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.
| Rank | Book | Authors | Year | Country | Language | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 370 | The Year of Magical Thinking | Joan Didion | 2005 | American | English | |
| 4538 | Stiff | Mary Roach | 2003 | American | English | |
| 2324 | Being Mortal | Atul Gawande | 2014 | American | English | |
| 8075 | The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead | David Shields | 2008 | American | English | |
| 7569 | Mortality | Christopher Hitchens | 2012 | British | English | |
| 9191 | The Death Class | Erika Hayasaki | 2014 | American | English | |
| 6737 | Political Fictions | Joan Didion | 2001 | American | English | |
| 8075 | The Great Derangement | Matt Taibbi | 2008 | American | English | |
| 2183 | No Logo | Naomi Klein | 1999 | Canadian | English | |
| 1204 | Nickel And Dimed | Barbara Ehrenreich | 2001 | American | English | |
| 5976 | 1491 | Charles C. Mann | 2005 | American | English | |
| 1384 | Guns, Germs, and Steel | Jared Diamond | 1997 | American | English | |
| 1252 | Sapiens | Yuval Noah Harari | 2011 | Israeli | Hebrew | |
| 2935 | The Better Angels Of Our Nature | Steven Pinker | 2011 | American | English | |
| 8464 | The Gun | C. J. Chivers | 2010 | American | English | |
| 6843 | A History of the World in 100 Objects | Neil MacGregor | 2010 | British | English | |
| 7027 | In The Garden Of Beasts | Erik Larson | 2011 | American | English | |
| 558 | Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee | Dee Alexander Brown | 1970 | American | English | |
| 451 | Hiroshima | John Hersey | 1946 | American | English | |
| 652 | Dispatches | Michael Herr | 1977 | American | English | |
| 5039 | Black Hawk Down | Mark Bowden | 1999 | American | English | |
| 7122 | Generation Kill | Evan Wright | 2004 | American | English | |
| 2484 | The Good War | Studs Terkel | 1984 | American | English | |
| 9191 | The Saboteur | Paul Kix | 2017 | Unknown | English |