mark delves into what it means to trek out on the well-worn path and the road less traveled, the one that led to Golgotha, but also to resurrection, and presents the simple but weighty question: which will we choose?

Inciting Incidents curated by Sarah Cunningham

It’s got everything that fiction has—endearing characters, drama and intrigue, tension and resolution, except that it’s all true. In this unique collection, eight storytellers narrate their honest accounts of trial and transformation, in a way that challenges the spiritual imagination to envision God’s unfolding story in our lives.

Just a Minute by Wess Stafford

A great book to have on your coffee table, Just a Minute recounts 68 stories of children whose lives were changed for better because one person took the time to encourage, affirm, and value them—even just for one minute. Wess Stafford, CEO of Compassion International, writes these stories with heart and grace, and all the profits at his request are being donated to help impoverished children of the world through Compassion’s ministry.

When Helping Hurts by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett

The nature of fiction is that the “moral of the story” is nuanced and indirect, but we can all benefit from straight-up practical truth from time to time! An instant classic, When Helping Hurts is an excellent read for anyone who desires to be Christ’s hands and feet to the least of these, wherever they are, in whatever big or small way. Learn from two seasoned advocates for the poor “How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor…Or Yourself” from your backyard or front sidewalk all to the ends of the earth.