Amazon Best Nonfiction Books of 2024
The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory
Audible Audiobook – Unabridged
Thomas Fuller (Author, Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.2 on Goodreads 1,072 ratings [
The incredible story of an all-deaf high school football team’s triumphant climb from underdog to undefeated, their inspirational brotherhood, a fascinating portrait of deafness in America, and the indefatigable head coach who spearheaded the team, by New York Times reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief, Thomas Fuller.
Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering
4.0 on Goodreads 15,044 ratings [
A lot has changed in 25 years. A quarter-century after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand-new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light — this time in an immersive audio format that transports you, the listener, directly inside of each riveting story.
Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
4.2 on Goodreads 10,875 ratings [
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world.
For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite allour discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive?
Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Survived the CIA
4.4 on Goodreads 479 ratings [
The gripping true story of an indigenous people running the world’s mightiest narco-state—and America’s struggle to thwart them.
In Asia’s narcotics-producing heartland, the Wa reign supreme. They dominate the Golden Triangle, a mountainous stretch of Burma between Thailand and China. Their 30,000-strong army, wielding missiles and attack drones, makes Mexican cartels look like street gangs.
Nuclear War: A Scenario
4.4 on Goodreads 21,885 ratings [
The INSTANT New York Times bestseller
Instant Los Angeles Times bestseller
One of NPR's Books We Love
One of Newsweek Staffers' Favorite Books of the Year
Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize
“In Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen gives us a vivid picture of what could happen if our nuclear guardians fail…Terrifying.”—Wall Street Journal
Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, a Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice
4.4 on Goodreads 149 ratings [
How states are making their legal systems more equitable, seen through the story of a Black man falsely imprisoned for thirty years for murder.
In 1987, Ben Spencer, a twenty-two-year-old Black man from Dallas, was convicted of murdering white businessman Jeffrey Young—a crime he didn’t commit. From the day of his arrest, Spencer insisted that it was “an awful mistake.” The Texas legal system didn’t see it that way. It allowed shoddy police work, paid witnesses, and prosecutorial misconduct to convict Spencer of murder, and it ignored later efforts to correct this error.
Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures
4.2 on Goodreads 678 ratings [
A Most Anticipated Book from Boston Globe, Parade, & Literary Hub From the award-winning author Katherine Rundell comes a “rare and magical book” (Bill Bryson) reckoning with the vanishing wonders of our natural world
The world is more astonishing, more miraculous, and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In this brilliant and passionately persuasive book, Katherine Rundell takes us on a globe-spanning tour of the world's most awe-inspiring animals currently facing extinction.
Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity
4.6 on Goodreads 828 ratings [
Peabody Award-winning journalist Michele Norris offers a transformative dialogue on race and identity in America, unearthed through her decade-long work at The Race Card Project.
The prompt seemed simple: Race. Your Thoughts. Six Words. Please Send.
The answers, though, have been challenging and complicated. In the twelve years since award-winning journalist Michele Norris first posed that question, over half a million people have submitted their stories to The Race Card Project inbox.
War
4.3 on Goodreads 5,872 ratings [
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2024 BY ASSOCIATED PRESS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, AND PROGRESSIVE.ORG
Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodward tells the revelatory, behind-the-scenes story of three wars—Ukraine, the Middle East and the struggle for the American Presidency.
War is an intimate and sweeping account of one of the most tumultuous periods in presidential politics and American history.
A Fatal Inheritance: How a Family Misfortune Revealed a Deadly Medical
4.3 on Goodreads 826 ratings [
Long-listed, BookPage Best Books of the Year, 2024
National Book Critics Circle Award nominee, 2024
Long-listed, Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, 2024
Long-listed, NPR Best Book of the Year, 2024
"Listeners will find A Fatal Inheritance to be an effective overview of research on cancer and hereditary predisposition, one that achieves serious investigation while remaining intensely human.”—BookPage
[