← Non-Fiction

The Non-Fiction Top 100 — Best Non-Fiction Books

The most compelling narrative non-fiction — true stories told with the power of great literature.

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In Cold Blood
1
In Cold Blood
Truman Capote
1966
A Brief History of Time
2
A Brief History of Time
Stephen Hawking
1988
Silent Spring
3
Silent Spring
Rachel Carson
1962
The Diary of a Young Girl
4
The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank
1947
Night
5
Night
Elie Wiesel
1960
Sapiens
6
Sapiens
Yuval Noah Harari
2011
Homo Deus
7
Homo Deus
Yuval Noah Harari
2015
Educated
8
Educated
Tara Westover
2018
Into the Wild
9
Into the Wild
Jon Krakauer
1996
Into Thin Air
10
Into Thin Air
Jon Krakauer
1997
The Devil in the White City
11
The Devil in the White City
Erik Larson
2003
Dead Wake
12
Dead Wake
Erik Larson
2015
Killers of the Flower Moon
13
Killers of the Flower Moon
David Grann
2017
The Wager
14
The Wager
David Grann
2023
Bad Blood
15
Bad Blood
John Carreyrou
2018
Say Nothing
16
Say Nothing
Patrick Radden Keefe
2018
Empire of Pain
17
Empire of Pain
Patrick Radden Keefe
2021
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
18
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot
2010
When Breath Becomes Air
19
When Breath Becomes Air
Paul Kalanithi
2016
Being Mortal
20
Being Mortal
Atul Gawande
2014
Just Mercy
21
Just Mercy
Bryan Stevenson
2014
Between the World and Me
22
Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates
2015
The New Jim Crow
23
The New Jim Crow
Michelle Alexander
2010
Evicted
24
Evicted
Matthew Desmond
2016
Caste
26
Caste
Isabel Wilkerson
2020
The Body
27
The Body
Bill Bryson
2019
A Short History of Nearly Everything
28
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson
2003
At Home
29
At Home
Bill Bryson
2010
Guns Germs and Steel
30
Guns Germs and Steel
Jared Diamond
1997
The Selfish Gene
31
The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins
1976
A People's History of the United States
32
A People's History of the United States
Howard Zinn
1980
Team of Rivals
33
Team of Rivals
Doris Kearns Goodwin
2005
The Power Broker
34
The Power Broker
Robert Caro
1974
Thinking Fast and Slow
35
Thinking Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
2011
The Tipping Point
36
The Tipping Point
Malcolm Gladwell
2000
Outliers
37
Outliers
Malcolm Gladwell
2008
Blink
38
Blink
Malcolm Gladwell
2005
Freakonomics
39
Freakonomics
Steven D. Levitt
2005
The Sixth Extinction
40
The Sixth Extinction
Elizabeth Kolbert
2014
The Uninhabitable Earth
41
The Uninhabitable Earth
David Wallace-Wells
2019
Braiding Sweetgrass
42
Braiding Sweetgrass
Robin Wall Kimmerer
2013
Lab Girl
43
Lab Girl
Hope Jahren
2016
The Order of Time
44
The Order of Time
Carlo Rovelli
2017
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
45
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
Carlo Rovelli
2014
The Gene
46
The Gene
Siddhartha Mukherjee
2016
The Emperor of All Maladies
47
The Emperor of All Maladies
Siddhartha Mukherjee
2010
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
48
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
Oliver Sacks
1985
Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman
49
Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman
Richard P. Feynman
1985
The Right Stuff
50
The Right Stuff
Tom Wolfe
1979
Black Hawk Down
51
Black Hawk Down
Mark Bowden
1999
Hiroshima
52
Hiroshima
John Hersey
1946
Dispatches
53
Dispatches
Michael Herr
1977
Friday Night Lights
54
Friday Night Lights
H.G. Bissinger
1990
Fire and Fury
55
Fire and Fury
Michael Wolff
2018
Shoe Dog
56
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
2016
The Everything Store
57
The Everything Store
Brad Stone
2013
Steve Jobs
58
Steve Jobs
Walter Isaacson
2011
Einstein
59
Einstein
Walter Isaacson
2007
Chaos
60
Chaos
James Gleick
1987
Longitude
61
Longitude
Dava Sobel
1995
The Demon-Haunted World
62
The Demon-Haunted World
Carl Sagan
1995
Cosmos
63
Cosmos
Carl Sagan
1980
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
64
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Neil deGrasse Tyson
2017
The Hidden Life of Trees
65
The Hidden Life of Trees
Peter Wohlleben
2015
H is for Hawk
66
H is for Hawk
Helen Macdonald
2014
Wild
67
Wild
Cheryl Strayed
2012
The Year of Magical Thinking
68
The Year of Magical Thinking
Joan Didion
2005
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
69
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
1969
Man's Search for Meaning
70
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl
1946
The Gulag Archipelago
71
The Gulag Archipelago
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
1973
Secondhand Time
72
Secondhand Time
Svetlana Alexievich
2013
On Writing
73
On Writing
Stephen King
2000
Bird by Bird
74
Bird by Bird
Anne Lamott
1994
Invisible Women
75
Invisible Women
Caroline Criado Perez
2019
How to Be an Antiracist
76
How to Be an Antiracist
Ibram X. Kendi
2019
Know My Name
77
Know My Name
Chanel Miller
2019
I'm Glad My Mom Died
78
I'm Glad My Mom Died
Jennette McCurdy
2022
Crying in H Mart
79
Crying in H Mart
Michelle Zauner
2021
Four Thousand Weeks
80
Four Thousand Weeks
Oliver Burkeman
2021
The Body Keeps the Score
81
The Body Keeps the Score
Bessel van der Kolk
2014
The Anxious Generation
82
The Anxious Generation
Jonathan Haidt
2024
Unreasonable Hospitality
83
Unreasonable Hospitality
Will Guidara
2022
Greenlights
84
Greenlights
Matthew McConaughey
2020
Spare
85
Spare
Prince Harry
2023
Finding Me
86
Finding Me
Viola Davis
2022
Random Family
87
Random Family
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
2003
The Journalist and the Murderer
88
The Journalist and the Murderer
Janet Malcolm
1990
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
89
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Tom Wolfe
1968
The Warmth of Other Suns
90
The Warmth of Other Suns
Isabel Wilkerson
2010
The Years of Lyndon Johnson
91
The Years of Lyndon Johnson
Robert Caro
1982
The Snowball
92
The Snowball
Alice Schroeder
2008
Leonardo da Vinci
93
Leonardo da Vinci
Walter Isaacson
2017
The Disappearing Spoon
94
The Disappearing Spoon
Sam Kean
2010
The Code Book
95
The Code Book
Simon Singh
1999
The War of Art
96
The War of Art
Steven Pressfield
2002
The Unwomanly Face of War
97
The Unwomanly Face of War
Svetlana Alexievich
1985
The Elements of Style
98
The Elements of Style
William Strunk Jr
1918
The 1619 Project
99
The 1619 Project
Nikole Hannah-Jones
2021
White Fragility
100
White Fragility
Robin DiAngelo
2018
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