Nonfiction Book Discussion Kits

If you have your own book group, we'd love to share our book kits! Extra copies are located in storage, so please place holds online or ask at our front desk for the entire set. Most sets have at least 8 copies or more.

Updated October 21, 2025
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Animal, vegetable, junk : a history of food, from sustainable to suicidal
Bittman, Mark
Paper Book
"Epic and engrossing." --The New York Times Book Review From the #1 New York Times bestselling author and pioneering journalist, an expansive look at how history has been shaped by humanity's appetite for food, farmland, and the money behind it all--and...
Brain on fire : my month of madness
Cahalan, Susannah.
Paper Book
Brain on Fire is the stunning debut from journalist and author Susannah Cahalan, recounting the real-life horror story of how a sudden and mysterious illness put her on descent into a madness for which there seemed to be no cure. 'My first serious blackout marked the line between sanity and insanity...
Between the world and me
Coates, Ta-Nehisi.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * NAMED ONE OF TIME'S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE * PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST * ONE OF OPRAH'S "BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH" * NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT ...
We keep the dead close : a murder at Harvard and a half century of silence
Cooper, Becky
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION 'I'm obsessed!' REESE WITHERSPOON'Exhilarating ... Becky Cooper masterfully uncovers the story of Harvard undergrad Jane Britton.' VOGUE<...
Cults : inside the world's most notorious groups and understanding the people who joined them
Cutler, Max
Paper Book
Mystery. Manipulation. Murder. Cults are associated with all of these. But what really goes on inside them? More specifically, what goes on inside the minds of cult leaders and the people who join them? Based on the hit podcast Cults, this is essential reading for any true crime fan....
A mystery of mysteries : the death and life of Edgar Allan Poe
Dawidziak, Mark
Paper Book
An Agatha, Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Ohioana Award nominee! A Mystery of Mysteries is a brilliant biography of Edgar Allan Poe that examines the renowned author's life through the prism of his mysterious death and its many possible causes. ...
Soil : the story of a Black mother's garden
Dungy, Camille T.
Paper Book
A seminal work that expands how we talk about the natural world and the environment as National Book Critics Circle Criticism finalist Camille T. Dungy diversifies her garden to reflect her heritage. In Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden, poet and...
A fever in the heartland : the Ku Klux Klan's plot to take over America, and the woman who stopped them
Egan, Timothy
Paper Book
The Roaring Twenties - the Jazz Age - has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in...
The good girls : an ordinary killing
Faleiro, Sonia
Paper Book
'Narrative reportage at its best. Just extraordinary' Fatima Bhutto'A page-turner, a feminist text, and an essential read that is deeply empathetic' Deepa Anappara, author of Djinn Patrol on the Purple LineA masterly and agenda-setting inquest into how the deaths of two...
Conan Doyle for the defence : a sensational murder, the quest for justice and the world's greatest detective writer
Fox, Margalit
Paper Book
Arthur and George meets The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: how the creator of Sherlock Holmes overturned one of the great miscarriages of justice.
The ruin of all witches : life and death in the New World
Gaskill, Malcolm
Paper Book
*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER* *SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE* *A TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES AND BBC HISTORY HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR* 'The best and most enjoyable kind of history writing' Hilary Mantel
Talking to strangers : what we should know about the people we don't know
Gladwell, Malcolm
Paper Book
In July 2015, a young black woman named Sandra Bland was pulled over for a minor traffic violation in rural Texas. Minutes later she was arrested and jailed. Three days later, she committed suicide in her cell. What went wrong? Talking to Strangersis all about what happens when we encounter...
Book and dagger : how scholars and librarians became the unlikely spies of World War II
Graham, Elyse
Paper Book
The untold story of the academics who became OSS spies, invented modern spycraft, and helped turn the tide of the war At the start of WWII, the U.S. found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today's CIA, was quickly...
Killers of the Flower Moon : oil, money, murder and the birth of the FBI
Grann, David
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FACT CRIME SHORTLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NON-FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION **NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY MARTIN SCORSESE STARRING LEONARDO...
The Wager : a tale of shipwreck, mutiny and murder
Grann, David
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on The Wager...
The anxious generation : how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness
Haidt, Jonathan
Paper Book
THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A Wall Street Journal Top 10 Book of 2024 * A New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book * One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2024 * A TIME 100 Must-Read Book of 2024 * Named a Best Book of 2024 by the...
Wise gals : the spies who built the CIA and changed the future of espionage
Holt, Nathalia
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls comes the never-before-told story of a small cadre of influential female spies in the precarious early days of the CIA--women who helped create the template for cutting-edge espionage (and blazed new paths...
Spying on the South : an odyssey across the American divide
Horwitz, Tony
Paper Book
The New York Times-bestselling final book by the beloved, Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Tony Horwitz.   With Spying on the South, the best-selling author of Confederates in the Attic returns to the South and the Civil War era for an epic...
How we fight for our lives : a memoir
Jones, Saeed
Paper Book
From award-winning poet Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives--winner of the Kirkus Prize and the Stonewall Book Award--is a "moving, bracingly honest memoir" (The New York Times Book Review) written at the crossroads of sex, race, and power. One of the best...
When breath becomes air
Kalanithi, Paul
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question, What makes a life...
Empire of pain : the secret history of the Sackler dynasty
Keefe, Patrick Radden
Paper Book
The inspiration behind the Netflix TV series Painkillers, starring Uzo Aduba and Matthew Broderick.Amazon's Top 20 Best Books of the Year'This is no dense medical tome, but a page-turner with a villainous family to rival the Roys in Succession, and one where every chapter ends with the perfect...
Art and Science of Connection : Why Social Health Is the Missing Key to Living Longer, Healthier, Happier
Killam, Kasley/ Kay, Cindy (NRT).
CD
A groundbreaking redefinition of what it means to be healthy that introduces the need for social health--the part of wellbeing that comes from feeling connected--to truly flourish. Exercise. Eat a balanced diet. Go to therapy. Most wellness advice is focused on achieving and maintaining...
Hidden Valley Road : inside the mind of an American family
Kolker, Robert
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * ONE OF GQ's TOP 50 BOOKS OF LITERARY JOURNALISM IN THE 21st CENTURY * The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in...
Class : a memoir
Land, Stephanie
Paper Book
A Good Morning America Book Club Pick "Raw and inspiring." --People "Land is not just exploring her own story, but also the larger implications of what it means to fall between the cracks of American capitalism." --The New...
Dead wake : the last crossing of the Lusitania
Larson, Erik
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the bestselling author and master of narrative nonfiction comes the enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania "Both terrifying and enthralling."--Entertainment Weekly"Thrilling, dramatic and powerful."...
The demon of unrest : Abraham Lincoln & America's road to civil war
Larson, Erik
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War in this 'riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult' (Los Angeles Times). On November 6,...
The splendid and the vile : a saga of Churchill, family, and defiance during the blitz
Larson, Erik
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers an intimate chronicle of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz--an inspiring portrait of courage and leadership in a time of...
The fate of food : what we'll eat in a bigger, hotter, smarter world
Little, Amanda
Paper Book
We need to produce more food. With water and food shortages already being felt in some parts of the world, this might sound like an insurmountable challenge, but all is far from lost. You may not have heard about it, but the sustainable food revolution is already under way. Amanda Little...
Hitler's furies : German women in the Nazi killing fields
Lower, Wendy.
Paper Book
Wendy Lower's stunning account of the role of German women on the World War II Nazi eastern front powerfully revises history, proving that we have ignored the reality of women's participation in the Holocaust, including as brutal killers. The long-held picture of German women holding down the home...
Toxic charity : how churches and charities hurt those they help (and how to reverse it)
Lupton, Robert D.
Paper Book
Veteran urban activist Robert Lupton reveals the shockingly toxic effects that modern charity has upon the very people meant to benefit from it. Toxic Charity provides proven new models for charitable groups who want to help--not sabotage--those whom they desire to serve. Lupton, the founder of FCS...
Selling the dream : the billion-dollar industry bankrupting Americans
Marie, Jane (Journalist)
Paper Book
Peabody and Emmy Award-winning journalist Jane Marie expands on her popular podcast The Dream to expose the scourge of multilevel marketing schemes and how they have profited off the evisceration of the American working class. We've all heard of Amway, Mary...
Kill 'em and leave : searching for James Brown and the American soul
McBride, James
Paper Book
National Book Award winner James McBride goes in search of the "real" James Brown after receiving a tip that promises to uncover the man behind the myth. His surprising journey illuminates not only our understanding of this immensely troubled, misunderstood, and complicated soul genius but the...
The pioneers : the heroic story of the settlers who brought the American ideal West
McCullough, David G.
Ebook
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important and dramatic chapter in the American story--the settling of the Northwest Territory by dauntless pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on...
The sum of us : what racism costs everyone and how we can prosper together
McGhee, Heather C.
Paper Book
The heartbreaking, liberating truth about what racism has cost all of us.
Cue the sun : the invention of reality TV
Nussbaum, Emily
Paper Book
The rollicking saga of reality television, a "sweeping" (The Washington Post) cultural history of America's most influential, most divisive artistic phenomenon, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker writer--"a must-read for anyone interested in television or popular culture"...
The lost city of the Monkey God : a true story
Preston, Douglas J.
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, named one of the best books of the year by The Boston Globe and National Geographic: acclaimed journalist Douglas Preston takes readers on a true adventure deep into the Honduran rainforest in this riveting narrative about the discovery of...
Dreamland : the true tale of America's opiate epidemic
Quinones, Sam
Paper Book
Winner of the NBCC Award for General Nonfiction Named on Slate's 50 Best Nonfiction Books of the Past 25 Years, Amazon's Best Books of the Year 2015--Michael Botticelli, U.S. Drug Czar (Politico) Favorite Book of the Year--Angus Deaton, Nobel Prize Economics (...
When women ran Fifth Avenue : glamour and power at the dawn of American fashion
Satow, Julie
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A glittering portrait of the golden age of American department stores and of three visionary women who led them, from the award-winning author of The Plaza. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Vogue, Smithsonian, New York Post,...
Street of Eternal Happiness : big city dreams along a Shanghai road
Schmitz, Rob.
Paper Book
An unforgettable portrait of individuals who hope, struggle, and grow along a single street cutting through the heart of Shanghai, from one of the most acclaimed broadcast journalists reporting on China.   Modern Shanghai: a global city in the midst of a renaissance, where...
Brave the wild river : the untold story of two women who mapped the botany of the Grand Canyon
Sevigny, Melissa L.
Ebook
Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award for History/Biography Winner of the Reading the West Book Award in Memoir/Biography Selected as a Southwest Book of the Year Top Pick Rachel Carson Environment Book Award for Reporting on the Environment, Honorable...
Heartland : a memoir of working hard and being broke in the richest country on Earth
Smarsh, Sarah
Paper Book
*Finalist for the National Book Award and the Kirkus Prize* *Instant New York Times Bestseller* *Named a Best Book of 2018 by NPR, The New York Post, BuzzFeed, Shelf Awareness, Bustle, and Publishers Weekly* An essential read for...
Hands of time : a watchmaker's history of time
Struthers, Rebecca
Paper Book
Blood in the water : the Attica prison uprising of 1971 and its legacy
Thompson, Heather Ann
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * The definitive history of the infamous 1971 Attica Prison uprising, the state's violent response, and the victim's decades-long quest for justice. * Thompson served as the Historical Consultant on the Academy Award-nominated documentary feature ATTICA
Hillbilly elegy : a memoir of a family and culture in crisis
Vance, J. D.
Paper Book
Hillbilly Elegy recounts Vice President J.D. Vance's powerful origin story... From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate now serving as the Vice President of the United States, an incisive account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the...
Knowing what we know : the transmission of knowledge, from ancient wisdom to modern magic
Winchester, Simon
Paper Book
"A delightful compendium of the kind of facts you immediately want to share with anyone you encounter . . . . Simon Winchester has firmly earned his place in history . . . as a promulgator of knowledge of every variety, perhaps the last of the famous explorers who crisscrossed the now-vanished...
Master slave husband wife
Woo, Ilyon
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller, the incredible true story of a couple that escaped slavery in the South and eventually made their way to the UK, Africa and beyond.
Anansi's gold : the man who looted the west, outfoxed Washington, and swindled the world
Yeebo, Yepoka
Paper Book
"Catch Me if You Can meets Coming to America in this epic tale of one of the greatest scammers of all time."-NPR Shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize * A New York Times Notable Book of the Year * A New Yorker, NPR, Newsweek...

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