Our Favorite Nonfiction of 2016

Yesterday I looked back at our favorite fiction of 2016.Today I visit our favorite nonfiction. I broke the list down by Dewey Decimal categories, with links to the catalog and the names of the staffers who recommended them. We somehow covered all of the Dewey Decimal categories, although some areas clearly were favored more by the staff. I’m fascinated by the 300s and the 600s, which hold a potpourri of diverse topics. So start placing your holds to get you through the long, cold months to come. Happy New Year!

THE 000s, INCLUDING BOOKS ON JOURNALISM AND LIBRARIES

• The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer, recommended by Mary
• The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt, recommended by Jo

THE 200s, INCLUDING BOOKS ON RELIGION

• Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life by Tish Harrison Warren, recommended by Nate

THE 300s, INCLUDING BOOKS ON SOCIAL SCIENCES

• The 15:17 to Paris: The True Story of a Terrorist, a Train, and There American Heroes by Anthony Sadler, recommended by Sonia
• American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst by Jeffrey Toobin, recommended by Becky
• Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives by Gary Younge, recommended by Becky
• Balls: It Takes Some to Get Some: A Memoir by Chris Edwards, recommended by Susie
• Between Breaths: A Memoir of panic and Addiction by Elizabeth Vargas, recommended by Susie
• The Bridge Ladies: A Memoir by Vetsy Lerner, recommended by Becky
• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond, recommended by Cyndi and Jean
• A Good Month for Murder: The inside Story of a Homicide Squad by Del Quentin Wilber, recommended by Becky
• Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach, recommended by Dave
• Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance, recommended by Jo and Dave
• Imbeciles:  The Supreme Court, American Eugenics and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck by Adam Cohen, recommended by Joe
• Love Warrior: A Memoir by Glennon Doyle Melton, recommended by Haley
• The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal and the Hunt for America’s First Serial Killer by Skip Hollandsworth, recommended by Becky
• The Telling: A Memoir by Zoe Zollbrod
• White Trash: The 400-year-old Story of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg, recommended by Nate and Mary

THE 400s, INCLUDING BOOKS ON LANGUAGES

• Speaking American*: *How Y’all, Youse, and You Guys Talk; A Visual Guide by Josh Katz, recommended by Cyndi
• When in French: Love in a Second Language by Lauren Collins, recommended by Andrea

THE 500s, INCLUDING BOOKS ON SCIENCE

• The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Saba Sobel, recommended by Joe
• Lab Girl by Hope Jahren, recommended by Joe

THE 600s, INCLUDING BOOKS ON TECHNOLOGY, FOOD, CONSTRUCTION, ANIMALS AND HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY

• 32 Yolks: From My Mother’s Table to Working the Line by Eric Ripert, recommended by Cyndi
• Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History’s Great Personalities by Claudia Kalb, recommended by Mary
• Being a Dog: Following the Dog into a World of Smell by Anexandra Horowitz, recommended by Jo
• Cooking as Fast as I Can: A Chef’s Story of Family, Food and Forgiveness by Cat Cora, recommended by Cyndi
• EveryDayCook by Alton Brown, recommended by Cyndi
• Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in the Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop by Nick Offerman, recommended by Mary
• Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari, recommended by Dave
• Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe by Mike Massimino, recommended by Andrea
• Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals that Brought Me Home by Jessica Fechtor, recommended by Susie
• The United States of Beer: A Freewheeling History of the All-American Drink by Dane Huckelbridge, recommended by Mary
• When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanthi, recommended by Ellen and Jane

The 700s, INCLUDING BOOKS ON ARTS AND RECREATION

• Benjamin H. Marshall: Chicago Architect by John Zukowsky and Jean Guarino, recommended by Jenny B.
• Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen, recommended by Andrea
• The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer, recommended by Dave
• Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin Manuel Miranda, recommended by Andrea, Ellen and Jane
• I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir by Brian Wilson, recommended by Susie
• I Loved Her in the Movies: Memories of Hollywood’s Legendary Actresses by Robert Wagner, recommended by Becky
• Love, Loss and What We Ate by Padma Lakshmi, recommended by Cyndi
• A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston, recommended by Jean and Becky
• On Bowie by Rob Sheffield, recommended by Susie
• Seinfeldia: How a Show about Nothing Changed Everything by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, recommended by Sonia
• Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls and Everything in Between by Lauren Graham, recommended by Jane and Cyndi
• Where Am I Now? True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame by Mara Wilson, recommended by Cyndi

The 800s, INCLUDING BOOKS ON LITERATURE

• Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think about Art, Pleasure, Beauty and Truth by A.O. Scott, recommended by Nate
• In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri, recommended by Cyndi

The 900s, INCLUDING BOOKS ON HISTORY AND GEORGRAPHY

• Finding Fontainebleau: An American Boy in France by Thad Carhart, recommended by Sonia
• Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, A Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard, recommended by Jean
• Irena’s Children: The Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Saved 2,500 Children from the Warsaw Ghetto by Tilar Mazzeo, recommended by Sonia
• Jungle of Stone: The True Story of Two Men, Their Extraordinary Journey, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya by William Carlsen, recommended by Joe
• Madison’s Gift: Five Partnerships that Built America by David O. Stewart, recommended by Nate
• Rejected Princesses: Tales of History’s Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics by Jason Porath, recommended by Joe
• The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson, recommended by Jo
• Trials of the Earth: The True Story of a Pioneer Woman by Mary Mann Hamilton, recommended by Susie
• Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick, recommended by Mary

BIOGRAPHIES

• Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings, recommended by Susie
• March Book 3 by John Lewis, recommended by Jo, Cyndi, Haley and Nate
• Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto, recommended by Jean
• The Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carman and Shana Knizhnik, recommended by Cyndi