Here is a quick look at the most noteworthy nonfiction titles being released this January. Visit our catalog for a more extensive list.
TOP PICKS
From Zadie Smith, the celebrated novelist and social commentator, comes a collection of new and previously uncollected essays. In “Feel Free,” she shows off her range of knowledge, addressing such wide ranging topics as social media, libraries and global warming. This one should be popular as Smith is scheduled to be the featured speaker at this year’s Unbound Book Festival.
“Educated” by Tara Westover is the chronicle of the authors journey from an isolated childhood in the wilderness of Idaho to becoming a PhD candidate at Cambridge. Born into a survivalist family that eschewed formal education of any type, she had almost no knowledge of the wider world. But when an older brother returns from college, Westover resolutely begins educating herself, eventually earning admittance to Brigham Young University, before moving on to Harvard and Cambridge.
Author Steven Pinker has gotten a lot of help from Bill Gates recently. Last year, Gates highly recommended Pinker’s “The Better Angels of Our Nature,” sending it rocketing up the best-seller lists. Now Gates has already named Pinker’s new title, “Enlightenment Now,” as his new favorite book. In it, Pinker uses a wealth of facts and figures to argue that quality of life around the world is improving in almost every respect. A great pick-me-up for anyone overwhelmed by the doom and gloom portrayed in today’s media environment.
BEST OF THE REST
- “Don’t Call Me Princess: Essays on Girls, Women, Sex and Life” by Peggy Orenstein
- “A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America” by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong
- “Food: What the Heck Shoud I Eat?” by Mark Hyman
- “The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth” by Michio Kaku
- “I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes With Death” by Maggie O’Farrell
- “Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- “What Are We Doing Here?: Essays” by Marilynne Robinson
