Top 100 NonFiction Books

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1
The Elements of Style
The Elements of Style
by William Strunk Jr.
4.18 avg rating — 50,986 ratings

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2
In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood
by Truman Capote
4.03 avg rating — 364,342 ratings

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3
I Know Why the Caged Bird S...
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou
4.15 avg rating — 231,448 ratings

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4
Fast Food Nation: The Dark ...
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
by Eric Schlosser
3.72 avg rating — 173,292 ratings

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5
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A N...
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan (Goodreads Author)
4.17 avg rating — 131,259 ratings

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6
Maus: A Survivor's Tale : M...
Maus: A Survivor's Tale : My Father Bleeds History (Maus, #1)
by Art Spiegelman
4.34 avg rating — 159,897 ratings

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6
On Writing: A Memoir of the...
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
by Stephen King (Goodreads Author)
4.29 avg rating — 122,657 ratings

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8
Silent Spring
Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson
3.92 avg rating — 21,905 ratings

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9
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The...
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by Jared Diamond
3.98 avg rating — 162,442 ratings

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10
Hiroshima
Hiroshima
by John Hersey
3.91 avg rating — 34,623 ratings

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11
A Walk in the Woods: Redisc...
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
by Bill Bryson
4.05 avg rating — 217,322 ratings

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12
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by Malcolm X
4.28 avg rating — 95,837 ratings

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13
Zen and the Art of Motorcyc...
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
by Robert M. Pirsig
3.74 avg rating — 131,983 ratings

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14
A Heartbreaking Work of Sta...
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
by Dave Eggers
3.67 avg rating — 138,459 ratings

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15
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) ...
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
by Barbara Ehrenreich
3.59 avg rating — 151,343 ratings

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16
A Room of One's Own
A Room of One's Own
by Virginia Woolf
4.07 avg rating — 56,935 ratings

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17
Bury My Heart at Wounded Kn...
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
by Dee Brown
4.19 avg rating — 38,824 ratings

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18
A Brief History of Time
A Brief History of Time
by Stephen Hawking
4.10 avg rating — 153,953 ratings

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19
Out of Africa
Out of Africa
by Karen Blixen
3.96 avg rating — 19,488 ratings

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20
All the President's Men
All the President's Men
by Carl Bernstein
4.14 avg rating — 29,771 ratings

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21
A People's History of the U...
A People's History of the United States
by Howard Zinn
4.09 avg rating — 107,469 ratings

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22
Our Bodies, Ourselves
Our Bodies, Ourselves
by Boston Women's Health Book Collective
4.33 avg rating — 6,139 ratings

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23
Black Boy
Black Boy
by Richard Wright
3.99 avg rating — 34,973 ratings

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24
The Feminine Mystique
The Feminine Mystique
by Betty Friedan
3.83 avg rating — 14,086 ratings

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25
The Selfish Gene
The Selfish Gene
by Richard Dawkins (Goodreads Author)
4.10 avg rating — 79,508 ratings

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26
And the Band Played On: Pol...
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
by Randy Shilts
4.36 avg rating — 15,891 ratings

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27
The Rise and Fall of the Th...
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
by William L. Shirer
4.13 avg rating — 52,780 ratings

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28
What Color Is Your Parachut...
What Color Is Your Parachute? 2007: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers
by Richard N. Bolles
3.57 avg rating — 4,073 ratings

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29
A Moveable Feast
A Moveable Feast
by Ernest Hemingway
4.03 avg rating — 76,868 ratings

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30
The Hero With a Thousand Faces
The Hero With a Thousand Faces
by Joseph Campbell
4.25 avg rating — 17,608 ratings

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31
Dreams from My Father: A St...
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
by Barack Obama
3.76 avg rating — 110,193 ratings

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32
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid ...
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
by Tom Wolfe
3.91 avg rating — 52,047 ratings

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33
Mastering the Art of French...
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
by Julia Child
4.31 avg rating — 33,216 ratings

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34
The Joy of Sex
The Joy of Sex
by Alex Comfort
3.62 avg rating — 1,760 ratings

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35
The Gnostic Gospels
The Gnostic Gospels
by Elaine Pagels
3.92 avg rating — 10,560 ratings

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36
The Beauty Myth
The Beauty Myth
by Naomi Wolf (Goodreads Author)
3.89 avg rating — 12,193 ratings

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37
The Double Helix
The Double Helix
by James D. Watson
3.87 avg rating — 11,055 ratings

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38
How to Win Friends and Infl...
How to Win Friends and Influence People
by Dale Carnegie
4.09 avg rating — 225,086 ratings

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39
Homage to Catalonia
Homage to Catalonia
by George Orwell
4.14 avg rating — 20,439 ratings

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40
Baby and Child Care
Baby and Child Care
by Benjamin Spock
3.70 avg rating — 1,508 ratings

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41
The Fatal Shore: The Epic o...
The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding
by Robert Hughes
4.05 avg rating — 6,292 ratings

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42
No Logo
No Logo
by Naomi Klein
3.86 avg rating — 17,125 ratings

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43
The Executioner's Song
The Executioner's Song
by Norman Mailer
4.07 avg rating — 13,407 ratings

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44
Alcoholics Anonymous - Big ...
Alcoholics Anonymous - Big Book
by Alcoholics Anonymous
4.41 avg rating — 5,083 ratings

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45
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
by Joan Didion
4.25 avg rating — 15,956 ratings

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46
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
by James Agee
4.12 avg rating — 2,472 ratings

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47
The Making of the President...
The Making of the President 1960
by Theodore H. White
4.15 avg rating — 4,650 ratings

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48
The Power Broker: Robert Mo...
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
by Robert A. Caro
4.51 avg rating — 5,953 ratings

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49
Speak, Memory
Speak, Memory
by Vladimir Nabokov
4.19 avg rating — 8,138 ratings

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50
The Naked Ape: A Zoologist'...
The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal
by Desmond Morris
3.92 avg rating — 5,937 ratings

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51
Notes of a Native Son
Notes of a Native Son
by James Baldwin
4.32 avg rating — 6,979 ratings

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52
Working: People Talk About ...
Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do
by Studs Terkel
4.21 avg rating — 3,700 ratings

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53
The Lives of a Cell: Notes ...
The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
by Lewis Thomas
4.15 avg rating — 5,536 ratings

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54
The Autobiography of Alice ...
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
by Gertrude Stein
3.61 avg rating — 5,735 ratings

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55
The Best and the Brightest
The Best and the Brightest
by David Halberstam
4.25 avg rating — 7,092 ratings

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56
The Civil War: A Narrative
The Civil War: A Narrative
by Shelby Foote
4.56 avg rating — 5,183 ratings

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57
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Ete...
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
by Douglas R. Hofstadter
4.29 avg rating — 29,138 ratings

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58
Coming of Age in Samoa: A P...
Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation
by Margaret Mead
3.54 avg rating — 1,970 ratings

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59
Capitalism and Freedom
Capitalism and Freedom
by Milton Friedman
3.94 avg rating — 6,547 ratings

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60
Manchild in the Promised Land
Manchild in the Promised Land
by Claude Brown
4.32 avg rating — 5,644 ratings

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61
The Emperor of All Maladies...
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
by Siddhartha Mukherjee
4.26 avg rating — 42,078 ratings

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62
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll...
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments
by David Foster Wallace
4.27 avg rating — 22,882 ratings

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63
Against Interpretation and ...
Against Interpretation and Other Essays
by Susan Sontag
4.10 avg rating — 4,225 ratings

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64
The Structure of Scientific...
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
by Thomas S. Kuhn
3.98 avg rating — 14,831 ratings

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65
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda...
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
by Lawrence Wright
4.36 avg rating — 12,356 ratings

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66
Why We Can't Wait
Why We Can't Wait
by Martin Luther King Jr.
4.44 avg rating — 3,277 ratings

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67
Ball Four
Ball Four
by Jim Bouton
3.98 avg rating — 12,616 ratings

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68
Unsafe at Any Speed
Unsafe at Any Speed
by Ralph Nader
3.63 avg rating — 135 ratings

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69
Animal Liberation
Animal Liberation
by Peter Singer (Goodreads Author)
4.16 avg rating — 3,923 ratings

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70
Orientalism
Orientalism
by Edward W. Said
4.06 avg rating — 9,723 ratings

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71
The General Theory of Emplo...
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money
by John Maynard Keynes
3.79 avg rating — 3,139 ratings

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71
The Closing of the American...
The Closing of the American Mind
by Allan Bloom
3.73 avg rating — 3,292 ratings

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73
God and Man at Yale: The Su...
God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of 'Academic Freedom'
by William F. Buckley Jr.
3.76 avg rating — 675 ratings

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74
The Other America: Poverty ...
The Other America: Poverty in the United States
by Michael Harrington
4.01 avg rating — 577 ratings

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75
The Origins of Totalitarianism
The Origins of Totalitarianism
by Hannah Arendt
4.22 avg rating — 3,508 ratings

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76
Dispatches
Dispatches
by Michael Herr
4.23 avg rating — 8,907 ratings

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77
The American Way of Death R...
The American Way of Death Revisited
by Jessica Mitford
3.97 avg rating — 1,377 ratings

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78
The Clash of Civilizations ...
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
by Samuel P. Huntington
3.65 avg rating — 5,683 ratings

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79
The Last Lion 2: Winston Sp...
The Last Lion 2: Winston Spencer Churchill Alone, 1932-40
by William Manchester
4.49 avg rating — 4,814 ratings

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80
The End of History and the Last Man
by Francis Fukuyama

81
Syntactic Structures
by Noam Chomsky

82
On Human Nature
by Edward O. Wilson

83
The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays
by Richard Hofstadter

84
The Conscience of a Conservative
by Barry M. Goldwater

85
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
by Jane Jacobs

86
Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution
by Diane McWhorter

87
The Nature and Destiny of Man, Vol 1
by Reinhold Niebuhr

88
The Story of Art
by E.H. Gombrich

89
How to Cook a Wolf
by M.F.K. Fisher

90
A Theory of Justice
by John Rawls


91
The American Cinema: Directors and Directions, 1929-1968
by Andrew Sarris

91
A Child of the Century
by Ben Hecht

93
Sexual Behavior in the Human Male
by Alfred C. Kinsey

94
Living to Tell the Tale
by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez

95
What It Takes: The Way to the White House
by Richard Ben Cramer



96
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
by Marshall McLuhan

97
Within the Context of No Context
by George W.S. Trow


98
Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll
by Greil Marcus


99
The Sweet Science
The Sweet Science
by A.J. Liebling
4.13 avg rating — 597 ratings

100
The Great War and Modern Me...
The Great War and Modern Memory
by Paul Fussell