The Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 (A Year-End List Aggregation)
“What are the best Nonfiction books released in 2021?” We looked at 515 of the top Nonfiction books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
The top 58 books, all appearing on 3 or more “Best Nonfiction” book lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 450+ titles, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.
Our other Best Of 2021 Articles:
- The Best Art, Photography, And Coffee Table Books
- The Best AudioBooks
- The Best Biography And Memoir Books
- The Best Graphic Novels And Comics
- The Best Cookbooks
- The Best Fiction Books
- The Best Books (All Catergories)
- The Best History Books
- The Best Kids, Children, and Youth Books
- The Best Mystery, Horror, and Thriller Books
- The Best Nonfiction Books
- The Best Poetry Books
- The Best Science And Nature Books
- The Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
- The Best Young Adult Books
Previous Years: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015
Happy Scrolling!
Top 58 Best Nonfiction Books From 2021
58.) A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey written by Jonathan Meiburg
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookpage
- NPR
- Publishers Weekly
“A fascinating, entertaining, and totally engrossing story.”–David Sibley, author of What It’s Like to Be a Bird “Utterly captivating and beautifully…
57.) American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption written by Gabrielle Glaser
Lists It Appears On:
- NPR
- NY Times
- The Washington Post
“Powerful… Tells a singular story to illuminate a universal truth.”–The New York Times Book Review The shocking truth about postwar adoption in Ame…
56.) American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783-1850 written by Alan Taylor
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookpage
- Marginal Revolution
- The Washington Post
In this beautifully written history of America’s formative period, a preeminent historian upends the traditional story of a young nation confidently m…
55.) Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South written by Winfred Rembert and Erin I. Kelly
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookpage
- NPR
- Publishers Weekly
“A compelling and important history that this nation desperately needs to hear.” -Bryan Stevenson, New York Times bestselling author of Just Mercy and…
54.) Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It written by Ethan Kross
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Goodreads
- Next Big Idea Club
An award-winning psychologist reveals the hidden power of our inner voice and shows how to harness it to combat anxiety, improve physical and mental h…
53.) Covered with Night written by Nicole Eustace
Lists It Appears On:
- Abebooks
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Boston Globe
On the eve of a major treaty conference between Iroquois leaders and European colonists in the distant summer of 1722, two white fur traders attacked …
52.) Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age written by Annalee Newitz
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Next Big Idea Club
- NPR
In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes readers on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of …
51.) Girlhood written by Melissa Febos
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- NPR
- The Washington Post
National Bestseller Named a Most Anticipated Book by: The New York Times * Buzzfeed * Time.com * OprahMag.com * The Millions * The Rumpus * LitHub * P…
50.) Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York written by Elon Green
Lists It Appears On:
- Celadon
- Goodreads
- NPR
A terrific, harrowing, true-crime account of an elusive serial killer who preyed upon gay men in the 1990s. -The New York Times (Editor’s Pick) In thi…
49.) Orwell’s Roses written by Rebecca Solnit
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Entropy
- Financial Times
“An exhilarating romp through Orwell’s life and times and also through the life and times of roses.” –Margaret Atwood “A captivating account of Orwel…
48.) People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present written by Dara Horn
Lists It Appears On:
- NPR
- NY Times
- Publishers Weekly
Renowned and beloved as a prizewinning novelist, Dara Horn has also been publishing penetrating essays since she was a teenager. Often asked by major …
47.) Poet Warrior written by Joy Harjo
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Entropy
- Powell’s
Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as U.S. poet laureate, invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her…
46.) Punch Me Up to the Gods written by Brian Broome
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- NY Times
- Publishers Weekly
WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE – PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR – A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ PICK – A TODAY SUMMER READING LIST PICK – AN ENTERTAI…
45.) Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath written by Heather Clark
Lists It Appears On:
- Boston Globe
- Entropy
- NY Times
Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography – “One of the most beautiful biographies I’ve ever read. –Gle…
44.) Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting written by Lisa Genova
Lists It Appears On:
- Abebooks
- Goodreads
- NPR
A fascinating exploration of the intricacies of how we remember, why we forget, and what we can do to protect our memories, from the Harvard-trained n…
43.) Seeing Ghosts written by Kat Chow
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- NPR
- NY Times
NAMED ONE OF BARNES AND NOBLE’S BEST BOOKS OF 2021 For readers of Helen Macdonald and Elizabeth Alexander, an intimate and haunting portrait of grief …
42.) Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness written by Kristen Radtke
Lists It Appears On:
- Boston Globe
- NPR
- NY Public Library
From the acclaimed author of Imagine Wanting Only This–a timely and moving meditation on isolation and longing, both as individuals and as a society …
41.) Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic written by Glenn Frankel
Lists It Appears On:
- NPR
- Publishers Weekly
- The Washington Post
Much more than a page-turner. It’s the first essential work of cultural history of the new decade. –Charles Kaiser, The Guardian One of Publishers We…
40.) Smile written by Sarah Ruhl
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Boston Globe
- The Washington Post
2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence Longlist Selection The extraordinary story of one woman’s ten-year medical and metaphysical odyssey that bro…
39.) Taste: My Life Through Food written by Stanley Tucci
Lists It Appears On:
- Celadon
- NPR
- The Washington Post
From award-winning actor and food obsessive Stanley Tucci comes an intimate and charming memoir of life in and out of the kitchen. Stanley Tucci grew…
38.) Tastes Like War written by Grace M. Cho
Lists It Appears On:
- Book Riot
- Entropy
- NPR
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTIONThis evocative memoir of food and family history is “somehow both mouthwatering and heartbreaking…..
37.) The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story written by Nikole Hannah-Jones
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Powell’s
- The Washington Post
A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American…
36.) The Anthropocene Reviewed written by John Green
Lists It Appears On:
- Blue Willow Bookshop
- Goodreads
- NPR
#1 bestseller! A deeply moving collection of personal essays from John Green, the author of The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down. “The …
35.) The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain written by Annie Murphy Paul
Lists It Appears On:
- Next Big Idea Club
- NY Times
- The Washington Post
A New York Times Editors’ Choice A bold new book reveals how we can tap the intelligence that exists beyond our brains–in our bodies, our surrounding…
34.) The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War written by Louis Menand
Lists It Appears On:
- NPR
- NY Times
- The Washington Post
An engrossing and impossibly wide-ranging project . . . In The Free World, every seat is a good one. –Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post The Free Wor…
33.) The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease written by Daisy Hernández
Lists It Appears On:
- NPR
- The Knowing Today
- Time
Who does the United States take care of, and who does it leave behind? A necessary investigation of infectious disease, poverty, racism, and for-profi…
32.) The Right to Sex written by Amia Srinivasan
Lists It Appears On:
- Boston Globe
- Good Books
- Publishers Weekly
“Laser-cut writing and a stunning intellect. If only every writer made this much beautiful sense.” –Lisa Taddeo, author of Three Women “Amia Srinivas…
31.) We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice written by Mariame Kaba
Lists It Appears On:
- Book Riot 2
- Entropy
- NPR
“Organizing is both science and art. It is thinking through a vision, a strategy, and then figuring out who your targets are, always being concerned …
31.) Yearbook written by Seth Rogen
Lists It Appears On:
- Book Riot 2
- Indigo
- NPR
#2 * – “Rogen’s candid collection of sidesplitting essays . . . thrives at both explaining and encapsulating a generational comedic voice.”–The Washi…
30.) A Ghost in the Throat written by Doireann Ni Ghriofa
Lists It Appears On:
- Book Riot
- Entropy
- NPR
- NY Times
An Post Irish Book Awards Nonfiction Book of the Year – A Guardian Best Book of 2020 – Shortlisted for the 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize – Longlisted for…
29.) Aftershocks written by Nadia Owusu
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- NPR
- The Knowing Today
- Time
In the tradition of The Glass Castle, this “gorgeous” (The New York Times, Editors’ Choice) and deeply felt memoir from Whiting Award winner Nadia Owu…
28.) All That She Carried written by Tiya Miles
Lists It Appears On:
- Abebooks
- Book Riot 2
- Boston Globe
- NPR
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER – A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft an …
27.) My Broken Language: A Memoir written by Quiara Alegría Hudes
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookpage
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- NPR
- NY Public Library
GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK – The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and co-writer of In the Heights tells her lyrical story of coming of age agains…
26.) On Juneteenth written by Annette Gordon-Reed
Lists It Appears On:
- Boston Globe
- NPR
- NY Times
- The Washington Post
Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed’s On Juneteenth provides a historian…
25.) Real Estate written by Deborah Levy
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- NPR
- Readings
- The Washington Post
An NPR Best Book of the Year A Washington Post Best Book of the Year A Millions Most Anticipated Book of 2021 A USA Today Book Not to Miss Real Estate…
24.) The Copenhagen Trilogy written by Tove Ditlevsen
Lists It Appears On:
- NPR
- NY Times
- The Knowing Today
- Time
Called a masterpiece by The New York Times, the acclaimed trilogy from Tove Ditlevsen, a pioneer in the field of genre-bending confessional writing To…
23.) The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity written by David Graeber and David Wengrow
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Entropy
- NPR
A dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution–from the development of agricu…
22.) The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, & Dreams Deferred written by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Entropy
- Goodreads
- Publishers Weekly
From a star theoretical physicist, a journey into the world of particle physics and the cosmos — and a call for a more just practice of science. In T…
21.) This Is Your Mind on Plants written by Michael Pollan
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Goodreads
- NPR
- The Washington Post
The “Expert storytelling . . . [Pollan] masterfully elevates a series of big questions about drugs, plants and humans that are likely to leave reader…
20.) Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement written by Tarana Burke
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookpage
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Entropy
- Next Big Idea Club
Searing. Powerful. Needed. –Oprah “Sometimes a single story can change the world. Unbound is one of those stories. Tarana’s words are a testimony to…
19.) White Magic written by Elissa Washuta
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Entropy
- NPR
- NY Public Library
Throughout her life, Elissa Washuta has been surrounded by cheap facsimiles of Native spiritual tools and occult trends, “starter witch kits” of sage,…
18.) Beautiful Country written by Qian Julie Wang
Lists It Appears On:
- Blue Willow Bookshop
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- NPR
- NY Times
- Publishers Weekly
A TODAY SHOW #READWITHJENNA BOOK CLUB PICK! – The moving story of an undocumented child living in poverty in the richest country in the world–an inca…
17.) Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted written by Suleika Jaouad
Lists It Appears On:
- Abebooks
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Indigo
- NY Times
- The Washington Post
A searing, deeply moving memoir of illness and recovery that traces one young woman’s journey from diagnosis to remission to re-entry into “normal” li…
16.) Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism written by Amanda Montell
Lists It Appears On:
- Book Riot 2
- Bookpage
- Goodreads
- Next Big Idea Club
- NPR
The author of the widely praised Wordslut analyzes the social science of cult influence: how cultish groups from Jonestown and Scientology to SoulCycl…
15.) Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering How the Forest Is Wired for Intelligence and Healing written by Suzanne Simard
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Publishers Weekly
- The Knowing Today
- The Washington Post
- Time
From the world’s leading forest ecologist who forever changed how people view trees and their connections to one another and to other living things in…
14.) Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City written by Andrea Elliott
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- NPR
- NY Times
- The Knowing Today
- Time
“Destined to become one of the classics of the genre” (Newsweek), the riveting, unforgettable story of a girl whose indomitable spirit is tested by ho…
13.) On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint written by Maggie Nelson
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Boston Globe
- NPR
- NY Times
- The Washington Post
Named a Most Anticipated/Best Book of the Month by: NPR * USA Today * Time * Washington Post * Vulture * Women’s Wear Daily * Bustle * LitHub * The Mi…
12.) Somebody’s Daughter written by Ashley C. Ford
Lists It Appears On:
- Abebooks
- Celadon
- Entropy
- NPR
- NY Times
“This is a book people will be talking about forever.” –Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed “Ford’s wrenchingly brilliant…
11.) The Secret to Superhuman Strength written by Alison Bechdel
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookpage
- NPR
- NY Times
- Powell’s
- The Washington Post
From the author of Fun Home, a profoundly affecting graphic memoir of Bechdel’s lifelong love affair with exercise, set against a hilarious chronicle …
10.) Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future written by Elizabeth Kolbert
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Goodreads
- NPR
- Publishers Weekly
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction returns to humanity’s transformative impact on the environment, now asking: After doing so m…
9.) Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 written by Ibram X. Kendi & Keisha N. Blain
Lists It Appears On:
- Abebooks
- Blue Willow Bookshop
- Bookpage
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Entropy
- The Washington Post
A chorus of extraordinary voices tells the epic story of the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present–edited by Ibram …
8.) The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together written by Heather McGhee
Lists It Appears On:
- Book Riot 2
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Goodreads
- Next Big Idea Club
- Powell’s
- The Washington Post
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD – One of today’s most insightful and influential thinkers offers a powerful exploration of inequality and the l…
7.) The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race written by Walter Isaacson
Lists It Appears On:
- Abebooks
- Bookpage
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Celadon
- Next Big Idea Club
- NY Public Library
- The Washington Post
The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a “compelling” (The Washington Post) account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennife…
6.) A Swim in a Pond in the Rain written by George Saunders
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookpage
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Celadon
- Goodreads
- NPR
- The Knowing Today
- The Washington Post
- Time
From the Booker Prize-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December comes a literary master class on what makes great stories work and …
5.) Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law written by Mary Roach
Lists It Appears On:
- Blue Willow Bookshop
- Bookpage
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Goodreads
- NPR
- NY Public Library
- Publishers Weekly
- The Washington Post
What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law…
4.) How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America written by Clint Smith
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookpage
- Boston Globe
- Entropy
- NY Public Library
- NY Times
- Publishers Weekly
- The Knowing Today
- The Washington Post
- Time
#1 Longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgetta…
3.) A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance written by Hanif Abdurraqib
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookpage
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Boston Globe
- Entropy
- Goodreads
- NPR
- NY Times
- Powell’s
- The Knowing Today
- Time
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST – “A masterpiece” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), a “devastating” (The New York Times) meditation on Black performance in Ame…
2.) Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty written by Patrick Radden Keefe
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookpage
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Boston Globe
- NPR
- NY Public Library
- NY Times
- Powell’s
- Publishers Weekly
- The Knowing Today
- Time
A grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose re…
1.) Crying in H Mart written by Michelle Zauner
Lists It Appears On:
- Abebooks
- Blue Willow Bookshop
- Bookpage
- Bookshop Santa Cruz
- Celadon
- Entropy
- Good Books
- NPR
- NY Public Library
- NY Times
- Powell’s
- The Knowing Today
- The Washington Post
- Time
A Best Book of 2021: Entertainment Weekly, Good Morning America, Wall Street Journal, and more From the indie rockstar of Japanese Breakfast fame, and…
The 450+ Additional Best Nonfiction Books Released In 2021
59) America on Fire – Elizabeth Hinton List: Boston Globe
NY Times
60) Another Day in the Colony – Chelsea Watego List: Booktopia
Readings
61) Antiman – Rajiv Mohabir List: Book Riot
Entropy
62) Architectural Guide to Sub-Saharan Africa – List: Marginal Revolution
Marginal Revolution
63) Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience – Brené Brown List: Booktopia
Indigo
64) Certain and Impossible Events – Candace Jane Opper List: Entropy
NPR
65) Children Under Fire: An American Crisis – John Woodrow Cox List: NPR
The Washington Post
66) Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping – Matthew Salesses List: Entropy
NPR
67) Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief – Victoria Chang List: Book Riot
Entropy
68) Dear Senthuran – Akwaeke Emezi List: Book Riot
Bookpage
69) Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II – Daniel James Brown List: Bookpage
NPR
70) Festival Days – Jo Ann Beard List: Boston Globe
NY Times
71) Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America – Alec MacGillis List: NPR
Readings
72) I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year – Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker List: NPR
The Washington Post
73) I Live a Life Like Yours: A Memoir – Jan Grue List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
Publishers Weekly
74) Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal – George Packer List: NPR
NY Times
75) Let Me Tell You What I Mean – Joan Didion List: NPR
NY Times
76) Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 – Sarah Schulman List: NPR
NY Times
77) Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres – Kelefa Sanneh List: Book Riot 2
Publishers Weekly
78) Names for Light: A Family History – Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint List: Entropy
NPR
79) No Planet B: A Teen Vogue Guide to the Climate Crisis – Lucy Diavolo List: Entropy
Powell’s
80) Pessoa – Richard Zenith List: Marginal Revolution
Publishers Weekly
81) Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created “Sunday in the Park With George – James Lapine List: NPR
NY Times
82) Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature – Farah Jasmine Griffin List: Boston Globe
Publishers Weekly
83) Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer – Rax King List: Entropy
NPR
84) The Book of Hope – Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams List: Celadon
Goodreads
85) The Breaks: An Essay – Julietta Singh List: Book Riot
NY Public Library
86) The Confidence Men: How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most Remarkable Escape in History – Margalit Fox List: NPR
The Washington Post
87) The Family Roe: An American Story – Joshua Prager List: NPR
NY Times
88) The Luminous Solution – Charlotte Wood List: Booktopia
Readings
89) The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present – Paul McCartney List: Marginal Revolution
The Washington Post
90) The Premonition: A Pandemic Story – Michael Lewis List: Goodreads
Next Big Idea Club
91) Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know – Adam Grant List: Goodreads
The Washington Post
92) Three Girls From Bronzeville: A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood – Dawn Turner List: NY Times
The Washington Post
93) Work: A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots – James Suzman List: Amazon
Next Big Idea Club
94) Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet – Thich Nhat Hanh List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
Entropy
95) ( ghost gestures ) – Gabrielle Civil List: Entropy
96) 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows – Ai Weiwei List: Bookpage
97) A Black Hole is Everything a Star Longs To Be – List: Marginal Revolution
98) A Brief History of Underpants – List: Imagination Soup
99) A Carnival of Snackery – David Sedaris List: Financial Times
100) A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu, and You A Laugh Out Loud Guide to Life on Earth – List: Imagination Soup
101) A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome – Emma Southon List: NPR
102) A Fish Growing Lungs – Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn List: Entropy
103) A History of My Brief Body – Billy-Ray Belcourt List: Entropy
104) A Map is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home, Edited – Nicole Chung, Mensah Demary List: Entropy
105) A Most Clever Girl: How Jane Austen Discovered Her Voice – List: Imagination Soup
106) A Singing Army: Zilphia Horton and the Highlander Folk School – Kim Ruehl List: NPR
107) A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure – Hoa Nguyen List: NPR
108) A Whole World: Letters From James Merrill – Langdon Hammer and Stephen Yenser List: NY Times
109) Above the Rim How Elgin Baylor Changed Basketball – List: Imagination Soup
110) Adrift in Melbourne – Robyn Annear List: Readings
111) Afrikan Wisdom: New Voices Talk Black Liberation, Buddhism, and Beyond, Edited – Valerie Mason-John List: Entropy
112) Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption – Rafia Zakaria List: NPR
113) AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future – List: Next Big Idea Club
114) All In – Billie Jean King List: The Washington Post
115) All Incomplete – Stefano Harvey, Fred Moten List: Entropy
116) All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days – Rebecca Donner List: NY Times
117) Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire – Brad Stone List: The Washington Post
118) America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present – John Ghazvinian List: NY Times
119) America’s Racial Karma: An Invitation to Heal – Larry Ward List: Entropy
120) Amoralman: A True Story and Other Lies – Derek DelGaudio List: NPR
121) An Extra Pair of Hands – Kate Mosse List: Good Books
122) Anything Will Be Easy After This: A Western Identity Crisis – Bethany Malle List: Entropy
123) Art in Time – Cole Swensen List: Entropy
124) Baseball 100’ – List: NY Post
125) Beauty and the East: New Chinese Architecture – List: Marginal Revolution
126) Before the Earth Devours Us – Esteban Rodriguez List: Entropy
127) Beginners: The Transformative Joy of Lifelong Learning – List: Next Big Idea Club
128) Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence – Anita Hill List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
129) Better to Have Gone: Love, Death, and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville – Akash Kapur List: NY Times
130) Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice – Yusef Salaam List: NPR
131) Black & Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us About Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Freedom, Edited – Pamela Ayo Yetunde, Cheryl A. Giles List: Entropy
132) Black and Blue – Veronica Gorrie List: Readings
133) Black Imagination: Black Voices on Black Futures, Edited – Natasha Marin List: Entropy
134) Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue – Adrian Miller List: Amazon
135) Black, White, and The Grey: The Story of an Unexpected Friendship and a Beloved Restaurant – Mashama Bailey List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
136) Blackspace: On the Poetics of an Afrofuture – Anaïs Duplan List: Entropy
137) Blow Your House Down – Gina Frangello List: Bookpage
138) Bodies Are Cool – List: Imagination Soup
139) Book of the Other: Small in Comparison – Truong Tran List: NPR
140) Book Wars: The Digital Revolution – List: Marginal Revolution
141) Borealis – Aisha Sabatini Sloan List: Entropy
142) Born to be Public – Greg Mania List: Entropy
143) Bourdain:The Definitive Oral Biography – List: NY Post
144) Bravey: Chasing Dreams, Befriending Pain, and Other Big Ideas – List: Next Big Idea Club
145) Bright Archive – Sarah Minor List: Entropy
146) Bring Your Baggage and Don’t Pack Light – Helen Ellis List: Blue Willow Bookshop
147) Broken Horses: A Memoir – Brandi Carlile List: NPR
148) Brothers on Three – Abe Streep List: Celadon
149) Brown Album: Essays on Exile and Identity – Porochista Khakpour List: Entropy
150) Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane – Paul Auster List: Boston Globe
151) Call Me Indian – Fred Sasakamoose List: Indigo
152) Can’t Knock the Hustle: Inside the Season of Protest, Pandemic, and Progress with the Brooklyn Nets’ Superstars of Tomorrow – Matt Sullivan List: Publishers Weekly
153) Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era – List: NY Post
154) Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020 – David Sedaris List: Abebooks
155) Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land – Toni Jensen List: Entropy
156) Castaway Mountain: Love and Loss Among the Wastepickers of Mumbai – Saumya Roy List: NPR
157) Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents – Isabel Wilkerson List: Entropy
158) Catching the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Liberal Hour – Neal Gabler List: NY Times
159) Central Asia: A New History from the Imperial Conquests to the Present – List: Marginal Revolution
160) Churchill’s Shadow: The Life and Afterlife of Winston Churchill – Geoffrey Wheatcroft List: NY Times
161) Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World – Wil Haygood List: NPR
162) Complaint! – Sara Ahmed List: Entropy
163) Concepcion: An Immigrant Family’s Fortunes – Albert Samaha List: Publishers Weekly
164) Cougar Crossing: How Hollywood’s Celebrity Cougar Helped Build a Bridge for City Wildlife – List: Imagination Soup
165) Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave – Ryan Holiday List: Amazon
166) Courageous Creatures and the Humans Who Help Them I Survived True Stories – List: Imagination Soup
167) Cuba – List: Bookpage
168) Cuba: An American History – Ada Ferrer List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
169) Curb – Divya Victor List: NPR
170) Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an Age of Infinite Browsing – List: Next Big Idea Club
171) Deep Liberation: Shamanic Tools for Reclaiming Wholeness in a Culture of Trauma – Langston Kahn List: Entropy
172) Defacing the Monument – Susan Briante List: Entropy
173) Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally – Emily Ladau List: NPR
174) Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America – Eyal Press List: NY Times
175) Disability Visibility: 17 First-Person Stories for Today – Alice Wong List: Entropy
176) Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space – Amanda Leduc List: Entropy
177) Disorientation: Being Black in the World – List: Boston Globe
178) Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad – List: Marginal Revolution
179) Dog Flowers – Danielle Geller List: Entropy
180) Doomed Romance: Broken Hearts, Lost Souls, and Sexual Tumult in Nineteenth-Century America – Christine Leigh Heyrman List: NY Times
181) Driving While Brown: Sheriff Joe Arpaio Versus the Latino Resistance – Terry Greene Sterling and Jude Joffe-Block List: NPR
182) Economics in One Virus: An Introduction to Economic Reasoning Through Covid-19 – List: Marginal Revolution
183) Elegy for Mary Turner: An Illustrated Account of a Lynching – Rachel Marie-Crane Williams List: NPR
184) Emotional Female – Yumiko Kadota List: Readings
185) Empire of Silver: A New Monetary History of China – List: Marginal Revolution
186) Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures – Merlin Sheldrake List: Entropy
187) Everything I Have Is Yours: A Marriage – Eleanor Henderson List: NY Times
188) Except Antarctica! – List: Imagination Soup
189) Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics – Mark Lamont Hill, Mitchell Plitnick List: Entropy
190) Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer – Steven Johnson List: Next Big Idea Club
191) Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth – Avi Loeb List: Amazon
192) Fairest – Meredith Talusan List: Entropy
193) Faking It – Kyle Mewburn List: Good Books
194) Find the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest – Suzanne Simard List: Entropy
195) Finding Freedom – Erin French List: Celadon
196) Flee – Calvin Walds List: Entropy
197) Flight of the Diamond Smugglers: A Tale of Pigeons, Obsession, and Greed Along Coastal South Africa – Matthew Gavin Frank List: NPR
198) Flying Blind: The 737 Max Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing – Peter Robison List: NPR
199) For Every Little Thing Poems and Prayers to Celebrate the Day – List: Imagination Soup
200) For the Good of All, Do Not Destroy the Birds – Jennifer Moxley List: Entropy
201) Forever Young – Hayley Mills List: The Washington Post
202) Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals – Oliver Burkeman List: Next Big Idea Club
203) Freedom – Sebastian Junger List: Amazon
204) From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial That Galvanized the Asian American Movement – Paula Yoo List: NPR
205) From Rebel to Ruler: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party – List: Marginal Revolution
206) Funeral For Flaca – Emilly Prado List: Entropy
207) Gallery of Clouds – Rachel Eisendrath List: Book Riot
208) Gay Bar: Why We Went Out – Jeremy Atherton Lin List: NPR
209) Gentrifier: A Memoir – Anne Elizabeth Moore List: NPR
210) Ghost/Home: A Beginner’s Guide to Being Haunted – Dennis James Sweeney List: Entropy
211) Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion – List: Next Big Idea Club
212) Goodbye, Again – Jonny Sun List: Entropy
213) Green Green Green – Gillian Osborne List: Entropy
214) Grieving While Black: An Antiracist Take on Oppression and Sorrow – Breeshia Wade List: Entropy
215) Groundswell – Yanara Friedland List: Entropy
216) Growing Up Disabled in Australia – Carly Findlay List: Readings
217) Guild of the Infant Saviour – Megan Culhane Galbraith List: Entropy
218) Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration – Reuben Jonathan Miller List: NPR
219) Harmony Karma: A Yogi’s Guide to Crafting Your Destiny – Sadhguru List: Amazon
220) Having and Being Had – Eula Biss List: Entropy
221) Heaven – Emerson Whitney List: Entropy
222) Her Honor – LaDoris Hazzard Cordell List: Celadon
223) Her Say: Survivors of Domestic Abuse Tell Their Own Stories – Jackie Clark and The Aunties List: Good Books
224) Here For It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America – R. Eric Thomas List: Entropy
225) High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out – List: Next Big Idea Club
226) Hip-Hop (And Other Things) – Shea Serrano and Arturo List: Powell’s
227) Hola Papi: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons – John Paul Brammer List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
228) House of Sticks: A Memoir – Ly Tran List: NPR
229) How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion – List: Next Big Idea Club
230) How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need – Bill Gates List: Goodreads
231) How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be – List: Next Big Idea Club
232) How to Do the Work: Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self – Dr. Nicole LePera List: Entropy
233) How to Go Anywhere (And Not Get Lost): A Guide to Navigation for Young Adventurers – List: Imagination Soup
234) How to Not Die Alone: The Surprising Science That Will Help You Find Love – Logan Ury List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
235) How to Resist Amazon and Why – Danny Caine List: Powell’s
236) How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America – Kiese Laymon List: NY Times
237) How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason – List: Next Big Idea Club
238) How to Walk With Steve – Robert Fromberg List: Entropy
239) How We Love – List: Booktopia
240) Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose – Leigh Cowart List: NPR
241) I Came as a Shadow: An Autobiography – John Thompson with Jesse Washington List: NY Times
242) I Have Been Buried Under Years of Dust: A Memoir of Autism and Hope – Valerie Gilpeer List: Amazon
243) I Never Promised You a Rose Garden – Mannie Murphy List: NPR
244) I Will Take the Answer – Ander Monson List: Entropy
245) I Wish I Had a Wookie and Other Poems for Our Galaxy – List: Imagination Soup
246) Icebound – Andrea Pitzer List: Powell’s
247) In Memory of Memory – Maria Stepanova List: Entropy
248) In the Shadow of the Empress – Nancy Goldstone List: NY Public Library
249) Index, A History of the – List: Financial Times
250) Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice – Rupa Marya List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
251) Intimations – Zadie Smith List: Entropy
252) Into the Rip – List: Booktopia
253) Islands of Abandonment – Cal Flyn List: Powell’s
254) JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956 – Fredrik Logevall List: NY Times
255) Just as I Am: A Memoir – Cicely Tyson List: NPR
256) Just Us: An American Conversation – Claudia Rankine List: Entropy
257) Just Work: Get Sh*t Done, Fast & Fair – List: Next Big Idea Club
258) Keats’s Odes: A Lover’s Discourse – List: Boston Globe
259) Keep Sharp: Build A Better Brain At Any Age – Sanjay Gupta List: Indigo
260) Kennedy’s Avenger: Assassination, Conspiracy, and the Forgotten Trial of Jack Ruby – Dan Abrams and David Fisher List: NPR
261) Kin – Shawna Kay Rodenberg List: Entropy
262) Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art – Rebecca Wragg Sykes List: NY Times
263) Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations, 5-Volume Set, Edited – Gavin Van Horn, Robin Wall Kimmerer, John Hausdoerffer List: Entropy
264) Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World – Simon Winchester List: Amazon
265) Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency – Michael Wolff List: NPR
266) Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour – Rickie Lee Jones List: NPR
267) Later: My Life At the Edge of the World – Paul Lisicky List: Entropy
268) Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing – Lauren Hough List: NPR
269) Led Zeppelin: The Biography – List: Marginal Revolution
270) Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance – Nikki Grimes List: Imagination Soup
271) Let Them Lead: Unexpected Lessons in Leadership from America’s Worst High School Hockey Team – John U. Bacon List: NPR
272) Let’s Go for a Walk – List: Imagination Soup
273) Letters to My Weird Sisters: On Autism and Feminism. – List: Marginal Revolution
274) Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive – Carl Zimmer List: NY Times
275) Like Streams to the Ocean: Notes on Ego, Love, and the Things That Make Us Who We Are – Jedidiah Jenkins List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
276) Look What I Found in the Woods – List: Imagination Soup
277) Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger – Lama Rod Owens List: Entropy
278) Love Is An Ex-Country – Randa Jarrar List: Entropy
279) Love People, Use Things – Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus List: Celadon
280) Love Stories – List: Booktopia
281) Lyrebird – Meredith Clark List: Entropy
282) Mars: Earthlings Welcome – List: Imagination Soup
283) Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America – List: Goodreads
284) Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir – Natasha Trethewey List: Entropy
285) Mightier Than the Sword: Rebels, Reformers & Revolutionaries Who Changed the World Through Writing – List: Imagination Soup
286) Mike Nichols: A Life – Mark Harris List: NPR
287) Mine!: How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives – List: Next Big Idea Club
288) Minerva the Miscarriage of the Brain – Johanna Hedva List: Entropy
289) Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning – Cathy Park Hong List: Entropy
290) Missing Witches: Recovering True Histories of Feminist Magic – Risa Dickens, Amy Torok List: Entropy
291) Modern Paraguay: South America’s Best Kept Secret – List: Marginal Revolution
292) Mornings with Monet – List: Imagination Soup
293) My Autobiography of Carson McCullers – Jenn Shapland List: Entropy
294) My Begging Chart – Keiler Roberts List: NPR
295) My Mother’s Daughter: A Memoir Of Struggle And Triumph – Perdita Felicien List: Indigo
296) Negative Space – Lily Dancyger List: Entropy
297) Never Enough – Mike Hayes List: Celadon
298) Never Pay the First Bill: And Other Ways to Fight the Health Care System and Win – Marshall Allen List: Book Riot 2
299) New York, New York, New York: Four Decades of Success, Excess, and Transformation – Thomas Dyja List: NY Times
300) Nicky & Vera: A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued – Peter Sis List: NPR
301) Night Rooms: Essays – Gina Nutt List: NPR
302) Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic that Changed History – Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta List: The Washington Post
303) Nina: A Story of Nina Simone – Traci N. Todd, illustrated by Christian Robinson List: NPR
304) Noise – Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony List: Next Big Idea Club
305) Nonbinary: A Memoir – Genesis P-Orridge List: NPR
306) Not “A Nation of Immigrants”: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion – Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
307) Not All Diamonds and Rose: The Inside Story of The Real Housewives from the People Who Lived It – List: NY Post
308) Now Beacon, Now Sea: A Son’s Memoir – Christopher Sorrentino List: NY Times
309) Nuclear Folly – Serhii Plokhy List: Marginal Revolution
310) Odd Beasts Meet Nature’s Weirdest Animals – List: Imagination Soup
311) Off The Record – Peter Mansbridge List: Indigo
312) On Animals – Susan Orlean List: The Washington Post
313) On Time and Water – Andri Snær Magnason List: Powell’s
314) On Tyranny Graphic Edition: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century – Timothy Snyder List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
315) On Violence and On Violence Against Women – List: Boston Globe
316) Oscar Wilde: A Life – Matthew Sturgis List: The Washington Post
317) Out of Many, One: Portraits of America’s Immigrants – George W. Bush List: Amazon
318) Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire – List: Goodreads
319) Partition: How and Why Ireland Was Divided – List: Marginal Revolution
320) Pastoral Song: A Farmer’s Journey – James Rebanks List: NPR
321) Peace, Poverty and Betrayal: A New History of British India – List: Marginal Revolution
322) Peril – Bob Woodward and Robert Costa List: The Washington Post
323) Playlist for the Apocalypse – Rita Dove List: NPR
324) Poetry Against All: A Diary – Johannes Göransson List: Entropy
325) Pop Song: Adventures in Art and Intimacy – Larissa Pham List: NPR
326) Post-Colonial Astrology: Reading the Planets Through Capital, Power, and Labor – Alice Sparkly Kat List: Entropy
327) Pregnant Girl: A Story of Teen Motherhood, College, and Creating a Better Future for Young Families – Nicole Lynn Lewis List: NPR
328) Pure America: Eugenics and the Making of Modern Virginia – Elizabeth Catte List: Publishers Weekly
329) Rancher – Selah Saterstrom List: Entropy
330) Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters – Steven Pinker List: Next Big Idea Club
331) Reborn in the USA: An Englishman’s Love Letter to His Chosen Home – Roger Bennett List: Amazon
332) Red Roulette: An Insider’s Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption and Vengeance in Today’s China – Desmond Shum List: The Washington Post
333) Redeeming Justice: From Defendant to Defender, My Fight for Equity on Both Sides of a Broken System – Jarrett Adams List: Amazon
334) Refugee High: Coming of Age in America – Elly Fishman List: NPR
335) Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump – Spencer Ackerman List: The Washington Post
336) Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere – List: Next Big Idea Club
337) Remote: Finding Home in the Bitterroots – DJ Lee List: Entropy
338) Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People – Kekla Magoon List: NPR
339) River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads – List: Marginal Revolution
340) Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause – Ty Seidule List: NPR
341) Rule the Music Scene Like Queen Beyonce Knowles – List: Imagination Soup
342) Run: Book One – John Lewis List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
343) Runaways: A Writer’s Dilemma – Michael J. Seidlinger List: Entropy
344) Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains – Lucas Bessire List: Abebooks
345) Save It for Later: Promises, Parenthood, and the Urgency of Protest – Nate Powell List: NPR
346) Say It Loud!: On Race, Law, History, and Culture – Randall Kennedy List: NY Times
347) Say Translation Is Art – Sawako Nakayasu List: Entropy
348) Scale, Space and Canon in Ancient Literary Culture – List: Marginal Revolution
349) See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love – Valerie Kaur List: Entropy
350) Seeking Asylum – Asylum Seeker Resource Centre List: Readings
351) Selling the Farm – Debra Di Blasi List: Entropy
352) Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994-2007) – Dan Ozzi List: NPR
353) Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself – Nedra Glover Tawwab List: Book Riot 2
354) Shakespearean: On Life and Language in Times of Disruption – Robert McCrum List: The Washington Post
355) Shaking the Gates of Hell: A Search for Family and Truth in the Wake of the Civil Rights Revolution – John Archibald List: NPR
356) Signs of the Americas: A Poetics of Pictography, Hieroglyphics, and Khipu – Edgar Garcia List: Entropy
357) Singing Like Germans: Black Musicians in the Land of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms – Kira Thurman List: NPR
358) Slim Aarons Style – List: NY Post
359) Small Bodies of Water – Nina Mingya Powles List: Good Books
360) Soil – List: Booktopia
361) Sometimes I Trip on How Happy We Could Be: Essays – Nichole Perkins List: NPR
362) Sonny Rollins Plays the Bridge – List: Imagination Soup
363) Speak, Okinawa: A Memoir – Elizabeth Miki Brina List: NPR
364) Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir – Bisakh Som List: Entropy
365) Stages: On Dying, Working, and Feeling – Rachel Kauder Balebuff List: Entropy
366) Stitch by Stitch Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly Sews Her Way to Freedom – List: Imagination Soup
367) Stolen Science: Thirteen Untold Stories of Scientists and Inventors ALmost Written out of History – List: Imagination Soup
368) Strange Nature: The Insect Portraits of Levon Biss – List: Imagination Soup
369) Survivor Tree – List: Imagination Soup
370) Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR – Lisa Napoli List: The Washington Post
371) Suture: Trauma and Trans Becoming – KJ Cerankowski List: Entropy
372) Tangled Up in Blue: Policing in the American City – Rosa Brooks List: The Washington Post
373) Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America – Mayukh Sen List: NPR
374) The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters: A True Story of Family Fiction – Julie Klam List: The Washington Post
375) The American War in Afghanistan: A History – Carter Malkasian List: NY Times
376) The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom – Felicia Rose Chavez List: Entropy
377) The Art of Bob Mackie – List: NY Post
378) The Beatles: Get Back – List: NY Post
379) The Betweens – Cynthia Arrieu-King List: Entropy
380) The Bomber Mafia – Malcolm Gladwell List: Indigo
381) The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (with recipes) – Kate Lebo List: NPR
382) The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination With the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World – Patrik Svensson List: Entropy
383) The Book of Errors – Annie Coggan List: Entropy
384) The Caesars Palace Coup: How a Billionaire Brawl Over the Famous Casino Exposed the Power and Greed of Wall Street – Sujeet Indap and Max Frumes List: NPR
385) The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream – Dean Jobb List: The Washington Post
386) The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel – Kati Marton List: NY Times
387) The Comfort Book – List: Goodreads
388) The Commercial Hotel – John Summers List: Good Books
389) The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power – Max Chafkin List: NY Times
390) The Crime Without a Name: Ethnocide and the Erasure of Culture in America – Barrett Holmes Pitner List: NPR
391) The Cruelty Is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump’s America – Adam Serwer List: NPR
392) The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion – Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell List: NPR
393) The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics – List: Next Big Idea Club
394) The Death of the Artist: How Creators are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech – List: Marginal Revolution
395) The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe – Josh Mitchell List: NPR
396) The Deeper the Roots: A Memoir of Hope and Home – Michael Tubbs List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
397) The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto – Charles M Blow List: Amazon
398) The Editor Function: Literary Publishing in Postwar America – Abram Foley List: Entropy
399) The Elephants Come Home: A True Story of Seven Elephants, Two People, and One Extraordinary Friendship – List: Imagination Soup
400) The Emotional Load: And Other Invisible Stuff – Emma List: Entropy
401) The Engagement: America’s Quarter-Century Struggle Over Same-Sex Marriage – Sasha Issenberg List: NY Times
402) The Food of Oaxaca: Recipes and Stories from Mexico’s Culinary Capital – Alejandro Ruiz List: Marginal Revolution
403) The Forgotten Coast – Richard Shaw List: Good Books
404) The Game – Sean Kelly List: Readings
405) The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain – Eugene Yelchin List: NPR
406) The Genome Odyssey – Euan Angus Ashley List: Celadon
407) The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything – Michio Kaku List: Amazon
408) The Good Girls: An Ordinary Killing – Sonia Faleiro List: NPR
409) The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America’s Judicial Hero – Peter S. Canellos List: Publishers Weekly
410) The Grizzly in the Driveway: The Return of Bears to a Crowded American West – Robert Chaney List: NPR
411) The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice – Scott Ellsworth List: Publishers Weekly
412) The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020 – Rachel Kushner List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
413) The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story – Kate Summerscale List: NPR
414) The How: Notes on the Great Work of Meeting Yourself – Yrsa Daley-Ward List: Entropy
415) The Isolation Artist: Scandal, Deception, and the Last Days of Robert Indiana – Bob Keyes List: NPR
416) The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos – Judy Batalion List: NPR
417) The Loneliest Americans – Jay Caspian Kang List: NPR
418) The Magical Language of Others – E.J. Koh List: Entropy
419) The Mirror and the Palette: Rebellion, Revolution and Resilience: Five Hundred Years of Women’s Self Portraits – Jennifer Higgie List: NPR
420) The Mirror Book – Charlotte Grimshaw List: Good Books
421) The Money Illusion: Market Monetarism, the Great Recession, and the Future of Monetary Policy – List: Marginal Revolution
422) The Most Fun Thing: Dispatches from a Skateboard Life – Kyle Beachy List: NPR
423) The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History – List: Marginal Revolution
424) The Natural Mother of the Child: A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood – Krys Malcom Belc List: NPR
425) The One On Earth: Selected Works of Mark Baumer, Edited – Blake Butler, Shane Jones List: Entropy
426) The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid – Lawrence Wright List: Amazon
427) The Price You Pay for College: An Entirely New Road Map for the Biggest Financial Decision Your Family Will Ever Make – Rob Lieber List: NPR
428) The Prisoner: A Memoir – Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Anton List: NPR
429) The Private Library: The History of the Architecture and Furnishing of the Domestic Bookroom – Reid Byers List: The Washington Post
430) The Restless Dead: Necrowriting and Disappropriation – Cristina Rivera Garza List: Entropy
431) The Sea We Swim In: How Stories Work in a Data-Driven World – List: Next Big Idea Club
432) The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live – Danielle Dreilinger List: NPR
433) The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket – Benjamin Lorr List: Entropy
434) The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA’s Double Helix – Howard Markel List: NPR
435) The Soul of a Woman – Isabel Allende List: Amazon
436) The Sprawl: Reconsidering the Weird American Suburbs – Jason Diamond List: Entropy
437) The Spring – Annie Connole List: Entropy
438) The State Must Provide: Why America’s Colleges Have Always Been Unequal – And How to Set Them Right – Adam Harris List: NPR
439) The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music – Dave Grohl List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
440) The Sum of Trifles – Julia Ridley Smith List: Entropy
441) The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning – List: Next Big Idea Club
442) The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest – Mark Synnott List: NPR
443) The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation – Anna Malaika Tubbs List: NPR
444) The Triumph of Nancy Reagan – Karen Tumulty List: The Washington Post
445) The Trouble With White Women: A Counterhistory of Feminism – Kyla Schuller List: Entropy
446) The Turning Point – List: Financial Times
447) The Ultimate Art Museum – List: Imagination Soup
448) The Undocumented Americans – Karla Cornejo Villavicencio List: Entropy
449) The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unxplained – Colin Dickey List: Entropy
450) The Unreality of Memory – Elisa Gabbert List: Entropy
451) The Vanderbilts: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty – Anderson Cooper List: The Washington Post
452) The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans – And How We Can Fix It – Dorothy A. Brown List: NPR
453) The Witch of Eye – Kathryn Nuernberger List: Entropy
454) The Young H.G. Wells – Claire Tomalin List: Financial Times
455) There is Nothing for you Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century – Fiona Hill List: The Washington Post
456) These Precious Days: Essays – Ann Patchett List: NPR
457) Things I Have Withheld – List: Financial Times
458) This Is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search for Home – Lauren Sandler List: Entropy
459) This is One Way to Dance – Sejal Shah List: Entropy
460) Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright!: An Animal Poem for Each Day of the Year – Britta Teckentrup & Fiona Waters List: Imagination Soup
461) Times Like These – Michelle Langstone List: Good Books
462) To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876’ – List: NY Post
463) To the Lake: A Balkan Journey of War and Peace – Kapka Kassabova List: Entropy
464) To Write as if Already Dead – Kate Zambreno List: Book Riot
465) Tomboyland – Melissa Faliveno List: Entropy
466) Tori Amos Bootleg Webring – Megan Milks List: Entropy
467) Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Learning From Indigenous Practices for Environmental Sustainability, Edited – Melissa K. Nelson, Dan Shilling List: Entropy
468) Translation is a Mode=Translation is an Anti-neocolonial Mode – Don Mee Choi List: Entropy
469) Travelling While Black – List: Boston Globe
470) Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood – Danny Trejo List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
471) Truffle Hound: On the Trail of the World’s Most Seductive Scent, with Dreamers, Schemers, and Some Extraordinary Dogs – Rowan Jacobsen List: Publishers Weekly
472) Two-Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Fiona Sampson List: The Washington Post
473) Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals – Alexis Pauline Gumbs List: Entropy
474) Unforgotten The Wild Life of Dian Fossey and Her Relentless Quest to Save Mountain Gorillas – List: Imagination Soup
475) Unquiet Englishman: A Life of Graham Greene – Richard Greene List: The Washington Post
476) Unreconciled: Family, Truth, And Indigenous Resistance – Jesse Wente List: Indigo
477) Unsolaced: Along the Way to All That Is – Gretel Ehrlich List: Bookshop Santa Cruz
478) Unsolved Case Files: Escape at 10,000 Feet: D.B. Cooper and the Missing Money – Tom Sullivan List: NPR
479) Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre – Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Floyd Cooper List: NPR
480) Untamed – Glennon Doyle List: Entropy
481) Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction – Kate Masur List: NPR
482) Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine – Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley List: NPR
483) Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain – List: Next Big Idea Club
484) Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts – Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martinez List: NPR
485) Want Me: A Sex Writer’s Journey Into the Heart of Desire – Tracy Clark-Flory List: NPR
486) Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World – Daniel Sherrell List: Publishers Weekly
487) Waterlog: A Swimmers Journey Through Britain – Roger Deakin List: Amazon
488) We Are Bridges: A Memoir – Cassandra Lane List: NPR
489) We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy – Kliph Nesteroff List: NPR
490) We Shall Overcome – List: Imagination Soup
491) What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing – Oprah Winfrey List: Goodreads
492) What Is a River? – List: Imagination Soup
493) What Is Life?: Five Great Ideas in Biology – List: Next Big Idea Club
494) What Just Happened – List: Boston Globe
495) What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be? Edited – John Hausdoerffer, Brooke Parry Hecht, Melissa K. Nelson, Katherine Kassouf Cummings List: Entropy
496) What’s in Your Pocket? Collecting Nature’s Treasures – List: Imagination Soup
497) When Evil Lived in Laurel: The “White Knights” and the Murder of Vernon Dahmer – Curtis Wilkie List: NPR
498) When Harry Met Minnie – Martha Teichner List: Celadon
499) When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers – Ken Krimstein List: NPR
500) Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside – List: NY Post
501) White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea – Tyler Stovall List: NPR
502) Who Gets to Be Smart – List: Booktopia
503) Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told?: Essays – Jenny Diski List: Publishers Weekly
504) Wild Outside Around the World with Survivorman – List: Imagination Soup
505) Will – Will Smith List: Indigo
506) Wiser: The Scientific Roots of Wisdom, Compassion, and What Makes Us Good – List: Next Big Idea Club
507) Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America – John McWhorter List: NY Times
508) Work Won’t Love You Back – Sarah Jaffe List: Powell’s
509) Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Amazon – List: Marginal Revolution
510) World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments – Aimee Nezhukumatathil List: Entropy
511) XO, Exoplanet – List: Imagination Soup
512) You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame, Resilience, and the Black Experience, Edited – Tarana Burke, Brené Brown List: Entropy
513) Your Head is a Houseboat – List: Booktopia
514) Your Turn: How to Be an Adult – List: Next Big Idea Club
515) Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service – Carol Leonnig List: The Washington Post
28 Best Nonfiction Book Sources/Lists
| Source | Article |
| Amazon | Best nonfiction of 2021 |
| Blue Willow Bookshop | The Best Books of 2021 |
| Book Riot | THE BEST GENRE-BENDING NONFICTION OF 2021 |
| Bookpage | Best Nonfiction of 2021 |
| Bookshop Santa Cruz | Best Nonfiction of the Year 2021 |
| Abebooks | The best books of 2021 |
| Book Riot 2 | Best Books of 2021 |
| Booktopia | The Best Books of 2021: Non-Fiction |
| Boston Globe | Best Books of 2021 |
| Celadon | Our Favorite Nonfiction Books Of 2021 |
| Entropy | BEST OF 2020-2021: NONFICTION BOOKS |
| Financial Times | Best books of 2021: Literary non-fiction |
| Good Books | GOOD BOOKS favourite books of 2021 |
| Goodreads | Best Nonfiction |
| Imagination Soup | Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 |
| Indigo | Top 10 Best Non-Fiction of 2021 |
| The Knowing Today | THE 10 BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF 2021 – ANNABEL GUTTERMAN |
| Marginal Revolution | Best non-fiction books of 2021 |
| NY Post | These are the 35 best books to give as holiday gifts this year |
| NY Times | 100 Notable Books of 2021 |
| NY Public Library | Best Books for Adults 2021 |
| Next Big Idea Club | The 32 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 |
| NPR | Books We Love |
| Powell’s | Best Books of 2021: Nonfiction |
| Publishers Weekly | Best Nonfiction |
| Readings | The best of non-fiction 2021 |
| Time | The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 |
| The Washington Post | 50 notable works of nonfiction |
