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Beyond Bestsellers - Nonfiction, Spring 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.

April - June 2025 Issue

 See also:

Adams, Michelle.  The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North.  

Badawi, Zeinab.  An African History of Africa.  
Baggini, Julian.  How the World Eats: A Global Food Philosophy.  
Baker, Josephine.  Fearless and Free: A Memoir. (trans. Sophie R. Lewis and Anam Zafar) Downloadable audiobook
Bardenwerper, Will.  Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America.  
Benjamin, Rich.  Talk to Me: Lessons from a Family Forged by History.   
Betancourt, Manuel.  Hello Stranger: Musings on Modern Intimacies.  
Black, Riley.  When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution’s Greatest Romance.  
Bonhomme, Edna.  A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to COVID-19.  
Boylan, Jennifer Finney.  Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us.

Carr, Nicholas.  Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart.  
Chaplin, Joyce E.  The Franklin Stove: An Unintended American Revolution.  
Chihaya, Sarah.  Bibliophobia: A Memoir.  Downloadable audiobook
Chu, Jeff.  Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand.  
Clapp, Alexander.  Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife of Your Trash.  
Clark, Nicola.  The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens: A History.  
Conley, Dalton.  The Social Genome: The New Science of Nature and Nurture.  

Dowd, Maureen.  Notorious: Portraits of Stars from Hollywood, Culture, Fashion, and Tech.  

Ewing, Eve L.  Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism.  

Feng, Emily.  Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity and Belonging in Xi Jinping's China.  
Ferrell, Kari.  You'll Never Believe Me: A Life of Lies, Second Tries, and Things I Should Only Tell My Therapist.  Ebook

Goffe, Tao Leigh.  Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis.  
Gordon, Linda.  Seven Social Movements That Changed America.  
Gordon, Meryl.  The Woman Who Knew Everyone: The Power of Perle Mesta, Washington’s Most Famous Hostess.  
Gorton, Stephanie.  The Icon and the Idealist: Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry That Brought Birth Control to America.  
Grae, Jean.  In My Remaining Years.  
Gray, Kurt.  Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground.  
Gross, Michael Joseph.  Stronger: The Untold Story of Muscle in Our Lives.  

Hammer, Joshua.  The Mesopotamian Riddle: An Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman, and the Race to Decipher the World's Oldest Writing.  
Hanley, Phil.  Spellbound: My Life as a Dyslexic Wordsmith.  
Hanson, Thor.  Close to Home: The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door
Hawkins, Lee.  I Am Nobody's Slave: How Uncovering My Family's History Set Me Free.  

Jones, Martha S.  The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir.  
Jones, Sarah.  Disposable: America’s Contempt for the Underclass.  

Kennedy, Pagan.  The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story.  
Koul, Scaachi.  Sucker Punch: Essays.  
Krist, Gary.  Trespassers at the Golden Gate: A True Account of Love, Murder, and Madness in Gilded-Age San Francisco.  
Kwon, Giaae.  I'll Love You Forever: Notes from a K-Pop Fan.  

Lynskey, Dorian.  Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World.  

Madison, Ira III.  Pure Innocent Fun: Essays.  
Martin, Kristen.  The Sun Won’t Come Out Tomorrow: The Dark History of American Orphanhood.  Ebook
Miele, Joshua A. and Wendell Jamieson.  Connecting Dots: A Blind Life.  
Moses, Omo.  The White Peril: A Family Memoir.  
Mystal, Elie.  Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America.  

Nixey, Catherine.  Heretic: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God.  

O’Meara, Mallory.  Daughter of Daring: The Trick-Riding, Train-Leaping, Road-Racing Life of Helen Gibson, Hollywood’s First Stuntwoman.  
Oney, Steve.  On Air: The Triumph and Tumult of NPR.  
Ó Tuama, Pádraig.  44 Poems on Being with Each Other: A Poetry Unbound Collection.  
Owen, Michael.  Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words.  

Parten, Bennett.  Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman’s March and the Story of America’s Largest Emancipation.  
Pearson, Tanya.  Pretend We're Dead: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Women in Rock in the ’90s.  
Pelly, Liz.  Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist.  
Perry, Imani.  Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People.  
Plunkett, Adam.  Love and Need: The Life of Robert Frost’s Poetry.

Reade, Orlando.  What in Me Is Dark: The Revolutionary Afterlife of Paradise Lost.  
Reichert, Bonny.  How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love, and Plenty.  Ebook, downloadable audiobook
Robinson, Callum.  Ingrained: The Making of a Craftsman
Romney, Rebecca.  Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend.  Ebook
Rooks, Noliwe.  Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children.  
Roper, Lyndal.  Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War.  

Scanlan, Padraic X.  Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine
Sen, Mayukh.  Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star.  
Shade, Colette.  Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (Essays on the Future That Never Was).  
Shenon, Philip.  Jesus Wept: Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church.  Ebook 
Shubin, Neil.  Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future.  
Smil, Vaclav.  How to Feed the World: The History and Future of Food.  
Stone, Daniel.  American Poison: A Deadly Invention and the Woman Who Battled for Environmental Justice.  

Toobin, Jeffrey.  The Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy.  
Torres Medina, Felipe.  America, Let Me In: A Choose Your Immigration Story.  

White, Edmund.  The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir.  
Williams, Juan.  New Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America's Second Civil Rights Movement.  

Yuknavitch, Lidia.  Reading the Waves: A Memoir.  

Zimmer, Carl.  Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe.  
Zusak, Markus.  Three Wild Dogs (and the Truth): A Memoir.  Ebook