Best Books to Gift 2025 - Adult Nonfiction

We have a book for everyone on your list. You might want a few for yourself, too!

Updated November 26, 2025
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Bread of angels
Smith, Patti
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A radiant new memoir from artist and writer Patti Smith, author of the National Book Award winner Just Kids A TIME AND NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR "God whispers through a crease in the wallpaper," writes Patti...
Finding my way : a memoir
Yousafzai, Malala
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! | A USA TODAY MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK "A remarkably intimate and insistently human chronicle of a moral authority's coming of age." --The New York Times This is not the story you think you know...
Future boy : Back to the Future and my journey through the space-time continuum
Fox, Michael J.
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A poignant, heartfelt, and funny memoir about how, in 1985, Michael J. Fox brought to life two iconic roles simultaneously--Alex P. Keaton in Family Ties and Marty McFly in Back to the Future. An amazing true story as only...
Joyride : a memoir
Orlean, Susan
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * "Brilliant...A high-spirited, exhilarating memoir." --The Wall Street Journal * "In Joyride, the takeaway often has as much to do with the art of living as the art of writing." --Elle * "Wise and exuberant...It's funny, as well. Just...
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 NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2025 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, NPR, VOGUE, TIME MAGAZINE, THE NEW YORKER, AND MORE "This is nonfiction that reads like fiction - the best kind....
The uncool : a memoir
Crowe, Cameron
Paper Book
We did ok, kid : a memoir
Hopkins, Anthony
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Academy Award-winning actor Sir Anthony Hopkins delves into his illustrious film and theater career, difficult childhood, and path to sobriety in his honest, moving, and long-awaited memoir. Born and raised in Port...
Motherland a feminist history of modern Russia, from revolution to autocracy
Ioffe, Julia
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD Acclaimed journalist Julia Ioffe tells the story of modern Russia through the history of its women, from revolution to utopia to autocracy. In 1990, seven-year-old Julia Ioffe and her family fled the Soviet Union. Nearly...
1929 inside the greatest crash in Wall Street history-- and how it shattered a nation
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "It is one of the best narrative histories I've read." --The Wall Street Journal Named a BEST BOOK OF 2025 by TIME, The Economist, and Bloomberg From the bestselling author of Too...
Enshittification : why everything suddenly got worse and what to do about it
Doctorow, Cory
Paper Book
Enshittification: it's not just you--the internet sucks now. Here's why, and here's how we can disenshittify it. We're living through the Enshittocene, the Great Enshittening, a time in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit...
The mission : the CIA in the 21st century
Weiner, Tim
Paper Book
New York Times Bestseller * A New Yorker Best Book of 2025 * A New York Times Editors' Choice "No one has opened up the CIA to us like Weiner has, and The Mission deserves to win Weiner a second Pulitzer." --The Guardian A masterpiece of reporting based on-the-record...
Chasing evil : shocking crimes, supernatural forces, and an FBI agent's search for hope and justice
Edward, John
Paper Book
How a skeptical FBI agent reached out to a famous psychic for help on a baffling case - and the twenty-five-year crime-solving journey that followed In the summer of 1998, FBI agent Bob Hilland reluctantly picked up the phone to call the famous psychic John Edward. Bob didn't...
Replaceable you : adventures in human anatomy
Roach, Mary
Paper Book
The body is the most complex machine in the world, and the only one for which you cannot get a replacement part from the manufacturer. For centuries, medicine has reached for what's available--sculpting noses from brass, borrowing skin from frogs and hearts from pigs, crafting eye parts from jet...
Dead and alive essays
Smith, Zadie
Paper Book
A TIME Best Book of 2025 "Smart, somber . . . There's pleasure in watching a novelist wired to see all sides at once wrangle with her own dynamic subjectivity." - The New York Times Book Review A profound and unparalleled literary voice, Zadie Smith...
Strong ground : the lessons of daring leadership, the tenacity of paradox, and the wisdom of the human spirit
Brown, Brené
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Brené Brown returns with an urgent call to reimagine the essentials of courageous leadership. In a time when uncertainty runs deep and bluster, hubris, and even cruelty are increasingly framed as acceptable leadership, Brown delivers practical, actionable...
Good things : recipes and rituals to share with people you love
Nosrat, Samin
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat--and one of America's most beloved chefs and teachers--125 meticulously tested, flavor-forward, soul-nourishing recipes that bring joy and a sense of communion A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST...
Something from Nothing: A Cookbook
Roman, Alison
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Something from Nothing is Alison Roman's latest book featuring over 100 deceptively simple, casually stylish, impossibly delicious recipes that make the most of your pantry. AN NPR AND ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR ...

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