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
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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
The 36 “Best Non-Fiction Book” Year-End Lists Consulted