Benable — create shareable lists of things you recommend!
E.g., products you love, local businesses, travel recs - you can add anything to a Benable list!
Top Tier Nonfiction Books
17
items These are my favorite nonfictions I’ve ever read - history, science, religion, politics, true crime, I’ve read it all
My favorite nonfiction, this approachable and insightful book explores the science of evolution and sociological effects that science has on women today.
Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
This essay collection is one of the best things I’ve ever read. It explores the author Hanif’s life as a Black Muslim man in America through snapshots, often through the lens of the music he consumes. I never expected a chapter about Fall Out Boy to ...
They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us: Abdurraqib, Hanif
This narrative nonfiction is some of the best writing I’ve ever encountered. The story is heartbreaking but it’s a history America should remember and grapple with.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
This narrative nonfiction and true crime book reads like a thriller. It’s almost hard to believe it’s a true story, it is such a wild and interesting ride.
The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession
This book is a mix of science, history, the human condition, and John Green’s classic emotional gut punch. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook, as John Green himself narrates it.
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on Humanity
One of the most interesting books I’ve ever read, journalist Dennis Covington entrenches himself in a community of Christian snake handlers to understand their faith, the danger, and the context surrounding an attempted murder
Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia by Dennis Covington
As humans encroach on animals’ natural habitats, bears start breaking into houses, monkeys start stealing cell phones. Mary Roach takes a fascinating look at what happens when humans and animals clash and what can be done about it
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach
Ever wondered why women are so much more likely die in car crashes? Caroline Criado Perez explores the data gaps that happen when men are considered the standard human being and women are an abnormality.
Invisible Women | Caroline Criado Perez
This book explores how America’s race laws influenced Nazi race law that led to the Holocaust. It is a confronting view of American history. No background in law is needed to follow the book, but one does need a basic understanding of the history of ...
Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law
One of the most important nonfictions of our time, Ibram X. Kendi explores the origins of racist ideas in America and how they are entrenched in the American way of life to this day.
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
What’s my Roman Empire? This book. Ancient Rome had a fascinating relationship with death and murder, which this book explores in depth. Easy to follow, but I did admittedly give up on following which emperor was which halfway through (they kept bein...
A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome
This is the story of a road trip across the red states of America and the queer people that live in them, those who love their states and communities, those who fight for their voices to be heard even when it seems impossible.
Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States
One part history of the Mormon faith, one part a tragic true crime narrative. Krakauer explores the light and the dark parts of the quintessentially American religion.
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
You’ll notice I don’t have any other memoirs on this list, I rarely like them. But this book is exceptional. Jennette McCurdy’s voice shines in this book. Free from her abusers, she exposes the dark sides of child stardom. A must read.
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
If you’ve wondered about the relationship between American conservative politics and evangelical Christianity, this is a fantastic introduction
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristen Kobes Du Mez
Published just 2 months before Joseph DeAngelo’s arrest, this landmark true crime book investigates the crimes of the so-called Golden State Killer and the wreckage he left behind
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara
Gender roles are deeply entrenched many Christian denominations today, but how much of that is determined by the Bible and how much is determined by man? And even those determined by the Bible, how much come from particular translations or historica...
The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth by Beth Allison Barr