Non-Fiction

Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China

Edgar Allan Poe Best Fact Crime 2013

by Paul French

A riveting true-crime tale that presents the thrilling account of a murder in 1937 China that caused an international media sensation

Chronicling an incredible unsolved murder, Midnight in Peking captures...

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo

Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography 2013

by Tom Reiss

Here is the remarkable true story of the real Count of Monte Cristo – a stunning feat of historical sleuthing that brings to life the forgotten hero who inspired such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo...

Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam

Pulitzer Prize for History 2013

by Fredrik Logevall

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR • A GLOBE AND MAIL “BEST READS” SELECTION • LONGLISTED FOR THE LIONEL...

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction 2013

by Gilbert King

Devil in the Grove is the winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

Arguably the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century, Thurgood Marshall was on the verge of bringing the landmark...

Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else

Lionel Gelber Prize 2013

by Chrystia Freeland

A Financial Times Best Book of the Year

Winner of the 2013 Lionel Gelber Prize

There has always been some gap between rich and poor in this country, but in the last few decades what it means to be rich has changed...

Books to Die For: The World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels

Agatha Award for Best Non-Fiction 2012

by John Connolly & Declan Burke

The world’s greatest mystery writers on the world’s greatest mystery novels:

Michael Connelly on The Little Sister . . .

Kathy Reichs on The Silence of the Lambs . . .

Mark Billingham on The Maltese Falcon...

America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union

Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History 2012

by Fergus M. Bordewich

The Mexican War introduced vast new territories into the United States, among them California and the present-day Southwest. When gold was discovered in California in the great Gold Rush of 1849, the population...

Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity

National Book Critics Circle for General Non-fiction 2012

by Andrew Solomon

From the National Book Award–winning author of The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression comes a monumental new work, a decade in the writing, about family. In Far from the Tree, Andrew Solomon tells the stories...

Swimming Studies

National Book Critics Circle for Memoir/Autobiography 2012

by Leanne Shapton

Winner of the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award, Autobiography

Swimming Studies is a brilliantly original, meditative memoir that explores the worlds of competitive and recreational swimming. From...

The Passage of Power

The Years of Lyndon Johnson #4

National Book Critics Circle for Biography 2012, Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography 2012

by Robert A. Caro

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE, THE MARK LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE, THE AMERICAN HISTORY BOOK PRIZE

NAMED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE...

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity

National Book Award for Non-Fiction 2012, Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest 2012

by Katherine Boo

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY

The New York Times • The Washington Post • O: The Oprah Magazine • USA Today •...

Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest

Samuel Johnson 2012

by Wade Davis

On June 6, 1924, two men set out from a camp perched at 23,000 feet on an ice ledge just below the lip of Mount Everest’s North Col. George Mallory, thirty-seven, was Britain’s finest climber. Sandy Irvine...

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention

Pulitzer Prize for History 2012

by Manning Marable

Years in the making-the definitive biography of the legendary black activist.

Of the great figure in twentieth-century American history perhaps none is more complex and controversial than Malcolm X. Constantly...

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest 2011

by Daniel Kahneman

Major New York Times bestsellerWinner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award in 2012Selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the best books of 2011A Globe and Mail Best Books of the...

Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius

Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology 2011

by Sylvia Nasar

In a sweeping narrative, the author of the megabestseller A Beautiful Mind takes us on a journey through modern history with the men and women who changed the lives of every single person on the planet. It’s...

Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned

Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography 2011

by John A. Farrell

Drawing on untapped archives and full of fresh revelations, here is the definitive biography of America’s legendary defense attorney and progressive hero.

Clarence Darrow is the lawyer every law school student...

The Hare with Amber Eyes

Ondaatje Prize 2011

by Edmund De Waal

The Ephrussis were a grand banking family, as rich and respected as the Rothschilds, who “burned like a comet” in nineteenth-century Paris and Vienna society. Yet by the end of World War II, almost the only...

Polar Imperative: A History of Arctic Sovereignty in North America

Lionel Gelber Prize 2011

by Shelagh D. D. Grant

Based on Shelagh Grant’s groundbreaking archival research and drawing on her reputation as a leading historian in the field, Polar Imperative is a compelling overview of the historical claims of sovereignty...

Books, Crooks and Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure

Agatha Award for Best Non-Fiction 2011

by Leslie Budewitz

Addressing the misunderstood and misrepresented aspects of the law in today’s writing, this reliable guidebook demonstrates how to use legal concepts, terminology, and procedure to create fiction that is true...

Mao's Great Famine

Samuel Johnson 2011

by Frank Dikötter

"Between 1958 and 1962, China descended into hell. Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up to and overtake Britain in less than 15 years The experiment...