Looking for some Nonfiction books to read? Here is a list of books recommended in 2025 by NPR Staff.
"Here are the nonfiction books NPR staffers have loved so far this year" by Meghan Collins Sullivan, Beth Novey. Read full original piece at: https://www.npr.org/2025/06/25/nx-s1-5356146/nonfiction-memoir-books-summer-2025
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"As someone who consumes a lot of news, sometimes it is hard to remain optimistic about the future. Perhaps you feel it too: The woes of the world can be paralyzing. It was refreshing, therefore, to be called to action by Abundance. Well-known…
"As we've become accustomed to scrolling through pictures mindlessly, it's easy to forget that there can be deep meaning in what we see, stories in a single color. Imani Perry dives deep to explore what the color blue has represented for generations…
"Sarah Wynn-Williams was a young, idealistic policy wonk and diplomat who saw the potential of Facebook to influence geopolitics for good and wanted to be a part of it. Making a persistent, passionate case for the influence that the social media…
"This book is a survey of how the U.S. has increasingly used the dollar's global dominance as a way to exert control and influence over allies and enemies. The author is a former U.S. sanctions official, so this is part history, part research and…
" 'Your creativity is calling. It needs you,' urges poet and writer Maggie Smith. This guide on craft is an open, thoughtful gold mine of advice for writers and nonwriters alike. Filled with breakdowns of Smith's own poems, as well as exercises and…
"Some I Love Lucy fans may have seen Cuban-born Desi Arnaz as little more than husband and co-star to comedy legend Lucille Ball on their groundbreaking 1950s-era sitcom. But Todd S. Purdum digs deep to detail how the son of Cuban aristocracy fled…
"Tuberculosis has preyed on the most vulnerable humans since the dawn of our species. But author John Green argues that we now have the knowledge and resources to defeat the disease – we lack only the will. Spun through surprising histories (did you…
"I've been eagerly waiting years for this book! This is the second volume of Rick Atkinson's trilogy on the Revolution. Atkinson makes good use of letters and diaries. You feel like you're in the middle of a battle, with all the sights, sounds and…
"Craig Thompson's follow-up to his award-winning (and still controversial) graphic memoir, Blankets, is an expansive look at the global ginseng trade. It was an accidentally timely release – it came out while the United States' trade relationship…
"Girls navigating the path to womanhood in the early aughts faced an onslaught of media telling them who and how to be. Contradictory depictions of young women were everywhere across pop culture: purity culture clashed with Girls Gone Wild, reality…
"William Dalrymple's The Golden Road puts ancient and early medieval India at the heart of an empire of ideas, trade, science, religion and culture. In this masterful work, Dalrymple, the co-host of a popular history podcast, aims to correct…
"The moment you finish, you'll want to share this book with family and friends, just like a good meal. Journalist and chef Bonny Reichert grew up loving food. She also grew up the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, Saul Reichert, who had nearly…
"A brilliant novelist and poet, Victoria Amelina faced Russia's invasion and assault on her native Ukraine by transforming into a war crimes researcher and real-time documentarian. When I last interviewed her in June 2023, she was deep into writing…
"He's been compared to everyone from Darth Vader to the Wizard of Oz. But Saturday Night Live creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels has remained a coolly enigmatic figure for most of the show's 50-season tenure – ripe for a star-filled,…
"Grief is both universal and extremely personal. When Geraldine Brooks' vibrant husband, renowned fellow writer Tony Horwitz, died suddenly away from home, the shock was all-consuming. Moving through all of the paperwork, the practical tasks that…
"The Mother Code is a refreshing take on the many complex reasons one may choose to become – or not become – a parent. Without being prescriptive, Ruthie Ackerman blends memoir with journalistic research to unpack myths surrounding fertility,…
"Until I read this book, I never really thought about why there seemed to be a number of prominent serial killers in the 1970s and '80s, especially in the Pacific Northwest. Caroline Fraser, though, has thought a lot about it — and in Murderland she…
"Haley Mlotek and her high school sweetheart separated 13 months into marriage, after a 13-year relationship. Her memoir weaves her own memories of their divorce with vignettes on the history of the subject and examples from pop culture. Mlotek…
"I listened to this meditation on muscle over the course of a long bike ride. Physically, I pumped my legs over miles of pavement. Mentally, I was in Scotland with female weightlifting pioneer Jan Todd as she strained to lift the fabled, 700+ pound…
"Writer and bookstore owner Katie Mitchell spent years traveling the U.S. documenting old and new Black bookstores. The result is Prose to the People, a layered account of more than 50 shops, interspersed with original pieces by Kiese Laymon, Rio…
