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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An astronaut's guide to life on earth
Hadfield, Chris
Paper Book
Travel to space and back with astronaut Chris Hadfield's "enthralling" bestseller as your eye-opening guide (Slate).  Colonel Chris Hadfield has spent decades training as an astronaut and has logged nearly 4000 hours in space. During this time he...
Born a crime : stories from a South African childhood
Noah, Trevor
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * More than one million copies sold! A "brilliant" (Lupita Nyong'o, Time), "poignant" (Entertainment Weekly), "soul-nourishing" (USA Today) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid  
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 : a memoir
Westover, Tara
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University ...
King : a life
Eig, Jonathan
Ebook
WINNER OF THE 2024 PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY Featured on Amazon's Al Woolworth's Top 10 Books of the Past 25 Years A finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award | Named one of the ten best books of 2023 by The Washington Post<...
The salt stones : seasons of a shepherd's life
Whybrow, Helen
Ebook
In the heart of Vermont's Green Mountains, Helen Whybrow and her partner are presented with the opportunity to steward a two-hundred-acre conserved farm. Whybrow knows that "belonging more than anything requires participation" and radically intertwines her life with the land. Six months after...
Spare
Harry, Prince, Duke of Sussex
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Discover the global phenomenon that tells an unforgettable story of love, loss, courage, and healing. "Compellingly artful . . . [a] blockbuster memoir."--The New Yorker (Best Books of the Year) It was one of the most...
Dirt : adventures in Lyon as a chef in training, father, and sleuth looking for the secret of French cooking
Buford, Bill
Paper Book
"You can almost taste the food in Bill Buford's Dirt, an engrossing, beautifully written memoir about his life as a cook in France." --The Wall Street Journal What does it take to master French cooking? This is the question that drives Bill Buford to abandon...
In defense of food : an eater's manifesto
Pollan, Michael
Paper Book
#1 New York Times Bestseller from the author of How to Change Your Mind, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and Food Rules  Food. There's plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it? Because in the so...
Salt : a world history
Kurlansky, Mark.
Paper Book
Homer called salt a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. Today we take salt for granted, a common, inexpensive substance that seasons food or clears ice from roads, a word used casually in expressions ("salt of the earth," take it with a grain of salt") without...
Save me the plums : my Gourmet memoir
Reichl, Ruth
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "A delicious insider account of the gritty, glamorous world of food culture."--Vanity Fair In this "poignant and hilarious" (The New York Times Book Review) memoir, trailblazing food writer and beloved restaurant critic Ruth...
Into the silence : the Great War, Mallory, and the conquest of Everest
Davis, Wade.
Paper Book
On June 6, 1924, two men set out from a camp perched at 23,000 feet on an ice ledge just below the lip ofnbsp;Mount Everest's North Col. George Mallory, thirty-seven, was Britain's finest climber. Sandy Irvine was a young Oxford scholar of twenty-two with little previous mountaineering experience....
A marriage at sea : a true story of love, obsession, and shipwreck
Elmhirst, Sophie
Ebook
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...
A walk in the park : the true story of a spectacular misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Ebook
* Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award in Outdoor Literature * Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction * Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, Air Mail, Smithsonian Magazine, and Financial Times "A...
1929 : inside the greatest crash in Wall Street history-- and how it shattered a nation
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Ebook
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "It is one of the best narrative histories I've read." --The Wall Street Journal A New York Times Notable Book of 2025 * One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2025 * Named a BEST BOOK OF 2025 by The Washington...
The big short : inside the doomsday machine
Lewis, Michael
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times bestseller: a brilliant account--character-rich and darkly humorous--of how the U.S. economy was driven over the cliff. When the crash of the U. S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash, the...
Careless people : a cautionary tale of power, greed, and lost idealism
Wynn-Williams, Sarah
Audiobook
Empire of AI : dreams and nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
Hao, Karen
Ebook
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
Audiobook
#1 New York Times bestseller * #1 Washington Post bestseller * #1 Indie Bestseller * USA Today Bestseller John Green, award-winning author and passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world's...
Seven fallen feathers : racism, death, and hard truths in a northern city
Talaga, Tanya.
Paper Book
Winner, 2017 Shaughnessy Cohen Writers' Trust Prize for Political Writing Winner, 2017 RBC Taylor Prize Winner, 2017 First Nation Communities Read: Young Adult/Adult Winner, 2024 Blue Metropolis First Peoples Prize, for the whole of her work Finalist, 2017 Hilary Weston...
An African history of Africa : from the dawn of humanity to independence
Badawi, Zeinab
Ebook
Emperor of Rome : ruling the ancient Roman world
Beard, Mary
Ebook
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Best Books of 2023: New Yorker, The Economist, Smithsonian Most Anticipated Books of Fall: Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, TODAY, Literary Hub, and Publishers Weekly "A vivid way to re-examine what we know,...
The art spy : the extraordinary untold tale of WWII resistance hero Rose Valland
Young, Michelle
Ebook
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."...
Hidden figures : the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race
Shetterly, Margot Lee
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times bestseller -WINNER OF ANISFIELD-WOLF AWARD FOR NONFICTION -WINNER BLACK CAUCUS OF AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION BEST NONFICTION BOOK -WINNER NAACP IMAGE AWARD BEST NONFICTION BOOK -WINNER NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING...
The mission : the CIA in the 21st century
Weiner, Tim
Ebook
New York Times Bestseller * A New Yorker Best Book of the Year * A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year * 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...
Framed : astonishing true stories of wrongful convictions
Grisham, John
Ebook
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "The master of the legal thriller" (Associated Press) teams up with "the godfather of the innocence movement" (Texas Monthly) to share ten harrowing true stories of wrongful convictions. "Each of these stories is told with astonishing...
In cold blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
Capote, Truman
Paper Book
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time From the Modern Library's new set of beautifully repackaged hardcover classics by Truman Capote--also available are Breakfast at Tiffany's and Other Voices, Other Rooms (in one volume),...
Killers of the Flower Moon : the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI
Grann, David
Other
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history, from the author of The Wager and The Lost City of Z, "one of the preeminent adventure and true-crime writers working today."--New York...
Prisoners of the castle : an epic story of survival and escape from Colditz, the Nazis' fortress prison
Macintyre, Ben
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The "entertaining [and] often-moving account" (The Wall Street Journal) of the remarkable POWs whose relentlessly creative attempts to escape a notorious Nazi prison embodied the spirit of resistance against fascism, from the author of The Spy and...
Say nothing : a true story of murder and memory in Northern Ireland
Keefe, Patrick Radden
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NOW AN FX LIMITED SERIES STREAMING ON HULU * NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER * From the author of Empire of Pain--a stunning, intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions. One...
The Wager : a tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder
Grann, David
Audiobook
#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
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A "thrilling" (The New York Times), "dazzling" (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world that will fill you with wonder and forever alter your perspective, by Pulitzer Prize-winning science...
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...
The backyard bird chronicles
Tan, Amy
Ebook
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of The Joy Luck Club comes a gorgeous and witty exploration of birding and nature. This inspiring work cultivates hope and connection, revealing the rhythms of our world and uncovering its beauty hidden in plain sight. * With a foreword...
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...
The comfort of crows : a backyard year
Renkl, Margaret
Audiobook
Finding the mother tree : discovering the wisdom of the forest
Simard, S.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * From the world's leading forest ecologist who forever changed how people view trees and their connections to one another and to other living things in the forest--a moving, deeply personal journey of discovery "Finding the Mother Tree...
Forest euphoria : the abounding queerness of nature
Kaishian, Patricia Ononiwu
Audiobook
Fuzz : when nature breaks the law
Roach, Mary
Paper Book
What's to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are...
Is a river alive?
Macfarlane, Robert
Ebook
A New York Times Bestseller A #1 Sunday Times (UK) Bestseller Finalist for the 2025 Banff Mountain Book Competition in Environmental Literature Longlisted for the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction
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 ...
The half known life : in search of paradise
Iyer, Pico
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2023 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, NPR, TIME MAGAZINE & MORE "Masterful . . . A book of inner journeys told through extraordinary exteriors . . . One of his very best." --Washington Post  ...
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
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * A landmark work about grief, love, and survival from one of America's most iconic writers One of The New York Times's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century * One of The Guardian's 100 Best Books of the...
You could make this place beautiful : a memoir
Smith, Maggie
Ebook
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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