Some of these aren't really totally similar but they're popular non-fiction.

I loved River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler. Loved it. Peace Corps worker in this kind of backwoods city in China (of course a small city in China is not a small city here) that hadn't seen a Westerner in decades.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand was pretty good.

There are a lot more but I'd have to go through my bookshelves.