Best Books

The Best Nonfiction Books of 2016 (A Year-End List Aggregation)

“What are the best Nonfiction books of 2016?” We aggregated 49 year-end lists and ranked the 582 unique titles by how many times they appeared in an attempt to answer that very question!

There are thousands of year-end lists released every year and, like we do in our weekly Best Book articles, we wanted to see which books appear on them the most. We used 49 nonfiction book lists and found 582 unique titles. The top 35 books, all appearing on 4 or more lists, are below with images, summaries, and links for learning more or purchasing. The remaining books, along with the articles we used, can be found at the bottom of the page.

Be sure to check out our other Best Book of the year lists:

And if you want to see how they compare to last year, take a look at the 2015 lists as well!

Happy Scrolling!

 



The Top Nonfiction Books of 2016



35 .) At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell


Lists It Appears On:

  • Boston Globe
  • NY Times
  • San Francisco Chronicle 2
  • Amazon

“Paris, 1933: three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called Phenomenology. “You see,” he says, “if you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!”

It was this simple phrase that would ignite a movement, inspiring Sartre to integrate Phenomenology into his own French, humanistic sensibility, thereby creating an entirely new philosophical approach inspired by themes of radical freedom, authentic being, and political activism. This movement would sweep through the jazz clubs and cafés of the Left Bank before making its way across the world as Existentialism.”

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34 .) Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America by Patrick Phillips


Lists It Appears On:

  • Hudson Booksellers
  • NY Times
  • Publishers Weekly
  • Boston Globe

“Forsyth County, Georgia, at the turn of the twentieth century was home to a large African American community that included ministers and teachers, farmers and field hands, tradesmen, servants, and children. Many black residents were poor sharecroppers, but others owned their own farms and the land on which they’d founded the county’s thriving black churches.

But then in September of 1912, three young black laborers were accused of raping and murdering a white girl. One man was dragged from a jail cell and lynched on the town square, two teenagers were hung after a one-day trial, and soon bands of white “night riders” launched a coordinated campaign of arson and terror, driving all 1,098 black citizens out of the county. In the wake of the expulsions, whites harvested the crops and took over the livestock of their former neighbors, and quietly laid claim to “abandoned” land. The charred ruins of homes and churches disappeared into the weeds, until the people and places of black Forsyth were forgotten.”

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33 .) City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp by Ben Rawlence


Lists It Appears On:

  • Hudson Booksellers
  • Kirkus
  • The Globe and Mail
  • The Economist

“Situated hundreds of miles from any other settlement, deep within the inhospitable desert of northern Kenya where only thorn bushes grow, Dadaab is a city like no other. Its buildings are made from mud, sticks, or plastic. Its entire economy is grey. And its citizens survive on rations and luck. Over the course of four years, Ben Rawlence became a firsthand witness to a strange and desperate place, getting to know many of those who had come seeking sanctuary. Among them are Guled, a former child soldier who lives for football; Nisho, who scrapes an existence by pushing a wheelbarrow and dreaming of riches; Tawane, the indomitable youth leader; and Kheyro, a student whose future hangs upon her education.

In City of Thorns, Rawlence interweaves the stories of nine individuals to show what life is like in the camp, sketching the wider political forces that keep the refugees trapped. Lucid, vivid, and illuminating, City of Thorns is an urgent human story with deep international repercussions, brought to life through the people who call Dabaab home.”

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32 .) Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape by Peggy Orenstein


Lists It Appears On:

  • Amazon
  • Goodreads
  • San Francisco Chronicle 2
  • Time

“A generation gap has emerged between parents and their girls. Even in this age of helicopter parenting, the mothers and fathers of tomorrow’s women have little idea what their daughters are up to sexually or how they feel about it. Drawing on in-depth interviews with over seventy young women and a wide range of psychologists, academics, and experts, renowned journalist Peggy Orenstein goes where most others fear to tread, pulling back the curtain on the hidden truths, hard lessons, and important possibilities of girls’ sex lives in the modern world.

While the media has focused—often to sensational effect—on the rise of casual sex and the prevalence of rape on campus, in Girls and Sex Peggy Orenstein brings much more to the table. She examines the ways in which porn and all its sexual myths have seeped into young people’s lives; what it means to be the “the perfect slut” and why many girls scorn virginity; the complicated terrain of hookup culture and the unfortunate realities surrounding assault. In Orenstein’s hands these issues are never reduced to simplistic “truths;” rather, her powerful reporting opens up a dialogue on a potent, often silent, subtext of American life today—giving readers comprehensive and in-depth information with which to understand, and navigate, this complicated new world.”

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31 .) Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard


Lists It Appears On:

  • Good Books Guide
  • NPR
  • NY Times
  • Washington Post

“At age twenty-four, Winston Churchill was utterly convinced it was his destiny to become prime minister of England one day, despite the fact he had just lost his first election campaign for Parliament. He believed that to achieve his goal he must do something spectacular on the battlefield. Despite deliberately putting himself in extreme danger as a British Army officer in colonial wars in India and Sudan, and as a journalist covering a Cuban uprising against the Spanish, glory and fame had eluded him.

Churchill arrived in South Africa in 1899, valet and crates of vintage wine in tow, there to cover the brutal colonial war the British were fighting with Boer rebels. But just two weeks after his arrival, the soldiers he was accompanying on an armored train were ambushed, and Churchill was taken prisoner. Remarkably, he pulled off a daring escape–but then had to traverse hundreds of miles of enemy territory, alone, with nothing but a crumpled wad of cash, four slabs of chocolate, and his wits to guide him.

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30 .) Hidden Figures: The American Dream And The Untold Story Of The Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win The Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly


Lists It Appears On:

  • Time
  • Buzzfeed
  • NPR
  • Publishers Weekly

“Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.

Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South’s segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America’s aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam’s call, moving to Hampton, Virginia and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory.”

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29 .) How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS by David France


Lists It Appears On:

  • Entropy
  • Buzzfeed
  • NY Times
  • San Francisco Chronicle

“A riveting, powerful telling of the story of the grassroots movement of activists, many of them in a life-or-death struggle, who seized upon scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease. Ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large, and confronted with shame and hatred, this small group of men and women chose to fight for their right to live by educating themselves and demanding to become full partners in the race for effective treatments. Around the globe, 16 million people are alive today thanks to their efforts.

Not since the publication of Randy Shilts’s classic And the Band Played On has a book measured the AIDS plague in such brutally human, intimate, and soaring terms.”

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28 .) So Sad Today: Personal Essays by Melissa Broder


Lists It Appears On:

  • Entropy
  • The Globe and Mail
  • NPR
  • Publishers Weekly

Melissa Broder always struggled with anxiety. In the fall of 2012, she went through a harrowing cycle of panic attacks and dread that wouldn’t abate for months. So she began @sosadtoday, an anonymous Twitter feed that allowed her to express her darkest feelings, and which quickly gained a dedicated following. In SO SAD TODAY, Broder delves deeper into the existential themes she explores on Twitter, grappling with sex, death, love low self-esteem, addiction, and the drama of waiting for the universe to text you back. With insights as sharp as her humor, Broder explores–in prose that is both ballsy and beautiful, aggressively colloquial and achingly poetic–questions most of us are afraid to even acknowledge, let alone answer, in order to discover what it really means to be a person in this modern world.

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27 .) The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The US Standard of Living since the Civil War by Robert J Gordon


Lists It Appears On:

  • Five Books
  • NY Times
  • Daniel H. Pink
  • The Economist

In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, motor vehicles, air travel, and television transformed households and workplaces. But has that era of unprecedented growth come to an end? Weaving together a vivid narrative, historical anecdotes, and economic analysis, The Rise and Fall of American Growth challenges the view that economic growth will continue unabated, and demonstrates that the life-altering scale of innovations between 1870 and 1970 cannot be repeated. Gordon contends that the nation’s productivity growth will be further held back by the headwinds of rising inequality, stagnating education, an aging population, and the rising debt of college students and the federal government, and that we must find new solutions. A critical voice in the most pressing debates of our time, The Rise and Fall of American Growth is at once a tribute to a century of radical change and a harbinger of tougher times to come.

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26 .) Time Travel: A History by James Gleick


Lists It Appears On:

  • MPR News
  • Buzzfeed
  • Boston Globe
  • San Francisco Chronicle 2

The story begins at the turn of the previous century, with the young H. G. Wells writing and rewriting the fantastic tale that became his first book and an international sensation: The Time Machine. It was an era when a host of forces was converging to transmute the human understanding of time, some philosophical and some technological: the electric telegraph, the steam railroad, the discovery of buried civilizations, and the perfection of clocks. James Gleick tracks the evolution of time travel as an idea that becomes part of contemporary culture—from Marcel Proust to Doctor Who, from Jorge Luis Borges to Woody Allen. He investigates the inevitable looping paradoxes and examines the porous boundary between pulp fiction and modern physics. Finally, he delves into a temporal shift that is unsettling our own moment: the instantaneous wired world, with its all-consuming present and vanishing future.

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25 .) All The Single Ladies: Unmarried Women And The Rise Of An Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister


Lists It Appears On:

  • MPR News
  • NPR
  • The Globe and Mail
  • Boston Globe
  • NY Times

“The New York Times bestselling investigation into the sexual, economic, and emotional lives of women is “an informative and thought-provoking book for anyone—not just the single ladies—who want to gain a greater understanding of this pivotal moment in the history of the United States” (The New York Times Book Review).

In 2009, award-winning journalist Rebecca Traister started All the Single Ladies about the twenty-first century phenomenon of the American single woman. It was the year the proportion of American women who were married dropped below fifty percent; and the median age of first marriages, which had remained between twenty and twenty-two years old for nearly a century (1890–1980), had risen dramatically to twenty-seven.

But over the course of her vast research and more than a hundred interviews with academics and social scientists and prominent single women, Traister discovered a startling truth: the phenomenon of the single woman in America is not a new one. And historically, when women were given options beyond early heterosexual marriage, the results were massive social change—temperance, abolition, secondary education, and more. Today, only twenty percent of Americans are married by age twenty-nine, compared to nearly sixty percent in 1960. “

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24 .) Kill ‘Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul by James McBride


Lists It Appears On:

  • NPR
  • Tampa Bay Times
  • Time
  • Boston Globe
  • San Francisco Chronicle 2

Kill ’Em and Leave is more than a book about James Brown. Brown’s rough-and-tumble life, through McBride’s lens, is an unsettling metaphor for American life: the tension between North and South, black and white, rich and poor. McBride’s travels take him to forgotten corners of Brown’s never-before-revealed history: the country town where Brown’s family and thousands of others were displaced by America’s largest nuclear power bomb-making facility; a South Carolina field where a long-forgotten cousin recounts, in the dead of night, a fuller history of Brown’s sharecropping childhood, which until now has been a mystery. McBride seeks out the American expatriate in England who co-created the James Brown sound, visits the trusted right-hand manager who worked with Brown for forty-one years, and interviews Brown’s most influential nonmusical creation, his “adopted son,” the Reverend Al Sharpton. He describes the stirring visit of Michael Jackson to the Augusta, Georgia, funeral home where the King of Pop sat up all night with the body of his musical godfather, spends hours talking with Brown’s first wife, and lays bare the Dickensian legal contest over James Brown’s estate, a fight that has consumed careers; prevented any money from reaching the poor schoolchildren in Georgia and South Carolina, as instructed in his will; cost Brown’s estate millions in legal fees; and left James Brown’s body to lie for more than eight years in a gilded coffin in his daughter’s yard in South Carolina.

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23 .) Known and Strange Things: Essays by Teju Cole


Lists It Appears On:

  • Time
  • Largehearted Boy
  • The Undefeated
  • San Francisco Chronicle 2
  • Good Books Guide

“With this collection of more than fifty pieces on politics, photography, travel, history, and literature, Teju Cole solidifies his place as one of today’s most powerful and original voices. On page after page, deploying prose dense with beauty and ideas, he finds fresh and potent ways to interpret art, people, and historical moments, taking in subjects from Virginia Woolf, Shakespeare, and W. G. Sebald to Instagram, Barack Obama, and Boko Haram. Cole brings us new considerations of James Baldwin in the age of Black Lives Matter; the African American photographer Roy DeCarava, who, forced to shoot with film calibrated exclusively for white skin tones, found his way to a startling and true depiction of black subjects; and (in an essay that inspired both praise and pushback when it first appeared) the White Savior Industrial Complex, the system by which African nations are sentimentally aided by an America “developed on pillage.”

Persuasive and provocative, erudite yet accessible, Known and Strange Things is an opportunity to live within Teju Cole’s wide-ranging enthusiasms, curiosities, and passions, and a chance to see the world in surprising and affecting new frames.”

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22 .) Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O’Neil


Lists It Appears On:

  • MPR News
  • Buzzfeed
  • NY Times
  • Boston Globe
  • Verso

“We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives—where we go to school, whether we get a car loan, how much we pay for health insurance—are being made not by humans, but by mathematical models. In theory, this should lead to greater fairness: Everyone is judged according to the same rules, and bias is eliminated.

But as Cathy O’Neil reveals in this urgent and necessary book, the opposite is true. The models being used today are opaque, unregulated, and uncontestable, even when they’re wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination: If a poor student can’t get a loan because a lending model deems him too risky (by virtue of his zip code), he’s then cut off from the kind of education that could pull him out of poverty, and a vicious spiral ensues. Models are propping up the lucky and punishing the downtrodden, creating a “toxic cocktail for democracy.” Welcome to the dark side of Big Data.”

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21 .) White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson


Lists It Appears On:

  • Chicago Review of Books
  • NY Times
  • The Globe and Mail
  • Washington Post
  • Boston Globe

“As Ferguson, Missouri, erupted in August 2014, and media commentators across the ideological spectrum referred to the angry response of African Americans as “black rage,” historian Carol Anderson wrote a remarkable op-ed in the Washington Post showing that this was, instead, “white rage at work. With so much attention on the flames,” she writes, “everyone had ignored the kindling.”

Since 1865 and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, every time African Americans have made advances towards full participation in our democracy, white reaction has fueled a deliberate and relentless rollback of their gains. The end of the Civil War and Reconstruction was greeted with the Black Codes and Jim Crow; the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was met with the shutting down of public schools throughout the South while taxpayer dollars financed segregated white private schools; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 triggered a coded but powerful response, the so-called Southern Strategy and the War on Drugs that disenfranchised millions of African Americans while propelling presidents Nixon and Reagan into the White House.”

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20 .) The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore.


Lists It Appears On:

  • Dayton Daily News
  • Good Books Guide
  • NPR
  • Washington Post
  • The Economist
  • The Spinoff

“This is the intimate story of twenty tsars and tsarinas, some touched by genius, some by madness, but all inspired by holy autocracy and imperial ambition. Simon Sebag Montefiore’s gripping chronicle reveals their secret world of unlimited power and ruthless empire-building, overshadowed by palace conspiracy, family rivalries, sexual decadence and wild extravagance, with a global cast of adventurers, courtesans, revolutionaries and poets, from Ivan the Terrible to Tolstoy and Pushkin, to Bismarck, Lincoln, Queen Victoria and Lenin.

To rule Russia was both imperial-sacred mission and poisoned chalice: six of the last twelve tsars were murdered. Peter the Great tortured his own son to death while making Russia an empire, and dominated his court with a dining club notable for compulsory drunkenness, naked dwarfs and fancy dress. Catherine the Great overthrew her own husband (who was murdered soon afterward), enjoyed affairs with a series of young male favorites, conquered Ukraine and fascinated Europe. Paul I was strangled by courtiers backed by his own son, Alexander I, who in turn faced Napoleon’s invasion and the burning of Moscow, then went on to take Paris. Alexander II liberated the serfs, survived five assassination attempts and wrote perhaps the most explicit love letters ever composed by a ruler. The Romanovs climaxes with a fresh, unforgettable portrayal of Nicholas II and Alexandra, the rise and murder of Rasputin, war and revolution—and the harrowing massacre of the entire family.”

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19 .) Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives by Gary Younge


Lists It Appears On:

  • Chicago Tribune
  • Goodreads
  • Kirkus
  • Publishers Weekly
  • The Economist
  • Shelf Awareness

“On an average day in America, seven children and teens will be shot dead. In Another Day in the Death of America, award-winning journalist Gary Younge tells the stories of the lives lost during one such day. It could have been any day, but he chose November 23, 2013. Black, white, and Latino, aged nine to nineteen, they fell at sleepovers, on street corners, in stairwells, and on their own doorsteps. From the rural Midwest to the barrios of Texas, the narrative crisscrosses the country over a period of twenty-four hours to reveal the full human stories behind the gun-violence statistics and the brief mentions in local papers of lives lost.

This powerful and moving work puts a human face—a child’s face—on the “collateral damage” of gun deaths across the country. This is not a book about gun control, but about what happens in a country where it does not exist. What emerges in these pages is a searing and urgent portrait of youth, family, and firearms in America today.”

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18 .) Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson


Lists It Appears On:

  • The Christian Science Monitor
  • Kirkus
  • NY Times
  • Publishers Weekly
  • The Undefeated
  • Boston Globe

“On September 9, 1971, nearly 1,300 prisoners took over the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York to protest years of mistreatment. Holding guards and civilian employees hostage, the prisoners negotiated with officials for improved conditions during the four long days and nights that followed.

On September 13, the state abruptly sent hundreds of heavily armed troopers and correction officers to retake the prison by force. Their gunfire killed thirty-nine men—hostages as well as prisoners—and severely wounded more than one hundred others. In the ensuing hours, weeks, and months, troopers and officers brutally retaliated against the prisoners. And, ultimately, New York State authorities prosecuted only the prisoners, never once bringing charges against the officials involved in the retaking and its aftermath and neglecting to provide support to the survivors and the families of the men who had been killed.

Drawing from more than a decade of extensive research, historian Heather Ann Thompson sheds new light on every aspect of the uprising and its legacy, giving voice to all those who took part in this forty-five-year fight for justice: prisoners, former hostages, families of the victims, lawyers and judges, and state officials and members of law enforcement. Blood in the Water is the searing and indelible account of one of the most important civil rights stories of the last century.”

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17 .) Lab Girl by Hope Jahren


Lists It Appears On:

  • NPR
  • NY Times
  • Star Tribune
  • Time
  • Shelf Awareness
  • Daniel H. Pink

“An illuminating debut memoir of a woman in science; a moving portrait of a longtime friendship; and a stunningly fresh look at plants that will forever change how you see the natural world

Acclaimed scientist Hope Jahren has built three laboratories in which she’s studied trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Her first book is a revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also so much more.

Lab Girl is a book about work, love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren’s remarkable stories: about her childhood in rural Minnesota with an uncompromising mother and a father who encouraged hours of play in his classroom’s labs; about how she found a sanctuary in science, and learned to perform lab work done “with both the heart and the hands”; and about the inevitable disappointments, but also the triumphs and exhilarating discoveries, of scientific work.”

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16 .) Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi


Lists It Appears On:

  • Chicago Review of Books
  • Buzzfeed
  • Entropy
  • Kirkus
  • Washington Post
  • Boston Globe

“In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. Stamped from the Beginning uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to offer a window into the contentious debates between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and antiracists. From Puritan minister Cotton Mather to Thomas Jefferson, from fiery abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to brilliant scholar W.E.B. Du Bois to legendary anti-prison activist Angela Davis, Kendi shows how and why some of our leading proslavery and pro-civil rights thinkers have challenged or helped cement racist ideas in America.

Contrary to popular conceptions, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. Instead, they were devised and honed by some of the most brilliant minds of each era. These intellectuals used their brilliance to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation’s racial disparities in everything from wealth to health. And while racist ideas are easily produced and easily consumed, they can also be discredited. In shedding much-needed light on the murky history of racist ideas, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose them–and in the process, gives us reason to hope.”

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15 .) The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between by Hisham Matar


Lists It Appears On:

  • Five Books
  • MPR News
  • Good Books Guide
  • NPR
  • NY Times
  • The Economist

“When Hisham Matar was a nineteen-year-old university student in England, his father was kidnapped. One of the Qaddafi regime’s most prominent opponents in exile, he was held in a secret prison in Libya. Hisham would never see him again. But he never gave up hope that his father might still be alive. “Hope,” as he writes, “is cunning and persistent.”

Twenty-two years later, after the fall of Qaddafi, the prison cells are empty and there is no sign of Jaballa Matar. Hisham returns with his mother and wife to the homeland he never thought he’d go back to again. The Return is the story of what he found there. It is at once an exquisite meditation on history, politics, and art, a brilliant portrait of a nation and a people on the cusp of change, and a disquieting depiction of the brutal legacy of absolute power. Above all, it is a universal tale of loss and love and of one family’s life. Hisham Matar asks the harrowing question: How does one go on living in the face of a loved one’s uncertain fate?”

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14 .) Truevine – Two Brothers, a Kidnapping, and a Mother’s Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South by Beth Macy


Lists It Appears On:

  • MPR News
  • Dayton Daily News
  • Kirkus
  • Tampa Bay Times
  • San Francisco Chronicle
  • NY Times

“The year was 1899 and the place a sweltering tobacco farm in the Jim Crow South town of Truevine, Virginia. George and Willie Muse were two little boys born to a sharecropper family. One day a white man offered them a piece of candy, setting off events that would take them around the world and change their lives forever.
Captured into the circus, the Muse brothers performed for royalty at Buckingham Palace and headlined over a dozen sold-out shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden. They were global superstars in a pre-broadcast era. But the very root of their success was in the color of their skin and in the outrageous caricatures they were forced to assume: supposed cannibals, sheep-headed freaks, even “”Ambassadors from Mars.”” Back home, their mother never accepted that they were “”gone”” and spent 28 years trying to get them back.”

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13 .) I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong


Lists It Appears On:

  • MPR News
  • Buzzfeed
  • Medium
  • NPR
  • NY Times
  • Publishers Weekly
  • Star Tribune

“Joining the ranks of popular science classics like The Botany of Desire and The Selfish Gene, a groundbreaking, wondrously informative, and vastly entertaining examination of the most significant revolution in biology since Darwin—a “microbe’s-eye view” of the world that reveals a marvelous, radically reconceived picture of life on earth.

Every animal, whether human, squid, or wasp, is home to millions of bacteria and other microbes. Ed Yong, whose humor is as evident as his erudition, prompts us to look at ourselves and our animal companions in a new light—less as individuals and more as the interconnected, interdependent multitudes we assuredly are.

The microbes in our bodies are part of our immune systems and protect us from disease. In the deep oceans, mysterious creatures without mouths or guts depend on microbes for all their energy. Bacteria provide squid with invisibility cloaks, help beetles to bring down forests, and allow worms to cause diseases that afflict millions of people.”

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12 .) March: Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell


Lists It Appears On:

  • Buzzfeed
  • Chicago Tribune
  • Time
  • Bookriot
  • NPR
  • The Horn Book
  • Daniel H. Pink

“By the fall of 1963, the Civil Rights Movement has penetrated deep into the American consciousness, and as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, John Lewis is guiding the tip of the spear. Through relentless direct action, SNCC continues to force the nation to confront its own blatant injustice, but for every step forward, the danger grows more intense: Jim Crow strikes back through legal tricks, intimidation, violence, and death. The only hope for lasting change is to give voice to the millions of Americans silenced by voter suppression: “”One Man, One Vote.””

To carry out their nonviolent revolution, Lewis and an army of young activists launch a series of innovative campaigns, including the Freedom Vote, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and an all-out battle for the soul of the Democratic Party waged live on national television.
With these new struggles come new allies, new opponents, and an unpredictable new president who might be both at once. But fractures within the movement are deepening … even as 25-year-old John Lewis prepares to risk everything in a historic showdown high above the Alabama river, in a town called Selma.”

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11 .) Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer


Lists It Appears On:

  • Ripr
  • Goodreads
  • Caroline County Public Library
  • Medium
  • NPR
  • NY Times
  • Washington Post
  • San Francisco Chronicle

“Why is America living in an age of profound economic inequality? Why, despite the desperate need to address climate change, have even modest environmental efforts been defeated again and again? Why have protections for employees been decimated? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers?
The conventional answer is that a popular uprising against “big government” led to the ascendancy of a broad-based conservative movement. But as Jane Mayer shows in this powerful, meticulously reported history, a network of exceedingly wealthy people with extreme libertarian views bankrolled a systematic, step-by-step plan to fundamentally alter the American political system.
The network has brought together some of the richest people on the planet. Their core beliefs—that taxes are a form of tyranny; that government oversight of business is an assault on freedom—are sincerely held. But these beliefs also advance their personal and corporate interests: Many of their companies have run afoul of federal pollution, worker safety, securities, and tax laws.”

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10 .) The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee


Lists It Appears On:

  • Hudson Booksellers
  • Marginal Revolution
  • NPR
  • NY Times
  • Seattle Times
  • The Globe and Mail
  • San Francisco Chronicle 2
  • Medium

“Siddhartha Mukherjee has a written a biography of the gene as deft, brilliant, and illuminating as his extraordinarily successful biography of cancer. Weaving science, social history, and personal narrative to tell us the story of one of the most important conceptual breakthroughs of modern times, Mukherjee animates the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices.

Throughout the narrative, the story of Mukherjee’s own family—with its tragic and bewildering history of mental illness—cuts like a bright, red line, reminding us of the many questions that hang over our ability to translate the science of genetics from the laboratory to the real world. In superb prose and with an instinct for the dramatic scene, he describes the centuries of research and experimentation—from Aristotle and Pythagoras to Mendel and Darwin, from Boveri and Morgan to Crick, Watson and Franklin, all the way through the revolutionary twenty-first century innovators who mapped the human genome.”

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9 .) The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing


Lists It Appears On:

  • Verso
  • Entropy
  • Good Books Guide
  • Goodreads
  • NPR
  • Publishers Weekly
  • The Globe and Mail
  • The Spinoff

“What does it mean to be lonely? How do we live, if we’re not intimately engaged with another human being? How do we connect with other people? Does technology draw us closer together or trap us behind screens?

When Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her mid-thirties, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis. Increasingly fascinated by this most shameful of experiences, she began to explore the lonely city by way of art. Moving fluidly between works and lives – from Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks to Andy Warhol’s Time Capsules, from Henry Darger’s hoarding to David Wojnarowicz’s AIDS activism – Laing conducts an electric, dazzling investigation into what it means to be alone.”

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8 .) The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race by Jesmyn Ward


Lists It Appears On:

  • Bookriot
  • Buzzfeed
  • Entropy
  • Goodreads
  • MPR News
  • NPR
  • Publishers Weekly
  • San Francisco Chronicle 2
  • The Undefeated

“In light of recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation, The Progressive magazine republished one of its most famous pieces: James Baldwin’s 1962 “Letter to My Nephew,” which was later published in his landmark book, The Fire Next Time. Addressing his fifteen-year-old namesake on the one hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Baldwin wrote: “You know and I know, that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon.”

Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward knows that Baldwin’s words ring as true as ever today. In response, she has gathered short essays, memoir, and a few essential poems to engage the question of race in the United States. And she has turned to some of her generation’s most original thinkers and writers to give voice to their concerns.”

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7 .) White Trash, the 400-year untold story of class in America by Nancy Isenberg


Lists It Appears On:

  • Brian Fanelli
  • MPR News
  • NPR
  • NY Times
  • Publishers Weekly
  • Ripr
  • San Francisco Chronicle 2
  • The Globe and Mail
  • Washington Post

Surveying political rhetoric and policy, popular literature and scientific theories over four hundred years, Isenberg upends assumptions about America’s supposedly class-free society––where liberty and hard work were meant to ensure real social mobility. Poor whites were central to the rise of the Republican Party in the early nineteenth century, and the Civil War itself was fought over class issues nearly as much as it was fought over slavery. Reconstruction pitted poor white trash against newly freed slaves, which factored in the rise of eugenics–-a widely popular movement embraced by Theodore Roosevelt that targeted poor whites for sterilization. These poor were at the heart of New Deal reforms and LBJ’s Great Society; they haunt us in reality TV shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty. Marginalized as a class, white trash have always been at or near the center of major political debates over the character of the American identity.

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6 .) Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen


Lists It Appears On:

  • Buzzfeed
  • Medium
  • NPR
  • NY Times
  • Philly
  • Publishers Weekly
  • San Francisco Chronicle 2
  • Tampa Bay Times
  • The Economist
  • The Globe and Mail

“Born to Run will be revelatory for anyone who has ever enjoyed Bruce Springsteen, but this book is much more than a legendary rock star’s memoir. This is a book for workers and dreamers, parents and children, lovers and loners, artists, freaks, or anyone who has ever wanted to be baptized in the holy river of rock and roll.
Rarely has a performer told his own story with such force and sweep. Like many of his songs (“Thunder Road,” “Badlands,” “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “The River,” “Born in the U.S.A,” “The Rising,” and “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” to name just a few), Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography is written with the lyricism of a singular songwriter and the wisdom of a man who has thought deeply about his experiences. “

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5 .) Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance


Lists It Appears On:

  • Amazon
  • Brian Fanelli
  • Englewood Review
  • Hudson Booksellers
  • NPR
  • San Francisco Chronicle 2
  • Seattle Times
  • The Economist
  • Time
  • Washington Post

“Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility.

But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that this is only the short, superficial version. Vance’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. Vance piercingly shows how he himself still carries around the demons of their chaotic family history.”

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4 .) Second Hand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich, trans. from the Russian by Bela Shayevich


Lists It Appears On:

  • Buzzfeed
  • Caroline County Public Library
  • Five Books
  • Good Books Guide
  • Kirkus
  • NPR
  • NY Times
  • Publishers Weekly
  • Readings
  • San Francisco Chronicle
  • The Christian Science Monitor

“When the Swedish Academy awarded Svetlana Alexievich the Nobel Prize, it cited her for inventing “a new kind of literary genre,” describing her work as “a history of emotions—a history of the soul.” Alexievich’s distinctive documentary style, combining extended individual monologues with a collage of voices, records the stories of ordinary women and men who are rarely given the opportunity to speak, whose experiences are often lost in the official histories of the nation.

In Secondhand Time, Alexievich chronicles the demise of communism. Everyday Russian citizens recount the past thirty years, showing us what life was like during the fall of the Soviet Union and what it’s like to live in the new Russia left in its wake. Through interviews spanning 1991 to 2012, Alexievich takes us behind the propaganda and contrived media accounts, giving us a panoramic portrait of contemporary Russia and Russians who still carry memories of oppression, terror, famine, massacres—but also of pride in their country, hope for the future, and a belief that everyone was working and fighting together to bring about a utopia. Here is an account of life in the aftermath of an idea so powerful it once dominated a third of the world.

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3 .) Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin


Lists It Appears On:

  • Boston Globe
  • Buzzfeed
  • Good Books Guide
  • MPR News
  • NPR
  • NY Times
  • Publishers Weekly
  • San Francisco Chronicle 2
  • Seattle Times
  • Time
  • Washington Post

“The increasingly prescient Jackson emerges as a ferociously talented, determined, and prodigiously creative writer in a time when it was unusual for a woman to have both a family and a profession. A mother of four and the wife of the prominent New Yorker critic and academic Stanley Edgar Hyman, Jackson lived a seemingly bucolic life in the New England town of North Bennington, Vermont. Yet, much like her stories, which channeled the occult while exploring the claustrophobia of marriage and motherhood, Jackson’s creative ascent was haunted by a darker side. As her career progressed, her marriage became more tenuous, her anxiety mounted, and she became addicted to amphetamines and tranquilizers. In sobering detail, Franklin insightfully examines the effects of Jackson’s California upbringing, in the shadow of a hypercritical mother, on her relationship with her husband, juxtaposing Hyman’s infidelities, domineering behavior, and professional jealousy with his unerring admiration for Jackson’s fiction, which he was convinced was among the most brilliant he had ever encountered.

Based on a wealth of previously undiscovered correspondence and dozens of new interviews, Shirley Jackson―an exploration of astonishing talent shaped by a damaging childhood and turbulent marriage―becomes the definitive biography of a generational avatar and an American literary giant.

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2 .) When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi


Lists It Appears On:

  • Caroline County Public Library
  • Entropy
  • Hudson Booksellers
  • Kirkus
  • Medium
  • NPR
  • NY Times
  • Publishers Weekly
  • Shelf Awareness
  • The Economist
  • The Globe and Mail

“At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.”

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1 .) Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond


Lists It Appears On:

  • Amazon
  • Boston Globe
  • Buzzfeed
  • Chicago Review of Books
  • Chicago Tribune
  • Daniel H. Pink
  • Good Books Guide
  • Goodreads
  • Kirkus
  • MPR News
  • NPR
  • NY Times
  • Publishers Weekly
  • San Francisco Chronicle
  • Shelf Awareness
  • The Christian Science Monitor

“In this brilliant, heartbreaking book, Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge. Arleen is a single mother trying to raise her two sons on the $20 a month she has left after paying for their rundown apartment. Scott is a gentle nurse consumed by a heroin addiction. Lamar, a man with no legs and a neighborhood full of boys to look after, tries to work his way out of debt. Vanetta participates in a botched stickup after her hours are cut. All are spending almost everything they have on rent, and all have fallen behind.

The fates of these families are in the hands of two landlords: Sherrena Tarver, a former schoolteacher turned inner-city entrepreneur, and Tobin Charney, who runs one of the worst trailer parks in Milwaukee. They loathe some of their tenants and are fond of others, but as Sherrena puts it, “Love don’t pay the bills.” She moves to evict Arleen and her boys a few days before Christmas.

Even in the most desolate areas of American cities, evictions used to be rare. But today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their income on housing, and eviction has become ordinary, especially for single mothers. In vivid, intimate prose, Desmond provides a ground-level view of one of the most urgent issues facing America today. As we see families forced into shelters, squalid apartments, or more dangerous neighborhoods, we bear witness to the human cost of America’s vast inequality—and to people’s determination and intelligence in the face of hardship.”

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The Remaining 547 Best Nonfiction Books of 2016



 

# Book Author Lists
(Appear on 3 Lists Each)
36 A Rage For Order: The Middle East In Turmoil, From Tahrir Square To ISIS Robert F. Worth NPR
NY Times
Publishers Weekly
37 Am I Alone Here? Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live Peter Orner Buzzfeed
San Francisco Chronicle 2
Good Books Guide
38 Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon Larry Tye Conversations Mag
Ripr
Washington Post
39 Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood Trevor Noah Good Books Guide
NPR
Philly
40 Boy Erased Garrard Conley Largehearted Boy
Buzzfeed
Shelf Awareness
41 Eleanor Roosevelt: The War Years and After: Vol. 3: 1939-1962 Blanche Wiesen Cook NPR
San Francisco Chronicle 2
NY Times
42 Future Sex Emily Witt Entropy
Verso
Post Matter
43 Grit Angela Duckworth Conversations Mag
Goodreads
Daniel H. Pink
44 Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies Ross King The Christian Science Monitor
CBA
Boston Globe
45 On Trails: An Exploration Robert Moor Seattle Times
Amazon
Boston Globe
46 Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World Adam M. Grant Goodreads
NPR
Daniel H. Pink
47 Pit Bull: The Battle Over An American Icon Bronwen Dickey NPR
Boston Globe
San Francisco Chronicle 2
48 Pumpkinflowers Matti Friedman CBA
NY Times
The Globe and Mail
49 Shrill: Notes From A Loud Woman Lindy West MPR News
NPR
The Globe and Mail
50 Sing for Your Life: A Story of Race, Music, and Family Daniel Bergner NY Times
Publishers Weekly
Washington Post
51 Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right Arlie Russell Hochschild Ripr
NY Times
San Francisco Chronicle 2
52 The Art of Waiting Belle Boggs Largehearted Boy
Buzzfeed
The Globe and Mail
53 The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads Timothy Wu Philly
The Globe and Mail
San Francisco Chronicle 2
54 The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts Joshua Hammer MPR News
NPR
Washington Post
55 The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America Ethan Michaeli Chicago Review of Books
Washington Post
NY Times
56 The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt and the Struggle for Social Justice Patricia Bell-Scott The Christian Science Monitor
Washington Post
San Francisco Chronicle 2
57 The Gunning of America: Business and the Making of American Gun Culture Pamela Haag Washington Post
San Francisco Chronicle 2
Englewood Review
58 The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America Andrés Reséndez Chicago Review of Books
NPR
San Francisco Chronicle 2
59 The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father Kao Kalia Yang Star Tribune
Twin Cities
Boston Globe
60 The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation Natalie Y. Moore Chicago Review of Books
Buzzfeed
The Undefeated
61 The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine Ben Ehrenreich Entropy
The Economist
San Francisco Chronicle 2
62 White Sands: Experiences From the Outside World Geoff Dyer Largehearted Boy
Good Books Guide
San Francisco Chronicle 2
63 You’ll Grow Out Of It Jessi Klein NPR
NY Times
Time
(Books Appear on 2 Lists Each)
64 A Field Guide to Lies Daniel J. Levitin Dallas Voice
The Globe and Mail
65 A Kingdom of Their Own: The Family Karzai and the Afghan Disaster Joshua Partlow Publishers Weekly
Washington Post
66 Adnan’s Story: The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial Rabia Chaudry Goodreads
Washington Post
67 Against Everything: Essays Mark Greif Good Books Guide
San Francisco Chronicle 2
68 American Heiress Jeffrey Toobin MPR News
NY Times
69 An Indigenous People’s History of the United States Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz Brian Fanelli
Verso
70 An Iron Wind Peter Fritzsche The Christian Science Monitor
NY Times
71 Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton Marginal Revolution
Buzzfeed
72 Beryl Bainbridge: Love by All Sorts of Means Brendan King The Spinoff
Good Books Guide
73 Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary Joe Jackson Star Tribune
Boston Globe
74 Blood, Bone, and Marrow: A Biography of Harry Crews Ted Geltner Publishers Weekly
Tampa Bay Times
75 Brown Kamal Al-Solaylee CBA
The Globe and Mail
76 Bullies: A Friendship Alex Abramovich NPR
Buzzfeed
77 CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping Kerry Brown Marginal Revolution
The Economist
78 Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley Antonio Garcia Martinez Amazon
NPR
79 Closer Sarah Barmak CBA
The Globe and Mail
80 East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity Philippe Sands Five Books
The Economist
81 Ego Is the Enemy Ryan Holiday Goodreads
NPR
82 Far & Away Andrew Solomon Conversations Mag
NY Times
83 Ghetto: The Invention of a Place, the History of an Idea Mitchell Duneier NY Times
Publishers Weekly
84 Ghostland: An American History In Haunted Places Colin Dickey NPR
Shelf Awareness
85 Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas De Quincey Frances Wilson Good Books Guide
Publishers Weekly
86 Hamilton: The Revolution Lin-Manuel Miranda Goodreads
NPR
87 His Final Battle, The Last Months of Franklin Roosevelt Joe Lelyveld Ripr
NY Times
88 Hitler: A Biography: Volume I: Ascent, 1889-1939 Volker Ullrich Good Books Guide
NY Times
89 Homo Deus: A Brief History of the Future Yuval Noah Harari Boomerang Blog
Post Matter
90 How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales From the Pentagon Rosa Brooks NY Times
San Francisco Chronicle 2
91 I Will Find You Joanna Connors Dallas Voice
Chicago Review of Books
92 Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, And The Sterilization Of Carrie Buck Adam Cohen NPR
Boston Globe
93 India’s War: World War II and the Making of Modern South Asia Srinath Raghavan Marginal Revolution
Good Books Guide
94 Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man’s Education Mychal Denzel Smith Chicago Review of Books
The Undefeated
95 Invisible North Alexandra Shimo CBA
The Globe and Mail
96 Joe Gould’s Teeth Jill Lepore NPR
San Francisco Chronicle 2
97 John Aubrey, My Own Life Ruth Scurr Publishers Weekly
Washington Post
98 Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion Gareth Stedman Jones Good Books Guide
The Economist
99 Landmarks Robert Macfarlane NPR
Seattle Times
100 Louisa: The Extraordinary Life Of Mrs. Adams Louisa Thomas NPR
San Francisco Chronicle 2
101 Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet Lyndal Roper Marginal Revolution
Good Books Guide
102 Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts Christopher de Hamel Marginal Revolution
The Economist
103 Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives Tim Harford Amazon
Marginal Revolution
104 Midnight in Broad Daylight Pamela Rotner Sakamoto Seattle Times
Good Books Guide
105 Moscow Nights: The Van Cliburn Story: How One Man and His Piano Transformed the Cold War Nigel Cliff Star Tribune
Boston Globe
106 Negroland: A Memoir Margo Jefferson Five Books
The Economist
107 New England Bound Wendy Warren The Christian Science Monitor
NY Times
108 Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War Viet Thanh Nguyen Entropy
Good Books Guide
109 Patient H.M.: A Story Of Memory, Madness, And Family Secrets Luke Dittrich NPR
Washington Post
110 Radiant Child: The Story Of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat Javaka Steptoe NPR
The Horn Book
111 Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency David Greenberg Ripr
Washington Post
112 Searching for John Hughes Jason Diamond Entropy
Chicago Review of Books
113 Seven Brief Lessons On Physics Carlo Rovelli NPR
Daniel H. Pink
114 Sex Object Jessica Valenti Chicago Review of Books
NPR
115 Some Writer!: The Story of E. B. White Melissa Sweet Star Tribune
The Horn Book
116 Ten Restaurants that Changed America Paul Freedman Washington Post
Daniel H. Pink
117 The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old and New Annie Dillard Amazon
NPR
118 The Arab of the Future 2 Riad Sattouf Daniel H. Pink
NPR
119 The Bitch is Back, a collection of essays edited Cathi Hanauer Dallas Voice
NPR
120 The Boys in the Bunkhouse Dan Barry Ripr
Kirkus
121 The Caped Crusade: Batman And The Rise Of Nerd Culture Glen Weldon NPR
Washington Post
122 The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe Elaine Showalter Seattle Times
The Economist
123 The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West Peter Cozzens Seattle Times
San Francisco Chronicle 2
124 The End of Karma: Hope and Fury Among India’s Young Somini Sengupta Seattle Times
The Economist
125 The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World’s Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley Eric Weiner Amazon
Washington Post
126 The Hate Race Maxine Beneba Clarke Boomerang Blog
Readings
127 The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks Terry Tempest Williams Amazon
Washington Post
128 The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria Janine di Giovanni Good Books Guide
Kirkus
129 The Narrow Door: A Memoir of Friendship Paul Lisicky Largehearted Boy
Shelf Awareness
130 The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team Ben Lindbergh Goodreads
NPR
131 The Point Is: Making Sense Of Birth, Death, And Everything In Between Lee Eisenberg Dallas Voice
NPR
132 The Red Parts: Autobiography Of A Trial Maggie Nelson NPR
San Francisco Chronicle 2
133 The Return of History Jennifer Welsh CBA
The Globe and Mail
134 The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain Bill Bryson Hudson Booksellers
Washington Post
135 The Selfishness Of Others: An Essay On The Fear Of Narcissism Kristin Dombek NPR
Shelf Awareness
136 The Vanishing Velázquez: A 19th Century Bookseller’s Obsession With A Lost Masterpiece Laura Cumming NPR
Good Books Guide
137 The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction Neil Gaiman Goodreads
Hudson Booksellers
138 The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer Kate Summerscale Publishers Weekly
Good Books Guide
139 This is Not My Life Diane Schoemperlen CBA
The Globe and Mail
140 Trouble Boys: The True Story Of The Replacements Bob Mehr NPR
Philly
141 Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money and Power Michael Kranish and Marc Fish Philly
Washington Post
142 Where Am I Now?: True Stories Of Girlhood And Accidental Fame Mara Wilson Chicago Review of Books
NPR
143 Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File John Edgar Wideman Boston Globe
San Francisco Chronicle 2
144 You Can’t Touch My Hair Phoebe Robinson MPR News
Bookriot
145 You Only Live Twice Chase Joynt and Mike Hoolboom CBA
The Globe and Mail
(Books Appear on 1 List Each)
146 “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs”: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf San Francisco Chronicle 2
147 @NATGEO: The Most Popular Instagram Photos National Geographic Conversations Mag
148 1971: Never A Dull Moment David Hepworth The Spinoff
149 24 Hours at the Somme Robert Kershaw The Book Bag
150 32 Yolks: From My Mother’s Table To Working The Line Eric Ripert, with Veronica Chambers NPR
151 6 Week Money Challenge Steve Repak Conversations Mag
152 A Bestiary Lily Hoang Entropy
153 A Burglar’s Guide to the City Geoff Manaugh Amazon
154 A Disappearance in Damascus Deborah Campbell CBA
155 A Good Death Sandra Martin CBA
156 A GOOD DEATH: MAKING THE MOST OF OUR FINAL CHOICES SANDRA MARTIN The Globe and Mail
157 A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota Twin Cities
158 A Life Beyond Boundaries Benedict Anderson Marginal Revolution
159 A Notable Woman Jean Lucey Pratt Marginal Revolution
160 A Pillow Book Suzanne Buffam Entropy
161 A Primer for Cadavers Ed Atkins Post Matter
162 A Smile of Hope Ma Victoria Sarte-Perez & Zenaida Roy-Almario Conversations Mag
163 A Truck Full Of Money Tracy Kidder Caroline County Public Library
164 Adventures in Grocery Shopping, and Other Short Stories from a Cereal Aisle Aficionado Dan May Philly
165 Against the Tide J. H. Sullivan Conversations Mag
166 Algren: A Life Mary Wisniewski Chicago Review of Books
167 Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built Duncan Clark The Economist
168 Alive, Alive Oh!: And Other Things That Matter Diana Athill NPR
169 Alligator Candy: A Memoir David Kushner NPR
170 Almighty: Courage, Resistance, and Existential Peril in the Nuclear Age Dan Zak Washington Post
171 America’s War for the Greater Middle East Andrew J. Bacevich The Christian Science Monitor
172 America’s Social Arsonist: Fred Ross and Grassroots Organizing in the Twentieth Century Gabriel Thompson San Francisco Chronicle 2
173 American Governor Matt Katz Philly
174 American Pharoah: The Untold Story of the Triple Crown Winner’s Legendary Rise Joe Drape Philly
175 American Philosophy: A Love Story John Kaag NPR
176 American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant Ronald C. White Shelf Awareness
177 An Abbreviated Life Ariel Leve MPR News
178 AN INTIMATE WILDERNESS: ARCTIC VOICES IN A LAND OF VAST HORIZONS NORMAN HALLENDY The Globe and Mail
179 And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East Richard Engel Goodreads
180 Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution Devyn Spence Benson The Undefeated
181 Apostle: Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve Tom Bissell Marginal Revolution
182 Ardor Roberto Calasso Verso
183 Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? Frans de Waal Publishers Weekly
184 Around The Way Girl: A Memoir Taraji P. Henson, with Denene Millner NPR
185 Ask Angelo Angelo Ellerbee Conversations Mag
186 Assimilate or Go Home: Notes from a Failed Missionary on Rediscovering Faith D.L. Mayfield Englewood Review
187 Athenian Prostitution: The Business of Sex polymath University of Pennsylvania professor Edward E. Cohen Philly
188 Avid Reader: A Life Robert Gottlieb Washington Post
189 Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship Anjan Sundaram Amazon
190 BAD SINGER: THE SURPRISING SCIENCE OF TONE DEAFNESS AND HOW WE HEAR MUSIC TIM FALCONER The Globe and Mail
191 Balls: It Takes Some to Get Some Chris Edwards Shelf Awareness
192 Bandit: A Daughter’s Memoir Molly Brodak Entropy
193 BASED ON A TRUE STORY NORM MACDONALD The Globe and Mail
194 Becoming Jane Jacobs Peter Laurence Marginal Revolution
195 Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family(paperback) Amy Ellis Nutt Daniel H. Pink
196 Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living Krista Tippett Washington Post
197 Beethoven for a Later Age: Living with the String Quartets Edward Dusinberre The Economist
198 Being a Beast: Adventures Across the Species Divide Charles Foster Shelf Awareness
199 Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End (paperback) Atul Gawande Daniel H. Pink
200 Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Memoir of a Writer’s Awakening Ngugi wa Thiong’o Publishers Weekly
201 Black Liberation and Socialism Ahmed Shawki Verso
202 Black Lotus: A Woman’s Search For Racial Identity Sil Lai Abrams NPR
203 Black Wind, White Snow: The Rise of Russia’s New Nationalism Charles Clover The Economist
204 Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility Ashon T. Crawley Entropy
205 Bloomsbury South: The Arts in Christchurch 1933-1953 Peter Simpson The Spinoff
206 Bookshelf (Object Lessons) Lydia Pyne The Book Bag
207 Boys Among Men: How The Prep-To-Pro Generation Redefined The NBA And Sparked A Basketball Revolution Jonathan Abrams NPR
208 Bruja Wendy C. Ortiz Entropy
209 Bullet Riddled Grant M. Whitus Conversations Mag
210 Bush Jean Edward Smith Washington Post
211 But What If We’re Wrong? Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past Chuck Klosterman Goodreads
212 But You Did Not Come Back Marceline Loridan-Ivens The Economist
213 Calamities Renee Gladman Entropy
214 Can You Tolerate This? Ashleigh Young The Spinoff
215 Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Indigenous Histories, Memories, and Reclamations, Jacqueline Fear-Segal and Susan D. Rose Philly
216 Carry On Lisa Fenn Conversations Mag
217 Charlotte Brontë: A Fiery Heart Claire Harman Seattle Times
218 Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran Laura Secor San Francisco Chronicle 2
219 China’s Crony Capitalism: The Dynamics of Regime Decay Minxin Pei The Economist
220 China’s Future David Shambaugh The Economist
221 Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction Mary Ellen Hannibal San Francisco Chronicle 2
222 CITY OF DREAMS: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York Tyler Anbinder NY Times
223 Cleverlands: The Secrets Behind the Success of the World’s Education Superpowers Lucy Crehan The Economist
224 Cockroaches Scholastique Mukasonga Entropy
225 Code Warriors: NSA’s Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union Stephen Budiansky Washington Post
226 Communal Nude: Collected Essays Robert Gluck Entropy
227 Concrete Economics: The Hamilton Approach to Economic Growth and Policy Bradford DeLong and Stephen Cohen Philly
228 Confabulations John Berger Post Matter
229 Consequence: A Memoir Eric Fair NPR
230 Constance Fenimore Woolson Anne Boyd Rioux Chicago Tribune
231 Continental Drift: Britain and Europe from the End of Empire to the Rise of Euroscepticism Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon Marginal Revolution
232 Cracking the Cube Ian Scheffler Conversations Mag
233 Critics, Monsters, Fanatics, and Other Literary Essays Cynthia Ozick Good Books Guide
234 Crossing The Borders Of Time Leslie Maitland Caroline County Public Library
235 Crow Smarts: Inside the Brain of the World’s Brightest Bird Pamela S. Turner, photos The Horn Book
236 Dante: The Story of His Life Marco Santagana Marginal Revolution
237 Dark Ages Ahead Jane Jacobs Verso
238 Dark Ecology Timothy Morton Post Matter
239 Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World Cal Newport Goodreads
240 Defenseless Under the Night: The Roosevelt Years and the Origins of Homeland Security Matthew Dallek Washington Post
241 Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life Bill Burnett & Dave Evans Daniel H. Pink
242 Destiny and Power Jon Meacham Conversations Mag
243 Destiny of the Republic Candice Millard Caroline County Public Library
244 Diamonds From the Rough anthology presented Tricia Pollard Conversations Mag
245 Discognition Steven Shaviro Entropy
246 Diving Makes the Water Deep Zach Savich Entropy
247 Don’t Be a Jerk: And Other Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan’s Greatest Zen Master Brad Warner Goodreads
248 Double-Edged Sword Simonne Butler with Andra Jenkin The Spinoff
249 Dust (Object Lessons) Michael Marder, edited NPR
250 Eat My Schwartz Geoff and Mitch Schwartz Conversations Mag
251 Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story John Bloom The Economist
252 Ecology Without Nature Timothy Morton Verso
253 El Olvido Que Seremos Héctor Abad Faciolince Verso
254 Eleanor And Hick: The Love Affair That Shaped A First Lady Susan Quinn NPR
255 Elephant Complex: Travels In Sri Lanka John Gimlette NPR
256 Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years John Guy The Economist
257 Engines of Liberty: The Power of Citizen Activists to Make Constitutional Law David Cole Washington Post
258 Enough Said: What’s Gone Wrong with the Language of Politics Mark Thompson Publishers Weekly
259 epilogue Juliet Patterson Entropy
260 EPIPHANY MICHAEL COREN The Globe and Mail
261 Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens Steve Olson Amazon
262 Estranger Erik Anderson Entropy
263 Everybody Behaves Badly: The True Story Behind Hemingway’s Masterpiece The Sun Also Rises , Lesley M.M. Blume Washington Post
264 Everything is Teeth Evie Wyld MPR News
265 Everywhere I Look Helen Garner Readings
266 Exit Right: The People Who Left the Left and Reshaped the American Century Daniel Oppenheimer Washington Post
267 Eyes On The Street: The Life Of Jane Jacobs Robert Kanigel NPR
268 Falling Free: Rescued from the Life I Always Wanted Shannan Martin Englewood Review
269 Farewell Kabul: From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World Christina Lamb Washington Post
270 Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution Ruth Scurr Verso
271 Fierce Optimism Leeza Gibbons Conversations Mag
272 Fight Like a Girl Clementine Ford Readings
273 Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews 1933-49 David Cesarani Good Books Guide
274 Fire Shut Up In My Bones Charles M. Blow Caroline County Public Library
275 Firewater Harold R. Johnson CBA
276 Floodpath: The Deadliest Man-Made Disaster of 20th-Century America and the Making of Modern Los Angeles Jon Wilkman Amazon
277 Forty Autumns Nina Willner The Christian Science Monitor
278 Franklinstein Susan Landers Entropy
279 Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World Timothy Garton Ash The Economist
280 Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives And Dreams Brought To Life Ashley Bryan NPR
281 From #Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor Verso
282 From Abuse to Abundance Jamila Battle Conversations Mag
283 From Crisis to Calling Sasha Chanoff and David Chanoff Conversations Mag
284 From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives Jeffrey E. Garten Amazon
285 FROM THE WAR ON POVERTY TO THE WAR ON CRIME: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America Elizabeth Hinton NY Times
286 Gently to Nagasaki Joy Kogawa CBA
287 Giant Squid Candace Fleming, illustrated The Horn Book
288 Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalisation Branko Milanovic The Economist
289 Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian American Daughters on Obedience and Rebellion edited Piyali Bhattacharya Entropy
290 Gramsci’s Common Sense: Inequality and Its Narratives Kate Crehan Verso
291 Grant and I Robert Forster Readings
292 Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War Mar Roach Hudson Booksellers
293 Habit Changers M. J. Ryan Conversations Mag
294 Half-Lion: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Transformed India Vinay Sitapati The Economist
295 Hamilton Richard Sylla Star Tribune
296 Head in the Cloud William Poundstone Dallas Voice
297 Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire Peter Wilson The Economist
298 Heart of St. Paul: A History of the Pioneer and Endicott Buildings Larry Millett Twin Cities
299 History of Islamic Philosophy Henry Corbin Verso
300 Hitler’s Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich Ben H. Shepherd Marginal Revolution
301 Housman Country: Into the Heart of England Peter Parker, Marginal Revolution
302 How the Post Office Created America Winifred Gallagher Dayton Daily News
303 How To Be A Person In The World: Ask Polly’s Guide Through The Paradoxes Of Modern Life Heather Havrilesky NPR
304 How To Be A Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide To Tudor Life Ruth Goodman NPR
305 How to Have a Good Day Caroline Webb Conversations Mag
306 How to Know What’s Really Happening Francis McKee Post Matter
307 How to Listen to Jazz Ted Gioia The Economist
308 Hustle Sarah Centrella Conversations Mag
309 I Am Pan! Mordicai Gerstein The Horn Book
310 I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual Luvvie Ajayi NPR
311 I’ll Tell You in Person: Essays Chloe Caldwell Entropy
312 I’m Supposed to Protect You From All This Nadja Spiegelman Entropy
313 In a Different Key: The Story of Autism John Donvan and Caren Zucker Washington Post
314 In Europe’s Shadow: Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey Through Romania and Beyond Robert D. Kaplan Philly
315 IN GRATITUDE Jenny Diski NY Times
316 In Love with These Times: My Life with Flying Nun Records Roger Shepherd The Spinoff
317 IN OTHER WORDS JHUMPA LAHIRI The Globe and Mail
318 IN THE DARKROOM Susan Faludi NY Times
319 IN-BETWEEN DAYS: A MEMOIR ABOUT LIVING WITH CANCER TEVA HARRISON The Globe and Mail
320 Incarceration Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World Baz Dreisinger Washington Post
321 Insanity, Passion, and Addiction: A Year Inside the Chess World Daniel Gormally Marginal Revolution
322 Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World Thomas F. Madden Good Books Guide
323 It’s Okay to Laugh (Crying is Cool Too) Nora McInerny Purmort Twin Cities
324 Jane Austen Mansfiend Park Deidre Shauna Lynch Star Tribune
325 Jonathan Swift: The Reluctant Rebel John Stubbs Good Books Guide
326 Journey to Heal Crystal M. Sutherland Conversations Mag
327 Jungle of Stone: The True Story of Two Men, Their Extraordinary Journey, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya William Carlsen Amazon
328 Keeping On keeping On Alan Bennett Good Books Guide
329 Kenneth Clark: Life, Art and “Civilisation” James Stourton The Economist
330 KooKooLand Gloria Norris NPR
331 Krazy: George Herriman, a Life in Black and White Michael Tisserand Tampa Bay Times
332 Lead with Your Heart Allan J. Hamilton, MD Conversations Mag
333 Lenin on the Train Catherine Merridale The Economist
334 Leninism Under Lenin Marcel Liebman Verso
335 Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved & Died in The 1940s Anne Sebba The Spinoff
336 Let Me Out Peter Himmelman Conversations Mag
337 Letter to an Imaginary Friend Tom McGrath Twin Cities
338 Liar Rob Roberge Entropy
339 Life Is Not an Accident Jay Williams Conversations Mag
340 Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious David Dark Englewood Review
341 Literary Wonderlands Laura Miller Star Tribune
342 Little Labors Rivka Galchen NPR
343 Look at You Now Liz Pryor Conversations Mag
344 Looking for Betty MacDonald: The Egg, the Plague, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and I Paula Becker Washington Post
345 Love for Sale: Pop Music in America David Hajdu Publishers Weekly
346 Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality Debbie Cenziper and Jim Obergefell Washington Post
347 Lucky Bastard: My Life, My Dad, And The Things I’m Not Allowed To Say On TV Joe Buck NPR
348 M Train Philly
349 Madonnaland: And Other Detours Into Fame And Fandom Alina Simone NPR
350 Mansfield & Me: A Graphic Memoir Sarah Laing The Spinoff
351 Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies Kevin Anderson Verso
352 Melancholy László F. Földényi Marginal Revolution
353 Melba’s American Comfort Melba Wilson Conversations Mag
354 Mexican Hooker #1 Carmen Aguirre CBA
355 Mincemeat: The Education of an Italian Chef Leonardo Lucarelli Shelf Awareness
356 Minecraft Exploded Builds: Medieval Fortress Mojang AB The Book Bag
357 Mission Robert Matzen Caroline County Public Library
358 Modern potluck Caroline County Public Library
359 Modified: GMOs and the Threat to Our Food, Our Land, Our Future Caitlin Shetterly Publishers Weekly
360 Muhammad Ali: A Tribute to the Greatest Thomas Hauser The Spinoff
361 My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir Chris Offutt Publishers Weekly
362 My Father’s Island: A Memoir Adam Dudding The Spinoff
363 My Marathon: Reflections On A Gold Medal Life Frank Shorter, with John Brant NPR
364 My Own Words Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Washington Post
365 Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel Tom Wainwright Amazon
366 Native: Dispatches From An Israeli-Palestinian Life Sayed Kashua NPR
367 Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It Chris Voss and Tahl Raz The Book Bag
368 Nobody’s Son: A Memoir Mark Slouka Good Books Guide
369 Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro San Francisco Chronicle 2
370 Old Records Never Die Hudson Booksellers
371 Once They Were Hats: In Search of the Mighty Beaver Frances Backhouse Seattle Times
372 One of These Things First Steven Gaines Boston Globe
373 OPIUM EATER: THE NEW CONFESSIONS CARLYN ZWARENSTEIN The Globe and Mail
374 Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap Ben Westhoff The Undefeated
375 ORSON WELLES. Volume 3: One-Man Band Simon Callow NY Times
376 Outlandish Knight: The Byzantine Life of Steven Runciman Minoo Dinshaw The Economist
377 Paracuellos Volume 1 Carlos Giménez NPR
378 Party Of One: A Memoir In 21 Songs Dave Holmes NPR
379 PASSCHENDAELE PAUL HAM Boomerang Blog
380 Penguin Bloom: The Odd Little Bird Who Saved a Family Cameron Bloom and Bradley Trevor Greive The Book Bag
381 Peplum Blutch NPR
382 Pink Pantie Confessions Cynda Williams Conversations Mag
383 Planet Earth II Stephen Moss The Book Bag
384 Platform Capitalism Nick Srnicek Verso
385 PLAYING TO THE EDGE: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror Michael V. Hayden NY Times
386 Please Enjoy Your Happiness Paul Brinkley-Rogers Conversations Mag
387 Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History Of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain NPR
388 Position Doubtful Kim Mahood Readings
389 Possession: The Curious History Of Private Collectors From Antiquity To The Present Erin Thompson NPR
390 Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency James Andrew Miller Amazon
391 Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade Robert Cialdini Daniel H. Pink
392 PRECIOUS CARGO: MY YEAR DRIVING THE KIDS ON SCHOOL BUS 3077 CRAIG DAVIDSON The Globe and Mail
393 Presenting Buffalo Bill: The Man Who Invented the Wild West Candace Fleming The Horn Book
394 PRETENTIOUSNESS: Why It Matters Dan Fox NY Times
395 Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future Johan Norberg The Economist
396 Proxies Brian Blanchfield Entropy
397 Pugh’s New Year’s Resolutions Jonathan Pugh The Book Bag
398 Purple Prose: Bisexuality in Britain Kate Harrad The Book Bag
399 Raoul Wallenberg Ingrid Carlberg The Christian Science Monitor
400 Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs(Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Macmillan, 2016 Douglas Smith Good Books Guide
401 Real Visitors, Voices from Beyond, and Parallel Dimensions Brad Steiger and Sherry Hansen Steiger Dallas Voice
402 Richard Posner William Domnarski Marginal Revolution
403 Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America Douglas Brinkley Washington Post
404 Rise and Fall of American Growth Robert J. Gordon Marginal Revolution
405 Riverine Angela Palm Largehearted Boy
406 Rogue Heroes: The History Of The SAS, Britain’s Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged The Nazis And Changed The Nature Of War Ben Macintyre NPR
407 Roughy: Fishing the Mid-Ocean Ridges AJ Peach The Spinoff
408 Running, A Love Story Inquirer contributor Jen A. Miller Philly
409 Seinfeldia: How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything Jennifer Keishin Armstrong Washington Post
410 Selected Poems Emily Dickinson Star Tribune
411 Shame and Wonder: Essays David Searcy San Francisco Chronicle 2
412 Shock And Awe: Glam Rock And Its Legacy, From The Seventies To The Twenty-first Century Simon Reynolds NPR
413 Simply Happy Amy Newmark Conversations Mag
414 Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business Charles Duhigg Goodreads
415 Soft is the New Power Deya Smith Conversations Mag
416 Some Versions of the Ice Adam Tipps Weinstein Entropy
417 Somme Hugh Sebag-Montefiore The Christian Science Monitor
418 Soul at the White Heat: Inspiration, Obsession, and the Writing Life Joyce Carol Oates San Francisco Chronicle 2
419 Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 Adam Hochschild San Francisco Chronicle 2
420 Spark Joy: An Illustrated Guide to the Japanese Art of Tidying Marie Kondo Marginal Revolution
421 Spiral: Trapped in the Forever War Mark Danner San Francisco Chronicle 2
422 Spirit is a Bone Oliver Chanarin & Adam Broomberg Post Matter
423 SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Mary Beard The Spinoff
424 State and Revolution Vladimir Lenin Verso
425 Staying with the Trouble Donna Haraway Post Matter
426 Street Farm Michael Ableman Conversations Mag
427 SUBSTITUTE: GOING TO SCHOOL WITH A THOUSAND KIDS NICHOLSON BAKER The Globe and Mail
428 Surfing: 1778-Today Jim Heimann Washington Post
429 Surveys Natasha Stagg Post Matter
430 Talking to My Country Stan Grant Readings
431 Tell Me Your Story Tuya Pearl Conversations Mag
432 Telling Zoe Zolbrod Entropy
433 Terror In The City Of Champions: Murder, Baseball, And The Secret Society That Shocked Depression-era Detroit Tom Stanton NPR
434 Tetris: The Games People Play Box Brown Shelf Awareness
435 The A-Z of Victorian Crime Neil R A Bell, Trevor N Bond, Kate Clarke and M W Oldridge The Book Bag
436 The ABCs Of How We Learn: 26 Scientifically Proven Approaches, How They Work, And When To Use Them Daniel L. Schwartz, Jessica M. Tsang, Kristen P. Blair NPR
437 The Age of Em Robin Hanson Marginal Revolution
438 The Anthropocene or the Capitalocene? Elmar Altvater et al. Verso
439 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson Readings
440 The Art of Beatrix Potter Star Tribune
441 The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye Sonny Liew The Economist
442 THE BEST OF WRITERS & COMPANY: INTERVIEWS WITH 15 OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST AUTHORS ELEANOR WACHTEL The Globe and Mail
443 The Black Calhouns Gail Lumet Buckley The Christian Science Monitor
444 The Black Panthers: Portraits From an Unfinished Revolution Bryan Shih and Yohuru Williams The Undefeated
445 The Book Of Magic: From Antiquity To The Enlightenment Brian Copenhaver (editor) NPR
446 The Boy Behind the Curtain Tim Winton Readings
447 The Burger Court and the Rise of the Judicial Right Michael J. Graetz and Linda Greenhouse Washington Post
448 THE CANDIDATE: FEAR AND LOATHING ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL NOAH RICHLER The Globe and Mail
449 The Chaos of Empire: The British Raj and the Conquest of India Jon Wilson Good Books Guide
450 The Constitution Today Akhil Reed Amar Time
451 The Cowshed: Memoirs of the Chinese Cultural Revolution Ji Xianlin Marginal Revolution
452 The Coyote’s Bicycle Kimball Taylor Conversations Mag
453 The Creative Tarot Jessa Crispin Chicago Review of Books
454 The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History, 1962-1976 Frank Dikötter Good Books Guide
455 The Economic History of China: From Antiquity through the 19th Century Richard van Glahn Marginal Revolution
456 The Egyptians: A Radical Story Jack Shenker The Economist
457 THE ENGLISH AND THEIR HISTORY Robert Tombs NY Times
458 The Euro and the Battle of Ideas Markus Brunnermeier, Harold James and Jean-Pierre Landau The Economist
459 THE FACE OF BRITAIN: A History of the Nation Through Its Portraits Simon Schama NY Times
460 The Face: Cartography of the Void Chris Abani Chicago Review of Books
461 The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran Andrew Scott Cooper Marginal Revolution
462 The Feud: Vladimir Nabokov, Edmund Wilson, and the End of a Beautiful Friendship Alex Beam Publishers Weekly
463 The Fight to Vote Michael Waldman Washington Post
464 The Five Hour Workday Stephan Aarstol Conversations Mag
465 The Fortress – a Love Story Danielle Trussoni Dayton Daily News
466 The Garden and the Fire: Heaven and Hell in Islamic Culture Nerina Rustomji Verso
467 The Gatekeeper Kathryn Smith Conversations Mag
468 The Geek Feminist Revolution Kameron Hurley Goodreads
469 The Ghosts of Birds Eliot Weinberger Entropy
470 The Gift of Anger Joe Solmonese Conversations Mag
471 The Glass Universe: How The Ladies Of The Harvard Observatory Took The Measure Of The Stars Dava Sobel NPR
472 The Godfather Notebook Francis Ford Coppola NPR
473 The Good Immigrant edited Nikesh Shukla Verso
474 The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New Globalization Richard Baldwin The Economist
475 The Great Spring: Writing, Zen and This Zigzag Life Natalie Goldberg Twin Cities
476 The Hatred of Poetry Ben Lerner Good Books Guide
477 The Highest Glass Ceiling: Women’s Quest for the American Presidency Ellen Fitzpatrick Washington Post
478 The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups Erika Christakis Washington Post
479 The Inefficiency Assassin Helene Segura Conversations Mag
480 The Invention of Angela Carter: A Biography Edmund Gordon Good Books Guide
481 The Invention of Russia: From Gorbachev’s Freedom to Putin’s War Arkady Ostrovsky Washington Post
482 The Jaguar Man Lara Naughton Conversations Mag
483 The Jazz Of Physics: The Secret Link Between Music And The Structure Of The Universe Stephon Alexander NPR
484 The Joy of Less Amy Newmark and Brooke Burke-Charvet Conversations Mag
485 The Kardashian Dynasty: The Controversial Rise of America’s Royal Family Ian Halperin Philly
486 The King and Queen of Malibu: The True Story of the Battle for Paradise David K. Randall Amazon
487 The Latter Days: A Memoir Judith Freeman NPR
488 The Legends Club John Feinstein Hudson Booksellers
489 The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict Austin Reed; edited by Caleb Smith San Francisco Chronicle 2
490 The Life Project: The Extraordinary Story of Our Ordinary Lives Helen Pearson The Economist
491 THE LIMOUSINE LIBERAL: How an Incendiary Image United the Right and Fractured America Steve Fraser NY Times
492 The Love & Lemons Cookbook Caroline County Public Library
493 The Making of Donald Trump David Cay Johnston Chicago Review of Books
494 The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan Sebastian Mallaby Marginal Revolution
495 The Mannings Lars Anderson Conversations Mag
496 The Māori Meeting House: Introducing the whare whakairo Damian Skinner The Spinoff
497 THE MARRIOTT CELL: AN EPIC JOURNEY FROM CAIRO’S SCORPION PRISON TO FREEDOM MOHAMED FAHMY WITH CAROL SHABEN The Globe and Mail
498 The Mayor Of Mogadishu: A Story Of Chaos And Redemption In The Ruins Of Somalia Andrew Harding NPR
499 The Miles Between Me Toni Nealie Chicago Review of Books
500 The Monster Book Nick Redfern Dallas Voice
501 The Narco-Imaginary: Essays Under the Influence Ramsey Scott Entropy
502 The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life Anu Partanen Seattle Times
503 The Odd Woman and the City: A Memoir Vivian Gornick The Spinoff
504 The Opposite of Comfortable Sharon Nir Conversations Mag
505 The Osamu Tezuka Story: A Life in Manga and Anime Toshio Ban Daniel H. Pink
506 The Outrun Amy Liptrot Good Books Guide
507 The Oxford Dictionary of Original Shakespearean Pronunciation David Crystal The Book Bag
508 The Penguin History of Modern Vietnam Christopher Goscha Marginal Revolution
509 The Penny Poet of Portsmouth Katherine Towler Entropy
510 The Philadelphia Flyers at 50: The Story of the Iconic Hockey Club and its Top 50 Heroes, Wins & Events Jay Greenberg Philly
511 The Philosophy of Horror Thomas Fahy Brian Fanelli
512 The Pigeon Tunnel John le Carré Seattle Times
513 The Politics of Everybody: Feminism, Queer Theory and Marxism and the Intersection Holly Lewis Verso
514 The Power of Broke Daymond John Conversations Mag
515 The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914 Richard Evans The Economist
516 THE REVENGE OF ANALOG: REAL THINGS AND WHY THEY MATTER DAVID SAX The Globe and Mail
517 The Secret War Max Hastings The Christian Science Monitor
518 The Shops Steve Braunias and Peter Black The Spinoff
519 The Singing Bones Shaun Tan Shelf Awareness
520 The Sky Isn’t Blue Janice Lee Entropy
521 The Slave’s Cause Manisha Sinha The Christian Science Monitor
522 The Soul of a Man 2: Make Me Wanna Holler anthology Elissa Gabrielle Conversations Mag
523 The Soul of an Octopus Sy Montgomery Twin Cities
524 The Sound of Gravel Ruth Wariner Caroline County Public Library
525 The Speed Of Sound: Breaking The Barriers Between Music And Technology: A Memoir Thomas Dolby NPR
526 The Spitboy Rule Michelle Cruz Gonzales Entropy
527 The Stack Benjamin Bratton Post Matter
528 The Surrender Scott Esposito Entropy
529 The Telling Zoe Zolbrod Chicago Review of Books
530 The Thunder Before the Storm Clyde Bellecourt Twin Cities
531 The Ultimate Ambition In The Arts Of Erudition: A Compendium Of Knowledge From The Classical Islamic World Shihab al-Din al-Nuwayri, translated NPR
532 The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds Michael Lewis Daniel H. Pink
533 The Universe in Your Hand: A Journey Through Space, Time, and Beyond Christophe Galfard Shelf Awareness
534 The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China Philip Ball The Economist
535 The Witches Stacy Schiff Philly
536 The Yesterday Project Ben Doller & Sandra Doller Entropy
537 Their Promised Land: My Grandparents in Love and War Ian Buruma Publishers Weekly
538 Things That Matter: Stories of Life & Death from an Intensive Care Specialist David Galler The Spinoff
539 Through the Eyes of a Miner: The Photography of Joseph Divis Simon Nathan The Spinoff
540 Thunder at the Gates Douglas R. Egerton The Christian Science Monitor
541 To Pixar and Beyond Lawrence Levy Conversations Mag
542 Tomboy Survival Guide Ivan Coyote CBA
543 Trainwreck Sady Doyle Entropy
544 Travels with Henry James Henry James Good Books Guide
545 Trespassing Across America – One Man’s Epic, Never-Done-Before (and Sort of Illegal) Hike Across the Heartland Ken Ilgunas Dayton Daily News
546 Trials of the Century Mark J. Phillips & Aryn Z. Phillips Dallas Voice
547 Trials of the Earth Mary Mann Hamilton Chicago Tribune
548 Trials: On Death Row in Pakistan Isabel Buchanan The Economist
549 Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging Sebastian Junger Goodreads
550 Turkey: The Insane and the Melancholy Ece Temelkuran, translated Verso
551 Turning Darkness Into Light S. L. Young Conversations Mag
552 Two Arabs, a Berber, and a Jew: Entangled Lives in Morocco. Lawrence Rosen Marginal Revolution
553 UNFORBIDDEN PLEASURES Adam Phillips NY Times
554 United States of Jihad: Investigating America’s Homegrown Terrorists Peter Bergen Washington Post
555 Unlikely Partners: Chinese Reformers, Western Economists, and the Making of Global China Julian Gewirtz Marginal Revolution
556 Urban Forests: A Natural History Of Trees And People In The American Cityscape Jill Jonnes NPR
557 Utopia For Realists: The Case For A Universal Basic Income, Open Borders, And A 15-hour Workweek Rutger Bregman, translated NPR
558 Valiant Ambition Nathaniel Philbrick Seattle Times
559 Vessels Daniel Raeburn MPR News
560 Vietnam: A New History Christopher Goscha Good Books Guide
561 Visceral Poetics Eleni Stecopoulos Entropy
562 Waiting for First Light Roméo Dallaire, with Jessica Dee Humphreys CBA
563 Walk Through Walls Marina Abramović Marginal Revolution
564 Walking the Nile Levison Wood Amazon
565 War Diaries Astrid Lindgren Star Tribune
566 Wasted Elspeth Muir Readings
567 Watchfires Hilary Plum Entropy
568 We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation Jeff Chang The Undefeated
569 We Have the Technology: How Biohackers, Foodies, Physicians, and Scientists Are Transforming Human Perception, One Sense at a Time Kara Platoni San Francisco Chronicle 2
570 Wear and Tear Tracy Tynan Conversations Mag
571 WHEN IN FRENCH: Love in a Second Language Lauren Collins NY Times
572 When Johnny Doesn’t Come Marching Home Marian Small Conversations Mag
573 When We Are No More: How Digital Memory Is Shaping Our Future Abby Smith Rumsey San Francisco Chronicle 2
574 Where The Light Gets In Kimberly Williams-Paosley Caroline County Public Library
575 Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Chicago Review of Books
576 Why Look at Animals? John Berger Verso
577 Why the Monkees Matter Rosanne Welch Conversations Mag
578 Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism — From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond E.J. Dionne Jr. Washington Post
579 With Love, All Things Can Be Healed Tobin Blake Conversations Mag
580 Women of the Catlins: Life In The Deep South Diana Noonan and Cris Antona The Spinoff
581 Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White Kareem Abdul-Jabbar The Undefeated
582 Your One Word Evan Carmichael Conversations Mag


The 49 Best Nonfiction Lists Used



Source Article
Amazon Best nonfiction of 2016
Bookriot HERE YOU HAVE IT! BOOK RIOT’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2016.
Boomerang Blog The Best Books of 2016
Boston Globe Best books of 2016
Brian Fanelli 2016 Recap/Best Of
Buzzfeed The 18 Best Nonfiction Books Of 2016
Caroline County Public Library Our Favorite Books of 2016
CBA Best Books of 2016
Chicago Review of Books The Best Nonfiction Books of 2016
Chicago Tribune Best books of 2016
Conversations Mag Conversations’ Top 50 Non-Fiction Books of 2016
Dallas Voice Holiday Gift Guide: Reading list!
Daniel H. Pink MY 15 FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2016
Dayton Daily News The best non-fiction books of 2016
Englewood Review Englewood Honor Books – Best Books of 2016
Entropy BEST OF 2016: NON-FICTION BOOKS
Five Books Stephanie Flanders recommends the Best Nonfiction Books of 2016
Good Books Guide 100+ Literary Favourites of 2016
Goodreads BEST NONFICTION
Hudson Booksellers Best Books of 2016
Kirkus Best Heartrending Nonfiction of 2016
Largehearted Boy Favorite Nonfiction of 2016
Marginal Revolution The best non-fiction books of 2016
Medium 5 Noteable Nonfiction Books of 2016
MPR News Best books of 2016 to give — and receive: Nonfiction favorites
NPR NPR’s Book Concierge Our Guide To 2016’s Great Reads
NY Times Nonfiction
Philly Best books of 2016: Our staff picks
Post Matter Our Top 10 Books of 2016
Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction
Readings The best non-fiction books of 2016
Ripr Scott MacKay’s Favorite Books of 2016
San Francisco Chronicle Top 10 books of 2016
San Francisco Chronicle 2 Best of 2016: 100 recommended books
Seattle Times The best books of 2016, from our critics
Shelf Awareness Our 2016 Best Books of the Year
Star Tribune The 50 Best Books For Holiday Giving
Tampa Bay Times Colette Bancroft’s 10 favorite books of 2016
The Book Bag Top Ten Non-Fiction Books of 2016
The Christian Science Monitor 15 best nonfiction books of 2016
The Economist Books of the Year 2016
The Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year
The Horn Book Horn Book Fanfare
The Spinoff Best books of 2016: the 20 best books of non-fiction
The Undefeated NEW BEGINNINGS: THE FRESHEST BOOKS OF 2016
Time The Top 10 Nonfiction Books
Twin Cities For the book lovers on your list, 21 picks from this year’s best
Verso Staff Picks: Books of the Year 2016—Chosen by Verso
Washington Post Notable Non-fiction Books in 2016

 

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