Best 2015, Best Books, Best Year-End, Nonfiction

The Best Non-Fiction Books Of 2015 (A Year-End List Aggregation)

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455 different books were found in the 36 “Best Non-Fiction” book lists we consulted. Of the 455 books, 114 appeared on multiple lists. To anyone who was keeping track of award winning or popular non-fiction books in 2015, the top book should come as no surprise. Appearing on almost 2/3rds of the year-end lists, Te-Nehisi Coates powerful Between the World and Me, took the top honor, followed surprisingly close by two other personal memoirs. In fact, memoirs and biographies dominated the top entries, followed, as usual, by histories.

We added pictures and links for the top 33 non-fiction books, all of which appeared on more than 4 lists. To see our aggregated year-end lists for other categories, follow the links below.

The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2015

The Best Cook Books of 2015

The Best Art & Photography Books of 2015

The Best Graphic Novels of 2015

The Best Poetry Books of 2015

The Best Biography & Memoir Books of 2015

The Best Science Books of 2015

The Best History Books of 2015

 

The Top Non-Fiction Books of 2015

1) Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Appears On: 19 Lists
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Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

2) H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Appears On: 16 Lists
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H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

3) The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

Appears On: 13 Lists
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The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

4) Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson

Appears On: 8 Lists
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Negroland- A Memoir by Margo Jefferson

5) The Folded Clock: A Diary by Heidi Julavits

Appears On: 8 Lists
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The Folded Clock- A Diary%22 by Heidi Julavits

6) Ordinary Light: A Memoir by Tracy K. Smith

Appears On: 7 Lists
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Ordinary Light- A Memoir by Tracy K. Smith

7) Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

Appears On: 6 Lists
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Dead Wake- The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

8) Guantánamo Diary By Mohamedou Ould Slahi. Edited by Larry Siems

Appears On: 6 Lists
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Guantánamo Diary. By Mohamedou Ould Slahi. Edited by Larry Siems

9) Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein

Appears On: 6 Lists
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Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl%22 by Carrie Brownstein

10) M Train by Patti Smith

Appears On: 6 Lists
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M Train by Patti Smith

11) Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

Appears On: 6 Lists
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Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

12) On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks

Appears On: 6 Lists
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On the Move- A Life by Oliver Sacks

13) One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway by Åsne Seierstad (translated by Sarah Death)

Appears On: 6 Lists
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One of Us- The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway by Åsne Seierstad (translated by Sarah Death)

14) So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson

Appears On: 6 Lists
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So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson

15) The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World By Andrea Wulf

Appears On: 6 Lists
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The Invention of Nature- Alexander von Humboldt's New World. By Andrea Wulf

16) The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck

Appears On: 6 Lists
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The Oregon Trail- A New American Journey by Rinker Buck

17) Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan

Appears On: 5 Lists
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Barbarian Days- A Surfing Life by William Finnegan

18) Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America By Jill Leovy

Appears On: 5 Lists
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GHETTOSIDE- A True Story of Murder in America. By Jill Leovy

19) Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer

Appears On: 5 Lists
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Missoula- Rape and the Justice System in a College Town

20) Witches of America by Alex Mar

Appears On: 5 Lists
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Witches of America by Alex Mar

21) A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator’s Rise to Power by Paul Fischer

Appears On: 4 Lists
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A Kim Jong-Il Production- The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power%22 by Paul Fischer

22) Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy Snyder

Appears On: 4 Lists
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Black Earth- The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy Snyder

23) Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget by Sarah Hepola

Appears On: 4 Lists
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Blackout- Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget by Sarah Hepola

24) Destiny and Power: The American Odys­sey of George Herbert Walker Bush By Jon Meacham

Appears On: 4 Lists
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DESTINY AND POWER- The American Odys­sey of George Herbert Walker Bush. By Jon Meacham

25) Give Us The Ballot: The Modern Struggle For Voting Rights In America by Ari Berman

Appears On: 4 Lists
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Give Us The Ballot- The Modern Struggle For Voting Rights In America by Ari Berman

26) Hold Still: A Memoir With Photographs by Sally Mann

Appears On: 4 Lists
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Hold Still- A Memoir With Photographs by Sally Mann

27) Leaving Orbit: Notes From the Last Days of American Spaceflight by Margaret Lazarus Dean

Appears On: 4 Lists
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Leaving Orbit- Notes From the Last Days of American Spaceflight by Margaret Lazarus Dean

28) NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and The Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman

Appears On: 4 Lists
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NeuroTribes- The Legacy of Autism and The Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman

29) Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own By Kate Bolick

Appears On: 4 Lists
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SPINSTER- Making a Life of One’s Own. By Kate Bolick

30) Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva By Rosemary Sullivan

Appears On: 4 Lists
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Stalin's Daughter- The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva. By Rosemary Sullivan

31) The Light Of The World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander

Appears On: 4 Lists
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The Light Of The World- A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander

32) The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick

Appears On: 4 Lists
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The Odd Woman and the City, Vivian Gornick

33) The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

Appears On: 4 Lists
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The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

 

Books 34-50

Appearing on 3 lists a piece

  • Between You & Me: Confessions Of A Comma Queen by Mary Norris
  • Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS” by Joby Warrick
  • DO NO HARM: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery. By Henry Marsh
  • Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
  • Katrina: After The Flood by Gary Rivlin
  • Sisters In Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor And Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went To The Supreme Court And Changed The World by Linda Hirshman
  • Strangers Drowning: Grappling With Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, And The Overpowering Urge To Help by Larissa MacFarquhar
  • The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr
  • The Edge of the World: A Cultural History of the North Sea and the Transformation of Europe,” by Michael Pye
  • The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic by Jessica Hopper
  • The Fly Trap, by Fredrik Sjoberg, translated by Thomas Teal
  • THE GAY REVOLUTION: The Story of the Struggle. By Lillian Faderman
  • The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game,” by Mary Pilon
  • THE PRIZE: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools? By Dale Russakoff
  • The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
  • The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff
  • Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future” by Lauren Redniss

Books 51-114

Appearing on 2 lists a piece

  • All The Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West
  • America’s Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System,” by Steven Brill
  • Better That Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives
  • Bettyville: A Memoir by George Hodgman
  • Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America,” by T.J. Stiles
  • Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs” by Lisa Randall
  • Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back by Janice P. Nimura
  • Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones
  • Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, And The Quest For A Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance
  • Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable, and What We Can Do About It,” by Marc Goodman
  • Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science
  • How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of Piracy by Stephen Witt
  • Humans of New York: Stories” by Brandon Stanton
  • I Am Sorry to Think I Have Raised a Timid Son’ by Kent Russell
  • If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran” by Carla Power
  • Irritable Hearts by Mac McClelland
  • It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life Of Love And War by Lynsey Addario
  • Keeping an Eye Open” by Julian Barnes
  • KILLING A KING: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of ­Israel. By Dan Ephron
  • Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell
  • Letter to a Future Lover by Ander Monson
  • Lord Fear by Lucas Mann
  • Madness in Civilization by Andrew Scull
  • March: Book Two by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell
  • Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics
  • My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life by Ruth Reichl
  • NAGASAKI: Life After Nuclear War
  • OBJECTIVE TROY: A Terrorist, a President, and the Rise of the Drone. By Scott Shane
  • Once in a Great City by David Maraniss
  • Ongoingness by Sarah Manguso
  • OUT ON THE WIRE: THE STORYTELLING SECRETS OF THE NEW MASTERS OF RADIO
  • PACIFIC: SILICON CHIPS AND SURFBOARDS, CORAL REEFS AND ATOM BOMBS, BRUTAL DICTATORS, FADING EMPIRES, AND THE COMING COLLISION OF THE WORLD’S SUPERPOWERS
  • Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship
  • Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice
  • Rising Strong
  • SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. By Mary Beard
  • SAM PHILLIPS : The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll
  • Schubert’s Winter Journey, by Ian Bostridge
  • Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed by Meghan Daum
  • Showdown: Thurgood Marshall And The Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America by Wil Haygood
  • Sinatra: The Chairman
  • SKYFARING: A Journey With a Pilot. By Mark Vanhoenacker
  • Tender Points by Amy Berkowitz
  • The Battle Of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled Into The Spotlight And Made History by Robin Givhan
  • The Brothers, Masha Gessen
  • THE CRIME AND THE SILENCE: Confronting the Massacre of Jews in Wartime ­Jedwabne. By Anna Bikont. Translated by Alissa Valles
  • THE DAEMON KNOWS : Literary Greatness and the American Sublime , by Harold Bloom
  • The Dark Net: Inside The Digital Underworld by Jamie Bartlett
  • The Dead Ladies Project’ by Jessa Crispin
  • The Death of Cancer: After Fifty Years on the Front Lines of Medicine, a Pioneering Oncologist Reveals Why the War on Cancer
    Is Winnable—and How We Can Get There
  • The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government
  • The Givenness of Things, Marilynne Robinson
  • The Other Paris by Luc Sante
  • The Pentagon’s Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America’s Top-Secret Military Research Agency
  • The Point of Vanishing: A Memoir of Two Years in Solitude by Howard Axelrod
  • The Seven Good Years: A Memoir by Etgar Keret
  • The Speechwriter: A Brief Education In Politics by Barton Swaim
  • The World is On Fire by Joni Tevis
  • UNDERGROUND IN BERLIN: A Young Woman’s Extraordinary Tale of Survival in the Heart of Nazi Germany
  • Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink by Elvis Costello
  • Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family by Anne-Marie Slaughter
  • Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
  • Work Rules! Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead.

 

The remaining 341 books appearing on only a single list

  • $2.00 A DAY: Living on Almost Nothing in America. By Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer

  • 10% Happier
  • 1920: THE YEAR THAT MADE THE DECADE ROAR
  • 1944: FDR AND THE YEAR THAT CHANGED HISTORY
  • A Banquet of Consequences: Have We Consumed Our Own Future? by Satyajit Das
  • A Chicken Followed Me Home! by Robin Page
  • A GUEST AT THE SHOOTERS’ BANQUET: MY GRANDFATHER’S SS PAST, MY JEWISH FAMILY, A SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH
  • A HOUSE IN ST JOHN’S WOOD: IN SEARCH OF MY PARENTS
  • A Man of Good Hope by Jonny Steinberg
  • A Stranger in My Country, by Hans Fallada, translated by Allan Blunden
  • A Tour Of Bones: Facing Fear And Looking For Life by Denise Inge
  • About Women: Conversations Between a Writer and a Painter, Lisa Alther and Francoise Gilot
  • Accidental Saints: Finding God In All The Wrong People by Nadia Bolz-Weber
  • After the Tall Timber: Collected Nonfiction, Renata Adler
  • All the Things We Never Knew
  • ALL THE WRONG PLACES: A LIFE LOST AND FOUND
  • Alternative Movie Posters II: More Film Art from the Underground,” by Matthew Chojnacki
  • America’s Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured A Nation– Michael MacCambridge
  • American Ghost” by Hannah Nordhaus
  • ANONYMOUS SOLDIERS: THE STRUGGLE FOR ISRAEL, 1917-1947
  • ARDENNES 1944: THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE
  • ARMS: The Culture and Credo of the Gun by A.J. Somerset
  • AUGUSTINE: Conversions to Confessions. By Robin Lane Fox
  • Augustus – From Revolutionary to Emperor
  • Australia’s Second Chance: What Our History Tells Us About Our Future by George Megalogenis
  • AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN, VOLUME 3: THE COMPLETE AND AUTHORITATIVE EDITION
  • Bad Behaviour: A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School by Rebecca Starford
  • Bad Faith: When Religious Belief Undermines Modern Medicine
  • BAREFOOT TO AVALON
  • BECOMING NICOLE: The Transformation of an American Family. By Amy Ellis Nutt
  • Being Mortal: Medicine and What matters in the End
  • Being Nixon, Evan Thomas
  • Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe’ by Lori Jakiela
  • Berlin Metropolis: 1918-1933, edited by Olaf Peters
  • Bewilderments: Reflections on the Book of Numbers
  • BEYOND WORDS: WHAT ANIMALS THINK AND FEEL
  • Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
  • BIG SCIENCE: ERNEST LAWRENCE AND THE INVENTION THAT LAUNCHED THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
  • BILLIE HOLIDAY: THE MUSICIAN AND THE MYTH
  • Black Man in a White Coat, Damon Tweedy
  • BLUE: THE LAPD AND THE BATTLE TO REDEEM AMERICAN POLICING
  • Bold: How To Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World.
  • But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz– Geoff Dyer
  • Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America– Jonathan Gould
  • Cat Is Art Spelled Wrong’ edited by Caroline Casey, Chris Fischbach, and Sarah Schultz
  • Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs
  • Citizen by Claudia Rankine
  • City by City: Dispatches from the American Metropolis
  • Colorado: A Historical Atlas” by Thomas J. Noel
  • Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life
  • Coming Clean: A Story of Faith
  • Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune, Kristin Ross
  • Communion by Curtis Smith
  • Conceived in Modernism: The Aesthetics and Politics of Birth Control by Aimee Armande Wilson
  • Country Soul by Charles L. Hughes
  • Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness– William Styron
  • Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World
  • DAYS OF RAGE: AMERICA’S RADICAL UNDERGROUND, THE FBI, AND THE FORGOTTEN AGE OF REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE
  • DIETRICH & RIEFENSTAHL: Hollywood, Berlin, and a Century in Two Lives
  • Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money
  • Dime Stories by Tony Fitzpatrick
  • DISSENT AND THE SUPREME COURT: Its Role in the Court’s History and the Nation’s Constitutional Dialogue
  • Don’t Suck, Don’t Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt by Kristin Hersh
  • Drawing Blood
  • DREAMS TO REMEMBER: OTIS REDDING, STAX RECORDS, AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF SOUTHERN SOUL
  • Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans by Don Brown
  • Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, And The Night That Split The Sixties by Elijah Wald
  • Dynasty by Tom Holland
  • Ebola: Fears and Facts by Patricia Newman
  • Economics Rules
  • EIGHTY-EIGHT YEARS: THE LONG DEATH OF SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES, 1777–1865
  • ELEANOR MARX: A LIFE
  • EMPIRE OF COTTON: A Global History. By Sven Beckert
  • EMPIRE OF FEAR: INSIDE THE ISLAMIC STATE
  • EMPIRE OF SELF: A LIFE OF GORE VIDAL
  • Equal Means Equal,” by Jessica Neuwirth
  • ETERNITY’S SUNRISE: THE IMAGINATIVE WORLD OF WILLIAM BLAKE
  • Exercises in Criticism: The Theory and Practice of Literary Constraint by Louis Bury
  • Faith Within Reason by Herbert McCabe, OP
  • Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary by Gail Jarrow
  • Fatherland: A Family History by Nina Bunjevac
  • Finding Abbey: The Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave by Sean Prentiss
  • First Over There: The Attack on Cantigny, America’s First Battle of World War I,” by Matthew Davenport
  • Foolproof: Why Safety Can be Dangerous, and How Danger Makes Us Safe
  • For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards
  • For the Unity of All: Contributions to the Theological Dialogue between East and West by John Panteleimon Manoussakis
  • FORTUNATE SON: My Life, My Music
  • Four Seasons in Rome
  • Fracture: Life and Culture in the West, 1918–1938
  • Freak Power: Hunter S. Thompson’s Campaign for Sheriff,” Daniel Joseph Watkins
  • Freeman’s: Arrival: The Best New Writing On Arrival by edited by John Freeman
  • Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras by Duncan Tonatiuh
  • Fur, Fins, and Feathers: Abraham Dee Bartlett and the Invention of the Modern Zoo
  • Genghis Khan
  • Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon
  • Girl In The Dark: A Memoir by Anna Lyndsey
  • Glory Days by Max Lucado
  • Gods of the Morning: A Bird’s-Eye View of a Changing World,” by John Lister Kaye
  • Growing Up Pedro by Matt Tavares
  • Gumption by Nick Offerman
  • Gut: the Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Under-Rated Organ by Giulia Enders
  • Habitat: The Field Guide To Decorating by Lauren Liess
  • Hammer Head’ by Nina MacLaughlin
  • HE WANTED THE MOON : The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird, and His Daughter’s Quest to Know Him
  • Henry Kissinger, vol. I.
  • Hip Hop Family Tree Book 3: 1983-1984 (Vol. 3) by Ed Piskor
  • Hollywood Notebook by Wendy Ortiz
  • Home Is Burning; A Memoir
  • How to Bake π: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics
  • How to Be a Superhero,” edited by Mark Edlitz
  • How to Love Your Neighbor Without Being Weird by Amy Lively
  • How to Swallow a Pig by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
  • How to Watch a Movie,” by David Thomson
  • HOW WE LIVE NOW: REDEFINING HOME AND FAMILY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
  • Hun Sen’s Cambodia
  • I And Thou/The Way of Man– Martin Buber
  • I Can Give You Anything But Love, Gary Indiana
  • I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make The Most Of Their Time by Laura Vanderkam
  • I’ll Never Write My Memoirs
  • In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China
  • Intersex by Aaron Apps
  • Intimacy Idiot by Isaac Oliver
  • Invisible: The Dangerous Allure of the Unseen
  • IRREPRESSIBLE: THE JAZZ AGE LIFE OF HENRIETTA BINGHAM
  • ISIS: The State of Terror
  • It Starts with Trouble: William Goyen and the Life of Writing
  • Ivan Pavlov: A Russian Life in Science
  • Japan and the Shackles of the Past
  • Joan Of Arc: A History by Helen Castor
  • John le Carré: The Biography
  • JONAS SALK: A Life. By Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs
  • Just Show Up by Kara Tippetts & Jill Lynn Buteyn
  • Kissinger’s Shadow: The Long Reach of America’s Most Controversial Statesman
  • KL: A HISTORY OF THE NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMPS
  • Landmarks, Robert Macfarlane
  • Last Mass by Jamie Iredell
  • LETTERS TO VÉRA. By Vladimir Nabokov
  • Life Embitters, by Josep Pla, translated by Peter Bush
  • Lincoln’s Spymaster: Allan Pinkerton, America’s First Private Eye by Samantha Seiple
  • LISTENING TO STONE: The Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi.By Hayden Herrera
  • LOITERING: New and Collected Essays. By Charles D’Ambrosio
  • LOVE AND OTHER WAYS OF DYING: ESSAYS
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius– Ray Monk
  • Lusitania: Triumph, Tragedy, and the End of the Edwardian Age by Greg King, Penny Wilson
  • Man in Profile: Joseph Mitchell of the ‘New Yorker’
  • Manifesto of New Realism by Maurizio Ferraris
  • Margaret Thatcher: At her Zenith: In London, Washington, and Moscow
  • MARY MCGRORY: THE FIRST QUEEN OF JOURNALISM
  • Mastering ‘Metrics: The Path from Cause to Effect, by Joshua D. Angrist and Jörn Steffen-Pischke
  • Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery and Baffled All of France
  • Midnight’s Furies: The Deadly Legacy Of India’s Partition by Nisid Hajari
  • Minding the Modern by Thomas Pfau
  • MJ: The Genius of Michael Jackson,” by Steve Knopper
  • MODERNITY BRITAIN: 1957-62. By David Kynaston
  • Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin
  • Multiply-Divide: On the American Real and Surreal by Wendy S. Walters
  • My Body Would be the Kindest of Strangers by Fiona Helmsley
  • My Life on the Road
  • Naked at Lunch’ by Mark Haskell Smith
  • Nein. A Manifesto by Eric Jarosinksi
  • North Korea Confidential
  • Notes on Post-Conceptual Poetry by Felix Bernstein
  • Notorious RBG’ by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik
  • O Sing Unto the Lord, by Andrew Gant
  • One Wide Expanse, by Michael Longley
  • OUR KIDS: THE AMERICAN DREAM IN CRISIS
  • OUR MAN IN CHARLESTON: BRITAIN’S SECRET AGENT IN THE CIVIL WAR SOUTH
  • PAID FOR: MY JOURNEY THROUGH PROSTITUTION
  • PALIMPSEST: A HISTORY OF THE WRITTEN WORD
  • Pedigree: A Memoir
  • Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Biography” by Laura Ingalls Wilder and edited by Pamela Smith Hill
  • Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton by Don Tate
  • Practicing Compassion– Frank Rogers, Jr.
  • Primates of Park Avenue: A Memoir
  • Przekleństwo imperium. Źródła rosyjskiego zachowania by Paweł Rojek
  • RAIN: A NATURAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY
  • RAVENSBRÜCK: LIFE AND DEATH IN HITLER’S CONCENTRATION CAMP FOR WOMEN
  • REAGAN: THE LIFE
  • Real Men Don’t Sing: Crooning In American Culture by Allison McCracken
  • Reconsolidation: Or, it’s the ghosts who will answer youby Janice Lee
  • Red: A History of the Redhead,” by Jacky Colliss Harvey
  • Resurrection Science: Conservation, De-Extinction, and the Precarious Future of Wild Things
  • Rhythm Ride: A Trip Through the Motown Sound by Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • Salvation with a Smile: Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church, and American Christianity
  • SCREENING ROOM : Family Pictures
  • Scripture and Cosmology: Reading the Bible Between the Ancient World and Modern Science by Kyle Greenwood
  • Second Half First by Drusilla Modjeska
  • SHAKY GROUND: The Strange Saga of the U.S. Mortgage Giants
  • Showa: A History of Japan 1953-1989 by Shigeru Mizuki, translated by Zack Davisson
  • Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
  • Silver Screen Fiend by Patton Oswalt
  • Site Cite City by David Buuck
  • Slice Harvester: A Memoir In Pizza by Colin Atrophy Hagendorf
  • Small Acts of Disappearance by Fiona Wright
  • Something for the Pain: A Memoir of the Turf by Gerald Murnane
  • SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY: A Family, a Virginia Town, a Civil Rights Battle
  • South Toward Home: Travels in Southern Literature by Margaret Eby
  • SPAIN: THE CENTER OF THE WORLD, 1519-1682
  • Spectacle: The Astonishing Life Of Ota Benga by Pamela Newkirk
  • Spiritual Defiance: Building a Beloved Community of Resistance
  • ST. MARKS IS DEAD: THE MANY LIVES OF AMERICA’S HIPPEST STREET
  • Stammered Songbook, by Erwin Mortier
  • STONED: A Doctor’s Case for Medical Marijuana
  • Street Poison: The Biography of Iceberg Slim
  • SWANSONG 1945: A COLLECTIVE DIARY OF THE LAST DAYS OF THE THIRD REICH
  • TARGET TOKYO: JIMMY DOOLITTLE AND THE RAID THAT AVENGED PEARL HARBOR
  • Tattered and Mended by Cynthia Ruchti
  • Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life by Jonathan Bate
  • Television Is The New Television: The Unexpected Triumph Of Old Media In The Digital Age by Michael Wolff
  • The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power
  • THE AGE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
  • The Almost Nearly Perfect People
  • The Arab Of The Future: A Childhood In The Middle East, 1978-1984: A Graphic Memoir by Riad Sattouf
  • THE ART OF GRACE: On Moving Well Through Life by Sarah L. Kaufman
  • The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries in the Art World
  • The Bauers: Joseph, Franz & Ferdinand – Masters of Botanical Illustration, by Hans Walter Lack
  • The Big Question: Why We Can’t Stop Talking About Science, Faith, and God
  • THE BILLION DOLLAR SPY: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal
  • The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoose
  • The Bumper Book of Peanuts, by Charles Schulz
  • The Case for Loving: the Fight for Interracial Marriage by Selina Alko
  • THE CHINA COLLECTORS: America’s Century-Long Hunt for Asian Art Treasures
  • The Cobbe Cabinet of Curiosities, edited by Arthur MacGregor
  • THE COMEDIANS: DRUNKS, THIEVES, SCOUNDRELS, AND THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN COMEDY
  • THE COMPLETE WORKS OF PRIMO LEVI. Edited by Ann Goldstein
  • The Courage To Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath
  • The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion
  • The Deep Zoo by Rikki Ducornet
  • The Dementia Caregiver: A Guide to Caring for Someone with Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Neurocognitive Disorders
  • THE DOGS ARE EATING THEM NOW: OUR WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
  • The Dorito Effect
  • The English and Their History
  • The Fall of the West
  • The Finishing School by Valerie Woerner
  • The Game Believes in You: How Digital Play Can Make Our Kids Smarter,” by Greg Toppo
  • The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine
  • THE GERMAN WAR: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945. By Nicholas Stargardt
  • THE GIRL FROM HUMAN STREET: GHOSTS OF MEMORY IN A JEWISH FAMILY
  • The Great Beanie Baby Bubble’ by Zac Bissonnette
  • THE GREAT DIVIDE: THE CONFLICT BETWEEN WASHINGTON AND JEFFERSON THAT DEFINED A NATION
  • The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Tyrant Who Created North Korea and The Young Lieutenant…
  • The Great Monkey Rescue: Saving the Golden Lion Tamarins by Sandra Markle
  • The Heart Healers: The Misfits, Mavericks, and Rebels Who Created the Greatest Medical Breakthrough of Our Lives
  • The Hive Mind
  • THE HOUSE OF TWENTY THOUSAND BOOKS
  • THE INTIMATE BOND: HOW ANIMALS SHAPED HUMAN HISTORY
  • The Iran-Iraq War
  • The Irresponsible Magician: Essays and Fictions By Rebekah Rutkoff
  • The Jemima Code: Two Centuries Of African American Cookbooks by Toni Tipton-Martin
  • THE LAST LOVE SONG: A BIOGRAPHY OF JOAN DIDION
  • THE LAST OF THE PRESIDENT’S MEN
  • The Last Unicorn: A Search for One of Earth’s Rarest Creatures by William deBuys
  • The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, Vol. 3, 1926-1929,” edited by Sandra Spanier, Rena Sanderson and Robert Trogdon
  • THE LIFE OF SAUL BELLOW: TO FAME AND FORTUNE, 1915-1964
  • The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
  • The Mad Feast by Matthew Gavin Frank
  • The Mahabarata, by Carole Satyamurti
  • THE MAKING OF ASIAN AMERICA: A HISTORY
  • The Man Who Wasn’t There: Investigations into the Strange New Science of the Self
  • The Mark of the Sacred by Jean-Pierre Dupuy
  • The Marriage Book: Centuries Of Advice, Inspiration, And Cautionary Tales From Adam And Eve To Zoloft by Lisa Grunwald and
    Stephen J. Adler
  • The Midas Paradox
  • The Motion by Lucy K Shaw
  • THE MUSHROOM AT THE END OF THE WORLD: ON THE POSSIBILITY OF LIFE IN CAPITALIST RUINS
  • The New Tsar: The Rise And Reign Of Vladimir Putin by Steven Lee Myers
  • The Noonday Demon– Andrew Solomon
  • THE NUNS OF SANT’AMBROGIO: The True Story of a Convent in Scandal
  • The Occupiers, Michael A. Gould-Wartofsky
  • The Octopus Scientists by Sy Montgomery and Keith Ellenbogen
  • THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM: Why Science Is Still a Boys’ Club
  • The Oyster War by Summer Brennan
  • The Pine Tar Game: The Kansas City Royals, the New York Yankees, and Baseball’s Most Absurd and Entertaining Controversy,” by
    Filip Bondy
  • THE QUARTET: ORCHESTRATING THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1783-1789
  • The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind, Edited by Claudia Rankine, Beth Loffreda, Max King Cap
  • The Rainman’s Third Cure: An Irregular Education
  • The Real Thing: Lessons on Love and Life from a Wedding Reporter’s Notebook
  • THE REBEL OF RANGOON: A TALE OF DEFIANCE AND DELIVERANCE IN BURMA
  • The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia’s Digital Dictators And The New Online Revolutionaries by Andrei Soldatov and Irina
    Borogan
  • The Road Home: A Contemporary Exploration of the Buddhist Path
  • The Road Not Taken: Finding America in the Poem Everyone Loves and Almost Everyone Gets Wrong by David Orr
  • The Road to Character
  • THE SHAPE OF THE NEW: Four Big Ideas and How They Made the Modern World. By Scott L. Montgomery and Daniel Chirot
  • The Smartest Book in the World,” Greg Proops
  • THE SONG MACHINE: INSIDE THE HIT FACTORY
  • The Story Of My Tits by Jennifer Hayden
  • The Submerged Reality: Sophiology and the Turn to a Poetic Metaphysics by Michael Martin
  • The Territories of Science and Religion by Peter Harrison
  • The Theater of War: What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Teach Us Today
  • The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father One Day at a Time
  • The Unknown Travels and Dubious Pursuits of William Clark,” by Jo Ann Trogdon
  • THE UNRAVELING: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq. By Emma Sky
  • The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion
  • THE WAR ON ALCOHOL: PROHIBITION AND THE RISE OF THE AMERICAN STATE
  • THE WEATHER EXPERIMENT: The Pioneers Who Sought to See the Future. By Peter Moore
  • The White Album/Slouching Toward Bethlehem– Joan Didion
  • THE WHITE ROAD: JOURNEY INTO AN OBSESSION
  • The Wilderness by McKay Coppins
  • The Witch Of Lime Street: Séance, Seduction, And Houdini In The Spirit World by David Jaher
  • The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains, Thomas W. Laqueur
  • THE WORLD’S LARGEST MAN: A MEMOIR
  • THEIR LAST FULL MEASURE: THE FINAL DAYS OF THE CIVIL WAR
  • There is Simply Too Much to Think About: The Collected Non-Fiction of Saul Bellow
  • Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff In Simple Words by Randall Munroe
  • Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse (And Other Lessons From Modern Life) by David Mitchell
  • THIS IS ALL A DREAM WE DREAMED: AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD
  • This Must Be the Place by Sean H. Doyle
  • Tommy: The Gun That Changed America by Karen Blumenthal
  • Trace’ by Lauret Savoy
  • Trans: A Memoir by Juliet Jacques
  • TrenchArt Monographs: hurry up please its time, Edited by Teresa Carmody and Vanessa Place
  • Trombone Shorty by Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and Bryan Collier
  • TY COBB: A TERRIBLE BEAUTY
  • Untamed: The Wild Life of Jane Goodall by Anita Silvey
  • Visions and Revisions: Coming of Age in the Age of AIDS, Dale Peck
  • Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement
  • Voices in the Ocean” by Susan Casey
  • Waiting for God/Gravity and Grace-Simone Weil
  • Walkable City
  • We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War by Doug Bradley and Craig Werner
  • We Were Brothers by Barry Moser
  • Welcome To Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson
  • WENT THE DAY WELL?: WITNESSING WATERLOO
  • West of Harlem: African-American Writers and the Borderlands,” by Emily Lutenski
  • What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing
  • When to Rob a Bank
  • Where Bears Roam the Streets by Jeff Parker
  • WHIRLWIND: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND THE WAR THAT WON IT
  • White Eskimo: Knud Rassmussen’s Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic” by Stephen R. Brown
  • Who is Charlie?
  • Why the West Rules (for now)
  • Why’d They Wear That?: Fashion as the Mirror of History by Sarah Albee
  • Widow Basquiat: A Love Story by Jennifer Clement
  • William Marshal- The Greatest Knight
  • Winter2015
  • Women Artists: The Linda Nochlin Reader
  • Words Without Music: A Memoir by Philip Glass
  • WORLDS APART: A MEMOIR
  • Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The History of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyonce– Bob Stanley
  • Yo, Miss’ by Lisa Wilde
  • YOUNG ELIOT: From St. Louis to The Waste Land
  • ZERO Edited by Dirk Pörschmann, Margriet Schavemaker, Text by Antoon Melissen, Johan Pas, Francesca Pola, Thekla Zell,
    Mattijs Visser, Daniel Birnbaum
The 36 “Best Non-Fiction Book” Year-End Lists Consulted

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