20 of the Best Nonfiction Books of All Time for a Big Dose of Reality

This unflinching memoir about what it's like to struggle as a single mom working as a housekeeper to keep herself and her daughter housed is not just one woman's testament to the towering challenges of her own situation. It's a searing indictment of how the system fails the most vulnerable, and an absolute must-read. 

Explore the beautiful diversity of the disabled community through this collection of essays that offers insight into the complex perspectives the group embodies. It celebrates the societal contributions of disabled people and looks to a future wherein we reach true equity for all, regardless of how we show up in the world. 

RELATED: 15 Books About Disability to Add to Your TBR List

After growing up the child of isolated survivalists, Tara didn't go to school for the first time until she was in her late teens. She then went on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University after discovering a hunger for knowledge. Her story is inspiring and may even energize your own desire to learn, too. 

In candid essays that take on our society's anxieties around food, pleasure, nourishment and body size, this book explores the dualities of one of our most essential and most complex social forces: eating and how we use it against one another and ourselves. 

Literally everything Mary Roach writes is worth a read, and her latest is no exception. This investigation into the clashes that occur when the human and animal worlds meet combines forensic science, conservation and a healthy dose of her signature wit. Even if you're not too interested in wildlife preservation when you start reading, you will be by the last page.

A retelling of racial aggressions in present-day America, this triumph from one of our best living lyrical essayists and poets takes us to the grocery store, the soccer field, the news channels and all manner of digital spaces to investigate what it means to be a citizen today in essay, poetry and thought-provoking images.

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In eight essays that bridge the personal with the political and the analytical with the revelatory, this book takes on beauty, misogyny, pop culture and the intersections of all of these. It's a galvanizing read for women of all ages and circumstances. 

Whenever anyone says they don't read memoirs, I recommend this one. A darkly funny, unblinking account of her life growing up in a small Texas oil town with a family that basically defines dysfunction, this is a book you'll want to read to tatters. 

RELATED: 25 Best Memoirs of All Time to Make You Laugh, Cry and Think

No matter where we are on our quest to unlearn the unconscious bias that's so deeply woven into the fabric of our society, this powerful book will serve as an excellent resource. It's part primer, part personal story, part call to action and all necessary. 

Humans have only been around for a few thousand years, but we've done a staggering amount of damage in that time. In this multi-disciplinary book, Kolbert breaks down the science of our current crisis in a conversational, accessible way that even those of us who didn't do so well in ninth grade Earth Science can appreciate. 

Anyone who was constantly told to "speak up" as a child or who still hangs out with the dog at parties instead of around the appetizer table, this one's for you. It delves into the power of introverts and what we lose when we devalue their contribution to society. It's a great reminder not to forget about the quiet ones.

This weighty tome goes deep on the history, biology and sociology of cancer but that description doesn't do it justice. Think of it like a thrilling story of a conniving adversary told through the lens of the people who have dedicated their lives to studying it and those who have suffered from it across the centuries we've been dealing with "the Big C." 

Henrietta Lacks' cells were used to develop the Polio vaccine, study the effects of radiation and have even led to advances in cloning and reproductive technology, but her family never even knew she'd contributed until decades after her death. This is the story of the Lacks family as much as our medical system as a whole, and it's a fascinating and eye-opening one. 

If this National Book Award winner is considered required reading for Toni Morrison, it's certainly good enough for me. It's Coates' attempt to reckon with our country's racist history and find a way to live as a Black man in America today written as a letter to his son through harrowing personal experience and painful historical accounts.

Even though enslaving Native people was illegal from the time Columbus first stumbled upon the Americas, it's been practiced as an open secret for centuries. This revelatory account sheds light on a long-overlooked piece of American history, that it's past time we add to our collective awareness.

RELATED: 15 Best Books by Native American Authors to Add to Your Bookshelf

This true crime story about a shooting at a Savannah mansion in 1981 reads like a novel, complete with a cast of characters that are almost too good to be true. It's deliciously entertaining, chillingly spooky and the perfect introduction to nonfiction for dedicated thriller fans. 

RELATED: 25 Best True Crime Books of All Time to Unleash Your Inner Sherlock

The idea of doing nothing feels more revolutionary now than ever, especially when we consider how deeply steeped we are in the cult of productivity. Take some time to read this book and think about where you spend your own precious attention; it might just change how you operate in the world.  

Did you know that ice cream helped defeat the Nazis? Or ever wonder why we love foods that hurt us, like super-spicy peppers? Grab a snack and gobble up this food history book that's full of too-weird-to-be-true facts about what's in your fridge. 

This memoir about losing both of his parents within five weeks and having to care for himself and his eight-year-old brother while still a college student is poignant, funny and brutally self-aware. It's basically the godfather of a certain style of personal essay, which you may start to notice as you read it. 

After almost a decade of immersive reporting, Taddeo tells the true stories of three women living very different lives: a mom having an affair that brings color back to her life, a high school student whose married English teacher is on trial after their alleged affair and a successful restaurateur whose husband is into voyeurism. It's a fresh take on feminism, sex, desire and how they all intersect.