Want to know what nonfiction books got the top marks in 2015? You’re in luck! I’ve compiled seven of what I think are the best lists and found what titles rose to the top. I used the lists from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Amazon. I’ve included a category after each title. Click on the title to find the book in our catalog with book descriptions. And don’t forget to check out my previous post about the Top Reviewed Fiction of 2015.
Happy reading!
The clear winner: Between the World and Me by Ta-nehisi Coates (Memoir)
A strong second place finisher: H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (Memoir)
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan (Memoir)
Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy (Current Events)
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World by Andrea Wulf (Biography)
Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris (Memoir)
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson (Memoir)
Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh (Memoir)
The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle by Lillian Faderman (Current Events)
Give Us the Ballot: the Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America by Ari Berman (Current Events)
Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs by Sally Mann (Memoir)
Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson (Memoir)
Ordinary Light: a Memoir by Trace K. Smith (Memoir)
The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools? by Dale Russakoff (Current Events)
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard (History)
Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva by Rosemary Sullivan (Biography)
Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick (Current Events)
Crime and the Silence: Confronting the Massacre of Jews in Wartime Jedwabne by Anna Bikont (History)
The Daemon Knows: Literary Greatness and the American Sublime by Harold Bloom (American Literature)
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson (History)
The Death of Cancer by Vincent T. DeVita Jr. (Medical Issues)
Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush by Jon Meacham (Biography)
The Devil’s Chessboard: Alan Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government by David Talbot (History)
The Folded Clock: A Diary by Heidi Julavits (Diary)
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book about Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson (Humorous)
Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science by Alice Dreger (Biography)
Katrina: After the Flood by Gary Rivlin (History)
Leaving Orbit: Notes from the Last Days of American Spaceflight by Margaret Lazarus Dean
Light of the World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander (Memoir)
Nagasaki: Lifef After Nuclear War by Susan Southard
The Oregon Trail: A new American Journey by Rinker Buck (History)
The Pentagon’s Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America’s Top-Secret Military Research Agency by Annie Jacobson (History)
Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll by Peter Guralnick (Biography)
Sinatra: The Chairman by James Kaplan (Biography)
Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World by Linda R. Hirshman (Biography)
Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot by Mark Vanhoenacker (Science)
Strangers Drowning: Grappling with Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Overpowering urge to Help by Larisa MacFarquhar (Psychology)
Witches of America by Alex Mar (Religion)
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough (Biography)
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Categories: Books and More
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