My new nonfiction TBR pile

And why you should make one, too

Jan 17, 2025

The plan for this edition was different, but life happened and here we are, me salivating at all the “most-anticipated” nonfiction lists for 2025 as I prepare this post. I’m deep into book work, and most of what I’m reading is for research, but I read other nonfiction for inspiration – and honestly, for some escapism. (Yes, you read that right, I read nonfiction books for escapism. What I’m seeking to escape is my own research rabbit holes, so the books have to be on a vastly different topic than my own. Also I’m not that big of a nerd, I read romance and watch dumb shit as escapism, too).

Some of these books are coming out in 2025 and are available on NetGalley, browsing through which and requesting books is a little like writing a letter to Santa – although a Santa who may reject you if he decides you do not deserve that particular ARC because you’re not cool enough (I’m not bitter at all). Some, though, came out last year and are sitting on my shelf or on my Kindle (via Libby, airplane mode on) and are screaming at me to read them, so I’m trying to appease them a bit by writing that I really, really want to!

I highly recommend this exercise – going through lists and publisher catalogs and NetGalley – for whatever you may be working on or planning, book-wise. Aside from getting that Santa letter thrill and inspiration material, it’ll help you gauge the publishing zeitgeist as you craft your own proposal or think about marketing your book (yes, unfortunately you have to think about that if you want to be traditionally published).

Here goes. Divided by my arbitrary categories, the fact that I classified a book in one does not mean it also does not belong to another so don’t @ me.

Cool Girl nonfiction (my own book may or may not have been put in this category by my agent and my editor and I have decided to embrace and celebrate this designation).

You Didn’t Hear This From Me. (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip by Kelsey McKinney. The podcast Normal Gossip is a national (international! I’ve heard from Polish friends who listen to it) treasure and I trust this will be a gem. I love gossip if you ever have any.
MOI NON PLUS: The Life and Times of Jane Birkin, The Ultimate French Girl by
Marisa Meltzer
. Queen of cool girls by the queen of cool girl nonfiction. You can trust Marisa for a DISSECTION.
Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist by Liz Pelly. I am not a music aficionado: I go through phases where I listen to maybe three albums, or worse, Artist pages (Cowboy Carter, Chappel, Waxahatchee) and three playlists (ADHD Work Mode, Lilith Fair, My own Frankenstinian running compilation) over and over again, and I blame Spotify for it, because I definitely was not like this when I was younger and very specific in my tastes. This book, from my publisher (as is Marisa’s book), is definitely in the inspo category for my own.
Physical Education. How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting by Casey Johnston. Casey’s writing is very convincing about all the good that comes with weightlifting, so much so that I engaged in a very brief stint of doing her program two summers ago but I am incapable of sustaining habits unless they have a compulsive quality to them, and going to a enclosed space overrun with bros to exercise on my own is pretty much the opposite of that for me. I would like to be reconvinced, and there’s only one person to do it.

Literary glitterati

Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik. I’ll read anything Anolik writes or podcasts about (probably for the 10th time in this feed, listen to Once Upon A Time in Bennington College!!!) and you already know that I’m a Didion head – although apparently I’m gonna read a lot about how she was a bitch and Babitz is the It late literary glitterati these days.
When the Going Was Good. An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines by Graydon Carter. If this is anything like Tina Brown’s Vanity Fair Diaries, I’m pumped. But it’ll also be a “proceed with caution” read because my yearning for that “last golden age of magazines” is strong, and very very very frustrating in a “why can’t we have nice things” kind of way.

Good for you books on nature

Serviceberry. Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The author was the patron saint of pandemic lockdown walks and her book Braiding Sweetgrass legitimately changed the way I look at the world, so I immediately ordered this one when I saw it was out.
The Light Eaters. How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger. This book has gotten all the accolades, all of which I know it deserves because Zoë is a brilliant former coworker of mine and all her work is amazing. I preordered it, posted about it and the launch all over social media but have not yet read it, embarrassingly (I’m sorry Zoë!! This spring, feels apt).

The serious shit

Disposable, America's Contempt For The Underclass by Sarah Jones. This is the kind of book that seems both extremely necessary and an extremely compelling read, in the vein of Matthew Desmond’s Evicted.
No More Tears The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson By Gardiner Harris. I’ve been sold by title and subtitle. It’s weird to say I love this kind of corporate takedown, but I do.
Frostbite. How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola Twilley. This not a book I would’ve necessarily picked up on my own, but after hearing the author on Emerging Form, my mind was immediately blown.
The Movement How Women's Liberation Transformed America 1963-1973 by Clara Bingham. I swear I’m not sucking up to my publisher, but this one is also from One Signal, which I didn’t even know until I ordered it after hearing about it on Drafting The Past, fascinated with the author talking about the oral history process.