“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!
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
#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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
“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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
“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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
#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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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,
Lists It Appears On:
“[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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
*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,
Lists It Appears On:
“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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
“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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
#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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
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
Lists It Appears On:
#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
| # | Book | Author | Lists |
| 38 | Becoming Duchess Goldblatt | Anonymous | Washington Post |
| She Reads | |||
| 39 | Breath: The New Science Of A Lost Art | James Nestor | Washington Post |
| NPR | |||
| 40 | Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies: And Other Rituals to Fix Your Life, from Someone Who’s Been There | Tara Schuster | Book Riot |
| Goodreads | |||
| 41 | Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics | Dolly Parton | Books A Million |
| Washington Post | |||
| 42 | Eat a Peach: A Memoir | David Chang | Bookshop Santa Cruz |
| NPR | |||
| 43 | Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our World, Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures. | Merlin Sheldrake | Marginal Revolution |
| Bookshop Santa Cruz | |||
| 44 | Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-Up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World | Lesley M. M. Blume | Publishers Weekly |
| NY Times | |||
| 45 | Father of Lions: One Man’s Remarkable Quest to Save the Mosul Zoo | Louise Callaghan | NPR |
| She Reads | |||
| 46 | Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy | Margaret Sullivan | Washington Post |
| NPR | |||
| 47 | Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs | Jennifer Finney Boylan | Publishers Weekly |
| Bookshop Santa Cruz | |||
| 48 | Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America | R. Eric Thomas | Book Riot |
| NPR | |||
| 49 | Humankind: A Hopeful History | Rutger Bregman | Readings |
| Washington Post | |||
| 50 | Is Rape a Crime? A Memoir, an Investigation, and a Manifesto | Michelle Bowdler | Bookpage |
| Publishers Weekly | |||
| 51 | Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio | Derf Backderf | NYPL |
| NPR | |||
| 52 | My Autobiography of Carson McCullers | Jenn Shapland | Book Riot |
| NPR | |||
| 53 | Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (as Told to Me) Story | Bess Kalb | Bookpage |
| She Reads | |||
| 54 | Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl | Jonathan C. Slaght | NPR |
| NY Times | |||
| 55 | Pelosi | Molly Ball | Washington Post |
| Bookshop Santa Cruz | |||
| 56 | Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976–1980 | Rick Perlstein | Publishers Weekly |
| NY Times | |||
| 57 | Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future | James Shapiro | NY Times 2 |
| NY Times | |||
| 58 | Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema | Lindy West | She Reads |
| Bookshop Santa Cruz | |||
| 59 | The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win | Maria Konnikova | Washington Post |
| NY Times | |||
| 60 | The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III | Peter Baker and Susan Glasser | Washington Post |
| NY Times | |||
| 61 | The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move | Sonia Shah | NYPL |
| Publishers Weekly | |||
| 62 | The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes | Zachary D. Carter | Publishers Weekly |
| Marginal Revolution | |||
| 63 | The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War — a Tragedy in Three Acts | Scott Anderson | NY Times |
| Bookshop Santa Cruz | |||
| 64 | The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another World | Sarah Stewart Johnson | Bookshop Santa Cruz |
| NY Times | |||
| 65 | The Weirdest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous | Joseph Henrich | NY Times |
| Marginal Revolution | |||
| 66 | Tom Stoppard: A Life | Hermione Lee | Financial Times |
| The Times | |||
| 67 | Tomboyland: Essays | Melissa Faliveno | NYPL |
| NPR | |||
| 68 | Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism | Anne Applebaum | Five Books |
| Washington Post | |||
| 69 | Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas | Roberto Lovato | Los Angeles Times |
| Bookshop Santa Cruz | |||
| 70 | Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe | Brian Greene | Amazon |
| NY Times | |||
| 71 | Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory | Claudio Saunt | Publishers Weekly |
| NPR | |||
| 72 | Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music | Alex Ross | NY Times |
| NPR | |||
| 73 | Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots | Morgan Jerkins | She Reads |
| Bookshop Santa Cruz | |||
| 74 | We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence | Becky Cooper | Amazon |
| Publishers Weekly | |||
| 75 | Where Things Touch: A Meditation On Beauty | Bahar Orang | CBC |
| NPR | |||
| 76 | Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis | Ada Calhoun | Amazon |
| Goodreads | |||
| 77 | Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy | David Zucchino | Bookpage |
| Publishers Weekly | |||
| 78 | Year of the Rabbit | Tian Veasna | NYPL |
| NPR | |||
| 79 | 10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust the Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less. | Garett Jones | Marginal Revolution |
| 80 | 13th Balloon | Mark Bibbins | NPR |
| 81 | 97,196 Words: Essays | Emmanuel Carrère | NY Times |
| 82 | A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldane | Samanth Subramanian | NY Times |
| 83 | A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes | Eric Jay Dolin | Washington Post |
| 84 | A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom | Brittany K. Barnett | Amazon |
| 85 | A Life on Our Planet | David Attenborough | Readings |
| 86 | A Little History of Poetry | John Carey | The Times |
| 87 | A Mind Spread Out on the Ground | Alicia Elliott | Bookshop Santa Cruz |
| 88 | A Peculiar Indifference: The Neglected Toll of Violence on Black America | Elliott Currie | NY Times |
| 89 | A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith | Timothy Egan | NY Times |
| 90 | A Silenced Voice: The Life Of Journalist Kim Wall | Ingrid Wall and Joachim Wall | NPR |
| 91 | A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America | Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig | Washington Post |
| 92 | A Woman Like Her: The Story Behind the Honor Killing of a Social Media Star | Sanam Maher | NY Times |
| 93 | A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond | Daniel Susskind | Five Books |
| 94 | Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times | David S. Reynolds | Washington Post |
| 95 | Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, And The Meaning Of Sex | Angela Chen | NPR |
| 96 | Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare | Thomas Rid | Washington Post |
| 97 | Alien Oceans: The Search For Life In The Depths Of Space | Kevin Hand | NPR |
| 98 | All Boys Aren’t Blue | George M. Johnson | Chicago Public Library |
| 99 | All I Ever Wanted | Kathy Valentine | Washington Post |
| 100 | All The Way To The Tigers: A Memoir | Mary Morris | NPR |
| 101 | Almost American Girl: An Illustrated Memoir | Robin Ha | NPR |
| 102 | American Cheese: An Indulgent Odyssey Through the Artisan Cheese World | Joe Berkowitz | She Reads |
| 103 | American Oligarchs: The Kushners, The Trumps, And The Marriage Of Money And Power | Andrea Bernstein | NPR |
| 104 | Apple: (Skin To The Core) | Eric Gansworth | NPR |
| 105 | Arts & Minds: How the Royal Society of Arts Changed a Nation. | Anton Howes | Marginal Revolution |
| 106 | Atomic Women | Roseanne Montillo | Chicago Public Library |
| 107 | Banned Book Club | Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada | NPR |
| 108 | Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs Of A Neurotic Filmmaker | Barry Sonnenfeld | NPR |
| 109 | Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace | Carl Safina | NY Times |
| 110 | Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own | Eddie S. Glaude Jr. | Washington Post |
| 111 | Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist | Judith Heumann | Publishers Weekly |
| 112 | Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, And Compromise In Putin’s Russia | Joshua Yaffa | NPR |
| 113 | Beyond the Gender Binary | Alok Vaid-Menon Ashley Lukashevsky (Illustrator) | Chicago Public Library |
| 114 | Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close | Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman | NPR |
| 115 | Black Heroes Of The Wild West | James Otis Smith | NPR |
| 116 | Black Water | David A. Robertson | CBC |
| 117 | Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East | Kim Ghattas | NY Times |
| 118 | Bland Fanatics | Pankaj Mishra | Powells |
| 119 | Blood On The River: A Chronicle Of Mutiny And Freedom On The Wild Coast | Marjoleine Kars | NPR |
| 120 | Blueberries | Ellena Savage | Readings |
| 121 | Born To Be Public | Greg Mania | NPR |
| 122 | Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity | Peggy Orenstein | Amazon |
| 123 | Britain’s War 1942-1947. | Daniel Todman | Marginal Revolution |
| 124 | Broken Faith: Inside The Word Of Faith Fellowship, One Of America’s Most Dangerous Cults | Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr | NPR |
| 125 | Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party | Julian E. Zelizer | NY Times |
| 126 | Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation | Anne Helen Petersen | Amazon |
| 127 | Capital And Ideology | Thomas Piketty | NPR |
| 128 | Changing the Face of Canadian Literature, edited | Dane Swan | CBC |
| 129 | Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other | Sam Heughan | Goodreads |
| 130 | Clean: The New Science Of Skin | James Hamblin | NPR |
| 131 | Concrete Kids | Amyra León Ashley Lukashevsky (Illustrator) | Chicago Public Library |
| 132 | Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music And Changed American Culture | Grace Elizabeth Hale | NPR |
| 133 | Counterpoint: A Memoir Of Bach And Mourning | Philip Kennicott | NPR |
| 134 | Cry Wolf | Harold R. Johnson | CBC |
| 135 | Dancing After TEN | Vivian Chong and Georgia Webber | NPR |
| 136 | Dancing Man: A Broadway Choreographer’s Journey | Bob Avian with Tom Santopietro | NPR |
| 137 | Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State | Barton Gellman | Washington Post |
| 138 | Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic | Eric Eyre | She Reads |
| 139 | Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism | Anne Case and Angus Deaton | NY Times |
| 140 | Disfigured | Amanda Leduc | CBC |
| 141 | Don’t Overthink It | Anne Bogel | Goodreads |
| 142 | Editing Humanity: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing. | Kevin Davies | Marginal Revolution |
| 143 | Everything Beautiful in Its Time: Seasons of Love and Loss | Jenna Bush Hager | She Reads |
| 144 | Everything Man: The Form And Function Of Paul Robeson | Shana L. Redmond | NPR |
| 145 | Ex Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Reread | Michiko Kakutani | Financial Times |
| 146 | Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward in the Post-Cold War World | Robert M. Gates | NY Times |
| 147 | Facebook: The Inside Story. | Steven Levy | Marginal Revolution |
| 148 | Family In Six Tones: A Refugee Mother, An American Daughter | Lan Cao and Harlan Margaret Van Cao | NPR |
| 149 | Fathoms | Rebecca Giggs | Bookpage |
| 150 | Fauja Singh Keeps Going: The True Story Of The Oldest Person To Ever Run A Marathon | Simran Jeet Singh | NPR |
| 151 | Feasting Wild: In Search of the Last Untamed Food | Gina Rae La Cerva | Amazon |
| 152 | Field Notes from a Pandemic | Ethan Lou | CBC |
| 153 | Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder | Julia Zarankin | CBC |
| 154 | Figure It Out | Wayne Koestenbaum | Los Angeles Times |
| 155 | Fire Country | Victor Steffensen | Readings |
| 156 | Forms of Contention: Influence and the African-American Sonnet Tradition. | Hollis Robbins | Marginal Revolution |
| 157 | Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind | Kermit Pattison | She Reads |
| 158 | From My Mother’s Back | Njoki Wane | CBC |
| 159 | Frontier Follies: Adventures in Marriage & Motherhood in the Middle of Nowhere | Ree Drummond | She Reads |
| 160 | Fully Grown: Why a Stagnant Economy is a Sign of Success. | Dietrich Vollrath | Marginal Revolution |
| 161 | Funny Weather: Art In An Emergency | Olivia Laing | NPR |
| 162 | Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto | Miren Arzalluz | NPR |
| 163 | Galileo: And the Science Deniers | Mario Livio | Washington Post |
| 164 | Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts | Jennie Allen | Goodreads |
| 165 | Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke The Binary | Sasha Geffen | NPR |
| 166 | God-Level Knowledge Darts: Life Lessons From The Bronx | Desus & Mero | NPR |
| 167 | God’s Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World | Alan Mikhail | Publishers Weekly |
| 168 | Good Morning, Destroyer of Men’s Souls: A Memoir of Women, Addiction, and Love | Nina Renata Aron | Bookshop Santa Cruz |
| 169 | Good Morning, Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery | Catherine Gildiner | Amazon |
| 170 | Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life | Christie Tate | Amazon |
| 171 | Hanging Tree Guitars | Freeman Vines with Zoe van Buren | NPR |
| 172 | Himalaya: A Human History. | Ed Douglas | Marginal Revolution |
| 173 | His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life | Jonathan Alter | NPR |
| 174 | History has Begun: The Birth of a New America. | Bruno Macaes | Marginal Revolution |
| 175 | Hitler: Downfall | Volker Ullrich | Time |
| 176 | Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, And The Dangerous Distortion Of Truth | Brian Stelter | NPR |
| 177 | Honeybee: The Busy Life Of Apis Mellifera | Candace Fleming | NPR |
| 178 | How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America | Heather Cox Richardson | Washington Post |
| 179 | How to Live a Good Life: A Guide to Choosing Your Personal Philosophy | Daniel Kaufman, Massimo Pigliucci & Skye C Cleary | Five Books |
| 180 | I Don’t Want To Die Poor: Essays | Michael Arceneaux | NPR |
| 181 | I Got A Monster: The Rise And Fall Of America’s Most Corrupt Police Squad | Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg | NPR |
| 182 | I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder | Sarah Kurchak | CBC |
| 183 | I Want You to Know We’re Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir | Esther Safran Foer | NPR |
| 184 | I You We Them: Volume 1: Walking Into the World of the Desk Killer | Dan Gretton | Washington Post |
| 185 | Imaginary Borders | Xiuhtezcatl Martinez Ashley Lukashevsky (Illustrator) | Chicago Public Library |
| 186 | Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar. | Oliver Craske | Marginal Revolution |
| 187 | Inferno | Catherine Cho | Bookpage |
| 188 | Into the Streets | Chicago Public Library | |
| 189 | Inventing Latinos: A New Story Of American Racism | Laura E. Gómez | NPR |
| 190 | Is This Anything? | Jerry Seinfeld | Amazon |
| 191 | Katrina: A History, 1915–2015 | Andy Horowitz | Publishers Weekly |
| 192 | Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art. | Rebecca Wragg Sykes | Marginal Revolution |
| 193 | Kleptopia: How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World | Tom Burgis | Washington Post |
| 194 | Larger Than Life: A History Of Boy Bands From NKOTB To BTS | Maria Sherman | NPR |
| 195 | Later: My Life At The Edge Of The World | Paul Lisicky | NPR |
| 196 | Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park | Conor Knighton | She Reads |
| 197 | Legendary Children: The First Decade Of RuPaul’s Drag Race And The Last Century Of Queer Life | Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez | NPR |
| 198 | Leonhard Euler: Mathematical Genius of the Enlightenment. | Ronald S. Calinger | Marginal Revolution |
| 199 | Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood | Jasper Rees | Financial Times |
| 200 | Life Of A Klansman: A Family History In White Supremacy | Edward Ball | NPR |
| 201 | Lifting As We Climb: Black Women’s Battle For The Ballot Box | Evette Dionne | NPR |
| 202 | Like a Boy but Not a Boy | Andrea Bennett | CBC |
| 203 | Looking To Get Lost: Adventures In Music And Writing | Peter Guralnick | NPR |
| 204 | Love After the End, edited | Joshua Whitehead | CBC |
| 205 | Lowitja | Stuart Rintoul | Readings |
| 206 | Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck | William Souder | Publishers Weekly |
| 207 | Magdalena: River of Dreams—A Story of Colombia | Wade Davis | NYPL |
| 208 | Magnetized: Conversations With A Serial Killer | Carlos Busqued | NPR |
| 209 | Max Jacob | Rosanna Warren | Washington Post |
| 210 | Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains | Kerri Arsenault | Publishers Weekly |
| 211 | MS-13: The Making Of America’s Most Notorious Gang | Steven Dudley | NPR |
| 212 | Mutations: The Many Strange Faces Of Hardcore Punk | Sam McPheeters | NPR |
| 213 | Neon Girls: A Stripper’s Education In Protest And Power | Jennifer Worley | NPR |
| 214 | Nerve | Eva Holland | CBC |
| 215 | Night Letters: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar And The Afghan Islamists Who Changed The World | Chris Sands with Fazelminallah Qazizai | NPR |
| 216 | No Filter: The Inside Story Of Instagram | Sarah Frier | NPR |
| 217 | No Modernism Without Lesbians | Diana Souhami | The Times |
| 218 | No Rules Rules: Netflix And The Culture Of Reinvention | Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer | NPR |
| 219 | Notes From An Apocalypse: A Personal Journey To The End Of The World And Back | Mark O’Connell | NPR |
| 220 | One Billion Americans. | Matthew Yglesias | Marginal Revolution |
| 221 | One Day I’ll Remember This | Helen Garner | Readings |
| 222 | One Life | Megan Rapinoe and Emma Brockes | NPR |
| 223 | One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965 | Jia Lynn Yang | Washington Post |
| 224 | Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America | Candacy Taylor | NY Times |
| 225 | Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir and Me — a Memoir | Deirde Bair | The Times |
| 226 | Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton. | Nicholas McDowell | Marginal Revolution |
| 227 | Political Sign (Object Lessons) | Tobias Carroll | NPR |
| 228 | Postcolonial Love Poem | Natalie Diaz | NPR |
| 229 | Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens The Unsolved Murder Cases Of The Civil Rights Era | Jerry Mitchell | NPR |
| 230 | Race For Profit: How Banks And The Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership | Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor | NPR |
| 231 | Radical Wordsworth: The Poet Who Changed the World | Jonathan Bate | The Times |
| 232 | Reaching Mithymna | Steven Heighton | CBC |
| 233 | Rebel Chef: In Search of What Matters | Dominique Crenn | Bookshop Santa Cruz |
| 234 | Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath | Heather Clark | The Times |
| 235 | Relax, Dammit! | Timothy Caulfield | CBC |
| 236 | Resilience is Futile | Julie S. Lalonde | CBC |
| 237 | Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference | David Shimer | Washington Post |
| 238 | Roadside Americans: The Rise And Fall Of Hitchhiking In A Changing Nation | Jack Reid | NPR |
| 239 | Rust Belt Femme | Raechel Anne Jolie | NPR |
| 240 | Rust: A Memoir Of Steel And Grit | Eliese Goldbach | NPR |
| 241 | Say Her Name | Zetta Elliott Loveis Wise (Illustrator) | Chicago Public Library |
| 242 | Say It Louder!: Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving Our Democracy | Tiffany Cross | Powells |
| 243 | Seeing The Body | Rachel Eliza Griffiths | NPR |
| 244 | Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain | Lisa Feldman Barrett | Amazon |
| 245 | Sex Matters | Alyson J. McGregor | Book Riot |
| 246 | Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study Of Sex, Power, And Assault On Campus | Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan | NPR |
| 247 | Shame on Me | Tessa McWatt | CBC |
| 248 | She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs | Sarah Smarsh | She Reads |
| 249 | Sisters In Hate: American Women On The Front Lines Of White Nationalism | Seyward Darby | NPR |
| 250 | Sisters Of The War: Two Remarkable True Stories Of Survival And Hope In Syria | Rania Abouzeid | NPR |
| 251 | Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body | Rebekah Taussig | Bookshop Santa Cruz |
| 252 | Slavery and Bristol | GM Best | Five Books |
| 253 | Solutions And Other Problems | Allie Brosh | NPR |
| 254 | Something That May Shock And Discredit You | Daniel M. Lavery | NPR |
| 255 | Soul Full of Coal Dust: A Fight for Breath and Justice in Appalachia | Chris Hamby | NY Times |
| 256 | Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land | Noé Alvarez | Book Riot |
| 257 | Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London Between the Wars | Francesca Wade | The Times |
| 258 | Standoff: Race, Policing, and a Deadly Assault That Gripped a Nation | Jamie Thompson | She Reads |
| 259 | Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World | Amy Stanley | Washington Post |
| 260 | Supreme Inequality | Adam Cohen | Powells |
| 261 | Sybille Bedford: An Appetite for Life | Selina Hastings | The Times |
| 262 | Taking on the Plastics Crisis | Hannah Testa Ashley Lukashevsky (Illustrator) | Chicago Public Library |
| 263 | Talking to GOATs: The Moments You Remember and the Stories You Never Heard | Jim Gray | She Reads |
| 264 | Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World | Fareed Zakaria | Amazon |
| 265 | The Age Of Phillis | Honorée Fanonne Jeffers | NPR |
| 266 | The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump | Mary Jordan | Washington Post |
| 267 | The Artful Dickens: the Tricks and Ploys of the Great Novelist | John Mullan | The Times |
| 268 | The Autobiography Of Alice B. Toklas Illustrated | Gertrude Stein | NPR |
| 269 | The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir | Michele Harper | NY Times |
| 270 | The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood | Sam Wasson | Washington Post |
| 271 | The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think | Jennifer Ackerman | Bookshop Santa Cruz |
| 272 | The Book Collectors: A Band Of Syrian Rebels And The Stories That Carried Them Through A War | Delphine Minoui | NPR |
| 273 | The Book Of Atlantis Black: The Search For A Sister Gone Missing | Betsy Bonner | NPR |
| 274 | The Bridge: Natural Gas in a Redivided Europe. | Thane Gustafson | Marginal Revolution |
| 275 | The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir | André Leon Talley | NPR |
| 276 | The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War | Catherine Grace Katz | Publishers Weekly |
| 277 | The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success. | Ross Douthat | Marginal Revolution |
| 278 | The Deepest South Of All: True Stories From Natchez, Mississippi | Richard Grant | NPR |
| 279 | The Details | Tegan Bennett Daylight | Readings |
| 280 | The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America | Eric Cervini | Washington Post |
| 281 | The Doctor Who Fooled the World | Brian Deer | Readings |
| 282 | The Fall of a Sparrow: Vivien Eliot’s Life and Writings | Ann Pasternak Slater | The Times |
| 283 | The Fall of the House of Byron: Scandal and Seduction in Georgian England | Emily Brand | The Times |
| 284 | The Fire of Joy: Roughly Eighty Poems to Get by Heart and Say Aloud | Clive James | The Times |
| 285 | The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution | David Paul Kuhn | NY Times |
| 286 | The Hidden Habits of Genius: Beyond Talent, IQ, and Grit—Unlocking the Secrets of Greatness | Craig M. Wright | Amazon |
| 287 | The Human Cosmos: Civilization And The Stars | Jo Marchant | NPR |
| 288 | The Imperilled Ocean | Laura Trethewey | CBC |
| 289 | The Inevitability of Tragedy: Henry Kissinger and His World | Barry Gewen | NY Times |
| 290 | The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade And The Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World | Vincent Bevins | NPR |
| 291 | The Journeys Of Trees: A Story About Forests, People, And The Future | Zach St. George | NPR |
| 292 | The Last Million: Europe’s Displaced Persons From World War To Cold War | David Nasaw | NPR |
| 293 | The Lights And Types Of Ships At Night | Dave Eggers | NPR |
| 294 | The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist | Adrian Tomine | NY Times |
| 295 | The Look Of The Book: Jackets, Covers, And Art At The Edges Of Literature | Peter Mendelsund and David J. Alworth | NPR |
| 296 | The Madman’s Library: The Greatest Curiosities of Literature | Edward Brooke-Hitchin | The Times |
| 297 | The Man Who Ate Too Much | James Birdsall | Publishers Weekly |
| 298 | The Meaning Of Mariah Carey | Mariah Carey with Michaela Angela Davis | NPR |
| 299 | The Most Beautiful Thing | Kao Kalia Yang | NPR |
| 300 | The Mystery of Charles Dickens | AN Wilson | The Times |
| 301 | The New Map: Energy, Climate And The Clash Of Nations | Daniel Yergin | NPR |
| 302 | The New Queer Conscience | Adam Eli Ashley Lukashevsky (Illustrator) | Chicago Public Library |
| 303 | The Origins of You: How Childhood Shapes Later Life. | Jay Belsky, Avshalom Caspi, Terrie E. Moffitt, and Richie Poulton | Marginal Revolution |
| 304 | The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism | Thomas Frank | Washington Post |
| 305 | The Professor and the Parson | Adam Sisman | Washington Post |
| 306 | The Riches Of This Land | Jim Tankersley | NPR |
| 307 | The Saddest Words: William Faulkner’s Civil War | Michael Gorra | NY Times |
| 308 | The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison | John F. Callahan and Marc C. Conner | NY Times |
| 309 | The Self-love Revolution | Virgie Tovar | Chicago Public Library |
| 310 | The Skin We’re In | Desmond Cole | CBC |
| 311 | The Socrates Express: In Search Of Life Lessons From Dead Philosophers | Eric Weiner | NPR |
| 312 | The Sprawl: Reconsidering The Weird American Suburbs | Jason Diamond | NPR |
| 313 | The Story of China: A Portrait of a Civilization and its People. | Michael Wood | Marginal Revolution |
| 314 | The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love & Truth | Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson (editors) | NPR |
| 315 | The Things They Fancied | Molly Young | NPR |
| 316 | The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia | Emma Copley Eisenberg | NY Times |
| 317 | The Vapors: A Southern Family, the New York Mob, and the Rise and Fall of Hot Springs, America’s Forgotten Capital of Vice | David Hill | NY Times |
| 318 | The Wax Pack: On The Open Road In Search Of Baseball’s Afterlife | Brad Balukjian | NPR |
| 319 | The Way Home | David A. Neel | CBC |
| 320 | The Yellow House | Sarah M. Broom | Readings |
| 321 | The Zealot and the Emancipator | H.W. Brands | Worldly Gentleman |
| 322 | They Said This Would Be Fun | Eternity Martis | CBC |
| 323 | Thin Places: Essays From In Between | Jordan Kisner | NPR |
| 324 | This Is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search for Home | Lauren Sandler | NY Times |
| 325 | This Is Not the End of Me | Dakshana Bascaramurty | CBC |
| 326 | This Is One Way To Dance: Essays | Sejal Shah | NPR |
| 327 | This Is What I Know About Art | Kimberly Drew Ashley Lukashevsky (Illustrator) | Chicago Public Library |
| 328 | This Too Shall Last | K.J. Ramsey | Book Riot |
| 329 | To Start a War | Robert Draper | Bookpage |
| 330 | To the Lake | Kapka Kassabova | Powells |
| 331 | Tomboy: The Surprising History and Future of Girls Who Dare to Be Different | Lisa Selin Davis | Publishers Weekly |
| 332 | Transcendence: How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time | Gaia Vince | Five Books |
| 333 | Two Trees Make a Forest | Jessica J. Lee | CBC |
| 334 | Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man | Emmanuel Acho | Amazon |
| 335 | Unspeakable Acts: True Tales Of Crime, Murder, Deceit, And Obsession | Sarah Weinman (editor) | NPR |
| 336 | Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, And The Birth Of 24-Hour News | Lisa Napoli | NPR |
| 337 | Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit. | Ashley Mears | Marginal Revolution |
| 338 | Virginians and Their History. | Brent Tarter | Marginal Revolution |
| 339 | Warhol | Blake Gopnik | Publishers Weekly |
| 340 | We Are Water Protectors | Carole Lindstrom | NPR |
| 341 | We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China’s Surveillance State | Kai Strittmatter | Washington Post |
| 342 | What Can A Body Do?: How We Meet The Built World | Sara Hendren | NPR |
| 343 | What It’s Like to Be a Bird: From Flying to Nesting, Eating to Singing — What Birds Are Doing, and Why | David Allen Sibley | Washington Post |
| 344 | What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era | Carlos Lozada | Washington Post |
| 345 | Whistleblower: My Journey To Silicon Valley And Fight For Justice At Uber | Susan Fowler | NPR |
| 346 | White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color | Ruby Hamad | Publishers Weekly |
| 347 | Who Gets in and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions | Jeffrey Selingo | NY Times |
| 348 | Why We Swim | Bonnie Tsui | NPR |
| 349 | Wild Thing: The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix | Philip Norman | Publishers Weekly |
| 350 | Willie | Willie O’Ree, with Michael McKinley | CBC |
| 351 | Wine Girl: The Trials and Triumphs of America’s Youngest Sommelier | Victoria James | Amazon |
| 352 | Wintering: The Power Of Rest And Retreat In Difficult Times | Katherine May | NPR |
| 353 | Wuhan Diary: Dispatches From a Quarantined City | Fang Fang | Washington Post |
| 354 | X+Y: A Mathematician’s Manifesto For Rethinking Gender | Eugenia Cheng | NPR |
| 355 | You Never Forget Your First: A Biography Of George Washington | Alexis Coe | NPR |
| 356 | You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters | Kate Murphy | Washington Post |
| Source | Article |
| 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 |
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