Books behind the stories.
Liked a Short and want the whole story? These are the books (and a few documentaries) that go deeper on stories we've told. Every one is real and still easy to find.
Sticky History
The war was over. They kept fighting. Plus the escapes, survivals and last stands people keep asking about. Watch on YouTube
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Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour
Joseph E. Persico
The last soldier killed in WWI, at 10:59 on Armistice Day, and the morning around him.
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They Shall Not Grow Old
Peter Jackson (director)
Restored, colorized WWI footage with veterans' own voices. The Western Front our WWI stories happen on.
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No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War
Hiroo Onoda
Onoda's own account of fighting on in the Philippine jungle until 1974.
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The Twilight World
Werner Herzog
A short, strange novel-like retelling of Onoda's jungle years by the filmmaker who met him.
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Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle
Arthur Harari (director)
A drama of the same story, if you want to see the jungle years play out.
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Night of the Bayonets
Eric Lee
The Texel uprising of 1945: WW2 in Europe ended, but this island kept fighting.
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Sea of Gray
Tom Chaffin
CSS Shenandoah, the warship that kept fighting months after the war ended.
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Last Flag Down
John Baldwin & Ron Powers
The Shenandoah story told as a sea adventure, from the crew's diaries.
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Tip and Run
Edward Paice
The WWI war in East Africa, where Lettow-Vorbeck surrendered two weeks after the Armistice.
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With the Old Breed
E. B. Sledge
A Marine's account of Peleliu, the island where a few Japanese soldiers held out until 1947.
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The Zimmermann Telegram
Barbara W. Tuchman
The secret telegram that pulled America into WWI, and how Britain read it.
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Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World
Mark Kurlansky
Why Britain and Iceland nearly went to war over fish (the Cod Wars).
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The Colditz Story
P. R. Reid
Escapes from the castle where POWs secretly built a glider in the attic.
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Escape from Alcatraz
J. Campbell Bruce
The 1962 escape that was never solved.
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Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown
Henry Box Brown
He escaped slavery by mailing himself north in a box. His own words.
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When I Fell From the Sky
Juliane Koepcke
She fell two miles into the Amazon and walked out.
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Titanic Survivor
Violet Jessop
She survived the Titanic and two other shipwrecks.
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Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science
John Fleischman
An iron rod went through his head. He walked away.
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The Last Stand
Nathaniel Philbrick
Custer's Last Stand, from our most extreme battles in US history.
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Flags of Our Fathers
James Bradley & Ron Powers
Iwo Jima: 36 days on black sand.
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Public Enemies
Bryan Burrough
Dillinger, the fake wooden gun, and the 1930s crime wave.
Find it on Amazon
Sticky Sports
Underdogs, miracles and the moments nobody saw coming. Watch on YouTube
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The Boys of Winter
Wayne Coffey
The Miracle on Ice: college kids beat the Soviet Union.
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Fearless
Jonathan Northcroft
Leicester City at 5,000-to-1, and how they won the league.
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The Perfect Mile
Neal Bascomb
Bannister, Landy and Santee racing to break the four-minute mile.
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The Four-Minute Mile
Roger Bannister
Bannister's own story of the run.
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Namath
Mark Kriegel
Joe Namath and the Super Bowl III guarantee.
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Wilt, 1962
Gary M. Pomerantz
The 100-point game nobody filmed.
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Sticky Myths
The myths themselves, retold well, plus the oldest stories on Earth. Watch on YouTube
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Norse Mythology
Neil Gaiman
Thor dressed as a bride, Loki's horse, Thor's goats. All in here.
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Mythos
Stephen Fry
Greek myths retold with jokes: Kronos eating his kids, Athena from Zeus's head.
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Pandora's Jar
Natalie Haynes
Why Pandora's box was really a jar, and the women of Greek myth.
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Mythology
Edith Hamilton
The classic one-volume guide to Greek, Roman and Norse myth.
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The Epic of Gilgamesh
trans. Andrew George
The oldest myths we've told: the gods' strike and the flood caused by noise.
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Popol Vuh
trans. Dennis Tedlock
The Maya story of the wooden people, the corn people and the hero twins.
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Egyptian Mythology
Geraldine Pinch
The beer that saved humanity, the coffin trick and the sun god's secret name.
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Over Nine Waves
Marie Heaney
Irish myths: Finn McCool, the salmon of knowledge and more.
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Sticky Science
Animals, bodies and the stranger corners of the planet. Watch on YouTube
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An Immense World
Ed Yong
How animals sense the world, from mantis shrimp to dung beetles that steer by the Milky Way.
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I Contain Multitudes
Ed Yong
The microbes living on and in you (yes, the belly button jungle).
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Parasite Rex
Carl Zimmer
Real zombies: the parasites that take over their hosts.
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The Body: A Guide for Occupants
Bill Bryson
Everything weird your body does without asking you.
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Gulp
Mary Roach
The digestive system, including the man with a window into his stomach.
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot
The woman whose cells changed medicine, and her family's story.
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The Genius of Birds
Jennifer Ackerman
Crows that hold grudges, bowerbirds and other very smart birds.
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Sticky Money
Blunders, scams, heists and the inventors who got nothing. Watch on YouTube
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The Monopolists
Mary Pilon
She invented the game that became Monopoly. She got $500.
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Hedy's Folly
Richard Rhodes
The movie star who co-patented a frequency-hopping idea to guide torpedoes.
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Ponzi's Scheme
Mitchell Zuckoff
The man behind the original Ponzi scheme.
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Tricky Vic
Greg Pizzoli
The man who sold the Eiffel Tower, for younger readers.
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Skyjack
Geoffrey Gray
D. B. Cooper hijacked a plane, took $200,000 and jumped.
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The Gardner Heist
Ulrich Boser
Two fake cops, $500 million in art, and empty frames.
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Fools Rush In
Nina Munk
AOL and Time Warner: the merger that lost $99 billion.
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Marvel Comics: The Untold Story
Sean Howe
Marvel went bankrupt in 1996, then bet on its heroes.
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Brick by Brick
David C. Robertson
How LEGO almost went under in the 2000s and came back.
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Dealers of Lightning
Michael A. Hiltzik
Xerox invented the modern computer. Apple made the money.
Find it on Amazon
We pick these because they're good, not because anyone paid us. Links open an Amazon search for the title, so you can choose paperback, Kindle or audiobook. Got a book we should add? [email protected]