My Favorite Nonfiction Reads of 2025
It goes without saying, all of these are fantastic on audio cause that's how I consumed (almost) all of them. Highly recommend putting in some Libby holds from this list.
You Didn't Hear This From Me by Kelsey McKinneyThis is one I actually reviewed, so I can give you a more precise rendering of my thoughts! I was anticipating this book so highly, and then I was offered an ARC, so it worked out perfectly. Unlike some hyped things, I ended up loving this collection from the Normal Gossip host despite not being super familiar with the podcast beforehand. My interest in the book came from loving books about gossip, cultural linguistics, and other topics like that (think Amanda Montell vein). This is among the best of them. I love the way the book blends very specific pop culture moments with research and tackles some of the big topics on people's minds today. It felt very lived in and authentic in a way that's so important to cultural writing but sometimes is glaringly absent.
A Freewheelin' Time by Suze Rotolo Can you tell I went to see the Bob Dylan movie this year? I got home from that fascinated by this character of Bob Dylan, so I decided to try to see it all through a different, more personal lens. Suze Rotolo's memoir covers coming into adulthood in the '60s in Greenwich Village. There's plenty about her famous ex-boyfriend, but there's also so much more here. This gave me the same deep sadness that I get when I read about Joan Didion and Eve Babitz. Like these cities had these amazing moments where anything was possible because of a certain series of cultural and economic conditions that no longer exist. Could it ever happen again? What are all the artists meant to do?
Get The Picture by Bianca Bosker This was a read inspired by the Book Riot Podcast, and I'm so glad I was turned towards Bosker's writing. I enjoyed Cork Dork as well, but my pre-existing fascination with the art world sent this one over the top for me. Bosker infiltrates the art world not as a journalist but as someone seemingly making a genuine attempt to get into the industry through a number of different facets from working in a gallery to shadowing artists to working as a museum guard. Because she does such thorough, embodied research, she truly makes the art world come alive on the page and creates a book that's both fun to read and has genuine insights.
Fleabag: The Special EditionI picked this up at Books Are Magic in Brooklyn because I'd never seen it before, and I love Fleabag deeply. I was also working on a book at the time that heavily involved theater, so the insights in this book about how the one-woman-show version of Fleabag came to be was incredibly valuable. And it was fun to just read the original script knowing what it grew into. It ended up offering me a knowledge and use of theater terms that has been super useful in all kinds of random instances.
You Wanna Be On Top? by Sarah Hartshorne I love reality TV, and while I never got into America's Next Top Model, I will take any chance to learn more about the behind the scenes world of how these shows get made. I went in with no context as to who this particular contestant was and didn't know much beyond clips and broad strokes of the show, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it plays really well on audio. Definitely a fun peak behind the curtain.
The Carpool Detectives by Chuck Hogan I gave up true crime years ago after being swept into the trend as a teenager. This book proved the perfect taste of what I enjoyed about that kind of content without being as ethically icky or bad for my mental wellbeing. The book follows this group of moms who started researching a cold case during COVID. There is some amount of information on the case itself, but it's primarily centered on their journey of research and getting in too deep with a very twisty case. Because of the step of remove, it made it a much easier listen, though they certainly put themselves in plenty of danger. I was always curious about the genre in hearing about how they went about solving the cases, so this was the right framing for me.
Simple Pasion by Annie Ernaux I guess there's some amount of debate as to whether this should be considered auto fiction or memoire. I'm calling it nonfiction because that's the way it was presented to me by the classmate and professor that recommended it (he is still somewhat troubled by the ethics of it all). The book is incredibly well written and gives incredibly sharp insight into infatuation and the truly overruling power of a crush.
Dead and Alive by Zadie SmithI went through a phase this winter of constantly having a Zadie Smith interview playing on YouTube in the background of my life if that tells you anything about how I feel about Zadie's work. Highly recommend this collection as an audiobook since she reads it herself and does a spectacular job.
Little Bosses Everywhere by Bridget ReadThis is a somewhat random pick. I listened to this audiobook because I've read a strangely large number of books about MLMs and the fall of the girl boss industrial complex more generally. I found this one to be particularly piercing and insightful in its combination of facts, storytelling, and linking to personal stories of people who got swept up in the undelivered promises of these schemes.
Everything Is Tuberculosis by John GreenI sat in the Libby hold line for the new John Green book forever, but it finally came through right before the end of the year. I'm a huge fan of John's fiction and nonfiction, so I knew this would be a treat, though I did wonder if I'd find anything new here as a devoted watcher of John's YouTube videos and thus pretty up on Tuberculosis. Also, I wondered if it would exacerbate my health anxiety. I found that there was plenty new here watching the story unfold in a crafted narrative and that it was written in a contextualized way that didn't make me feel crushing impending doom. It was fascinating to learn all the inflection points in history that weren't necessarily caused or changed by Tuberculosis but were definitely inflected by it. John reads the audiobook, too, which is great.
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee Welcome to my latest nonfiction obsession. I've gone back and listened to parts of the audiobook again over the last few days trying to soak up every detail before my loan runs out. I'd read an excerpt of this in a college creative writing class, and I remember appreciating it, but that's nothing in comparison to the work as a whole. In the collection of essays, Chee reflects on his own life, his adult coming of age, and path to becoming a writer. Mixed with this is meditations on writing and takeaways from the various teaching jobs he's held over the year. I think it's valuable for its advice but more so in presenting a story of a life lived in dogged pursuit of achieving a dream or answering a calling. The prose is also just stunning. I can't say enough good things about this one. Other 2025 Favorites:
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