Texas Topaz Nonfiction List for Adults

Here are some recommendations for adults from the 2026 Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List! The purpose of the Texas Topaz Reading List is to provide children, teens, and adults with recommended nonfiction titles that stimulate reading for pleasure and personal learning. Visit txla.org/reading-lists for the full list and lists from previous years.


Updated January 13, 2026
Lewisville Public Library
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Awake : a memoir
Hatmaker, Jen
Paper Book
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, OPRAH DAILY, GOODREADS, KIRKUS REVIEWS, AND MORE A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "I can't imagine any woman reading this without feeling seen, inspired, and totally empowered." -...
Dinner for vampires : life on a cult TV show (while also in an actual cult!)
Lenz, Bethany Joy
Paper Book
An "incredible" (Alex Cooper, Call Her Daddy), "riveting" (People) New York Times bestselling memoir by One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz about her decade in a cult and her quest to break free. In the early 2000s, after years of hard work and...
The 10 : a memoir of family and the open road
Hanks, E. A.
Paper Book
From the Vanity Fair and New York Times contributor comes a "masterful blend of humor, heartache, and unforgettable landscapes" (Adrienne Brodeur, New York Times bestselling author of Wild Game) recounting the solo, cross-country road trip she made along the Ten across...
99% perspiration : a new working history of the American way of life
Chandler, Adam
Paper Book
An enlightening and entertaining interrogation of the myth of American self-reliance and the idea of hard work as destiny "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." This phrase, arguably Thomas Edison's most famous quote, has been drilled...
Drawn testimony : my four decades as a courtroom sketch artist
Rosenberg, Jane
Paper Book
From America's top courtroom sketch artist, a penetrating, compulsively readable memoir about her dramatic four-decade career "A mesmerizing look at this rarest of professions..."-Bookpage STARRED review "Readers will be hard-pressed to...
Inocentes : increíbles casos de true crime y condenas injustas
Grisham, John
Paper Book
BESTSELLER #1 DEL NEW YORK TIMES * "El maestro del thriller legal" (Associated Press) se une al "padrino del movimiento de la inocencia" (Texas Monthly) para compartir diez desgarradoras historias verdaderas sobre condenas injustas. John Grisham es conocido a...
Girl on girl : how pop culture turned a generation of women against themselves
Gilbert, Sophie
Paper Book
A New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book * Named one of the Best Books of the Year by TIME, NPR, Elle, and The Boston Globe "Searing... rigorously researched but never stuffy... Gilbert has compiled perhaps the first comprehensive...
Grief is for people
Crosley, Sloane
Paper Book
Named a Best Book of the Year by Vogue, TIME, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Esquire, NPR, Elle, Library Journal, LitHub, Oprah Daily, Publishers Weekly, Chicago Public Library, Kirkus, Bookpage, The Independent, and New Statesman
A marriage at sea : a true story of love, obsession, and shipwreck
Elmhirst, Sophie
Paper Book
THE RUNAWAY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER & ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2025 A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOK OF 2025 ALSO NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2025 BY NPR, VOGUE, TIME MAGAZINE, THE NEW YORKER, AND MORE "This is nonfiction that...
No more tears : the dark secrets of Johnson & Johnson
Harris, Gardiner
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . An explosive, deeply reported expose of Johnson & Johnson, one of America's oldest and most trusted pharmaceutical companies-from an award-winning investigative journalist "A damning portrait."-Associated Press "A page-turning...
Raising hare : a memoir
Dalton, Chloe
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * FINALIST FOR THE 2025 WOMEN'S PRIZE * A fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman's unlikely friendship with a wild hare.
Sociopath : a memoir
Gagne, Patric
Paper Book
The acclaimed New York Times bestselling memoir of the author's struggle to understand her own sociopathy and shed light on the often maligned and misunderstood mental disorder. "A cross between a podcast by relationship therapist Esther Perel and a salacious tell-all."...
A well-trained wife : my escape from Christian patriarchy
Levings, Tia
Paper Book
The instant New York Times bestseller: "Today it hit me when he hit me, blood shaking in my brain. Maybe there wasn't a savior coming. Maybe it was up to me to save me." Recruited into the fundamentalist Quiverfull movement as a young wife, Tia...

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