And finally, some classic nonfiction picks from the 1950s through just a few years ago...
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974) by Annie Dillard – Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, Pilgrim is a tough-minded, poetic book of natural history (or theology disguised as natural history) by a then-28-year-old Dillard. A classic, and still remarkably fresh today.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010) by Rebecca Skloot – One of the great popular-science books of the 21st century. Dwight Garner wrote in The New York Times that this “is one of the most graceful and moving nonfiction books I’ve read in a very long time.... It has brains and pacing and nerve and heart.” It does, indeed. Infuriating, inspiring, unforgettable.
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968) by Joan Didion – An enormously influential book of essays about California in the 1960s that, rather than a portrait of sunlight and hippies in the Golden State, offers a dark and thoroughly riveting picture of a world coming apart at the seams.
Beautiful Country: A Memoir (2021) by Qian Julie Wang – Wang’s story of living with her family as “illegal” immigrants in 1990s NYC is an instant classic – and unsettlingly timely, in light of the calls for “mass deportation” coming from politicians and countless U.S. citizens today.
All Art Is Propaganda and Facing Unpleasant Facts by George Orwell – Two related volumes of critical and narrative essays on literature, politics, language, and more by the author of 1984 and Animal Farm, and a master of the form. These are the sort of books that you take off the shelf when you have 15 minutes to spare and want to read something challenging, maybe controversial, and (almost without fail) very, very entertaining.