Slate's 50 Best Nonfiction Books of the Past 25 Years

1.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures 4.20 avg rating — 87,600 ratings
2.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks 4.13 avg rating — 787,052 ratings
3.
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life 4.27 avg rating — 37,922 ratings
4.
One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America
One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America 3.94 avg rating — 3,759 ratings
5.
Into the Wild
Into the Wild 4.02 avg rating — 1,165,623 ratings
6.
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families 4.22 avg rating — 35,953 ratings
7.
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology 3.95 avg rating — 2,811 ratings
8.
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic 4.08 avg rating — 197,140 ratings
9.
Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx 4.26 avg rating — 13,313 ratings
10.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness 4.52 avg rating — 115,044 ratings
11.
Columbine
Columbine 4.29 avg rating — 99,732 ratings
12.
The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who Read Them
The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who Read Them 3.71 avg rating — 5,946 ratings
12.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity 3.98 avg rating — 114,817 ratings
14.
Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity
Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity 4.27 avg rating — 22,183 ratings
15.
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History 4.15 avg rating — 77,281 ratings
16.
People Who Eat Darkness
People Who Eat Darkness 3.79 avg rating — 22,904 ratings
17.
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief 4.04 avg rating — 44,513 ratings
18.
Wave
Wave 3.79 avg rating — 22,484 ratings
19.
Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery
Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery 3.61 avg rating — 26,198 ratings
19.
How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS
How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS 4.44 avg rating — 4,224 ratings
21.
Lab Girl
Lab Girl 3.98 avg rating — 70,894 ratings
22.
Madeleine's World: A Child's Journey from Birth to Age Three
Madeleine's World: A Child's Journey from Birth to Age Three 3.85 avg rating — 85 ratings
23.
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments 4.14 avg rating — 52,660 ratings
24.
Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling With D.H. Lawrence
Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling With D.H. Lawrence 4.03 avg rating — 2,346 ratings
25.
The Tennis Partner
The Tennis Partner 4.02 avg rating — 14,075 ratings
26.
Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House
Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House 4.16 avg rating — 3,393 ratings
27.
The Battle for God
The Battle for God 3.95 avg rating — 6,667 ratings
28.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius 3.69 avg rating — 182,715 ratings
29.
Borrowed Finery: A Memoir
Borrowed Finery: A Memoir
by: Paula Fox
3.72 avg rating — 1,102 ratings
30.
American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center
American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center 4.12 avg rating — 998 ratings
31.
Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation
Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation 4.14 avg rating — 5,536 ratings
32.
The World Without Us
The World Without Us 3.81 avg rating — 42,954 ratings
33.
The Night of the Gun
The Night of the Gun 3.82 avg rating — 7,409 ratings
34.
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science 3.97 avg rating — 9,815 ratings
35.
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon 3.90 avg rating — 106,822 ratings
36.
Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics, 1954-1981, With Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines, and Anecdotes
Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics, 1954-1981, With Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines, and Anecdotes 4.54 avg rating — 2,107 ratings
37.
Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics, 1981-2011, With Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes, and Miscellany
Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics, 1981-2011, With Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes, and Miscellany 4.57 avg rating — 1,105 ratings
38.
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
by: Tim Wu
3.89 avg rating — 7,934 ratings
39.
Travels in Siberia
Travels in Siberia 3.92 avg rating — 4,614 ratings
40.
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration 4.48 avg rating — 113,286 ratings
41.
Citizen: An American Lyric
Citizen: An American Lyric 4.26 avg rating — 50,753 ratings
42.
Harlem Is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America
Harlem Is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America 3.83 avg rating — 426 ratings
43.
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood 4.04 avg rating — 16,839 ratings
44.
The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot
The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot 4.13 avg rating — 11,033 ratings
45.
The Trip to Echo Spring
The Trip to Echo Spring 3.75 avg rating — 3,553 ratings
46.
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America 4.13 avg rating — 12,370 ratings
47.
Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World
Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World 4.11 avg rating — 20,495 ratings
48.
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic 4.23 avg rating — 31,636 ratings
49.
H is for Hawk
H is for Hawk 3.74 avg rating — 78,922 ratings
50.
Negroland
Negroland 3.62 avg rating — 7,832 ratings
51.
The Odd Woman and the City: A Memoir
The Odd Woman and the City: A Memoir 3.86 avg rating — 7,580 ratings