The Huffington Post: 8 Outrageous Nonfiction Stories You Wouldn't Believe If They Were Novels

If you were handed a novel that describes someone being carried downriver “while grasping the back of a gigantic anaconda ‘as thick as a small cow and easily well over twenty-five feet long,’ ” would you believe that writer? Probably not. Fiction that’s too outlandish feels false, but nonfiction should be verifiable. That description, by the way, appears in Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon, one of the books in this week’s list of thoughtfully written tales you might be startled to know are true. (click on the picture to see books).