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).
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