Nonfiction Book Group | Germantown Community Library

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

Selections for 2025 (selections will be released every four months)

January 17 – My Remarkable Journey / Katherine Johnson
February 21 – The Poisoner’s Handbook / Deborah Blum
March 21 – A Girl’s Guide to Missiles / Karen Piper
April 25 – The Pigeon Tunnel / John Le Carré
May 16 – The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession / Michael Finkel
June 20 – Dogland: Passion, Glory and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show / Tommy Tomlinson
July 18 – The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession / Allison Hoover Bartlett
August 15 – Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship / Robert Kurson
September 19 – The Betrayal of Anne Frank / Rosemary Sullivan
October 17 – What Really Happens in Vegas / James Patterson
November 21 – Be Ready When the Luck Happens / Ina Garten
December 19 – Vesper Flights / Helen Macdonald

Previous Selections

2024

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

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