Staff Picks 2026 (Nonfiction)

Check out what our Library Information and Outreach Staff read and recommended in 2025!

Updated October 29, 2025
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Gulag : a history
Applebaum, Anne
Paper Book
The Gulag—the vast array of Soviet concentration camps—was a system of repression and punishment whose rationalized evil and institutionalized inhumanity were rivaled only by the Holocaust. The Gulag entered the world’s historical consciousness in 1972, with the publication...
Tailspin
Armbruster, John
Paper Book
World War II tail gunner Gene Moran fell four miles through the sky without a parachute and lived. Captured by the Germans, he survived a harrowing eighteen months as a prisoner of war, including a six-hundred-mile death march in 1945 across Central Europe. When Gene returned home, he kept...
The ever-changing past : why all history is revisionist history
Banner, James M., Jr.
Paper Book
History is not, and has never been, inert, certain, merely factual, and beyond reinterpretation. Taking readers from Thucydides to the origin of the French Revolution to the Civil War and beyond, James M. Banner, Jr. explores what historians do and why they do it.   Banner shows why...
The Game Changers: How Playing Games Changed the World and Can Change You Too
Clare, Tim.
Paper Book
Filled with humour, thrill and insight, The Game Changers explores the world of games, showing how they have shaped human history and why we should play them
The message
Coates, Ta-Nehisi
Paper Book
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The renowned author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tell--and the ones we don't--shape our realities. "Ta-Nehisi Coates always writes with a...
Invisible women : data bias in a world designed for men
Criado-Perez, Caroline
Paper Book
The landmark, prize-winning, international bestselling examination of how a gender gap in data perpetuates bias and disadvantages women. #1 International Bestseller * Winner of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award *...
One day, everyone will have always been against this
El Akkad, Omar
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD * SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 PALESTINE BOOK AWARDS * From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in a West that betrays its fundamental...
The year of less : how I stopped shopping, gave away my belongings, and discovered life is worth more than anything you can buy in a store
Flanders, Cait
Paper Book
The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum The Rise and Fall of an American Organized-Crime Boss
Fox, Margalit.
Ebook
America's first great organized-crime lord was a lady--a nice Jewish mother named Mrs. Mandelbaum. "A tour de force . . . With a pickpocket's finesse, Margalit Fox lures us into the criminal underworld of Gilded Age New York."--Liza Mundy, author of The Sisterhood
The Middle Ages
Fried, Johannes
Paper Book
Since the fifteenth century, when humanist writers began to speak of a "middle" period in history linking their time to the ancient world, the nature of the Middle Ages has been widely debated. Across the millennium from 500 to 1500, distinguished historian Johannes Fried describes a dynamic...
The contagion next time
Galea, Sandro
Paper Book
How can we create a healthier world and prevent the crisis next time? In a few short months, COVID-19 devastated the world and, in particular, the United States. It infected millions, killed hundreds of thousands, and effectively made the earth stand still. Yet America was already in poor health...
Planet of the apes : the art of the films Dawn of the planet of the apes and Rise of the planet of the apes
Gosling, Sharon
Paper Book
A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as...
Access : inside the abortion underground and the sixty-year battle for reproductive freedom
Grant, Rebecca (Journalist)
From the award-winning author of Birth, a journey into the underground activist networks that have been working to protect women's autonomy over their bodies amidst legal, political, religious, and cultural oppression over the past sixty years. In this definitive, eye...
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! John Green, acclaimed author and passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the...
Poets Square : a memoir in thirty cats
Gustafson, Courtney
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An intimate memoir about the importance of community and care in a world that can feel impossibly broken--and a story about accidentally going viral while tending to a colony of feral cats. When Courtney Gustafson moved into a rental house in...
Medieval bodies : life, death and art in the Middle Ages
Hartnell, Jack
Paper Book
With wit, wisdom, and a sharp scalpel, Jack Hartnell dissects the medieval body and offers a remedy to our preconceptions. Just like us, medieval men and women worried about growing old, got blisters and indigestion, fell in love, and had children. And yet their lives were full of...
Me
John, Elton
Paper Book
Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of twenty-three he was performing his first gig in America, facing an astonished audience in his bright yellow dungarees, a star-spangled T...
Breaking free from broke : the ultimate guide to more money and less stress
Kamel, George
Paper Book
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER America has become the land of the free and the home of the broke. Household debt is at an all-time high, and everyday people--just like you--are feeling more cynical and hopeless about their financial futures. It's time to...
Gaza in my phone
Kerbaj, Mazen
Paper Book
Gaza in My Phone presents the powerful art of Lebanese cartoonist Mazen Kerbaj, drawn in response to social media images of Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza. Gaza is the first genocide to be captured in real-time images on devices we hold in our hands. Two days after October 7, the...
Shadow divers : the true adventure of two Americans who risked everything to solve one of the last mysteries of World War II
Kurson, Robert.
Paper Book
In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm comes a true tale of riveting adventure in which two weekend scuba divers risk everything to solve a great historical mystery–and make history themselves. For John...
The devil in the white city : murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America
Larson, Erik.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The true tale of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the cunning serial killer who used the magic and majesty of the fair to lure his victims to their death. A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century Two...
March. Book three
Lewis, John
Paper Book
Welcome to the stunning conclusion of the award-winning and best-selling MARCH trilogy. Congressman John Lewis, an American icon and one of the key figures of the civil rights movement, joins co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell to bring the lessons of history to vivid life for a new...
You are never alone : trust in the miracle of God's presence and power
Lucado, Max
Paper Book
When life gets difficult, is God paying attention If I'm facing challenge after challenge, will God help When my days become dark and stormy, does God notice The answer in the life-giving stories in the Gospel of John is a resounding yes. In You Are Never Alone, pastor and...
The gentle art of Swedish death cleaning : how to free yourself and your family from a lifetime of clutter
Magnusson, Margareta
Paper Book
The original, official, bestselling guide to Swedish death cleaning--a charming, practical, and unsentimental approach to putting a home in order while reflecting on the tiny joys that make up a long life. In Sweden there is a kind of decluttering called...
Enchantment : awakening wonder in an anxious age
May, Katherine
Paper Book
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER "When I tell you that I dogeared almost every page in this book, I'm telling God's honest truth. I didn't know how much I needed someone else to validate what I was going through. The sense that I had lost my curiosity, my imagination, my ability to make...
Allow me to retort : a black guy's guide to the Constitution
Mystal, Elie
Paper Book
Finalist, ABA Silver Gavel Award for Books The New York Times bestseller that has cemented Elie Mystal's reputation as one of our sharpest and most acerbic legal minds "After reading Allow Me to Retort, I want Elie Mystal to explain everything I don't understand--quantum...
The grieving body : how the stress of loss can be an opportunity for healing
O'Connor, Mary-Frances
Paper Book
The follow-up to celebrated grief expert, neuroscientist, and psychologist Dr. Mary-Frances O'Connor's The Grieving Brain focuses on the impact of grief--and life's other major stressors--on the human body. Coping with death and grief is one of the most painful human...
Die with zero : getting all you can from your money and your life
Perkins, Bill
Paper Book
A common-sense guide to living rich . . . instead of dying rich Imagine if by the time you died, you did everything you were told to. You worked hard, saved your money, and looked forward to financial freedom when you retired.   The only...
The gnomes of Grimblewood : enchanting friends to knit, full of magic and mischief
Schira, Sarah
Paper Book
Discover 8 enchanting little gnomes to knit, from popular knitting designer and gnome enthusiast, Sarah Schira. In the depths of Grimblewood forest, tucked away under rustling pine and spruce trees, you'll find the Grimblewood gnomes: an eclectic and kindly bunch, ready to welcome...
Fast food nation : the dark side of the all-American meal
Schlosser, Eric.
Paper Book
In hisNew York Times bestseller, National Magazine Award-winning journalist Eric Schlosser charts the fast food industry's enormous impact on our health, landscape, economy, politics and culture as he transforms the way America thinks about what it eats.
Let's talk about aging parents : a real-life guide to solving problems with 27 essential conversations
Tamblyn Watts, Laura
Paper Book
Age-proofing an older relative's living space, figuring out powers of attorney, spotting and dealing with signs of dementia, asking them to give up the car keys or consider assisted living . . . the first step toward tackling these concerns and more is an honest, informed discussion. Here...
The body is not an apology : the power of radical self-love
Taylor, Sonya Renee
Ebook
"To build a world that works for everyone, we must first make the radical decision to love every facet of ourselves...'The body is not an apology' is the mantra we should all embrace."  -...
Crashed : how a decade of financial crises changed the world
Tooze, J. Adam
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE LIONEL GELBER PRIZE A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR A NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS' TOP BOOK "An intelligent explanation of the mechanisms that produced the crisis and...
Memorial Drive : a daughter's memoir
Trethewey, Natasha D.
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller  A New York Times Notable Book  One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2020 Named One of the Best Books of the Year by: The Washington Post, NPR, Shelf Awareness, Esquire, Electric Literature, Slate, The Los...
The in-between : unforgettable encounters during life's final moments
Vlahos, Hadley
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Passionate advocate for end-of-life care and TikTok star Hadley Vlahos shares moving stories of joy, wisdom, and redemption from her patients' final moments in this "brilliant" (Zibby Owens, Good Morning America) memoir.   "This...

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