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Beyond Bestsellers - Nonfiction, Fall 2025

Get ahead of the crowd with these great recent releases that may not be on the New York Times bestseller list, but that have critics and readers talking.

October - December 2025 Issue

 See also:

Al-Rashid, Moudhy N.  Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History.  
Anand, Pria.  The Mind Electric: A Neurologist on the Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains.  
Anderson, Jon Lee.  To Lose a War: The Fall and Rise of the Taliban
Ansfield, Bench.  Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City
Antrobus, Raymond.  The Quiet Ear: An Investigation of Missing Sound.  

Baron, David.  The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze That Captured Turn-Of-The-Century America.  
Bloch, Sam.  Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource.  
Boggs, Nicholas.  Baldwin: A Love Story.  
Buckbee, Brian and Fitzgerald, Carol Ann.  We Should All Be Birds: A Memoir.  

Caldwell, Chloe.  Trying: A Memoir.  
Carlin, Peter Ames.  Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run.  
Cheng, Eugenia.  Unequal: The Math of When Things Do and Don’t Add Up
Cohen Gilliland, Haley.  A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children. Ebook, downloadable audiobook

Dick, Alix and Garcia, Antero.  The Cost of Being Undocumented: One Woman's Reckoning with America's Inhumane Math
Dyer, Geoff.  Homework: A Memoir.

English, Charlie.  The CIA Book Club: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature.  

Feder, Kenneth L.  Native America: The Story of the First Peoples
Foner, Eric.  Our Fragile Freedoms: Essays.  
Frank, Matthew Gavin.  Submersed: Wonder, Obsession, and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines.  
French, Howard W.  The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide.    

Gayle, Caleb.  Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State.  
Giovanni, Nikki.  The New Book: Poems, Letters, Blurbs, and Things
Gould, Jonathan.  Burning Down the House: Talking Heads and the New York Scene That Transformed Rock.  
Gradvall, Jan.  The Story of ABBA: Melancholy Undercover
Grant, Rebecca.  Access: Inside the Abortion Underground and the Sixty-Year Battle for Reproductive Freedom.  
Grant, Stephen Starring.  Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home. Ebook, downloadable audiobook
Greenblatt, Stephen.  Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival.  
Grunwald, Michael.  We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate.

Hercules, Olia.  Strong Roots: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Ukraine.  
Holt, Nathalia.  The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers' Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda
Houston, Keith.  Face with Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji.

Johnson, Tre.  Black Genius: Essays on an American Legacy.  

Kean, Sam.  Dinner With King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-Creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations.  
Kincaid, Jamaica.  Putting Myself Together: Writing 1974-
King, Rax.  Sloppy: Or: Doing It All Wrong.  
Krawec, Patty.  Bad Indians Book Club: Reading at the Edge of a Thousand Worlds
Kreizman, Maris.  I Want to Burn This Place Down: Essays.  
Kushins, C.M.  Cooler Than Cool: The Life and Work of Elmore Leonard.

Lacey, Catherine.  The Möbius Book.  
Leavy, Jane.  Make Me Commissioner: I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It
Lee, Joseph.  Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity. Ebook
Litt, David.  It's Only Drowning: A True Story of Learning to Surf and the Search for Common Ground.  
Lubin, David M.  Ready for My Closeup: The Making of Sunset Boulevard and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream.

Malerman, Josh.  Watching Evil Dead: Unearthing the Radiant Artist Within
Mamet, Zosia.  Does This Make Me Funny?: Essays.  
Mann, Sally.  Art Work: On the Creative Life.  
Morris, Alexandra.  A Year with the Seals: Unlocking the Secrets of the Sea's Most Charismatic and Controversial Creatures
Morris, Susana M.   Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler.  

Nathan, Giri.  Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men's Tennis.  
Nicolson, Adam.  Bird School: A Beginner in the Wood.  

Okeowo, Alexis.  Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama.

Pollack-Pelzner, Daniel.  Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist
Potter, Will.  Little Red Barns: Hiding the Truth, from Farm to Fable
Purdum, Todd S.  Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television. Downloadable audiobook

Queen, Khadijah.  Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: A Veteran's Memoir
Queeney, Tim.  Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization.

Ramsey, Kelly.  Wildfire Days: A Woman, a Hotshot Crew, and the Burning American West
Reiner, Rob and McKean, Michael, et al. A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The Story of Spinal Tap.  
Ronson, Mark.  Night People: How to Be a DJ in '90s New York City.  

Seierstad, Åsne.  The Afghans: Three Lives Through War, Love, and Revolt
Selby, River.  Hotshot: A Life on Fire.  
Shapiro, Laurie Gwen.  The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage That Made an American Icon. Downloadable audiobook
Stewart, Lindsey.  The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women’s Magic
Stock, Jon.  The Sleep Room: A Sadistic Psychiatrist and the Women Who Survived Him.  
Sweeney, Chris.  The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne. Ebook

Tandoh, Ruby.  All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now.  
Toews, Miriam.  A Truce That Is Not Peace.  

Walter, Shoshana.  Rehab: An American Scandal.  
Watson, Graham.  The Invention of Charlotte Brontë: A New Life.
Weiss, Jeff.  Waiting for Britney Spears: A True Story, Allegedly
Willner, Nina.  The Boys in the Light: An Extraordinary World War II Story of Survival, Faith, and Brotherhood.  
Wright, Jennifer.  Glitz, Glam, and a Damn Good Time: How Mamie Fish, Queen of the Gilded Age, Partied Her Way to Power.

Young, Kevin.  Night Watch: Poems
Yu, Kaila.  Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty.

Zeller, Tom Jr.  The Headache: The Science of a Most Confounding Affliction— And a Search for Relief.