For the fifth year, I’m sharing a list of the top 15 nonfiction books I’ve read during the preceding 12 months. I’m accelerating the list a little this time on the assumption that it might be helpful to have as the holiday shopping season approaches, just in case you want to give someone knowledge and adventure instead of a pile of interchangeable capitalistic baubles. Should you wish to view previous editions, simply follow the links in this sentence.
This time around, you will not find any memoirs or anything overtly about politics. I have nothing against those two categories, it’s just that I get frustrated when I’m searching for general interest nonfiction books and keep coming upon lists full of memoirs, and I think we can all use a break from politics. So, no memoirs or political books this time around.
In no particular order, here are the best 15 nonfiction books I’ve read during the past year. May they enrich and distract you in the coming months.
Winterlust: Finding Beauty in the Fiercest Season by Bernd Brunner (affiliate link)
Winter is coming. Don’t lose your head over it though — the coldest, darkest time of year is full of enjoyments, many of which you will find within.
The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird by Joshua Hammer (affiliate link)
Falcon thievery: it’s a thing. Immerse yourself in a strange little subculture and get to know the oddly specific kleptomaniac at its heart.
The Feud: The Hatfields & McCoys, The True Story by Dean King (affiliate link)
It seems there should be something to be learned from America’s greatest family feud. Maybe all there is to learn is that we never learn.
Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg (affiliate link)
We certainly didn’t learn anything from Charles Lindbergh’s involvement in the original America First movement. Lindbergh was a complicated figure, certainly an aviator extraordinaire, though also so much more. You’ll get the whole thrilling story, with one big exception: Lindbergh had children with three secret German mistresses, but since this part of the tale was not known until after Berg’s book was published, its absence remains a notable flaw in the otherwise definitive Charles Lindbergh biography.
The Heartbeat of the Wild: Dispatches From Landscapes of Wonder, Peril, and Hope by David Quammen (affiliate link)
I happened to be in a bookshop in Bozeman, and had to pick up the latest from its most notable chronicler of nature. Couldn’t be happier that I did. If you have ever enjoyed a National Geographic story, add this one to your list.
John Colter: His Years in the Rockies by Burton Harris (affiliate link)
I was in Montana (and beyond) several times during the last year. On one trip, I headed down into Yellowstone, and brought this book along so as to read about the first white man to explore the area that became the park. Unlike many revered figures of the western frontier, Colter was not much of a self-promoter, which helps make his life story a unique treat.
Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon by Michael Ghiglieri and Thomas Myers
A number of books have been written discussing deaths that have occurred throughout several different national parks, but none of them are quite as brick-like as this one. Although it will take some time to get through, it is worth it, especially if you are going to be anywhere near the Grand Canyon.
Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon by Melissa Sevigny (affiliate link)
While you’re at it, check out the story of the first two women to travel down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. It is a wild ride, and a triumph of science.
Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb (affiliate link)
Ah, Paris. I’d recommend good company and a good bottle of wine on the terrace of that little cafe at the Louvre (after dark, of course). Should mental travel fit more within your budget and schedule at the moment, this history will help.
Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters by Brian Klaas (affiliate link)
You will rethink a lot of things. That’s good, right?
Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion by Paul Bloom (affiliate link)
I’m sick of hearing that empathy is the solution to all of our problems. Perhaps you too are ready to read of a better way. Also interesting is the fact that this book came out in 2016, which means we now know a lot more about how some of the examples actually turned out. For instance, effective altruism gets a couple mentions — but Sam Bankman-Fried was still a trader at Jane Street Capital back then, many years away from giving the entire movement a big black eye.
The Trials of Madame Restell: Nineteenth-Century America’s Most Infamous Female Physician and the Campaign to Make Abortion a Crime by Nicholas Syrett (affiliate link)
Few had any empathy for poor Madame Restell, who was relentlessly hounded by the authorities and the media after a bunch of crusty white dudes decided to criminalize providing healthcare to women. It’s a deep dive into the historical origins of the modern debate over reproductive rights, and, unfortunately, a look into what we might be going back to in the wake of Dobbs.
Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out: Goose Island, Anheuser-Busch, and How Craft Beer Became Big Business by Josh Noel (affiliate link)
Anyone who loves beer must read this book. Even if a brew or two (or 10 or 17) is not for you, you will fly through these pages if you have an interest in business in general or if you are wondering why anything produced by the faceless behemoths of capitalism inevitably becomes a soulless commodity.
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook by Hampton Sides (affiliate link)
Captain Cook: finally an explorer who (mostly) respected the new people and different cultures he encountered! I mean, nobody’s perfect, but Cook was much more enlightened than most of his contemporaries, and I think you’ll agree when you finish that whatever score there was to settle was settled. Besides, you can’t read anything written by Hampton Sides and not have a good time.
Annals of the Former World by John McPhee (affiliate link)
I’ll admit, when my buddy Isak handed me this book and recommended that I read it I was daunted both by its size and by the word “Geology” stamped on its spine. Oh, how wrong I was. Who knew the deep history of the continent, and the scientists who study it, could be so compelling? Do not be scared off by the category or the length. Neglect your spouse and children for a few weeks and read this book — the family will ultimately be better for it.
Arm yourself with knowledge, maybe share some of it with someone you love, and get reading in 2025 and beyond.
Jonathan Wolf is a civil litigator and author of Your Debt-Free JD (affiliate link). He has taught legal writing, written for a wide variety of publications, and made it both his business and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are probably pure gold, but are nonetheless solely his own and should not be attributed to any organization with which he is affiliated. He wouldn’t want to share the credit anyway. He can be reached at [email protected].
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