100 Great Narrative Nonfiction Books

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

The Electric Typewriter, 144 Books

This list, titled "100 Great Narrative Nonfiction Books," is a curated selection of essential narrative nonfiction works, including essay collections, classic journalism, and memoirs. The purpose is to provide readers with a comprehensive guide to some of the most compelling and insightful nonfiction writing across various themes such as memoir, writing, language, travel, sport, art, culture, and more. Curated by the website "tetw.org," the list appears to be compiled by expert editors rather than public voting, focusing on works that are influential, critically acclaimed, or have enduring relevance. The methodology for selection is not explicitly detailed, but it suggests a focus on the quality and impact of the writing rather than popularity or sales figures.

This list was originally published in 2013 and was added to this site about 1 year ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
6323 The New Kings Of Nonfiction Ira Glass 2007 American English
1565 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
1907 Consider The Lobster David Foster Wallace 2005 American English
3116 The White Album Joan Didion 1979 American English
1020 Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion 1968 American English
5597 Changing My Mind Zadie Smith 2009 British English
7914 The Braindead Megaphone George Saunders 2007 American English
5167 Bad Feminist Roxane Gay 2014 American English
1672 Pulphead John Jeremiah Sullivan 2011 American English
3574 Notes from No Man's Land Eula Biss 2009 American English
6535 The Empathy Exams Leslie Jamison 2014 American English
7615 Don't Get Too Comfortable David Rakoff 2005 Canadian English
6671 What The Dog Saw And Other Adventures Malcolm Gladwell 2009 Canadian English
6160 Arguably Christopher Hitchens 2011 British English
5033 I Feel Bad About My Neck Nora Ephron 2006 American English
9189 Violation Sallie Tisdale 2016 American English
659 Mythologies Roland Barthes 1957 French French
2926 The Great Shark Hunt Hunter S. Thompson 1979 American English
3444 The Kandy Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby Tom Wolfe 1965 American English
8678 In Defense Of Sanity G. K. Chesterton 2011 British English
993 Essays of E. B. White E. B. White 1977 American English
1895 Me Talk Pretty One Day David Sedaris 2000 American English
2393 The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls 2005 American English
2115 Just Kids Patti Smith 2010 American English
8678 The Chronology Of Water Lidia Yuknavitch 2011 American English
1783 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
6535 Hunger Roxane Gay 2017 American English
6736 My Misspent Youth Meghan Daum 2001 American English
5717 Manhood For Amateurs Michael Chabon 2009 American English
3810 The Writing Life Annie Dillard 1989 American English
1265 On Writing Stephen King 2000 American English
3062 The Language Instinct Steven Pinker 1994 American English
9189 Words On The Move John McWhorter 2016 American English
3469 The Story Of English Robert McCrum 1986 British English
6736 The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup Susan Orlean 2001 American English
8462 The Fiddler In The Subway Gene Weingarten 2010 American English
8924 Hidden America Jeanne Marie Laskas 2012 American English
2534 Into the Wild Jon Krakauer 1996 American English
5597 The Lost City of Z David Grann 2009 American English
1400 The Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux 1975 American English
5726 My Kind of Place Susan Orlean 2004 American English
3076 River Town Peter Hessler 2001 American English
7122 127 Hours Aaron Ralston 2004 American English
6873 Povedal Mi Veštec Tiziano Terzani 2002 Italian Italian
1818 Barbarian Days William Finnegan 2015 American English
2897 Moneyball Michael M. Lewis 2003 American English
5268 What I Talk About When I Talk About Running Haruki Murakami 2007 Japanese Japanese
4076 Seabiscuit Laura Hillenbrand 2001 American English
2407 The Fight Norman Mailer 1975 American English
3012 Friday Night Lights H. G. Bissinger 1990 American English
7914 How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read Pierre Bayard 2007 French French
5603 Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs Chuck Klosterman 2003 American English
3222 Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder Lawrence Weschler 1995 American English
7764 This Is Your Brain On Music Daniel J. Levitin 2006 Canadian English
7914 Musicophilia Oliver Sacks 2007 British English
109 In Cold Blood Truman Capote 1966 American English
3217 Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil John Berendt 1994 American English
1542 The Devil In The White City Erik Larson 2003 American English
9189 Talking Back, Talking Black John McWhorter 2017 American English
1209 Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates 2015 American English
9189 How To Slowly Kill Yourself And Others In America Kiese Laymon 2013 American English
5039 Woman Natalie Angier 1999 American English
8924 The End Of Men Hanna Rosin 2012 American English
2315 Backlash Susan Faludi 1991 American English
3601 Debt David Graeber 2011 American English
6843 The Big Short Michael M. Lewis 2010 American English
8462 Griftopia Matt Taibbi 2010 American English
9189 Love And Ruin Evan Ratliff, Susan Orlean 2016 Unknown English
9189 A Sliver Of Light Shane Bauer, Joshua Fattal, Sarah Shourd 2014 American English
7811 Shrill Lindy West 2016 American English
9189 But What If We're Wrong? Chuck Klosterman 2016 American English
3521 Nothing to Envy Barbara Demick 2009 American English
7764 Underground Haruki Murakami 2006 Japanese Japanese
6442 Eaarth Bill McKibben 2010 American English
1844 The Sixth Extinction Elizabeth Kolbert 2014 American English
9189 The Water Will Come Jeff Goodell 2017 American English
5603 Krakatoa Simon Winchester 2003 Krakatoa English
9189 The Accidental Universe Alan Lightman 2014 American English
5039 The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out Richard P. Feynman 1999 American English
1817 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot 2010 American English
1038 Cosmos Carl Sagan 1980 American English
1474 Chaos James Gleick 1987 American English
6736 Emergence Steven Johnson 2001 American English
9189 How We Got To Now Steven Johnson 2014 American English
5412 Bad Science Ben Goldacre 2008 British English
8462 The Poisoner's Handbook Deborah Blum 2010 American English
5374 Packing For Mars Mary Roach 2010 American English
1893 The Soul of a New Machine Tracy Kidder 1981 American English
2076 Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman 2011 Israeli English
8462 Being Wrong Kathryn Schulz 2010 American English
9189 The Confidence Game Maria Konnikova 2015 American English
9189 Hit Makers Derek Thompson 2017 American English
4990 The Black Swan Nassim Nicholas Taleb 2007 Lebanese English
3848 Quiet Susan Cain 2012 English
9189 The Undoing Project Michael M. Lewis 2016 American English
7615 Everything Bad Is Good For You Steven Johnson 2005 American English
6317 The Power Of Habit Charles Duhigg 2012 American English
3233 Freakonomics Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner 2005 American English
8075 Nurture Shock Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman 2008 American English
8678 You Are Not So Smart David McRaney 2011 American English
1655 The Beauty Myth Naomi Wolf 1990 American English
7122 Why We Love Helen Fisher 2004 American English
2185 On Love Alain de Botton 1993 British English
6621 A General Theory Of Love Thomas Lewis 2000 American English
7764 Mating In Captivity Esther Perel 2006 Belgian English
5947 Talk Dirty To Me Sallie Tisdale 1994 American English
9189 What Do Women Want? Daniel Bergner 2013 American English
8283 The Other Side Of Desire Daniel Bergner 2009 American English
9189 Future Sex Emily Witt 2015 American English
6190 Stumbling On Happiness Daniel Gilbert 2006 American English
3875 Flow Mihály Csíkszentmihályi 1990 American English
9189 Happy City Charles Montgomery 2013 Canadian English
3825 Outliers Malcolm Gladwell 2008 Canadian English
8678 Adapt Tim Harford 2011 British English
8924 How Children Succeed Paul Tough 2012 Canadian English
9189 The Rise Sarah Lewis 2014 Unknown English
7569 Brain On Fire Susannah Cahalan 2012 American English
9189 The Geography Of Madness Frank Bures 2016 Unknown English
2601 Darkness Visible William Styron 1990 American English
9189 Irritable Hearts Mac McClelland 2015 Unknown English