Fictional books allow us to take our imagination and see what the world could be like from a different lens, to see ourselves in worlds of wonder and fantasy. Meanwhile, nonfiction books give us a dose of reality, even if it’s sometimes a hard (but necessary) pill to swallow.
Who said that nonfiction books are slow-paced? Some of them move just as quickly (sometimes even faster) than some fiction novels.
Just like fiction, there is a nonfiction book out there for everyone. You only need to crack open the right book. Why not try taking a break from fiction and dive into the world of nonfiction? Here is a list of 15 nonfiction books that might pique your interest.
Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou
Despite not having a daughter of her own, Maya Angelou dedicates this book to her daughters across the globe. She writes: “I gave birth to one child, a son, but I have thousands of daughters. You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish speaking, Native Americans, and Aleut. You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all. Here is my offering to you.”
Maya Angelou discusses her journey as a woman on a mission to live a fulfilled life. She gives advice on how to be compassionate and live a life full of fortitude. This heartfelt collection of essays is Maya Angelou’s maternal hug to women everywhere.
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino
Dubbed by The New York Times Book Review as one of 2020’s Best Books of The Year, Jia Tolentino mixes wit with clarity.
Tolentino reflects on her own psyche as it is continuously affected by the current state of the world. Her completely original essays expose the delusions that we make ourselves believe in the face of society and popular culture.
Some of the topics Jia Tolentino writes about are “the rise of the nightmare social internet; the advent of scamming as the definitive millennial ethos; the literary heroine’s journey from brave to blank to bitter;” and “the punitive dream of optimization.”
So Much I Want to Tell You: Letters to My Little Sister by Anna Akana
Iconic and outspoken YouTuber Anna Akana may be known as one of the internet’s best online big sisters. She creates a safe and open space for discussions about mental health in comedic and profound sketches.
The birth of Anna Akana’s YouTube account may be attributed to the loss of her younger sister, Kristina, in 2007 to suicide. On her journey of grieving, Anna found that comedy helped her cope with the process. This book offers a recap of Akana’s life as if she were telling it to her younger sister while offering up practical advice that only an older sister can give.
Fellow YouTuber Hannah Hart writes that “As a woman working in entertainment, Anna Akana is accustomed to feeling vulnerable. Which means that she’s used to being brave. This book is a tribute to the duality of bravery and fear as told through Anna’s experience to date.”
The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman
This is a chunkier book that binds together over 60 pieces of Neil Gaiman’s nonfiction work. With topics ranging from libraries, musicians, and writers past and present, memories, and art itself.
Look at these topics through the dreamy and humorous eye of Neil Gaiman. Playful, insightful, and witty, it’s easy to tell how much these things mean to Gaiman by the delicate care he gives to every thought.
This collection also includes his inspirational “Make Good Art” 2012 commencement speech that he gave at the University of Arts in Philadelphia where he talks about the glory of hard work and making magical mistakes.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Framed as a letter to his teenage son, Ta-Nehisi Coates brings history close to home and makes it personal.
Between the World and Me won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 2015. Ta-Nehisi Coates wears different hats as he tackles issues with a journalist’s fervor, written with a novelist’s flair, and a father’s caring tone.
This book resurrects past historical follies, forcing people to confront the mistakes of the past while expressing his concerns for the future of the world and of his son.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb
A good example of a nonfiction book that has you excitedly flipping to the next page and saying “one more chapter” just like a gripping fiction novel may have you doing. It’s all fun and games until you realize that this happened to real people, which only adds to the sense of amazement.
Gottlieb is able to expressively and humorously retell the colorful story of her life, her patients, and the experience of being a patient herself. When an unexpected event causes Lori Gottlieb to take a long hard look at herself and her life, she starts to empathize more deeply with her patients, some of which are: “a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can’t stop hooking up with the wrong guys.”
Just like her patients, Gottlieb is forced to face her lifestyle and beliefs as she steps into the office of her own therapist, Wendell. Gottlieb, along with her patients, put a magnifying glass on our ideas of love and what it means to be human.
Educated by Tara Westover
After 17 years of life, Tara Westover sets foot in a classroom for the first time, and her thirst for knowledge consumes her.
Born the daughter of isolated survivalists, Tara spent her days prepping for the end of the world. But after she begins teaching herself enough math and grammar to be accepted to Brigham Young University, she starts to face more immediate problems than Armageddon.
As Tara steps into the world of academia, she is forced to confront the solid family loyalty she grew up with. Tara’s thirst for knowledge is continuously triggered by how much sustenance an education has to offer.
Plus, if you’re going through a reading slump and need something to kickstart your love of reading, this book can be a good start.
Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It by Ethan Kross
Award-winning psychologist Ethan Kross takes recent groundbreaking research, real-world examples, and his own findings in psychology to dissect how the conversations we have with ourselves affect our daily lives.
Kross uses the term “chatter” to describe the negative thoughts and self-talk that we use against ourselves. He describes the nature of chatter and how we can deal with it. Thankfully, Kross explains that we already have what we need to mold our self-talk and inner voice to work in our favor.
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
A groundbreaking feat accomplished by one of the best brains of our time, A Brief History of Time is Stephen Hawking’s brilliant attempt at breaking down the answers to some of our biggest questions about time and the universe. The impact of this book was not limited to the science world but to many curious minds in general.
Learn and laugh at Hawking’s commentary on the concepts he discusses. Take a trip across the galaxy and learn about the space that we live in.
If you are unable to make time for this brief history, worry not! Hawking wrote A Briefer History of Time in 2005 to clarify ideas he mentions in the original book. This book also includes some of the later discoveries at that time, interweaving these with the work he has already done.
While more and more things are being discovered every day, this seminal piece by Hawking remains an essential and impressive breakdown of the question of creation.
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Inspired by the lack of references he could give one of his patients, Siddhartha Mukherjee chronicles the history of one of mankind’s most merciless adversaries: cancer. Siddhartha “examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion.”
Winning the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, this book was purchased by many people who were neither professionals in the medical field nor affected by cancer in their own lives. This chronicles the highs and lows of professionals battling the notorious illness and gives a glimpse of possible cancer treatment in the future.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Henrietta Lacks was a poor Black woman who worked in the same fields that her slave ancestors did. In 1951, she died of cervical cancer, and this is where things get even more interesting.
Known around the world as HeLa, Henrietta Lacks’ cells were cultured—without her permission. The HeLa cells were the first human cells to ever have been reproduced in a lab. They were deployed around the world (and even in space), resulting in the development of various vaccines, treatments, and numerous studies.
Henrietta Lacks’ family, on the other hand, had no idea about it. Rebecca Skloot intertwines the life, death, and afterlife of Henrietta Lacks with that of her living descendants. This opens readers’ eyes to questions on racism and ethics in the practices that the medical field may still be observing to this day.
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
Elizabeth Kolbert informs readers about the 5 mass extinctions the earth has faced throughout its history and predicts the next one to come, in her Pulitzer Prize-winning book.
The major difference between the 6th mass extinction from the first 5? Human activity.
By corroborating research (going into the field herself) across multiple disciplines, Kolbert illustrates how despite the short amount of time that humans have been occupying the earth, we have drastically changed its landscape.
Kolbert predicts that the coming 6th extinction will be just as devastating as the impact of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. Though, unlike the asteroid, there won’t just be one hit for us to endure. In this urgent and alarming novel, Kolbert explains that we are all slowly (but surely) making our way to the end of the world.
The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America by Andrés Reséndez
An important and prolonged offense that deserves to be brought to light, The Other Slavery maps out the systematic assault and slavery of the indigenous people in the Americas.
According to Reséndez, it was the systematic oppression and slavery of the natives that brought about most of their deaths, as compared to disease and war casualties.
Reséndez follows this horrifying practice and its evolution with other indigenous people having fellow indigenous people as slaves as well. The Other Slavery provides a megaphone to the lost and untold stories of the sustained slavery that native Americans faced for centuries.
If you want to explore Philippine history, more specifically pre-colonial history, then maybe you would like to give Babaylan: Filipinos and the Call of the Indigenous edited by Leny Mendoza Strobel a read.
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
Jenny Odell describes our attention as our most valuable and overused resource. Presently, doing nothing may be a type of counterculture in comparison to the hustle/productivity mindsets. Not everyone has the privilege of doing nothing, though this doesn’t make it any less important.
Former US President Barack Obama listed this as one of his favorite books of 2019. This book may have you questioning why you give your time and energy to certain things, and it challenges you to actively take charge of your attention.
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
“The act of living is different all through. Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything.”
Originally written across several notebooks, C.S. Lewis writes through what he calls his “mad midnight moments” following the death of his wife in 1961.
Raw, emotional, and vulnerable, Lewis documents the process of his grief and his forced reflections on life, death, love, and God.
Beloved author of works like The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, Out of the Silent Planet, and many more, Lewis displays his mastery over language and the ability to describe complex emotions using tragically beautiful words.
Just like fiction, nonfiction should be able to offer you a fresh new perspective. Although, it may be said that nonfiction has more of a sense of urgency since all events and people are real/placed in a real-world setting.
Nonfiction books also have the added bonus of teaching you about real people and events. They allow you to learn about the world we live in and the way that you and other people have been occupying their space in it.
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