Best 2020, Best Books, Best Year-End, Nonfiction

The Best Nonfiction Books of 2020 (A Year-End List Aggregation)

“What are the best Nonfiction books released in 2020?” We looked at 356 of the top Nonfiction books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 37 books, all appearing on 3 or more “Best Nonfiction” book lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 300+ titles, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.

Our other Best Of 2020 Articles:

Previous Years: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015

All titles have been added to a Bookshop list as well!

Happy Scrolling!



Top 37 Best Nonfiction Books From 2020



37.) Children of the Land: A Memoir written byMarcelo Hernandez Castillo

Children of the Land: A Memoir

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bookpage
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • NPR

An Entertainment Weekly, The Millions, and LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2020 This unforgettable memoir from a prize-winning poet about growing up undocumented in the United States recounts the sorrows and joys of a family torn apart by draconian policies and chronicles one young man’s attempt to



36.) Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time written byBen Ehrenreich

Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time

Lists It Appears On:

  • NY Times
  • NYPL
  • NPR

Layering climate science, mythologies, nature writing, and personal experiences, this New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice presents a stunning reckoning with our current moment and with the literal and figurative end of time. Desert Notebooks examines how the unprecedented pace of destruction



35.) Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town written byBarbara Demick

Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town

Lists It Appears On:

  • Washington Post
  • NY Times
  • NPR

A gripping portrait of modern Tibet told through the lives of its people, from the bestselling author of Nothing to Envy. “You simply cannot understand China without reading Barbara Demick on Tibet.”–Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition Just as she did with North Korea, award-winning journalist Ba



34.) Having and Being Had written byEula Biss

Having and Being Had

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • Time
  • NPR

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE BEST BOOKS OF 2020, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING “A sensational new book [that] tries to figure out whether it’s possible to live an ethical life in a capitalist society. . . . The results are enthralling.” –Associated Press A timely and arresting new look at affluence by the



33.) His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope written byJon Meacham

His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope

Lists It Appears On:

  • Washington Post
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • Worldly Gentleman

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – An intimate and revealing portrait of civil rights icon and longtime U.S. congressman John Lewis, linking his life to the painful quest for justice in America from the 1950s to the present–from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of America John Lewis, who a



32.) Notes on a Silencing: A Memoir written byLacy Crawford

Notes on a Silencing: A Memoir

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bookpage
  • NY Times
  • NPR

A “powerful and scary and important and true” memoir (Sally Mann, Carnegie Medal-winning author of Hold Still) of a young woman’s struggle to regain her sense of self after trauma, and the efforts by a powerful New England boarding school to silence her—at any cost. A New York Times Book Review Ed



31.) Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America written byMaria Hinojosa

Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bookpage
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • NPR

“Anyone striving to understand and improve this country should read her story.” –Gloria Steinem, author of My Life on the Road The Emmy Award-winning journalist and anchor of NPR’s Latino USA tells the story of immigration in America through her family’s experiences and decades of reporting, painti



30.) Rage written byBob Woodward

Rage

Lists It Appears On:

  • Washington Post
  • Goodreads
  • Worldly Gentleman

Bob Woodward’s new book, Rage, is an unprecedented and intimate tour de force of new reporting on the Trump presidency facing a global pandemic, economic disaster and racial unrest. Woodward, the #1 international bestselling author of Fear: Trump in the White House, has uncovered the precise moment



29.) Surviving Autocracy written byMasha Gessen

Surviving Autocracy

Lists It Appears On:

  • Publishers Weekly
  • Powells
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz

“When Gessen speaks about autocracy, you listen.” –The New York Times “The Platonic ideal of the anti-Trump Trump book.” –The Washington Post As seen on MSNBC Morning Joe and heard on NPR All Things Considered: the bestselling, National Book Award-winning journalist offers an essential guide to un



28.) The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal about Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power written byDeirdre Mask

The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal about Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power

Lists It Appears On:

  • She Reads
  • Marginal Revolution
  • Publishers Weekly

Finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction An entertaining quest to trace the origins and implications of the names of the roads on which we reside. –Sarah Vowell, The New York Times Book Review When most people think about street addresses, if they think of them at all, it is in their capac



27.) The Book of Eels written byPatrik Svensson

The Book of Eels

Lists It Appears On:

  • Washington Post
  • Publishers Weekly
  • NY Times

Los Angeles Times BestsellerIndieBound BestsellerA New York Times Editor’s Choice One of Forbes’ “Best Summer Reads for Those Stuck Inside Working Remotely” One of the LA Times’ “21 New and Classic Books to Keep You in Touch with the Natural World”One of NPR Science Friday’s Best Science Books of th



26.) Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man written byMary L. Trump

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man

Lists It Appears On:

  • Worldly Gentleman
  • Los Angeles Times
  • Washington Post

In this revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him, Mary L. Trump, a trained clinical psychologist and Donald’s only niece, shines a bright light on the dark history of their family in order to explain how her uncle became the man who now threatens the w



25.) Untamed written byGlennon Doyle

Untamed

Lists It Appears On:

  • Washington Post
  • Books A Million
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – “Packed with incredible insight about what it means to be a woman today.”–Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine Book Pick) In her most revealing and powerful memoir yet, the activist, speaker, bestselling author, and “patron saint of female empowerment



24.) Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country written bySierra Crane Murdoch

Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country

Lists It Appears On:

  • NPR
  • Publishers Weekly
  • NY Times

The gripping true story of a murder on an Indian reservation, and the unforgettable Arikara woman who becomes obsessed with solving it–an urgent work of literary journalism. “I don’t know a more complicated, original protagonist in literature than Lissa Yellow Bird, or a more dogged reporter in Ame



23.) Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America written byLaila Lalami

Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bookpage
  • Los Angeles Times
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • NPR

What does it mean to be American? In this starkly illuminating and impassioned book, Pulitzer Prize­­-finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to U.S. citizen, using it as a starting point for her exploration of the rights, liberties, and protections that are tradi



22.) Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking written byBill Buford

Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking

Lists It Appears On:

  • Amazon
  • Washington Post
  • Publishers Weekly
  • NPR

A hilariously self-deprecating, highly obsessive account of the author’s adventures, in the world of French haute cuisine, for anyone whose ever found joy in cooking and eating food with their family–from the author of the best-selling, widely acclaimed Heat. A New York Times Book Review Editors’ C



21.) Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor written byLayla F. Saad

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor

Lists It Appears On:

  • Washington Post
  • Goodreads
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • NPR

Based off the original workbook, Me and White Supremacy teaches listeners how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.When Layla Saad began an Instagram challeng



20.) The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir written byWayétu Moore

The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir

Lists It Appears On:

  • Time
  • Publishers Weekly
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • NY Times

An engrossing memoir of escaping the First Liberian Civil War and building a life in the United States When Wayétu Moore turns five years old, her father and grandmother throw her a big birthday party at their home in Monrovia, Liberia, but all she can think about is how much she misses her mother,



19.) The End of Everything written byKatie Mack

The End of Everything

Lists It Appears On:

  • Powells
  • Publishers Weekly
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • NY Times

“[A] pleasure…I found it helpful–not reassuring, certainly, but mind-expanding–to be reminded of our place in a vast cosmos.” –James Gleick, The New York Times Book Review “A thrilling tour of potential cosmic doomsdays….Beyond her deep expertise, Ms. Mack’s infectious enthusiasm for communic



18.) War: How Conflict Shaped Us written byMargaret MacMillan

War: How Conflict Shaped Us

Lists It Appears On:

  • NY Times 2
  • NY Times
  • Five Books
  • CBC

Is peace an aberration? The bestselling author of Paris 1919 offers a provocative view of war as an essential component of humanity. “Margaret MacMillan has produced another seminal work. . . . She is right that we must, more than ever, think about war. And she has shown us how in this brilliant, el



17.) Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life written byLulu Miller

Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • Washington Post
  • Book Riot
  • NPR

A “remarkable” (Los Angeles Times), “seductive” (The Wall Street Journal) debut from the new cohost of Radiolab, Why Fish Don’t Exist is a dark and astonishing tale of love, chaos, scientific obsession, and–possibly–even murder.​ “At one point, Miller dives into the ocean into a school of fish…c



16.) World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments written byAimee Nezhukumatathil

World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bookpage
  • NYPL
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • NPR

A Barnes & Noble 2020 Book of the Year Finalist A Kirkus Prize Finalist for Nonfiction An Indie Next Pick, September 2019 A Publishers Weekly “Big Indie Book of Fall 2020” A BuzzFeed Best Book of Fall 2020 A Literary Hub “Most Anticipated Book of 2020 An Esquire Best Book of Fall 2020 A Ralph Lauren



15.) Wow, No Thank You written bySamantha Irby

Wow, No Thank You

Lists It Appears On:

  • Washington Post
  • Book Riot
  • Bookpage
  • NPR

*AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* “Stay-up-all-night, miss-your-subway-stop, spit-out-your-beverage funny…. irresistible as a snack tray, as intimately pleasurable as an Irish goodbye.” –Jia Tolentino From Samantha Irby, beloved author of We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, a rip-roaring,



14.) Intimations: Six Essays written byZadie Smith

Intimations: Six Essays

Lists It Appears On:

  • Los Angeles Times
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • Financial Times
  • NYPL
  • NPR

“Smith does more than illuminate what we’re going through right now. She offers a model of how to think ourselves through a fraught historical moment without getting hysterical or sanctimonious, without losing our compassion or our appreciation for what’s good in other people. She teaches us how to



13.) Memorial Drive written byNatasha Trethewey

Memorial Drive

Lists It Appears On:

  • Los Angeles Times
  • NY Times
  • Bookpage
  • Time
  • NPR

An Instant New York Times BestsellerA chillingly personal and exquisitely wrought memoir of a daughter reckoning with the brutal murder of her mother at the hands of her former stepfather, and the moving, intimate story of a poet coming into her own in the wake of a tragedy At age nineteen, Natasha



12.) Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You written byJason Reynolds

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

Lists It Appears On:

  • Chicago Public Library
  • Goodreads
  • Book Riot
  • Worldly Gentleman
  • NPR

The #1 New York Times bestseller and a USAToday bestseller! A timely, crucial, and empowering exploration of racism–and antiracism–in America This is NOT a history book. This is a book about the here and now. A book to help us better understand why we are where we are. A book about race. The const



11.) A Promised Land written byBarack Obama

A Promised Land

Lists It Appears On:

  • Washington Post
  • Books A Million
  • Los Angeles Times
  • NY Times
  • NY Times 2
  • NPR

A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making–from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his



10.) Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot written byMikki Kendall

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot

Lists It Appears On:

  • Washington Post
  • Book Riot
  • Goodreads
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • NYPL
  • NPR

“If Hood Feminism is a searing indictment of mainstream feminism, it is also an invitation. . . . Kendall] offers guidance for how we can all do better.”–NPR.org “A rousing call to action for today’s feminists. It should be required reading for everyone.”–Gabrielle Union, author of We’re Going to



9.) The Undocumented Americans written byKarla Cornejo Villavicencio

The Undocumented Americans

Lists It Appears On:

  • Los Angeles Times
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • NY Times
  • Time
  • NYPL
  • NPR

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD – One of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans in this deeply personal and groundbreaking portrait of a nation. “Karla’s book sheds light on people’s personal experiences and allow



8.) Uncanny Valley written byAnna Wiener

Uncanny Valley

Lists It Appears On:

  • Washington Post
  • Los Angeles Times
  • Powells
  • NY Times
  • NY Times 2
  • NPR

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A definitive document of a world in transition: I won’t be alone in returning to it for clarity and consolation for many years to come.” –Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a January 2020



7.) Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning written byCathy Park Hong

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bookpage
  • Time
  • Washington Post
  • Book Riot
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • NYPL
  • NPR

A ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged, and utterly original exploration of Asian American consciousness and the struggle to be human “Brilliant . . . To read this book is to become more human.”–Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blen



6.) The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X written byLes Payne and Tamara Payne

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

Lists It Appears On:

  • Worldly Gentleman
  • Bookpage
  • Time
  • Powells
  • Washington Post
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • NY Times
  • NPR

Finalist — National Book Award for Nonfiction – Excerpted in The New Yorker – Longlisted — Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction – New Books to Watch Out for in October — New York Times – Best Books of Fall 2020 — O, the Oprah Magazine, The Week, St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Best New B



5.) The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz written byErik Larson

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

Lists It Appears On:

  • Worldly Gentleman
  • Bookpage
  • NYPL
  • Washington Post
  • Books A Million
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • NY Times
  • NPR

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – The author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers an intimate chronicle of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz–an inspiring portrait of courage and leadership in a time of unprecedented crisis One of Chicago Tribune’s Best Books of the Year So



4.) Vesper Flights written byHelen Macdonald

Vesper Flights

Lists It Appears On:

  • Amazon
  • Powells
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • Financial Times
  • Bookpage
  • Time
  • NYPL
  • NPR

Animals don’t exist in order to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves. In Vesper Flights Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nost



3.) Just Us: An American Conversation written byClaudia Rankine

Just Us: An American Conversation

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bookpage
  • Time
  • Amazon
  • Publishers Weekly
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • Financial Times
  • NY Times
  • NYPL
  • NPR

Claudia Rankine’s Citizen changed the conversation–Just Us urges all of us into it As everyday white supremacy becomes increasingly vocalized with no clear answers at hand, how best might we approach one another? Claudia Rankine, without telling us what to do, urges us to begin the discussions that



2.) Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family written byRobert Kolker

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family

Lists It Appears On:

  • Worldly Gentleman
  • Bookpage
  • NY Times 2
  • Amazon
  • Goodreads
  • Publishers Weekly
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • NY Times
  • NYPL
  • NPR

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science’s great hope in the quest to understand the disease. Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dre



1.) Caste: The Origins Of Our Discontents written byIsabel Wilkerson

Caste: The Origins Of Our Discontents

Lists It Appears On:

  • Books A Million
  • Los Angeles Times
  • Powells
  • Readings
  • Amazon
  • Publishers Weekly
  • Bookshop Santa Cruz
  • NY Times
  • Bookpage
  • Time
  • NYPL
  • Worldly Gentleman
  • NPR

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK – LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD – “An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far.”–Dwight Garner, The New York Times The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of The W




The 300+ Additional Best Nonfiction Books Released In 2020



#BookAuthorLists
38Becoming Duchess GoldblattAnonymous
Washington Post
   She Reads
39Breath: The New Science Of A Lost ArtJames Nestor
Washington Post
   NPR
40Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies: And Other Rituals to Fix Your Life, from Someone Who’s Been ThereTara SchusterBook Riot
   Goodreads
41Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in LyricsDolly Parton
Books A Million
   
Washington Post
42Eat a Peach: A MemoirDavid Chang
Bookshop Santa Cruz
   NPR
43Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our World, Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures.Merlin Sheldrake
Marginal Revolution
   
Bookshop Santa Cruz
44Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-Up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the WorldLesley M. M. Blume
Publishers Weekly
   NY Times
45Father of Lions: One Man’s Remarkable Quest to Save the Mosul ZooLouise CallaghanNPR
   She Reads
46Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American DemocracyMargaret Sullivan
Washington Post
   NPR
47Good Boy: My Life in Seven DogsJennifer Finney Boylan
Publishers Weekly
   
Bookshop Santa Cruz
48Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in AmericaR. Eric ThomasBook Riot
   NPR
49Humankind: A Hopeful HistoryRutger BregmanReadings
   
Washington Post
50Is Rape a Crime? A Memoir, an Investigation, and a ManifestoMichelle BowdlerBookpage
   
Publishers Weekly
51Kent State: Four Dead in OhioDerf BackderfNYPL
   NPR
52My Autobiography of Carson McCullersJenn ShaplandBook Riot
   NPR
53Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (as Told to Me) StoryBess KalbBookpage
   She Reads
54Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest OwlJonathan C. SlaghtNPR
   NY Times
55PelosiMolly Ball
Washington Post
   
Bookshop Santa Cruz
56Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976–1980Rick Perlstein
Publishers Weekly
   NY Times
57Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and FutureJames ShapiroNY Times 2
   NY Times
58Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern CinemaLindy WestShe Reads
   
Bookshop Santa Cruz
59The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and WinMaria Konnikova
Washington Post
   NY Times
60The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker IIIPeter Baker and Susan Glasser
Washington Post
   NY Times
61The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the MoveSonia ShahNYPL
   
Publishers Weekly
62The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard KeynesZachary D. Carter
Publishers Weekly
   
Marginal Revolution
63The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War — a Tragedy in Three ActsScott AndersonNY Times
   
Bookshop Santa Cruz
64The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another WorldSarah Stewart Johnson
Bookshop Santa Cruz
   NY Times
65The Weirdest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly ProsperousJoseph HenrichNY Times
   
Marginal Revolution
66Tom Stoppard: A LifeHermione Lee
Financial Times
   The Times
67Tomboyland: EssaysMelissa FalivenoNYPL
   NPR
68Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of AuthoritarianismAnne ApplebaumFive Books
   
Washington Post
69Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the AmericasRoberto Lovato
Los Angeles Times
   
Bookshop Santa Cruz
70Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving UniverseBrian GreeneAmazon
   NY Times
71Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian TerritoryClaudio Saunt
Publishers Weekly
   NPR
72Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of MusicAlex RossNY Times
   NPR
73Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her RootsMorgan JerkinsShe Reads
   
Bookshop Santa Cruz
74We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of SilenceBecky CooperAmazon
   
Publishers Weekly
75Where Things Touch: A Meditation On BeautyBahar OrangCBC
   NPR
76Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife CrisisAda CalhounAmazon
   Goodreads
77Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White SupremacyDavid ZucchinoBookpage
   
Publishers Weekly
78Year of the RabbitTian VeasnaNYPL
   NPR
7910% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust the Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less.Garett Jones
Marginal Revolution
8013th BalloonMark BibbinsNPR
8197,196 Words: EssaysEmmanuel CarrèreNY Times
82A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. HaldaneSamanth SubramanianNY Times
83A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s HurricanesEric Jay Dolin
Washington Post
84A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and FreedomBrittany K. BarnettAmazon
85A Life on Our PlanetDavid AttenboroughReadings
86A Little History of PoetryJohn CareyThe Times
87A Mind Spread Out on the GroundAlicia Elliott
Bookshop Santa Cruz
88A Peculiar Indifference: The Neglected Toll of Violence on Black AmericaElliott CurrieNY Times
89A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a FaithTimothy EganNY Times
90A Silenced Voice: The Life Of Journalist Kim WallIngrid Wall and Joachim WallNPR
91A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of AmericaPhilip Rucker and Carol Leonnig
Washington Post
92A Woman Like Her: The Story Behind the Honor Killing of a Social Media StarSanam MaherNY Times
93A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should RespondDaniel SusskindFive Books
94Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His TimesDavid S. Reynolds
Washington Post
95Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, And The Meaning Of SexAngela ChenNPR
96Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political WarfareThomas Rid
Washington Post
97Alien Oceans: The Search For Life In The Depths Of SpaceKevin HandNPR
98All Boys Aren’t BlueGeorge M. Johnson
Chicago Public Library
99All I Ever WantedKathy Valentine
Washington Post
100All The Way To The Tigers: A MemoirMary MorrisNPR
101Almost American Girl: An Illustrated MemoirRobin HaNPR
102American Cheese: An Indulgent Odyssey Through the Artisan Cheese WorldJoe BerkowitzShe Reads
103American Oligarchs: The Kushners, The Trumps, And The Marriage Of Money And PowerAndrea BernsteinNPR
104Apple: (Skin To The Core)Eric GansworthNPR
105Arts & Minds: How the Royal Society of Arts Changed a Nation.Anton Howes
Marginal Revolution
106Atomic WomenRoseanne Montillo
Chicago Public Library
107Banned Book ClubKim Hyun Sook and Ryan EstradaNPR
108Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs Of A Neurotic FilmmakerBarry SonnenfeldNPR
109Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve PeaceCarl SafinaNY Times
110Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our OwnEddie S. Glaude Jr.
Washington Post
111Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights ActivistJudith Heumann
Publishers Weekly
112Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, And Compromise In Putin’s RussiaJoshua YaffaNPR
113Beyond the Gender BinaryAlok Vaid-Menon Ashley Lukashevsky (Illustrator)
Chicago Public Library
114Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other CloseAminatou Sow and Ann FriedmanNPR
115Black Heroes Of The Wild WestJames Otis SmithNPR
116Black Water David A. RobertsonCBC
117Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle EastKim GhattasNY Times
118Bland FanaticsPankaj MishraPowells
119Blood On The River: A Chronicle Of Mutiny And Freedom On The Wild CoastMarjoleine KarsNPR
120BlueberriesEllena SavageReadings
121Born To Be PublicGreg ManiaNPR
122Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New MasculinityPeggy OrensteinAmazon
123Britain’s War 1942-1947.Daniel Todman
Marginal Revolution
124Broken Faith: Inside The Word Of Faith Fellowship, One Of America’s Most Dangerous CultsMitch Weiss and Holbrook MohrNPR
125Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican PartyJulian E. ZelizerNY Times
126Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout GenerationAnne Helen PetersenAmazon
127Capital And IdeologyThomas PikettyNPR
128Changing the Face of Canadian Literature, editedDane SwanCBC
129Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No OtherSam HeughanGoodreads
130Clean: The New Science Of SkinJames HamblinNPR
131Concrete KidsAmyra León Ashley Lukashevsky (Illustrator)
Chicago Public Library
132Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music And Changed American CultureGrace Elizabeth HaleNPR
133Counterpoint: A Memoir Of Bach And MourningPhilip KennicottNPR
134Cry Wolf Harold R. JohnsonCBC
135Dancing After TENVivian Chong and Georgia WebberNPR
136Dancing Man: A Broadway Choreographer’s JourneyBob Avian with Tom SantopietroNPR
137Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance StateBarton Gellman
Washington Post
138Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid EpidemicEric EyreShe Reads
139Deaths of Despair and the Future of CapitalismAnne Case and Angus DeatonNY Times
140Disfigured Amanda LeducCBC
141Don’t Overthink ItAnne BogelGoodreads
142Editing Humanity: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing.Kevin Davies
Marginal Revolution
143Everything Beautiful in Its Time: Seasons of Love and LossJenna Bush HagerShe Reads
144Everything Man: The Form And Function Of Paul RobesonShana L. RedmondNPR
145Ex Libris: 100+ Books to Read and RereadMichiko Kakutani
Financial Times
146Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward in the Post-Cold War WorldRobert M. GatesNY Times
147Facebook: The Inside Story.Steven Levy
Marginal Revolution
148Family In Six Tones: A Refugee Mother, An American DaughterLan Cao and Harlan Margaret Van CaoNPR
149FathomsRebecca GiggsBookpage
150Fauja Singh Keeps Going: The True Story Of The Oldest Person To Ever Run A MarathonSimran Jeet SinghNPR
151Feasting Wild: In Search of the Last Untamed FoodGina Rae La CervaAmazon
152Field Notes from a Pandemic Ethan LouCBC
153Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder Julia ZarankinCBC
154Figure It OutWayne Koestenbaum
Los Angeles Times
155Fire CountryVictor SteffensenReadings
156Forms of Contention: Influence and the African-American Sonnet Tradition.Hollis Robbins
Marginal Revolution
157Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of HumankindKermit PattisonShe Reads
158From My Mother’s BackNjoki WaneCBC
159Frontier Follies: Adventures in Marriage & Motherhood in the Middle of NowhereRee DrummondShe Reads
160Fully Grown: Why a Stagnant Economy is a Sign of Success.Dietrich Vollrath
Marginal Revolution
161Funny Weather: Art In An EmergencyOlivia LaingNPR
162Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion ManifestoMiren ArzalluzNPR
163Galileo: And the Science DeniersMario Livio
Washington Post
164Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic ThoughtsJennie AllenGoodreads
165Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke The BinarySasha GeffenNPR
166God-Level Knowledge Darts: Life Lessons From The BronxDesus & MeroNPR
167God’s Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern WorldAlan Mikhail
Publishers Weekly
168Good Morning, Destroyer of Men’s Souls: A Memoir of Women, Addiction, and LoveNina Renata Aron
Bookshop Santa Cruz
169Good Morning, Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional RecoveryCatherine GildinerAmazon
170Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My LifeChristie TateAmazon
171Hanging Tree GuitarsFreeman Vines with Zoe van BurenNPR
172Himalaya: A Human History.Ed Douglas
Marginal Revolution
173His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A LifeJonathan AlterNPR
174History has Begun: The Birth of a New America.Bruno Macaes
Marginal Revolution
175Hitler: DownfallVolker UllrichTime
176Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, And The Dangerous Distortion Of TruthBrian StelterNPR
177Honeybee: The Busy Life Of Apis MelliferaCandace FlemingNPR
178How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of AmericaHeather Cox Richardson
Washington Post
179How to Live a Good Life: A Guide to Choosing Your Personal PhilosophyDaniel Kaufman, Massimo Pigliucci & Skye C ClearyFive Books
180I Don’t Want To Die Poor: EssaysMichael ArceneauxNPR
181I Got A Monster: The Rise And Fall Of America’s Most Corrupt Police SquadBaynard Woods and Brandon SoderbergNPR
182I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder Sarah KurchakCBC
183I Want You to Know We’re Still Here: A Post-Holocaust MemoirEsther Safran FoerNPR
184I You We Them: Volume 1: Walking Into the World of the Desk KillerDan Gretton
Washington Post
185Imaginary BordersXiuhtezcatl Martinez Ashley Lukashevsky (Illustrator)
Chicago Public Library
186Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar.Oliver Craske
Marginal Revolution
187InfernoCatherine ChoBookpage
188Into the Streets 
Chicago Public Library
189Inventing Latinos: A New Story Of American RacismLaura E. GómezNPR
190Is This Anything?Jerry SeinfeldAmazon
191Katrina: A History, 1915–2015Andy Horowitz
Publishers Weekly
192Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art.Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Marginal Revolution
193Kleptopia: How Dirty Money Is Conquering the WorldTom Burgis
Washington Post
194Larger Than Life: A History Of Boy Bands From NKOTB To BTSMaria ShermanNPR
195Later: My Life At The Edge Of The WorldPaul LisickyNPR
196Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National ParkConor KnightonShe Reads
197Legendary Children: The First Decade Of RuPaul’s Drag Race And The Last Century Of Queer LifeTom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo MarquezNPR
198Leonhard Euler: Mathematical Genius of the Enlightenment.Ronald S. Calinger
Marginal Revolution
199Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria WoodJasper Rees
Financial Times
200Life Of A Klansman: A Family History In White SupremacyEdward BallNPR
201Lifting As We Climb: Black Women’s Battle For The Ballot BoxEvette DionneNPR
202Like a Boy but Not a BoyAndrea BennettCBC
203Looking To Get Lost: Adventures In Music And WritingPeter GuralnickNPR
204Love After the End, editedJoshua WhiteheadCBC
205LowitjaStuart RintoulReadings
206Mad at the World: A Life of John SteinbeckWilliam Souder
Publishers Weekly
207Magdalena: River of Dreams—A Story of ColombiaWade DavisNYPL
208Magnetized: Conversations With A Serial KillerCarlos BusquedNPR
209Max JacobRosanna Warren
Washington Post
210Mill Town: Reckoning with What RemainsKerri Arsenault
Publishers Weekly
211MS-13: The Making Of America’s Most Notorious GangSteven DudleyNPR
212Mutations: The Many Strange Faces Of Hardcore PunkSam McPheetersNPR
213Neon Girls: A Stripper’s Education In Protest And PowerJennifer WorleyNPR
214Nerve Eva HollandCBC
215Night Letters: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar And The Afghan Islamists Who Changed The WorldChris Sands with Fazelminallah QazizaiNPR
216No Filter: The Inside Story Of InstagramSarah FrierNPR
217No Modernism Without LesbiansDiana SouhamiThe Times
218No Rules Rules: Netflix And The Culture Of ReinventionReed Hastings and Erin MeyerNPR
219Notes From An Apocalypse: A Personal Journey To The End Of The World And BackMark O’ConnellNPR
220One Billion Americans.Matthew Yglesias
Marginal Revolution
221One Day I’ll Remember ThisHelen GarnerReadings
222One LifeMegan Rapinoe and Emma BrockesNPR
223One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965Jia Lynn Yang
Washington Post
224Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in AmericaCandacy TaylorNY Times
225Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir and Me — a MemoirDeirde BairThe Times
226Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton.Nicholas McDowell
Marginal Revolution
227Political Sign (Object Lessons)Tobias CarrollNPR
228Postcolonial Love PoemNatalie DiazNPR
229Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens The Unsolved Murder Cases Of The Civil Rights EraJerry MitchellNPR
230Race For Profit: How Banks And The Real Estate Industry Undermined Black HomeownershipKeeanga-Yamahtta TaylorNPR
231Radical Wordsworth: The Poet Who Changed the WorldJonathan BateThe Times
232Reaching Mithymna Steven HeightonCBC
233Rebel Chef: In Search of What MattersDominique Crenn
Bookshop Santa Cruz
234Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia PlathHeather ClarkThe Times
235Relax, Dammit!Timothy CaulfieldCBC
236Resilience is Futile Julie S. LalondeCBC
237Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral InterferenceDavid Shimer
Washington Post
238Roadside Americans: The Rise And Fall Of Hitchhiking In A Changing NationJack ReidNPR
239Rust Belt FemmeRaechel Anne JolieNPR
240Rust: A Memoir Of Steel And GritEliese GoldbachNPR
241Say Her NameZetta Elliott Loveis Wise (Illustrator)
Chicago Public Library
242Say It Louder!: Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving Our DemocracyTiffany CrossPowells
243Seeing The BodyRachel Eliza GriffithsNPR
244Seven and a Half Lessons About the BrainLisa Feldman BarrettAmazon
245Sex MattersAlyson J. McGregorBook Riot
246Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study Of Sex, Power, And Assault On CampusJennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus KhanNPR
247Shame on Me Tessa McWattCBC
248She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her SongsSarah SmarshShe Reads
249Sisters In Hate: American Women On The Front Lines Of White NationalismSeyward DarbyNPR
250Sisters Of The War: Two Remarkable True Stories Of Survival And Hope In SyriaRania AbouzeidNPR
251Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled BodyRebekah Taussig
Bookshop Santa Cruz
252Slavery and BristolGM BestFive Books
253Solutions And Other ProblemsAllie BroshNPR
254Something That May Shock And Discredit YouDaniel M. LaveryNPR
255Soul Full of Coal Dust: A Fight for Breath and Justice in AppalachiaChris HambyNY Times
256Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen LandNoé AlvarezBook Riot
257Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London Between the WarsFrancesca WadeThe Times
258Standoff: Race, Policing, and a Deadly Assault That Gripped a NationJamie ThompsonShe Reads
259Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her WorldAmy Stanley
Washington Post
260Supreme InequalityAdam CohenPowells
261Sybille Bedford: An Appetite for LifeSelina HastingsThe Times
262Taking on the Plastics CrisisHannah Testa Ashley Lukashevsky (Illustrator)
Chicago Public Library
263Talking to GOATs: The Moments You Remember and the Stories You Never HeardJim GrayShe Reads
264Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic WorldFareed ZakariaAmazon
265The Age Of PhillisHonorée Fanonne JeffersNPR
266The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania TrumpMary Jordan
Washington Post
267The Artful Dickens: the Tricks and Ploys of the Great NovelistJohn MullanThe Times
268The Autobiography Of Alice B. Toklas IllustratedGertrude SteinNPR
269The Beauty in Breaking: A MemoirMichele HarperNY Times
270The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of HollywoodSam Wasson
Washington Post
271The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and ThinkJennifer Ackerman
Bookshop Santa Cruz
272The Book Collectors: A Band Of Syrian Rebels And The Stories That Carried Them Through A WarDelphine MinouiNPR
273The Book Of Atlantis Black: The Search For A Sister Gone MissingBetsy BonnerNPR
274The Bridge: Natural Gas in a Redivided Europe.Thane Gustafson
Marginal Revolution
275The Chiffon Trenches: A MemoirAndré Leon TalleyNPR
276The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and WarCatherine Grace Katz
Publishers Weekly
277The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success.Ross Douthat
Marginal Revolution
278The Deepest South Of All: True Stories From Natchez, MississippiRichard GrantNPR
279The DetailsTegan Bennett DaylightReadings
280The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of AmericaEric Cervini
Washington Post
281The Doctor Who Fooled the WorldBrian DeerReadings
282The Fall of a Sparrow: Vivien Eliot’s Life and WritingsAnn Pasternak SlaterThe Times
283The Fall of the House of Byron: Scandal and Seduction in Georgian EnglandEmily BrandThe Times
284The Fire of Joy: Roughly Eighty Poems to Get by Heart and Say AloudClive JamesThe Times
285The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class RevolutionDavid Paul KuhnNY Times
286The Hidden Habits of Genius: Beyond Talent, IQ, and Grit—Unlocking the Secrets of GreatnessCraig M. WrightAmazon
287The Human Cosmos: Civilization And The StarsJo MarchantNPR
288The Imperilled OceanLaura TretheweyCBC
289The Inevitability of Tragedy: Henry Kissinger and His WorldBarry GewenNY Times
290The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade And The Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our WorldVincent BevinsNPR
291The Journeys Of Trees: A Story About Forests, People, And The FutureZach St. GeorgeNPR
292The Last Million: Europe’s Displaced Persons From World War To Cold WarDavid NasawNPR
293The Lights And Types Of Ships At NightDave EggersNPR
294The Loneliness of the Long-Distance CartoonistAdrian TomineNY Times
295The Look Of The Book: Jackets, Covers, And Art At The Edges Of LiteraturePeter Mendelsund and David J. AlworthNPR
296The Madman’s Library: The Greatest Curiosities of LiteratureEdward Brooke-HitchinThe Times
297The Man Who Ate Too MuchJames Birdsall
Publishers Weekly
298The Meaning Of Mariah CareyMariah Carey with Michaela Angela DavisNPR
299The Most Beautiful ThingKao Kalia YangNPR
300The Mystery of Charles DickensAN WilsonThe Times
301The New Map: Energy, Climate And The Clash Of NationsDaniel YerginNPR
302The New Queer ConscienceAdam Eli Ashley Lukashevsky (Illustrator)
Chicago Public Library
303The Origins of You: How Childhood Shapes Later Life.Jay Belsky, Avshalom Caspi, Terrie E. Moffitt, and Richie Poulton
Marginal Revolution
304The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-PopulismThomas Frank
Washington Post
305The Professor and the ParsonAdam Sisman
Washington Post
306The Riches Of This LandJim TankersleyNPR
307The Saddest Words: William Faulkner’s Civil WarMichael GorraNY Times
308The Selected Letters of Ralph EllisonJohn F. Callahan and Marc C. ConnerNY Times
309The Self-love RevolutionVirgie Tovar
Chicago Public Library
310The Skin We’re In Desmond ColeCBC
311The Socrates Express: In Search Of Life Lessons From Dead PhilosophersEric WeinerNPR
312The Sprawl: Reconsidering The Weird American SuburbsJason DiamondNPR
313The Story of China: A Portrait of a Civilization and its People.Michael Wood
Marginal Revolution
314The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love & TruthWade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson (editors)NPR
315The Things They FanciedMolly YoungNPR
316The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in AppalachiaEmma Copley EisenbergNY Times
317The Vapors: A Southern Family, the New York Mob, and the Rise and Fall of Hot Springs, America’s Forgotten Capital of ViceDavid HillNY Times
318The Wax Pack: On The Open Road In Search Of Baseball’s AfterlifeBrad BalukjianNPR
319The Way Home David A. NeelCBC
320The Yellow HouseSarah M. BroomReadings
321The Zealot and the EmancipatorH.W. Brands
Worldly Gentleman
322They Said This Would Be FunEternity MartisCBC
323Thin Places: Essays From In BetweenJordan KisnerNPR
324This Is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search for HomeLauren SandlerNY Times
325This Is Not the End of MeDakshana BascaramurtyCBC
326This Is One Way To Dance: EssaysSejal ShahNPR
327This Is What I Know About ArtKimberly Drew Ashley Lukashevsky (Illustrator)
Chicago Public Library
328This Too Shall LastK.J. RamseyBook Riot
329To Start a WarRobert DraperBookpage
330To the LakeKapka KassabovaPowells
331Tomboy: The Surprising History and Future of Girls Who Dare to Be DifferentLisa Selin Davis
Publishers Weekly
332Transcendence: How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and TimeGaia VinceFive Books
333Two Trees Make a ForestJessica J. LeeCBC
334Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black ManEmmanuel AchoAmazon
335Unspeakable Acts: True Tales Of Crime, Murder, Deceit, And ObsessionSarah Weinman (editor)NPR
336Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, And The Birth Of 24-Hour NewsLisa NapoliNPR
337Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit.Ashley Mears
Marginal Revolution
338Virginians and Their History.Brent Tarter
Marginal Revolution
339WarholBlake Gopnik
Publishers Weekly
340We Are Water ProtectorsCarole LindstromNPR
341We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China’s Surveillance StateKai Strittmatter
Washington Post
342What Can A Body Do?: How We Meet The Built WorldSara HendrenNPR
343What It’s Like to Be a Bird: From Flying to Nesting, Eating to Singing — What Birds Are Doing, and WhyDavid Allen Sibley
Washington Post
344What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump EraCarlos Lozada
Washington Post
345Whistleblower: My Journey To Silicon Valley And Fight For Justice At UberSusan FowlerNPR
346White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of ColorRuby Hamad
Publishers Weekly
347Who Gets in and Why: A Year Inside College AdmissionsJeffrey SelingoNY Times
348Why We SwimBonnie TsuiNPR
349Wild Thing: The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi HendrixPhilip Norman
Publishers Weekly
350Willie Willie O’Ree, with Michael McKinleyCBC
351Wine Girl: The Trials and Triumphs of America’s Youngest SommelierVictoria JamesAmazon
352Wintering: The Power Of Rest And Retreat In Difficult TimesKatherine MayNPR
353Wuhan Diary: Dispatches From a Quarantined CityFang Fang
Washington Post
354X+Y: A Mathematician’s Manifesto For Rethinking GenderEugenia ChengNPR
355You Never Forget Your First: A Biography Of George WashingtonAlexis CoeNPR
356You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It MattersKate Murphy
Washington Post


24 Best Nonfiction Book Sources/Lists



SourceArticle
Amazon Best nonfiction of 2020
Book Riot Best Books of 2020 (So Far)
Bookpage Best Books of 2020: Nonfiction
Books A Million Our Top 5 Non-Fiction Books of 2020!
Bookshop Santa Cruz Best Nonfiction of the Year
CBC The best Canadian nonfiction of 2020
Chicago Public Library Best Teen Nonfiction of 2020
Financial Times Best books of 2020: Literary non-fiction
Five Books The Best Nonfiction Books of 2020
Goodreads Best Nonfiction
Los Angeles Times The 20 reads book people actually want this year
Marginal Revolution Best non-fiction books of 2020
NPR NPR’s Book Concierge
NY Times 100 Notable Books of 2020
NY Times 2 The 10 Best Books of 2020
NYPL Best Books for Adults 2020
Powells Best Nonfiction of 2020
Publishers Weekly Best Non-fiction Books of 2020
Readings The best non-fiction books of 2020
She Reads Best non-fiction books of 2020
The Times Best literary nonfiction books of the year 2020
Time The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2020
Washington Post 50 notable works of nonfiction in 2020
Worldly Gentleman The Best Books of 2020