Nonfiction for Your Book Club to Start the Year Off With

18 hours ago 1

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Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside of work, much of her free time is spent looking for her next great read and planning her next snack. Find her on Twitter at @Erica_Eze_.

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I’ve noticed that, even among my friends who don’t read much, nonfiction is popular. I’ll go a step further and say that personal stories, like memoirs and biographies, are of particular interest. Nonfiction is, of course, also a popular book category for book clubs, some of which have members who may or may not read much outside of the club.

I find myself thinking about people who don’t read often because of some surprising data we got at the end of 2025: 40% of Americans did not read one book in 2025. Of the two book clubs I belonged to in 2025, one read fiction, and one read nonfiction. I mention this because if your book club isn’t already doing it, it may help retain members and interest to start incorporating a mix of both fiction and nonfiction selections.

Of course, it’s always up to the members to decide what works best for them. But if you are interested in some fresh new nonfiction for your book clubs, the titles below reimagine Shahrazad in One Thousand and One Nights, wrestle with grief in a way only a poet could, and give a Black Queer account of the history of the United States. They should all be available within the next few weeks.

One Aladdin Two Lamps by Jeanette Winterson

From the bestselling author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit comes this amalgamation of memoir, cultural critique, and classic story. Here, Winterson uses the classic story of Shahrazad in One Thousand and One Nights to explore the ways fiction and stories work in our lives, how they define us, and how we define ourselves through them.

The Flower Bearers by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

The Flower Bearers traces poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths’ lives, as a newlywed met with tragedy, and as a college student finding friends and her literary voice. In September 2021, Griffiths married novelist Salman Rushdie, and on the same day, but hundreds of miles away, her close friend Kamilah Aisha Moon died. Moon, also a poet, was supposed to speak at the wedding. After that day, Griffiths must reconcile the difference between who she was before her chosen sister died and who she is after.

A Black Queer History of the United States (ReVisioning History) by C. Riley Snorton, Darius Bost

C. Riley Snorton and Darius Bost highlight key Black LGBTQ+ figures from history, emphasizing that queer Black people have always been part of the liberation movement throughout American history. This new entry in the Revisioning History series sheds light on how the Black queer community is often overlooked in history books. —Kendra Winchester

Life After Ambition: A “Good Enough” Memoir by Amil Niazi

What happens when a driven millennial gives up on their ambitions? Amil Niazi delves into just that. Based on her popular essays, “Losing My Ambition” and “The Mindfuck of Mid-Life,” Niazi’s memoir examines her life through the lens of gender, race, and class, exploring the societal expectations she has experienced throughout her life. —Kendra Winchester