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The Best Nonfiction Books of 2024 (So Far)

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We’re a quarter of the way through the year, if you can believe it, which makes it a good time to look back at the state of books so far in 2024. Goodreads has just released a list of 51 Nonfiction Hits of 2024 (So Far), separated into Essays, Memoirs, History & Biography, Science, and General Nonfiction. These are the books that have been added by Goodreads users to their Read and Want to Read shelves the most, as well as gathering a lot of positive reviews.

Here are a few of the best and buzziest nonfiction books of 2024 so far:

Essays

cover of Thunder Song

There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

You Get What You Pay For: Essays by Morgan Parker

Like Love: Essays and Conversations by Maggie Nelson

Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe

I Finally Bought Some Jordans: Essays by Michael Arceneaux

Memoirs

Sociopath cover

Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley

The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul

This American Ex-Wife by Lyz Lenz

Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne

Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine by Uché Blackstock

History & Biography

cover of Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong by Katie Gee Salisbury

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson

Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong by Katie Gee Salisbury

A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks by David Gibbins

Science, Technology & Health 

Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie

Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka

Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher

General Nonfiction

Why We Read cover

The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell

Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out by Shannon Reed

To see all 51 of the Nonfiction Hits of 2024 (So Far), check out the full list on Goodreads.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.

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