Real People/Real Stories explores the best in nonfiction history, biography, science, nature, and the arts.

This month's read: 

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party: How an Eccentric Group of Victorians Discovered Prehistoric Creatures and Accidentally Upended the World by Edward Dolnick 

When the first dinosaur bones were uncovered in the early 1800s, the discovery shattered the Victorian view of religion and the history of the world. This engaging book tells the story of the birth of paleontology and how it shook society.

"With wit, warmth, and humor, Edward Dolnick immerses us in one of the most exhilarating times in the history of science: when a motley crew of professors, naturalists, preachers, and bone hunters discovered the existence of dinosaurs. Written like an adventure novel but fashioned with historical rigor, Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party is a gripping story of how we came to understand that the Earth was old and once populated by ancient beasts." —Steve Brusatte, professor and paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh and New York Times bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

"Dolnick tells the tale of the first discoveries of dinosaurs and other extinct monsters, and the founding of the new science of geology, with enthusiasm and clarity. He shows how early peoples struggled to understand fossils, and then the shocking understanding 200 years ago that the Earth had once been populated by creatures unlike anything now living." —Michael J. Benton, author of Dinosaurs Rediscovered and Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology, University of Bristol  

“A masterful and enormously entertaining book. . . . [Makes] history come vibrantly alive." —Booklist “[An] exuberant tale . . . intriguing . . . a delightful, engrossing confluence of Victorian science and history.” —Kirkus Reviews