Best non-fiction books of the 2020s so far?
December 11, 2023 6:06 AM Subscribe
Which non-fiction of the past three years will you still be recommending in 2030? I'm looking for more to add to my reading list.
I suspect I'll still be recommending The Jakarta Method and Coffeeland, both detailed books about a specific slice of colonialism/imperialism that gave me pictures of the nuts and bolts of how it worked.
I suspect I'll still be recommending The Jakarta Method and Coffeeland, both detailed books about a specific slice of colonialism/imperialism that gave me pictures of the nuts and bolts of how it worked.
Econobabble by Richard Denniss
Survival of the Richest by Douglas Rushkoff
posted by flabdablet at 7:08 AM on December 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
Survival of the Richest by Douglas Rushkoff
posted by flabdablet at 7:08 AM on December 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
Two that have really stayed with me are Free by Lea Ypi and Ellis Island: A People's History by Małgorzata Szejnert.
posted by Lluvia at 7:13 AM on December 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Lluvia at 7:13 AM on December 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
Apparently I like memoirs... I enjoyed:
Dying of Politeness, a memoir by Geena Davis.
In the Weeds: Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain by Tom Vitale
Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebekah Taussig
posted by hydra77 at 7:17 AM on December 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
Dying of Politeness, a memoir by Geena Davis.
In the Weeds: Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain by Tom Vitale
Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebekah Taussig
posted by hydra77 at 7:17 AM on December 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith
An Immense World by Ed Yong
Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
posted by theory at 7:27 AM on December 11, 2023 [5 favorites]
An Immense World by Ed Yong
Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
posted by theory at 7:27 AM on December 11, 2023 [5 favorites]
Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant. Fort McMurray, Alberta, and everywhere else on the planet.
The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World by James Crawford. Crawford, from Scotland, encounters and interprets the human impulse to divide.
posted by xaryts at 7:40 AM on December 11, 2023 [2 favorites]
The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World by James Crawford. Crawford, from Scotland, encounters and interprets the human impulse to divide.
posted by xaryts at 7:40 AM on December 11, 2023 [2 favorites]
Places I've Taken My Body by Molly McCully Brown (essays)
posted by FencingGal at 7:40 AM on December 11, 2023
posted by FencingGal at 7:40 AM on December 11, 2023
Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe
posted by lovableiago at 8:10 AM on December 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by lovableiago at 8:10 AM on December 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm seconding the recommendation for Smith's How the Word Is Passed. I'm also going to nominate Brian Merchant's Blood in the Machine: it's an utterly engrossing history of the Luddite Rebellion that has a lot of eery contemporary resonance (I bought it on audiobook and plan to read it in print the second time round). I also enjoyed Andrea Elliot's Invisible Child (it might pair well with hepta's recommendation of Desmond's Povery, By America)): I appreciated Elliot's writing, but was especially impressed by the way she writes about her own positionality as a journalist.
posted by lavenderhaze at 8:19 AM on December 11, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by lavenderhaze at 8:19 AM on December 11, 2023 [2 favorites]
You may enjoy the responses to this nearly-identical question from a couple months back.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 8:40 AM on December 11, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 8:40 AM on December 11, 2023 [4 favorites]
Graeber and Wengrow's The Dawn of Everything if you haven't already.
posted by away for regrooving at 10:09 AM on December 11, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by away for regrooving at 10:09 AM on December 11, 2023 [7 favorites]
The Verge - Patrick Wyman
Helgoland - Carlo Rovelli
William Blake vs. the World - John Higgs
12 Bytes - Jeanette Winterson
Underland - Robert Macfarlane (which it turns out was first published in 2019; I didn't read it until a year or so ago. I include it nonetheless because I think, more than any other non-fiction work I can remember reading, it'll likely still be significant and moving not just 10 years, but generations down the line.)
posted by protorp at 10:36 AM on December 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
Helgoland - Carlo Rovelli
William Blake vs. the World - John Higgs
12 Bytes - Jeanette Winterson
Underland - Robert Macfarlane (which it turns out was first published in 2019; I didn't read it until a year or so ago. I include it nonetheless because I think, more than any other non-fiction work I can remember reading, it'll likely still be significant and moving not just 10 years, but generations down the line.)
posted by protorp at 10:36 AM on December 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oh, also The Song of the Cell - Siddhartha Mukherjee which I'm only halfway through at the moment but is riveting, just as excellent a piece of popular science / science history writing as his earlier books on Genes and Cancer.
posted by protorp at 10:40 AM on December 11, 2023
posted by protorp at 10:40 AM on December 11, 2023
Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist
posted by apartment dweller at 10:14 PM on December 11, 2023
posted by apartment dweller at 10:14 PM on December 11, 2023
Ill Feelings by Alice Hattrick
posted by colourlesssleep at 3:01 AM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by colourlesssleep at 3:01 AM on December 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Inciting Joy: Essays and The Book of (More) Delights by Ross Gay
Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss by Margaret Renkl
Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden by Camille T. Dungy
How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein
The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice by Shon Faye
Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Kit Heyam
Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper Jones
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Feasting Wild: In Search of the Last Untamed Food by Gina Rae La Cerva
Resilience: Connecting with Nature in a Time of Crisis by Melanie Choukas-Bradley
posted by wicked_sassy at 11:10 AM on December 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
Inciting Joy: Essays and The Book of (More) Delights by Ross Gay
Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss by Margaret Renkl
Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden by Camille T. Dungy
How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein
The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice by Shon Faye
Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Kit Heyam
Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper Jones
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Feasting Wild: In Search of the Last Untamed Food by Gina Rae La Cerva
Resilience: Connecting with Nature in a Time of Crisis by Melanie Choukas-Bradley
posted by wicked_sassy at 11:10 AM on December 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House by Rachel Maddow & Michael Yarvitz. Impossible to put down.
posted by SisterHavana at 10:15 PM on December 13, 2023
posted by SisterHavana at 10:15 PM on December 13, 2023
Mod note: [By the way, this has been added to the sidebar and Best Of blog]
posted by taz (staff) at 2:46 AM on December 18, 2023
posted by taz (staff) at 2:46 AM on December 18, 2023
I will keep recommending Jeff Sharlet's excellent book, The Undertow: Scenes From a Slow Civil War. A literate, sharp, and clear-eyed look at the convergence of politics and religion and gun culture, and the writing is gorgeous: "That is the great truth of our paranoia now: Not knowing. Not needing to. Not knowing as its own dim, dreaming certainty." And: "We've got to go through it. The whiteness, this stolen land. Into the smoky, copper-bright uncertain reckoning with the haunted past, which is hard, learning to love the smouldering days ahead, which is harder." It's an unsettling read, and I think it's ahead of its time.
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:00 PM on December 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:00 PM on December 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Marx for Cats by Leigh Claire La Berge
An Immense World by Ed Yong
The Dawn of Everything by Graeber & Wengrow
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
Utopianism for a Dying Planet by Gregory Claeys
posted by daniel_charms at 1:41 AM on December 19, 2023
An Immense World by Ed Yong
The Dawn of Everything by Graeber & Wengrow
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
Utopianism for a Dying Planet by Gregory Claeys
posted by daniel_charms at 1:41 AM on December 19, 2023
Kent State, a non-fiction graphic novel by Derf Backderf.
posted by JDC8 at 10:12 AM on December 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by JDC8 at 10:12 AM on December 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedland is astonishing.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:33 PM on December 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Paul Slade at 11:33 PM on December 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
Also, the new 2023 edition of David Cavanagh's history of Creation Records is excellent.
posted by Paul Slade at 6:28 AM on December 22, 2023
posted by Paul Slade at 6:28 AM on December 22, 2023
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Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
posted by hepta at 6:33 AM on December 11, 2023 [3 favorites]