This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, asks for “Top Ten Best Books I Read In 2015.”
I decided to focus this list on the excellent non-fiction books published in 2015 that I loved reading this year. Here’s my list, with very oversimplified descriptions of when I’d recommend reading them.
IF YOU WANT TO BE DELIGHTED
The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell (my review)
IF YOU NEED A DOSE OF BAD-ASS FEMINISM AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM
My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem
IF YOU WANT TO IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE MIND OF A CREATIVE SOUL
M Train by Patti Smith
IF YOU WANT INSPIRATION TO CREATE
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert (my review)
STILL NOT DONE WITH CREATIVITY AND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AN ARTIST?
Hunger Makes me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
IF YOU NEED A BIT OF HEALING WILD
H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald (my review)
IF YOU WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR HABITS
Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin (my review)
IF YOU WANT TO BROADEN YOUR WORLD VIEW
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (my review)
IF YOU WANT TO LEARN ABOUT AN IMPORTANT AND DIFFICULT ISSUE
Missoula by Jon Krakauer
IF YOU WANT TO ESCAPE IT ALL
The Dead Ladies Project by Jessa Crispin (my review)
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What are your favorite non-fiction books of 2015?
This looks like a fantastic selection of books! I’ve only read H is for Hawk, but Big Magic, Missoula and Between the World and Me are high up my TBR pile. Looks like I need to add a few of the others to that list too!
I’m so glad you’ve read H is for Hawk! I hope you enjoy the other ones on your TBR list too! :D
Can’t wait to read Hunger Makes me a Modern Girl!
Great List!
My TTT! :D
I hope you enjoy it!! :D
Love how you’ve narrowed down to the best non-fiction books! They’re seriously underrated! Great list!
Thank you! They are underrated, but a huge percentage of my reading this year was non-fiction, I seem to be reading a bigger and bigger percentage of it every year. I also usually find it a bit more fun to review. :)
I enjoyed the If You Want/Need……. well done
Thank you very much! :D
Love how you categorized your picks as recommendations! If I’d read enough nonfiction this year for it to get its own list (BAD Sarah, must do better next year!), Missoula would for sure be on it. I also loved Concussion by Jeanne Marie Laskas.
Thank you! I seemed to have had the opposite problem – I read so much non-fiction, I couldn’t make a list of my 10 favorite fiction books! (5 is feasible though, thankfully!) I will have to check out Concussion – I love football very much, and I think it’s important to be responsible in educating myself about the dark side of it.
I so want to read My Life on the Road! I might break down and buy it. I am building myself to read Missoula. I know it will be amazing, but I know it will be emotional too. I started H is for Hawk but I need to pick it up again. My favorites were Romantic Outlaws and Notorious RBG.
You should – it’s so wonderful! If you like audiobooks, I highly recommend it on audiobook. She doesn’t narrate it herself (except for the introduction), but the narrator does a great job.
Romantic Outlaws sounds wonderful! I’ll have to look for that. I’ve heard such great things about Notorious RBG too – I need to put a hold on it at the library!
Great post! I like your categories! Many thanks – adding some of these to my list right away!
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy them too once you have a chance to get to them! :D
I meant to read Big Magic but didn’t get to it before I had to return it to the library. I need to go back for it! I should grab some of these others while I’m at it. I’ve got a 2-week vacation coming up, woot!
Yes … I can highly recommend going back for that one! A 2 week vacation around the holidays sounds WONDERFUL! Enjoy – and I hope you get some lovely books read! :D
I read about 15% nonfiction this year (I have learned from my handy dandy pie charts in my reading spreadsheet!), and it was an excellent percentage for nonfiction. The Ta-Nehisi Coates book was probably the best one I read this year in terms of the writing, and in terms of Interesting Facts Learned, it would be probably the David van Reybrouck history of Congo.
That’s a great percentage! I’m always so sad when people hardly read any, there’s so much good stuff to explore!
I love how you broke down your 2 favorite picks: “Interesting Facts Learned” is a great endorsement … now I’m curious about that one too! :D
Great list. I read lots of nonfiction, too!
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Okay, so I just finished Missoula. Shocking. Disappointing. Frustrating. I don’t want to say I was ignorant on the topic but this book was certainly eye opening. Sadly enough, it seems to be a deeper, cultural issue so I’m not sure how hopeful I feel in the improvement of the system as a whole.
I felt the same way – it was incredible eye-opening. I can’t even decide what aspects of the problem make me angriest: how horrible the justice system can be in these situations, or the horrifying amount of victim blaming that happens in the aftermath. It’s so disheartening.