The Best Nonfiction Books
They're provocative, moving or just plain unpredictable—here are our favorites, and why we love them.
O, The Oprah Magazine | November 16, 2011
Irshad Manji
288 pages
An audacious, thoughtful call for people of all religions to move beyond hate, fear, and intolerance.
Dorothy Wickenden
320 pages
The all-true adventures of two Eastern debutantes who set out for Colorado in 1916—told by The New Yorker's executive editor, whose grandmother was one of them.
Julian Guthrie
288 pages
An inspiring true story set in the 1990s tells how a Catholic congregation in San Francisco, including its anti-Establishment priest, worked together to save their church—from the Church.
Susan Roy
176 pages
The safe houses of yesteryear.
Richard Mason
288 pages
South African Richard Mason is the rare novelist who can write a very sexy book that never quite turns prurient.
Eric G. Wilson
224 pages
A new book by Eric G. Wilson (Sarah Crichton/FSG) that explains our morbid (but oh-so-human) obsessions and why we can't ever seem to look away from disasters.' '
Lucy Worsley
386 pages
Handled the right way, just about anything can be made interesting. Geologists have proved this true of dirt, and now so does Lucy Worsley with the likes of forks, bathtubs, stoves, and bedposts.
Jonathan Gottschall
272 pages
A new book argues that telling tales is as basic as breathing.
Margaret Yardley Potter
240 pages
When first published in 1947, At Home on the Range, by Margaret Yardley Potter, must have seemed a shockingly non-girly truth-talking cookbook and life guide.
A.J. Jacobs
410 pages
A writer known for his obsessive—and frequently hilarious—quests sets out to live long or die trying.
Deborah Kenny
256 pages
This memoir of a young widow's quest to transform urban education by establishing the groundbreaking Harlem Village Academies will inspire readers everywhere.
Lynn Sherr
232 pages
From the evolution of our "aquatic ancestors" to the trauma of bathing suit shopping, these essays examine the sport of swimming from every angle.
Daniel Smith
224 pages
It's in your head...which, for some of us, is the whole problem.
Katherine Boo
288 pages
A shocking—and riveting—picture of life in modern India.
Theresa Weir
240 pages
What do those perfectly round, shiny red apples really cost? This poignant memoir of love, labor, and dangerous pesticides reveals the terrible true price.
Iris Krasnow
288 pages
"Boyfriends with boundaries," separate summers, and other therapeutic strategies for maintaining wedded bliss over the long haul.
Kathleen Sharp
432 pages
A true legal drama featuring the attorney who took on carcinogen-dumping corporations in 1996's A Civil Action; this time he's going after a pharmaceutical giant peddling a deadly drug.
Jeffrey Zaslow
304 pages
Forget bridezillas. A best-selling journalist visits a small-town wedding shop to uncover the poignant dreams of real women on the verge of commitment.
Joshua Foer
320 pages
In this charming piece of participatory journalism, Foer—the younger brother of novelist Jonathan Safran Foer—explores the role of memory in both public and private life, while also telling the story of his efforts to compete in the U.S. Memory Championship.
Meghan O'Rourke
320 pages
"After a loss, you have to learn to believe the dead one is dead. It doesn't come naturally." That seemingly simple observation is just one of the many profound thoughts in Meghan O'Rourke's The Long Goodbye (Riverhead), an achingly moving memoir about her mother's death in 2008 at age 55.
Erik Larson
480 pages
A family confronts its own ignorance about the Third Reich.
Amy Chua
256 pages
This manifesto of Chinese motherhood sparked major controversy. No slumber parties? Unthinkable. Except that Chua really made us think.
Susan Orlean
336 pages
Can't imagine reading an entire book about a celebrity dog? We understand. But thanks to Orlean's passion and curiosity, it's about a whole lot more.
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Printed from Oprah.com on Thursday, May 23, 2013
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