Nonfiction "Must Read" Books

all would make great gifts too

Hello!

I’m midway through Nonfiction November, my month of focusing more on nonfiction books I’ve wanted to read. Long story short, it’s going great! I do tend to read “mostly” fiction, but over the last couple years I’ve increased my nonfiction reading and it’s enhanced my reading life in so many ways. I explained my thoughts on nonfiction and why I think it’s important to read in this post, and my feelings have not changed. Today, I’m sharing nonfiction books that have mattered to me. These books live rent free in my mind. They are in addition to and different than the books on the list below. After reading each of these, I came away with new knowledge, increased compassion, new insights, inspiration, and/or a plan to make changes in my own life. That’s the power of a great nonfiction read! For your convenience, I’ve included links to each book, covers, and a short synopsis with my own personal thoughts.

In case you missed this nonfiction post from 2023….

23 Riveting Nonfiction Books - Yes There is Such a Thing!

As an added bonus, I think all of these books could make great gifts for the right readers. I loved each and every book I’m sharing today!

Today’s curated recs are available as a perk of being a paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid to receive these recs, along with audio podcasts of reviews and recommendations, access to the 100+ reader recommendation list & more

Nonfiction Must Reads

• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert Bookshop.org - Elizabeth Gilbert digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. I’m getting ready to do a reread of this for the beginning of 2025. This is one of my very favorites and I think everyone can be inspired by her wisdom **great on audio 🎧

• Speak: Find Your Voice, Trust Your Gut, and Get From Where You Are to Where You Want To Be by Tunde Oyeneyin - Bookshop.org Taking us through each step of the SPEAK acronym—Surrender, Power, Empathy, Authenticity, and Knowledge—Oyeneyin shares the lessons she has learned about loss, love, body image, and how she has successfully created an intentional, joyful life for herself, offering an accessible blueprint for anyone looking to make a positive change in their lives. **Great on audio🎧

• The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann Bookshop.org - a collection of riveting stories celebrating the heroic efforts of the people who are on the front lines getting our books into the world.​ A feel good book that any book lover would enjoy! **great on audio🎧

• Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport Bookshop.org - Newport identifies the common practices of digital minimalists and the ideas that underpin them. He shows how digital minimalists are rethinking their relationship to social media, rediscovering the pleasures of the offline world, and reconnecting with their inner selves through regular periods of solitude. He then shares strategies for integrating these practices into your life. I just read this book a couple months ago and I think I’m going to reread it again before the end of the year. I’m planning on doing his 30 day digital declutter too….it’s needed, especially now. ** Great on audio 🎧

• What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love by Carole Radziwill Bookshop.org - What Remains begins with loss and returns to loss. A small plane plunges into the ocean carrying John F. Kennedy Jr., Anthony's cousin, and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Carole's closest friend. Three weeks later Anthony dies of cancer. With unflinching honesty and a journalist's keen eye, Carole Radziwill explores the enduring ties of family, the complexities of marriage, the importance of friendship, and the challenges of self-invention. This is a beautiful story of friendship, love, fate, and resilience. I found that the writing made me feel like I was sitting with a friend having coffee or a glass of wine. It’s a personal story that’s universal. It’s also quite emotional. One of the most moving books on this list. **Great on Audio 🎧

• The Sun Does Shine : How I Found Life, Freedom and Justice by Anthony Ray Hinton Bookshop.org - In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only twenty-nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free. Thirty years later, with the help of civil rights attorney and bestselling author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015.

  This memoir is an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times. Hinton's memoir tells his dramatic thirty-year journey and shows how you can take away a man's freedom, but you can't take away his imagination, humor, or joy. This book moved me in ways that I didn’t expect. I knew I would feel an intense anger about his story, which I did, but I was also moved (often to tears) by his story of grace, survival, and forgiveness. This book showed me the true power of our imagination, as well as the power of books to provide connection in dark times. This book has a spot on my all time favorites list. I truly think this is memoir for any type of reader. *Great on audio 🎧

• Survival Lessons by Alice Hoffman - Fifteen years ago, Alice Hoffman received a diagnosis that changed everything about the life she'd been living. Most significant - aside from the grueling physical ordeal she underwent - was the way it changed how she felt inside and what she thought she ought to be doing with her days. Now, she has written the book that she needed to read then. This book can be read in one sitting or listened to on a long walk, it’s short but impactful! **Great on audio 🎧

• Game Changers: What Leaders, Innovators, and Mavericks Do To Win At Life by Dave Asprey Bookshop.org - When Dave Asprey started his Bulletproof Radio podcast more than five years ago, he sought out influencers in an array of disciplines, from biochemists toiling in unknown laboratories to business leaders changing the world to mediation masters discovering inner peace.

  His guests were some of the top performing humans in the world, people who had changed their areas of study or even pioneered entirely new fields. Dave wanted to know: What did they have in common? What mattered most to them? What made them so successful—and what made them tick? At the end of each interview, Dave asked the same question: “What are your top three recommendations for people who want to perform better at being human?” This book is the culmination of Dave’s years-long immersion in these conversations. I know this recommendation feels very “self helpy” but I found out it to be quite interesting and I learned so much from his conversations with some really smart, innovative people. This one surprised me in the best ways. **Great on audio 🎧

• Inciting Joy: Essays by Ross Gay Bookshop.org - In these gorgeously written and timely pieces, prizewinning poet and author Gay considers the joy we incite when we care for each other, especially during life's inevitable hardships. Throughout Inciting Joy, he explores how we can practice recognizing that connection, and also, crucially, how we can expand it.

  Taking a clear-eyed look at injustice, political polarization, and the destruction of the natural world, Gay shows us how we might resist, how the study of joy might lead us to a wild, unpredictable, transgressive, and unboundaried solidarity. In fact, it just might help us survive. This book feels like the exact right book at the right time! I can think of many people I would like to gift it to this holiday season. These essays push readers to think a bit deeper, but not in a preachy way. Ross Gay writes as if he’s your friend and he has something very important to share with you. Would make a great gift for book club friends! **Great on audio 🎧

Currently reading and enjoying……Meditations For Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time For What Counts by Oliver Burkeman - Addressing the fundamental questions about how to live, Meditations for Mortalsoffers a powerful new way to take action on what counts: a guiding philosophy of life Oliver Burkeman calls “imperfectionism.” It helps us tackle challenges as they crop up in our daily lives: our finite time, the lure of distraction, the impossibility of doing anything perfectly

As a perfectionist, I’m totally feeling his philosophy of moving toward “imperfectionism” I’m almost done with chapter one, this is a slower read and he encourages readers to only read one chapter a week

What nonfiction books have mattered to you? Any that you love to give as gifts?

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