10 of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2024

With all the buzz around There’s Always This Year, it seems like readers have loved this book, and critics heartily agree. It was longlisted for the National Book Award and for an Andrew Carnegie Medal. Abdurraqib reflects on his childhood growing up in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1990s during the golden age of basketball. He uses his personal experience to springboard into ideas about the systems in place that decide who gets to “make” it and who doesn’t.

In one of the most captivating reads of the year, Johanna Hedva examines what it’s like to live in a disabled body. In their viral essay, “Sick Woman Theory,” Hedva delves into ideas around the question, what does protesting look like when you’re a disabled, mostly housebound person? Crip theory, gender and sexuality, class politics—Hedva covers it all throughout the essay collection.

Adam Higginbotham’s Challenger has been the it “dad book” of the year. What’s more, it won the Kirkus Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for an Andrew Carnegie Medal. On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded over the Atlantic. Higginbotham takes us back to the origins of the missions and everything that went wrong along the way.

Longlisted for an Andrew Carnegie Medal and a finalist for the National Book Award, Whiskey Tender has been one of the must-read memoirs of the year. A mixed-tribe Native, Taffa was always told that if she would assimilate and integrate into mainstream American culture, she’d achieve the “American Dream.” But Taffa realizes that to achieve the American ideal, she would have to give up her Native culture. In her memoir, Taffa examines the myths around Native integration and the detrimental impact it has had on Native communities throughout the decades.

This National Book Award-winning book is one you won’t want to miss. Over the course of seven years, De León embedded himself in the world of human smuggling. Giving a rare insight into this world, De León follows smugglers—often called coyotes or guides—who lead migrants across the border from Mexico into the United States. His reporting pushes back against the stereotypes of smugglers and migrants, creating an engrossing, character-driven narrative.

Everywhere you turn, By the Fire We Carry keeps appearing, including being longlisted for an Andrew Carnegie Medal. In the 1830s, the Muscogee were forcibly relocated and promised land, but this promise was broken when Oklahoma was created on their territory. Nagle details these events and follows the Supreme Court Case in 2020 when the Muscogee’s reservation was contested.