Nonfiction Book Group

The Nonfiction Book Group meets on the third Friday of the month at 1:00. No registration is required, all are welcome. A limited supply of books is available for checkout at the circulation desk.

Selections for 2024

  • January 19 – The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times / Jane Goodall
  • February 16 – Taste: My Life Through Food / Stanley Tucci
  • March 15 – The Last Wild Men of Borneo / Carl Hoffman
  • April 19 – The Kings of Big Spring: God, Oil, and One Family’s Search for the American Dream / Bryan Mealer
  • May 17 – Crying in H Mart: A Memoir / Michelle Zauner
  • June 21 – Riverman: An American Odyssey / Ben McGrath
  • July 19 – Life in Five Senses / How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World / Gretchen Rubin
  • August 16 – Poverty, By America / Matthew Desmond
  • September 20 – The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century / Kirk Wallace Johnson
  • October 18 – The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty and War / John “Chick” Donohue
  • November 15 – These Precious Days / Ann Patchett
  • December 20 – Sisters of Mokama: The Pioneering Women Who Brought Hope and Healing to India / Jyoti Thottam

Previous Selections

2023

  • January – The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet / John Green
  • February – The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness / Susannah Cahalan
  • March – Mud Season: How One Woman’s Dream of Moving to Vermont Raising Children, Chicken and Sheep & Running the Old Country Store Pretty Much Led to One Calamity After Another / Ellen Stimson
  • April – Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Empire / Patrick Radden Keefe
  • May – The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London / Christopher Skaife
  • June – Fire in the Sky: Cosmic Collisions, Killer Asteroids, and the Race to Defend the Earth / Gordon L. Dillow
  • July – Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest / Suzanne Simard
  • August – What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets / Michael J. Sandel
  • September – Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole / Susan Cain
  • October – Tastes Like Chicken: A History of America’s Favorite Bird / Emelyn Rude
  • November – Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life / Louise Aronson
  • December – Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure / Rinker Buck

2022

  • January – The Four Horsemen: The Conversation That Sparked An Atheist Revolution / Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett
  • February – Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey / Stephen Kuusisto
  • March – Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters/ Steven Pinker
  • April – Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook / Alice Waters
  • May – Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting/ Lisa Genova
  • June – The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames: A Memoir / Justine Cowan
  • July – Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an Age of Infinite Browsing / Pete Davis
  • August – The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe / Josh Mitchell
  • September – Waking the Spirit: A Musician’s Journey Healing Body, Mind and Soul / Andrew Schulman
  • October – The Amur River: Between Russia and China / Colin Thubron
  • November – The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art / Sebastian Smee
  • December – A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings / Helen Jukes

2021

  • January – Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love / Dani Shapiro
  • February – Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower’s Final Mission / Bret Baier
  • March – My Life in France / Julia Child
  • April – In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette / Hampton Sides
  • May – They Called Us Enemy / George Takei
  • June – Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language / Gretchen McCulloch
  • July – Vesper Flights / Helen Macdonald
  • August – Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World / Timothy Brook
  • September – Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir / Natasha Tretheway
  • October – The Splendid and the Vile / Erik Larson
  • November – No Beast So Fierce: The Terrifying True Story of the Champawat Tiger, the Deadliest Animal in History / Edward Huckelbridge
  • December – The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey / Rinker Buck

2020

  • January – The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit /  Michael Finkel
  • February – The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine and Murder Most Foul /Eleanor Herman
  • March – The Genius of Birds / Jenifer Ackerman
  • April – Cancelled
  • May – Cancelled
  • June – Cancelled
  • July – The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain / Bill Bryson
  • August –  Lab Girl / Hope Jahren
  • September – Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military / Neil deGrasse Tyson
  • October – In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History /  Mitch Landrieu
  • November – Underland: A Deep Time Journey / Robert MacFarlane
  • December – Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know / Malcolm Gladwell

2019

  • January – Other Minds:  The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness / Peter Godfrey-Smith
  • February – An Odyssey:  A Father, a Son, and an Epic / Daniel Mendelsohn
  • March – Automating Inequality:  How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor / Virgina Eubanks
  • April – Walking Home Ground: In the Footsteps of Muir, Leopold, and Derleth / Robert Root
  • May – How to Change Your Mind:  What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence / Michael Pollan
  • June – American Nomads:  Travels with Lost Conquistadors, Mountain Men, Cowboys, Indians, Hoboes, Truckers, and Bullriders / Richard Grant
  • July – Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures / Bill Schutt
  • August – The Last Girl:  My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State / Nadia Murad
  • September – The Death and Life of the Great Lakes / Dan Egan
  • October – How Do We Look:  The Body, the Divine, and the Question of Civilization / Mary Beard
  • November – How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them / Jason Stanley
  • December – Survival of the Beautiful:  Art, Science, and Evolution / David Rothenberg

2018

  • January – Mercies in Disguise: A Story of Hope, a Family’s Genetic Destiny, and the Science that Rescued Them / Gina Kolata
  • February- The First Love Story: Adam, Eve, and Us / Bruce Feiler
  • March – Lost City of the Monkey God / Douglas Preston
  • April – The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between / Hisham Matar
  • May – A Flag Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of National Symbols / Time Marshall
  • June – Mozart’s Starling / Lyanda Lynn Haupt
  • July – The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer / Kate Summerscale
  • August – Champagne Baby: How One Parisian Learned to Love Wine – and Life – the American Way / Laure Dugas
  • September – Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy / Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
  • October – Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student and a Life-Changing Friendship  / Michelle Kuo
  • November – Your Atomic Self: The Invisible Elements That Connect You to Everything Else in the Universe / Curt Stager
  • December – Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman’s Awakening / Manal Al-Sharif

2017

  • February – My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her  Family’s Nazi Past / Jennifer Teege & Nikola Sellmair
  • March – The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating / Elisabeth Tova Bailey
  • April – I Had to Survive: How a Plane Crash in the Andes Inspired My Calling to Save Lives / Dr. Roberto Canessa
  • May – The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World / Peter Wohlleben
  • June – Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl / Stacey O’Brien
  • July – The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts / Joshua Hammer
  • August – The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World / Dalai Lama & Desmond Tutu
  • September – Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End / Atul Gawande
  • October – Boys in the Bunkhouse: Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland   by Dan Barry
  • November – Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter / David Sax
  • December – Cold: Adventures in the World’s Frozen Places / Bill Streever