Nonfiction Best Bets

A librarian’s picks for curious readers. As shared at the 2026 Vancouver Island Library Staff Conference (VILSC).

Updated May 8, 2026
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Greater Victoria Public Library Greater Victoria Public Library
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Nonfiction Best Bets

A librarian’s picks for curious readers. As shared at the 2026 Vancouver Island Library Staff Conference (VILSC).

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Book of lives : a memoir of sorts
Atwood, Margaret
Paper Book
'Fat and satisfying' Observer * 'I loved it' Dua Lipa * 'Deliciously naughty' iNews * 'Beautifully told' Woman & Home * 'Spellbinding' FT * Book of the Year Guardian, Financial Times, Observer, Belfast Telegraph
Born a crime : and other stories
Noah, Trevor
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE THURBER PRIZE The compelling, inspiring, (often comic) coming-of-age story of Trevor Noah, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed. One of the comedy world's brightest new voices, Trevor Noah is a...
Ducks : two years in the oil sands
Beaton, Kate
Paper Book
A New York Times Notable book! One of Barack Obama's favorite books of 2022! Winner of Canada Reads 2023! "An exceptionally beautiful book about loneliness, labor, and survival."--Carmen Maria Machado Before there was Kate Beaton, New York Times...
Educated
Westover, Tara.
Paper Book
THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLER A BETWEEN THE COVERS PICK Selected as a book of the year by AMAZON, THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, NEW YORK TIMES, ECONOMIST, NEW STATESMAN, VOGUE, IRISH TIMES,...
King : a life
Eig, Jonathan
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *SELECTED AS ONE OF  BARACK OBAMA'S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2023* Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig's King is the first major biography in decades...
Spare
Harry, Prince, Duke of Sussex
Paper Book
It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century- two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother's coffin as the world watched in sorrow - and horror. As Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling - and how...
This Dark Night: Emily Bronte, a Life
Lutz, Deborah
Paper Book
Emily Brontë (1818-1848) was only twenty-seven-years old when she began work on one of the most important novels in the English language. Two years later in 1847, she completed Wuthering Heights. It took the world almost a century to catch up to Brontë's masterpiece, and it has taken even longer...
A truce that is not peace : life and death so far
Toews, Miriam
Paper Book
THE NUMBER ONE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2025 'The best memoir you will read all year' NICK HORNBY 'A triumph - a meditation on writing, suicide, guilt and silence' GUARDIAN 'Curious and idiosyncratic and enjoyable'...
The Anthony Bourdain reader
Bourdain, Anthony
Paper Book
'This compilation shows he was so much more than the sum of his television work' Spectator The definitive, career-spanning collection of writing from Anthony Bourdain, including unpublished and never-before-seen material, with an Introduction by Patrick Radden...
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...
1929: Inside the Crash
Sorkin, Andrew Ross.
Paper Book
In 1929, the world watched in shock as the unstoppable Wall Street bull market went into a freefall, wiping out fortunes and igniting a depression that would reshape a generation. But behind the flashing ticker tapes and panicked traders, another drama unfolded-one of visionaries and fraudsters,...
Careless people : a story of where I used to work
Wynn-Williams, Sarah
Paper Book
The instant Sunday Times bestseller No. 1 New York Times bestseller 'How else to put this? Bloody hell' - The Guardian 'Devastating . . . Funny . . . Highly enjoyable' - The Times 'Jaw-dropping . . . A tell-all tome' - Financial...
Empire of AI : dreams and nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
Hao, Karen
Paper Book
A New York Times Notable Book * Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction * A New York Times Bestseller * Named a Best Book of the Year by Smithsonian, Scientific American, and Elle * Winner of the Porchlight Business Book Award
Everything is tuberculosis : the history and persistence of our deadliest infection
Green, John
Paper Book
Instant #1 New York Times bestseller! . #1 Washington Post bestseller! . #1 Indie Bestseller! . USA Today Bestseller! 'Earnest and empathetic.' - New York Times Tuberculosis has been entwined with hu-manity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of...
Fire weather : a true story from a hotter world
Vaillant, John
Paper Book
*WINNER of the BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION****AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER**** A Pulitzer Prize Finalist * A National Book Award Finalist * A Writers' Trust Award Finalist *'No book feels timelier than John Vaillant's Fire Weather . . . an adrenaline...
Seven fallen feathers : racism, death, and hard truths in a northern city
Talaga, Tanya
Paper Book
The bestselling true-crime investigation by the author of All Our Relations. In 1966, twelve-year-old Chanie Wenjack froze to death on the railway tracks of a northern Canadian city after running away from residential school. An inquest was called, and four recommendations...
An African history of Africa : from the dawn of humanity to independence
Badawi, Zeinab
Paper Book
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO BOOK AWARDS 2024 AND THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS 2025* *An instant Sunday Times bestseller, Radio 4 Book of the Week and Guardian Best Summer Read* Selected as a book to look out for by the Guardian and The Rest is...
Emperor of Rome : ruling the ancient Roman world
Beard, Mary
Paper Book
A sweeping account of the social and political world of the Roman emperors by 'the world's most famous classicist' (Guardian)
The finest hotel in Kabul : a people's history of Afghanistan
Doucet, Lyse
Paper Book
'Ingenious' KAMILA SHAMSIE 'Incredible' PETER FRANKOPAN 'Beautiful' RORY STEWART In 1969, the luxury Hotel Inter-Continental Kabul opened its doors- a glistening white box, high on a hill, that reflected Afghanistan's hopes of becoming a modern country,...
The art spy : the extraordinary untold tale of WWII resistance hero Rose Valland
Young, Michelle
Paper Book
A riveting and stylish saga set in Paris during World War II, THE ART SPY uncovers how an unlikely heroine infiltrated the Nazi leadership to save the cultural legacy of the West. On August 25, 1944, Rose Valland, a woman of quiet daring, found herself in a desperate position...
Hidden figures : The untold story of the African American women who helped win the space race
Shetterly, Margot Lee
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times bestseller The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America's greatest achievements in space--a powerful, revelatory history essential to our understanding of race,...
King of kings : the fall of the Shah, the 1979 Iranian revolution and the unmaking of the modern Middle East
Anderson, Scott
Paper Book
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NEW STATESMAN, ATLANTIC AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BOOK OF THE YEAR 'A brilliant tale of greed, paranoia and hubris... a good place to start for anyone seeking to understand the current crisis' Financial...
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...
The mission : the CIA in the 21st century
Weiner, Tim
Paper Book
'No one has opened up the CIA to us like Weiner has, and The Mission deserves to win him a second Pulitzer' JOHN SIMPSON, GUARDIAN The epic successor to Tim Weiner's National Book Award-winning classic, Legacy of Ashes: a gripping and revelatory history of the CIA in...
Framed : astonishing true stories of wrongful convictions
Grisham, John
Paper Book
A fundamental principle of the American legal system is a presumption of innocence, but once someone has been found guilty there is very little room to prove doubt.Framed shares ten true stories of men who were innocent but found guilty and forced to sacrifice friends, families, wives, and decades...
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 DICAPRIO AND ROBERT DE...
Colditz : prisoners of the castle
Macintyre, Ben
Paper Book
Colditz Castle- a forbidding Gothic tower on a hill in Nazi Germany. You may have heard about the prisoners and their daring and desperate attempts to escape, but that's only part of the real story. In Colditz- Prisoners of the Castle, bestselling historian Ben Macintyre takes us inside the...
Say nothing : a true story of murder and memory in Northern Ireland
Keefe, Patrick Radden
Paper Book
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE 21ST CENTURY Now an FX TV series streaming on DISNEY+ 'Unquestionably one of the greatest literary achievements of the 21st century' Nick Hornby From the author of Empire of Pain - a stunning,...
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...
An immense world : how animal senses reveal the hidden realms around us
Yong, Ed
Paper Book
**SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** This is our world, as you've never seen it before. The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal is enclosed...
Astrophysics for people in a hurry
Tyson, Neil deGrasse
Paper Book
Over a year on the New York Times bestseller list and more than a million copies sold. The essential universe, from our most celebrated and beloved astrophysicist. What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit...
Braiding sweetgrass
Kimmerer, Robin Wall.
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Bestseller Named a "Best Essay Collection of the Decade" by Literary Hub As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member...
A city on Mars : can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?
Weinersmith, Kelly
Paper Book
Earth is not well. The promise of starting life anew somewhere far, far away - no climate change, no war, no Twitter - beckons, and settling the stars finally seems within our grasp. Or is it? Bestselling authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of...
Finding the mother tree : uncovering the wisdom and intelligence of the forest
Simard, S.
Paper Book
Raised in the hardy forest communities of British Columbia, scientist Suzanne Simard overturned conventional beliefs in proving that trees and plants are connected underground by an immense web of fungal mycelia, at the centre of which lie the Mother Trees- the mysterious, powerful entities that...
Is a river alive?
Macfarlane, Robert
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR BLACKWELL'S BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION WRITING 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR THE EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2026 SHORTLISTED FOR THE SHERBORNE PRIZE FOR TRAVEL WRITING 2026 ...
The mind electric : stories of the strangeness and wonder of our brains
Anand, Pria
Paper Book
The rise and fall of the dinosaurs : a new history of a lost world
Brusatte, Stephen.
Paper Book
"THE ULTIMATE DINOSAUR BIOGRAPHY," hails Scientific American: A thrilling new history of the age of dinosaurs, from one of our finest young scientists. "A masterpiece of science writing." --Washington Post A New York Times Bestseller * Goodreads Choice Awards ...
Dead and alive : essays
Smith, Zadie
Paper Book
An illuminating new essay collection from one of the most distinctive, exciting and acclaimed writers of her generation, Zadie Smith 'Zadie Smith is a wonderful essayist. She is a natural. She writes as she thinks, and she thinks crisply and exactly' - Tessa Hadley,...
The half known life : in search of paradise
Iyer, Pico
Paper Book
'Nothing less than a guided tour of the human soul ... A masterpiece' Elizabeth Gilbert'A work of spiritual evolution [and] inner journeys told through extraordinary exteriors' Washington PostOne of our most perceptive travel writers embarks on an exploration of the world's...
The library book
Orlean, Susan
Paper Book
A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICK A WASHINGTON POST TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR * A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 "A constant pleasure to read...Everybody who loves books...
The Odyssey
Homer
Paper Book
Composed at the rosy-fingered dawn of world literature almost three millennia ago, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home. This fresh, authoritative...
The year of magical thinking
Didion, Joan
Paper Book
From one of America's iconic writers, a portrait of a marriage and a life - in good times and bad - that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child. A stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet...
You could make this place beautiful : a memoir
Smith, Maggie
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NPR Best Book of the Year * Time Best Book of the Year * Oprah Daily Best Memoir of the Year "A bittersweet study in both grief and joy." ­--Time ...
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