NONFICTION NOVEMBER: Lit Hub's Top Twenty Nonfiction Books of the Decade

I wanted to do another Nonfiction November post, but didn't get one done for this week's prompt. I also didn't get any of the un-reviewed nonfiction books reviewed like I had hoped I might. Instead, I found this list of the best nonfiction books from this decade. Yes, the teens are nearly over, and it is time for some retrospectives on, I'm sure, all kinds of topics.



Top Twenty Nonfiction Books of the Last Decade

Literary Hub posted a bunch of best books of the decade (poetry, memoirs, translated, debut, overall best) lists over here, and I do enjoy a list. I've taken the nonfiction list and posted it here, with my comments based on whether I loved it or not, or whether it was already a book on my radar that I wanted to read. Let me know what you think - agree? disagree?  Lists provide lots of debate fodder. Also, any on here you recommend?

💁 - books I want to read

💖- books I also loved

👹 - books I read but didn't love

MICHELLE ALEXANDER, THE NEW JIM CROW (2010)

SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE, THE EMPEROR OF ALL MALADIES (2010) 💁

REBECCA SKLOOT, THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS (2010) 💖

TIMOTHY SNYDER, BLOODLANDS (2010)

ISABEL WILKERSON, THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS: THE EPIC STORY OF AMERICA’S GREAT MIGRATION (2010)

ROBERT A. CARO, THE PASSAGE OF POWER: THE YEARS OF LYNDON JOHNSON (2012)

TOM REISS, THE BLACK COUNT: GLORY, REVOLUTION, BETRAYAL, AND THE REAL COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (2012)

ELIZABETH KOLBERT, THE SIXTH EXTINCTION (2014)

TA-NEHISI COATES, BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME (2015)

ANDREA WULF, THE INVENTION OF NATURE (2015) 💁

STACY SCHIFF, THE WITCHES (2015) 👹

SVETLANA ALEXIEVICH, TR. BELA SHAYEVICH, SECONDHAND TIME (2016)

JANE MAYER, DARK MONEY (2016)

DAVID FRANCE, HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE (2016)

ANDRÉS RESÉNDEZ, THE OTHER SLAVERY (2016)

REBECCA TRAISTER, ALL THE SINGLE LADIES (2016) 💁

CAROLINE FRASER, PRAIRIE FIRES (2017) 💁

DAVID W. BLIGHT, FREDERICK DOUGLASS: PROPHET OF FREEDOM (2018

ROBERT MACFARLANE, UNDERLAND (2019) 💁

PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE, SAY NOTHING: A TRUE HISTORY OF MEMORY AND MURDER IN NORTHERN IRELAND (2019)


the ones who almost made the list

MAGGIE NELSON, THE ART OF CRUELTY: A RECKONING (2011)

ÓSCAR MARTINEZ, THE BEAST (2013)

MATTHEW DESMOND, EVICTED (2016)

YURI SLEZKINE, THE HOUSE OF GOVERNMENT (2017)

RICHARD LLOYD PARRY, GHOSTS OF THE TSUNAMI (2017)

JENNY ODELL, HOW TO DO NOTHING (2019)

honourable mentions:

Peter Hessler, Country Driving (2010) · 

Ron Chernow, Washington: A Life (2010) · 

Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy (2010) · 

Marina Warner, Stranger Magic (2012) · 

Jon Meacham, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (2012) · 

Oscar Martinez, The Beast (2013) · 

Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers (2013) · 💖

Mary Ruefle, Madness, Rack, and Honey (2013) · 

David Epstein, The Sports Gene (2013) · 

Sheri Fink, Five Days at Memorial (2013) · 

David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service (2013) · 

George Packer, The Unwinding (2013) · 

Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything (2013) · 

Roxanne Dunbar-Oritz, An Indigenous People’s History of the United States (2014) · 

Sarah Ruhl, 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write (2014) · 

Olivia Laing, The Trip to Echo Spring (2014) · 

Hermione Lee, Penelope Fitzgerald (2014) · 

Mary Beard, SPQR (2015) · 

Sam Quinones, Dreamland (2015) · 

Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped From the Beginning (2016) · 

Ruth Franklin, Shirley Jackson (2016) · 

Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers In Their Own Land (2016) · 

Margot Lee Shetterly, Hidden Figures (2016) · 💁

Laura Dassow Walls, Henry David Thoreau: A Life (2017) · 

David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon (2017) · 💖

Elizabeth McGuire, Red at Heart (2017) ·

 Frances FitzGerald, The Evangelicals (2017) · 

Jeff Guinn, The Road to Jonestown (2017) · 

Michael Tisserand, Krazy (2017) · 

Lawrence Jackson, Chester Himes (2017) · 

Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon (2018) · 

Beth Macy, Dopesick (2018) · 

Shane Bauer, American Prison (2018) · 

Eliza Griswold, Amity and Prosperity (2018) · 

David Quammen, The Tangled Tree (2018).

NONFICTION NOVEMBER: Be the Expert (week 3)

Week 3: (Nov. 11 to 15) – Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert (Katie at Doing Dewey): Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert)

Physics Biographies and Memoirs

I've chosen to highlight some physics related biographies or memoirs. The ones I've selected are good reads and written in a way that is not dry or boring. I recommend!

Let me know if there are other great physics biographies I should read!

Force of Nature by Richard Reeves

The story of Ernest Rutherford was a read from this year was good. I loved all the connections between the great physicists of the early 1900s. Just imagining the excitement in the physics world as so much was being discovered made the book worthwhile for me.

Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman by Richard Feynman

Richard Feynman was a real character and this is a collection of his stories. He's well known for popularizing physics, and his ability to tell a great story. There are several books by Feynman, and any of them are probably good reads.

e=mc2 by David Bodanis

Not a biography of any person, it is the biography of Einstein's famous equation, E=mc^2. Each component gets a chapter, and background information. Fascinating stuff!

(I tried another Bodanis book this year which was disappointing, but I think it was still interesting and well written, it just didn't cover the information that I was expecting, so I won't put it on him - it was me)

Zap: Nicola Tesla Takes Charge
Although this is a children's book, any book that discusses Nicola Tesla is going to be a winner. This would just whet your appetite for stories of the crazy inventor Tesla, but it would be a gateway book to Tesla. I'm still looking for adult book about Tesla. I've read a fictional book which was really good - Last Days of Night by Graham Moore which was a great mystery but I'd like another Tesla title - fiction or nonfiction.

Finding Wonders by Jeannine Atkins
Technically a fictional book, the information in this blank verse account of three female scientists is fabulous! My favourite book from 2017. 

Related - Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science by Rachel Swaby. More traditional biographies than Finding Wonders, great intro to all those women scientists you've probably never heard of.

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Col Chris Hadfield
And finally, Col Chris Hadfield, and real life hero/good guy with his memoir/guide to life. The more you read about Hadfield, the more impressive his is. We are so proud of him here in Canada, and this book is an inspirational read of following your dreams and having everything pay off, through all your hard work and planning. 

NONFICTION NOVEMBER: Book Pairing (week 2)

Week 2: (Nov. 4 to 8) – Book Pairing (Sarah of Sarah’s Book Shelves): This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real history by reading a nonfiction version of the story.


I'm going to cheat a little bit here, because these two books were offered together during the summer from YA Sync. They really go well together! I liked the history and background behind Reagan's famous 'Tear Down this Wall' speech, but the fictional account of a family separated when the wall was built, separating East and West Berlin, and the subsequent fall out of a family divided was very powerful.

Tear Down This Wall: A City, A President, and the Speech that Ended the Cold War by Romesh Ratnesar
In 1987, Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech to Mr Gorbachev and very quickly, the wall did come down and life in Berlin (East and West) changed. This (a little too long) nonfiction book looks into the situations that led up to the speech. For people of a certain age who remember the 1980s, this book will bring back those times. For younger readers, this would be a great historical record of a significant event that led to the end of the Cold War.

A Night Divided by Jennifer A Nielsen
I really enjoyed this novel following a single family whose life was completely changed the night the Berlin Wall was built. The father and brother had gone across the city to look for work the night the wall was built, separating the family of five. The mom, brother and main character daughter were left in East Berlin. Years later, the daughter sees her father on the other side, and realizes he is trying to send a message - they should dig a tunnel to West Berlin. Seeing life in East Berlin, how citizens had to survive, worrying about betrayals, and worrying about who to trust, was very well done. This is why I really like historical fiction - it allows the reader to see a moment in time, with characters that are easy to relate to. 

Any other good Cold War fiction/nonfiction reads that would compliment these two?