Texas Topaz Nonfiction List for Adults

Here are recommendations for adults from the 2024 Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List! The purpose of the Texas Topaz Reading List is to provide children, teens, and adults with recommended nonfiction titles that stimulate reading for pleasure and personal learning. Visit txla.org/topaz for the full list and lists from previous years.


Updated January 31, 2024
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The light we carry : overcoming in uncertain times
Obama, Michelle
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER * In an inspiring follow-up to her acclaimed memoir Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today's highly uncertain world.<...
Atlas of the heart : mapping meaningful connection and the language of human experience
Brown, Brené
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * In Atlas of the Heart, Brené Brown writes, "If we want to find the way back to ourselves and one another, we need language and the grounded confidence to both tell our stories and be stewards of the stories that we hear. This is the framework for...
Art Thief : A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession
Finkel, Michael
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century * "The Art Thief, like its title character, has confidence, élan, and a great sense of timing."--The New Yorker A...
Cobalt red : how the blood of the Congo powers our lives
Kara, Siddharth
Paper Book
The revelatory Pulitzer Prize finalist for General Nonfiction, New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller, shortlisted for the Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year Award. An unflinching investigation reveals the human rights...
A fever in the heartland : [online electronic book] the Ku Klux Klan's plot to t
Egan, Timothy
Ebook
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A Washington Post Notable Work of Nonfiction * An NPR Best Book of the Year * A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year *  A Chicago Review of Books Best Book of the Year * A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year * A Goodreads...
Fatty fatty boom boom : a memoir of food, fat, and family
Chaudry, Rabia
Paper Book
"A delicious and mouthwatering book about food and family, the complicated love for both, and how that shapes us into who we are . . . I absolutely loved it!" --Valerie BertinelliRabia Chaudry--known from the podcast Serial and her bestselling book, Adnan's Story, as well as her own wildly popular...
Friends, lovers, and the big terrible thing : a memoir
Perry, Matthew
Paper Book
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER The BELOVED STAR OF FRIENDS takes us behind the scenes of the hit sitcom and his struggles with addiction in this "CANDID, DARKLY FUNNY...POIGNANT" memoir (The New York Times) ...
Go back to where you came from : and other helpful recommendations on how to become American
Ali, Wajahat
Paper Book
This is just one of the many warm, lovely, and helpful tips that Wajahat Ali and other children of immigrants receive on a daily basis. Go back where, exactly? Fremont, California, where he grew up, but is now an unaffordable place to live? Or Pakistan, the country his parents left behind a half...
How to speak whale : a voyage into the future of animal communication
Mustill, Tom
Paper Book
What if animals and humans could speak to one another? Tom Mustill--the nature documentarian who went viral when a thirty‑ton humpback whale breached onto his kayak--asks this question in his thrilling investigation into whale science and animal communication....
Life in five senses : how exploring the senses got me out of my head and into the world
Rubin, Gretchen
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The author of The Happiness Project discovers a surprising path to a life of more energy, creativity, luck, and love: by tuning in to the five senses. "Life in Five Senses invites us into the seismic shift toward a life grounded...
Rough sleepers
Kidder, Tracy
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The powerful story of an inspiring doctor who made a difference, by helping to create a program to care for Boston's homeless community--by the Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Mountains Beyond Mountains "I...
Scenes from my life : a memoir
Williams, Michael Kenneth
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * WINNER OF THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD * A "gripping, revelatory" (NPR) memoir of hard-won success, struggles with addiction, and a lifelong mission to give back--from the late iconic actor beloved for his roles in The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, and...
Tell me everything : the story of a private investigation
Krouse, Erika
Paper Book
Winner of the 2023 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice Part memoir and part literary true crime, Tell Me Everything is the mesmerizing story of a landmark sexual assault investigation and the female private...
The Barbizon : [online electronic book] the hotel that set women free.
Bren, Paulina.
Ebook
A "captivating portrait" (The Wall Street Journal), both "poignant and intriguing" (The New Republic): from award-winning author Paulina Bren comes the remarkable history of New York's most famous residential hotel and the women who stayed there, including Grace Kelly, Sylvia...
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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