The most recommended new nonfiction books

Who picked these books? Meet our 573 experts.

573 authors created a book list connected to new nonfiction, and here are their favorite new nonfiction books.
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Book cover of Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America

Jessica Dall Author Of Forever Bound

From Jessica's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Novelist Romance Addict History Buff Reader Bibliophile

Jessica's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Plus, Jessica's 4-year-old's favorite books.

Jessica Dall Why did Jessica love this book?

Okay, this one is definitely not light reading (trigger warning for just about any type of abuse you can think of) but Girls and their Monsters was an amazingly well-written and researched book that covers so much about how mental illness has been treated in the US throughout the decades.

It follows the story of four sisters all eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia and brings you into their world through all the good and bad to the point that (even with the heavy topics) I managed to get this one back to the library within a few days of checking it out.

With my own experiences with mental health (though not schizophrenia), it really hit home. 110% of my top nonfiction of the year. 

By Audrey Clare Farley,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Girls and Their Monsters as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For readers of Hidden Valley Road and Patient H.M., an “intimate and compassionate portrait” (Grace M. Cho) of the Genain quadruplets, the harrowing violence they experienced, and its psychological and political consequences, from the author of The Unfit Heiress.

In 1954, researchers at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health set out to study the genetics of schizophrenia. When they got word that four 24-year-old identical quadruplets in Lansing, Michigan, had all been diagnosed with the mental illness, they could hardly believe their ears. Here was incontrovertible proof of hereditary transmission and, thus, a chance to bring international fame…


Book cover of A View through the Fog

Kevin Hines Author Of The Art of Being Broken: How Storytelling Saves Lives

From my list on finding hope when battling with your mental health.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am immersed in the topic of brain and mental health every single day. I love devouring books on the topic because it helps me personally with my diagnosed bipolar depression. I know what it’s like to attempt suicide and to live with chronic thoughts that can be overwhelming. So, reading books like these helps me better balance my brain health, and they help me offer hope to others to whom I can recommend these kinds of books. As host of the Hinesights Podcast, where I interview folks in the field of mental health from all walks of life, being able to put a list like this together is a gift. 

Kevin's book list on finding hope when battling with your mental health

Kevin Hines Why did Kevin love this book?

I was immersed in this book by Bob McGee because it is an incredible true story of a long-time painter of the Golden Gate Bridge, and the things he saw while employed at the GGB moved me to my gut.

His first person view is the very first of its kind, and this book is one of a kind. I was floored by how he shows the reader the hardship of the job, as well as the darkness of the harbinger of death that was the Golden Gate Bridge before the net was installed this year.

I also really appreciated how the book shines a beautiful light on the building of the GGB and all the effort it took to create such a global icon. 

By Bob McGee,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A View through the Fog as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A View through the Fog is compelling, poignant, and packed with both moving and hilarious anecdotes. All human life (and death) is here. With his own distinct voice, McGee opens the door on the dizzying world of the Golden Gate Bridge-the beauty of both nature and the bridge itself, the camaraderie and friction with colleagues, and the devastating tragedies of suicide jumpers. He brings an entire community to the page with a thought-provoking and richly detailed memoir that will resonate with many readers.

The motive for his writing this book is love of his subject. He paints this world he…


Book cover of Everything/Nothing/Someone: A Memoir

Katya Cengel Author Of Straitjackets and Lunch Money: A 10-year-old in a Psychosomatic Ward

From Katya's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Journalist International reporter Features writer Non-fiction author Unabashed dog lover

Katya's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Katya Cengel Why did Katya love this book?

I was attracted to this memoir because it examines an issue I explore in my own memoir, childhood mental illness.

For a memoir to work readers need to be able to trust the author, in Everything/Nothing/Someone that trust is earned early on by Alice’s brutal honesty. The reader may not always like or understand Alice, but they will believe her, which says a lot because some of the things recounted here are so awful as to be almost unbelievable. Alice tackles her troubles not with self-pity but with an eye at understanding.

Her memoir is an exploration of creativity, madness, family relations, and how we all manage to find our way in this wonderfully crazy world. 

By Alice Carriere,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Everything/Nothing/Someone as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

* New York Times Editor’s Choice * Indie Next Pick * B&N Most Anticipated * Amazon Best of the Month * Kirkus 20 Most Anticipated Books of Fall * GMA End of Summer Reading Pick * PW Top 10 Memoir of Fall *

Compared to Girl, Interrupted and The Bell Jar, this celebrated memoir, one of the most notable literary debuts of 2023, tells of a young woman’s coming-of-age in the bohemian ’90s, as her adolescence gives way to a struggle with dissociative disorder.

Alice Carrière tells the story of her unconventional upbringing in Greenwich Village as the daughter of…


Book cover of Whole Child, Whole Life: 10 Ways to Help Kids Live, Learn, and Thrive

Ryan Rydzewski and Gregg Behr Author Of When You Wonder, You're Learning: Mister Rogers' Enduring Lessons for Raising Creative, Curious, Caring Kids

From my list on teaching creative, curious, caring kids.

Why are we passionate about this?

For more than five years, we’ve been asking ourselves a question: How? How did Mister Rogers help millions of kids feel accepted, special, and safe? Was there a method to what he did? Was there a blueprint he left behind—one that we might continue to learn from today? The answer, of course, is yes. In fact, we’re only scratching the surface of what we can learn from Fred Rogers and the incredible educators, researchers, and authors who are following in his footsteps. We hope you’ll find echoes of the Neighborhood—and the feelings that Fred inspired—in each of the books we’ve listed here.

Ryan's book list on teaching creative, curious, caring kids

Ryan Rydzewski and Gregg Behr Why did Ryan love this book?

We love the side-by-side pairing of two separate (but inseparable) concepts: a child’s inner needs and a child’s outer life.

Author Stephanie Malia Krauss carefully considers the social, emotional, and environmental factors that can help every child thrive. And because it’s written as a guidebook, Whole Child, Whole Life helps busy parents and teachers get straight to the things that matter most.

Plus, it’s beautifully illustrated by Manuel S. Herrera!

By Stephanie Malia Krauss, Manuel Herrera (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Whole Child, Whole Life as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

10 proven practices to help children thrive

In a world that seems to grow more unpredictable and challenging by the day, how can we increase learning and joy for children while offering them much-needed support?

Uncertainty and disruption have created a youth mental health crisis that requires all hands on deck. This urgently needed guidebook offers comprehensive and scientifically-grounded methods you can use to support young people's well-being, no matter what obstacles they face. Written by an expert with decades of experience in education, youth development, and social work, this timely and timeless resource includes:

10 practices that can prevent…


Book cover of Travel Therapy: Around The World In Search Of Happiness

Kevin Hines Author Of The Art of Being Broken: How Storytelling Saves Lives

From my list on finding hope when battling with your mental health.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am immersed in the topic of brain and mental health every single day. I love devouring books on the topic because it helps me personally with my diagnosed bipolar depression. I know what it’s like to attempt suicide and to live with chronic thoughts that can be overwhelming. So, reading books like these helps me better balance my brain health, and they help me offer hope to others to whom I can recommend these kinds of books. As host of the Hinesights Podcast, where I interview folks in the field of mental health from all walks of life, being able to put a list like this together is a gift. 

Kevin's book list on finding hope when battling with your mental health

Kevin Hines Why did Kevin love this book?

I wholeheartedly loved the book of my good friend Stuart Katz because it is a tremendous literary achievement. The book is carefully put together from Stuart's perspective on his humanitarian and hopeful mental health efforts around the globe.

I’ve been lucky enough to work with Stuart in the past, and he is a phenomenal writer. I found it extremely hard to put this book down once I picked it up, I finished it in two days, and I am a slow reader.

This is a must-read for any world traveler, and I highly recommend you read it while on the road or in the air. It will enhance your traveling experiences and your mental health tenfold. 

By Stuart Katz, Ian William Gorman (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Travel Therapy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Kosher travel expert, Stuart Katz, discusses his experiences as a Panamanian American Israeli.

Born in Panama, Stuart Katz is the epitome of a global adventurer. With his infectious wit and insatiable wanderlust, he has become a prominent figure in the world of travel. Alongside his travels to over one hundred countries, he's become a vocal advocate for mental health - spreading education, advocacy, and acceptance wherever he goes. If you enjoyed this book, you might also enjoy Stuart's podcast, also called Travel Therapy, and available where podcasts are found.

Travel Therapy combines travel memoir with a mental health journey. It…


Book cover of Bipolar General: My Forever War with Mental Illness

Robert L Caslen Author Of The Character Edge: Leading and Winning with Integrity

From Robert's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Golfer Fisher Veteran Father

Robert's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Robert L Caslen Why did Robert love this book?

I have known the author for about 20 years, and never realized he was struggling with mental health issues.

Since I too am a retired Army general officer, I can relate to the challenges and struggles Gregg Martin went through.  But Martin’s experiences are not just unique to senior Army officers, as they are prevalent among other senior strategic leaders in close-knit organizations and cultures.  It takes a lot of courage to come out and share with transparency, but that is the type of leader Gregg Martin is.  

By Gregg F. Martin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bipolar General as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Maj. Gen. Gregg Martin cut a striking figure in the Army: athletic, quick witted, devout, and studious, he was a natural leader. Thanks to his engineering and leadership knowhow, Martin was chosen to lead the thousands of combat engineers who paved the way for 100,000 Army troops to battle their way to Baghdad in 2003. Martin was astonishing to watch as he led this effort, his mind laser focused and body vibrating with energy. He made quick decisions, often anticipating and solving problems before orders came down. Only years later would he learn how the pressure of organizing dozens of…


Book cover of The Celestial Realm

Niamh Campbell Author Of We Were Young

From my list on capturing the haunted geography of Dublin.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an Irish writer drawn to the ways in which the biggest questions – of human nature, existence, late capitalist realism, politics, ethics, and consciousness – play out via the minutiae of specific locations; in this case, the city of Dublin, where I’ve spent most of my adult life. I don’t think of cities as monuments but living and complex microcosms of concerns and urgencies the whole world shares.

Niamh's book list on capturing the haunted geography of Dublin

Niamh Campbell Why did Niamh love this book?

A non-fiction recommendation this time, and a recent release.

Hennigan’s essay collection is a beautifully written account of the final years, and opaque recollections, of her grandmother Phil, who spent much of her life in various psychiatric institutions.

I have been interested in this theme for years – Ireland, in the first decades after independence from Britain, has some of the highest rates of citizen incarceration in the world: prisons, borstals, orphanages, magdalen laundries, and psychiatric hospitals both provided employment and regulation and also kept a whole population of ‘problem’ people out of sight).

This fact, and its repercussions in culture today, fascinate me, and Hennigan’s gentle and loving consideration of Phil’s trauma, loneliness, mania, and the maternal lineage it involves (her own mother was institutionalized) is also an angry illustration of just how badly women and the working class have been treated here.

By Molly Hennigan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Celestial Realm as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Phil doesn't like physical affection. She doesn't love you because you don't exist. She doesn't care if you have something important coming up. A busy week, a daunting appointment, a divorce, because she believes the world is going to end in the morning. Every morning."

Having grown up visiting her grandmother in various psychiatric hospitals, Molly Hennigan began writing about the gaps in and intimacies of her relationship with this matriarch. Tracing the organic path of her grandmother's experience to her great-grandmother's time in Irish mental hospitals, she explores her own family trauma and what it means to be an…


Book cover of The Call is Coming from Inside the House: Essays

A.G.A. Wilmot Author Of Withered

From my list on manage mental health while reading spooky.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m fascinated by the intersection of mental health and horror specifically because of how the two seem (to me) to speak to one another. Both mental health and horror are confronted best by shining a light on them, by addressing them fully, personally. Horror makes intangible things tangible, I think, for the average person; and for those of us who struggle or have struggled with our mental health, it gives us the tools to detail the experience for others, to, hopefully, elicit understanding if not empathy.

A.G.A.'s book list on manage mental health while reading spooky

A.G.A. Wilmot Why did A.G.A. love this book?

Allyson’s book is a collection of essays on the intersection of queerness, identity, and pop culture—horror primarily. Which means, yeah, it was practically engineered for me.

I found much to love and much to relate to within these pages. The way she weaves together personal experience, horror tropes, and urban legends is masterful, and I found the descriptions of gatekeeping and how it results in questioning one’s identity/place in things to hit rather personally.

By Allyson McOuat,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Call is Coming from Inside the House as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From Allyson McOuat, author of the popular 2020 New York Times Modern Love essay “The Ghost Was the Least of Our Problems,” comes her debut essay collection

In a series of intimate and humorous dispatches, McOuat examines her identity as a queer woman, and as a mother, through the lens of the pop culture moments in the ’80s and ’90s that molded her identity. McOuat stirs the ingredients required to conjure an unsettled spirit: the horrors of pregnancy and motherhood, love and loss, the supernatural, kaleidoscopic sexuality, near-miss experiences, and the unexplained moments in life that leave you haunted.

Through…


Book cover of It's Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People

Margaret Paul Author Of Lonely No More: The Astonishing Power of Inner Bonding

From Margaret's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Healer Facilitator Creative artist Entrepreneur Empath

Margaret's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Margaret Paul Why did Margaret love this book?

This is a good book for learning about the effects on the people who are at the other end of narcissistic people.

By Ramani Durvasula,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked It's Not You as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

"A compassionate road map and survival guide for people in narcissistic relationships..." -Jay Shetty

From clinical psychologist and expert in narcissistic relationships Dr Ramani Durvasula, a guide to protecting and healing yourself from the daily harms of narcissism

REDISCOVER WHO YOU ARE AFTER YEARS OF INVALIDATION

Dealing with a narcissist is hard. One day their confidence and charisma pull you in, the next day they gaslight, wreck your self-confidence, and leave you wondering what you could have done differently. Clinical Psychologist and narcissism expert Dr Ramani is here to help. Drawing on…


Book cover of Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up

Dave Stuart Jr. Author Of The Will to Learn: Cultivating Student Motivation Without Losing Your Own

From Dave's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Dave's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Dave Stuart Jr. Why did Dave love this book?

This is one of that books that I liked and hated at the same time. I liked that Shrier was pointing at a problem I see often in both my work as a public school teacher and in my personal life. With therapy more pervasive than ever, folks are feeling worse than ever. I appreciated the chance to sit and think with Shrier about what this means and how to move forward in love toward my students and others I'm in life with.

By Abigail Shrier,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Bad Therapy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER.

From the author of Irreversible Damage, an investigation into a mental health industry that is harming, not healing, American children

In virtually every way that can be measured, Gen Z’s mental health is worse than that of previous generations. Youth suicide rates are climbing, antidepressant prescriptions for children are common, and the proliferation of mental health diagnoses has not helped the staggering number of kids who are lonely, lost, sad and fearful of growing up. What’s gone wrong with America’s youth?

In Bad Therapy, bestselling investigative journalist Abigail Shrier argues that the problem isn’t the kids—it’s…


Book cover of Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America
Book cover of A View through the Fog
Book cover of Everything/Nothing/Someone: A Memoir

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