I think most readers enjoy a change from thrillers and romance. Here are some nonfiction choices.

Stand Up That Mountain

By Jay Erskine Leutz

Scribner, $27

Leutz writes an absolutely riveting account of the battle of an N.C. Appalachian Mountain community to save a little piece of the view from the Appalachian Trail.

Leutz, whose family had a small place on the mountain, grew up spending summers there and eventually decided (after he earned a law degree) to live and write there. He was pulled into the fight by a local family, led by a young girl named Ashley Cook, who with her grandmother was keeping tabs on the mining company trying to tear down Belview Mountain.

Leutz takes readers through it all: the meetings with the state, with the mine officials and countless lawyers and members of environmental groups.

Great story from start to finish.

Deadly Little Secrets

By Kathryn Casey

Harper, $7.99

This book was about a case I saw on one of the true crime TV shows. I really enjoyed the book because Casey offers so much more detail behind the scenes.

Minister Matt Baker was not what he seemed to be. He and his wife, Kari, who met in college, seemed to have a great relationship at first, but things rapidly go downhill after the death of one of their daughters.

Devastated, it takes Kari a while to work through it, and Matt doesn't seem to mourn along with her.

When Kari is found dead, along with a suicide note, her family can't believe that she would do such a thing, not if it meant leaving her other two children behind.

And Matt seems to have wasted no time in finding someone else to start a relationship with. Kari's aunts are sure that Matt had something to do with her death, and once they get an investigator on board, it becomes apparent that they may be right.

Imperfect Justice

By Jeff Ashton with Lisa Pulitzer

Harper, $7.99

You'd have to be living under a rock not to know about the Casey Anthony case. Ashton, along with two other prosecutors, lived, ate and slept that case for nearly three years before going to trial - with results that surprised most of us.

Ashton's behind-the-scenes story is fascinating.

Contact Faye Dasen at fdasen@thepilot.com or (910) 693-2475.