The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore
This book was an utter delight, indeed very cozy and interesting and a must-read for bookstore lovers everywhere.
Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling
This book is an incredible feat of anthropology and human connection. De León’s generous, tender focus on the smugglers he befriended shows us a side of the equation rarely considered and often dismissed.
Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win
I don’t know how to explain to you how important it is that you read this book.
How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom
I picked up How to Tell When We Will Die near the start of a period in which my brain wanted only nonfiction, and it only added fuel to the fire. What an incredibly smart, powerful, incisive essay collection.
Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts
If you’re a chronically busy, list-making, type-A, overachiever like me, please do yourself a favor and pick up Four Thousand Weeks. If you already did that three years ago, pick up Meditations for Mortals.
What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures
What If We Get It Right? is one of the best books I’ve read this year, and almost certainly the best audiobook specifically. I am going to be pushing this into people’s hands (or headphones) for years.
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space
I downloaded this audiobook (thank you Penguin Audio!) because everyone I knew who’d read it was recommending it. And then when I was halfway through, it won the Kirkus Prize! So you don’t have to take my word for it when I say this book is totally worth reading.
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
I always itch for a good book of nature nonfiction in October. This year, as it had been on my TBR forever, I downloaded the audiobook of Entangled Life. Unfortunately, I didn’t love it, but don’t let that stop you from picking it up!
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
All in all, a lovely little book that will scratch the itch anytime I want to reread Braiding Sweetgrass but don’t have the time. This would make a great holiday gift for the RWK fan in your life!
The Message
Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of the greatest writers of our generation, full stop. This is not his strongest book, but it is still very good and very worth your time (it’s also short!).
Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting
This was given to me as a gift by a close friend, so of course I read it. It’s not a perfect book by far, but there is a lot of good stuff in here, especially about sleep and teaching kids how to wait.
How to Baby: A No-Advice-Given Guide to Motherhood, with Drawings
I’m 37 weeks pregnant and felt like this was a gift to me from Finck. Plus, it was dang funny.
The Autonomous Freelancer: On Your Own Terms, In Your Own Time, At Your Own Rate
You can tell Kent has a lot of experience writing for the web, where attention is low and the need to provide value is high. The book is extremely readable, filled with helpful advice without ever getting bogged down.
Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy
This great book is part examination of current research and guidelines, but also part memoir. Garbes tells us about her experiences, and it’s clear that she’s framing things through that lens, so she never comes off preachy.
Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
I will be talking the ear off of anyone willing to listen about this book, and it’s going to make my favorites of the year for sure. Read it!!
The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape
This book is drop-dead gorgeous and you simply must purchase yourself a physical copy. And if you read it a little at a time — don’t rush it — you will walk away moved and inspired.
Please Unsubscribe, Thanks!: How to Take Back Our Time, Attention, and Purpose in a World Designed to Bury Us in Bullshit
Please Unsubscribe, Thanks! is full of useful, actionable tips plus astute economic and cultural commentary — and it’s very funny! Highly recommend it as a way to find your post-COVID normal.
Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World
Part memoir, part manifesto, Good for a Girl is perspective-shifting and deeply important, all while deftly carrying the narrative of Fleshman’s memoir. I loved it.
Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English
Like, Literally, Dude is a joyfully fun, delightfully nerdy book that I absolutely loved. In the running for a top nonfiction of the year for sure!
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy is the first business book I’ve read in years that didn’t feel like it should have been a TED Talk instead. It really lit my brain up and energized me — highly recommend!