Pick a story with a setting or profession that you want to learn about. Rumpole of the Bailey is funny but about an attorney in London and his cases. John Grisham wrote novels about lawyers in the US. The Call of the Wild is set in the Yukon Gold Rush. Graham's Sulee is about a young basketball player and has a lot of information about college basketball. My Name is Asher Lev is about the education of a young painter and contains a lot of art history. Pillars of the Earth is about building a cathedral.