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