One City One Book Recommendations: Nonfiction

If you run a One City, One Book program and are on the hunt for nonfiction books, we’ve got some recommendations for you!

For even more recommendations of all genres, check out this post and this Edelweiss catalog.

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PAGEBOY: A Memoir by Elliot Page
9781250878373
Trade paperback available 5/14/24

The Oscar-nominated star who captivated the world with his performance in Juno finally shares his truth. This beautifully written, winding journey of what it means to untangle ourselves from the expectations of others is an ode to stepping into who we truly are with defiance, strength, and joy.

HOMETOWN VICTORY: A Coach’s Story of Football, Fate, and Coming Home by Keanon Lowe and Justin Spizman
9781250807656
Trade paperback available 5/7/24

The Blind Side meets Friday Night Lights in HOMETOWN VICTORY, an NFL coach returns home after losing a friend to opioids to coach a team of high schoolers on a 23-game losing streak.

FINDING FREEDOM: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch by Erin French
9781250312358
Trade paperback available 4/30/24

From Erin French, owner of the critically acclaimed The Lost Kitchen, a TIME world dining destination and the feature of a television series by the Magnolia Network on HBO Max, a life-affirming memoir about survival, renewal, and finding a community to lift her up.

BITING THE HAND: Growing Up Asian in Black and White America by Julia Lee
9781250861573
Trade paperback available 4/16/24

In the vein of ELOQUENT RAGE and MINOR FEELINGS—a passionate, no-holds-barred memoir about the Asian American experience in a nation defined by racial stratification.

BIRDGIRL: Looking to the Skies in Search of a Better Future by Mya-Rose Craig
9781250339676
Trade paperback available 4/2/24

Birder, environmentalist and activist Mya-Rose Craig is an international force. In her moving memoir, she chronicles her mother’s struggle with mental illness, and shares her passion for social justice and fierce dedication to preserving our planet.

STARRY MESSENGER: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization by Neil deGrasse Tyson
9781250861511
Trade paperback available 1/9/24

Bringing his cosmic perspective to civilization on Earth, Neil deGrasse Tyson shines new light on the crucial fault lines of our time—war, politics, religion, truth, beauty, gender, and race—in a way that stimulates a deeper sense of unity for us all.

THE ELEPHANTS OF THULA THULA by Françoise Malby-Anthony
9781250867797
Trade paperback available 1/2/24

A powerful, gripping story about an extraordinary herd of elephants and the woman dedicated to keeping them safe.

BLACK SKINHEAD: Reflections on Blackness and Our Political Future by Brandi Collins-Dexter
9781250824127
Trade paperback available 1/2/24

Political activist Brandi Collins-Dexter’s critically acclaimed essay collection sparking a “timely as well as pointed” (The New York Times) conversation about Black America and political identity.

NEWSROOM CONFIDENTIAL: Lessons (and Worries) from an Ink-Stained Life by Margaret Sullivan
9781250906007
Trade paperback available 12/5/23

Over her four decades of working in newsrooms big and small, Margaret Sullivan has become a trusted champion and critic of the American news media With her celebrated mixture of charm, sharp-eyed observation, and nuanced criticism, Sullivan takes us behind the scenes of the nation’s most influential news outlets to explore how Americans lost trust in the news and what it will take to regain it.

ALL THE LIVING AND THE DEAD: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life’s Work by Hayley Campbell
9781250906236
Trade paperback available now

A deeply compelling exploration of the death industry and the people–morticians, detectives, crime scene cleaners, embalmers, executioners–who work in it and what led them there.

UPHILL: A Memoir by Jamele Hill
9781250624369
Trade paperback available now

A wrenching memoir by The Atlantic journalist and former SportsCenter co-anchor about surviving a heritage of trauma and carving out a new path to create a powerful legacy.

IN DEFENSE OF WITCHES: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial by Mona Chollet
9781250894878
Trade paperback available now

A “brilliant, well-documented” celebration (Le Monde) by an acclaimed French feminist of the witch as a symbol of female rebellion and independence in the face of misogyny and persecution.

UNMASKED: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes
9781250622808
Trade paperback available now

The New York Times bestselling memoir from the detective who found The Golden State Killer, revealing the rewards–and toll–of a life solving crime.

CORRECTIONS IN INK: A Memoir by Keri Blakinger
9781250774354
Trade paperback available now

An electric memoir about a young woman’s journey—from the ice rink, to addiction and a prison sentence, to the newsroom—and how she emerged determined to expose the broken system she experienced.

THIS BODY I WORE by Diana Goetsch
9781250867155
Trade paperback available now

The award-winning poet and essayist Diana Goetsch chronicles her long journey to coming out, a path that runs parallel to the emergence of the trans community over the past several decades. She brings us into her childhood, her time as a dynamic and beloved teacher at New York City’s Stuyvesant High School, and her plunge into the city’s crossdressing subculture in the 1980s and ’90s.

MA AND ME: A Memoir by Putsata Reang
9781250867124
Trade paperback available now

In her startling memoir, Putsata Reang explores the long legacy of inherited trauma and the crushing weight of cultural and filial duty. With rare clarity and lyric wisdom, MA AND ME is a stunning, deeply moving memoir about love, debt, and duty.

MY SEVEN BLACK FATHERS: A Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors Who Made Me Whole by Will Jawando
9781250867186
Trade paperback available now

Will Jawando tells a deeply affirmative story of hope and respect for men of color at a time when Black men are routinely stigmatized. Drawing on Will’s inspiring personal story, this memoir offers a transformative way for Black men to shape the next generation.

BROTHERS ON THREE: A True Story of Family, Resistance, and Hope on a Reservation in Montana by Abe Streep
9781250210692
Trade paperback available now

BROTHERS ON THREE is not simply a story about high school basketball, about state championships and a winning team. It is a book about community, and it is about boys on the cusp of adulthood, finding their way through the intersecting worlds they inhabit and forging their own paths to personhood.

IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOUNTAIN: A Memoir of Courage by Silva Vasquez-Lavado
9781250871084
Trade paperback available now

Endless ice. Thin air. The threat of dropping into nothingness thousands of feet below. This is the climb Silvia Vasquez-Lavado braves in her page-turning, pulse-raising memoir following her journey to Mount Everest.

BREATHING FIRE: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California’s Wildfires by Jaime Lowe
9781250849212
Trade paperback available now

A dramatic, revelatory account of the female inmate firefighters who battle California wildfires. Lowe’s reporting is a groundbreaking investigation of the prison system, and an intimate portrayal of the women of California’s Correctional Camps who put their lives on the line, while imprisoned, to save a state in peril.

SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTER: A Memoir by Ashley C. Ford
9781250203229
Trade paperback available now

One of the most prominent voices of her generation debuts with an extraordinarily powerful memoir: the story of a childhood defined by the ever looming absence of her incarcerated father and the path we must take to both honor and overcome our origins.

SIGH, GONE: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In by Phuc Tran
9781250826619
Trade paperback available now

For anyone who has ever felt like they don’t belong, SIGH, GONE is an irreverent, funny, and moving memoir of assimilation woven together with poignant themes from works of classic literature.

CROSSING THE LINE: A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport That Changed Their Lives Forever by Kareem Rosser
9781250837165
Trade paperback available now

An inspiring memoir of defying the odds from Kareem Rosser, captain of the first all-black squad to win the National Interscholastic Polo championship.

THE DRAGONS, THE GIANT, THE WOMEN: A Memoir by Wayétu Moore
9781644450567
Trade paperback available now

An engrossing memoir of escaping the First Liberian Civil War and building a life in the United States

IN THE DREAM HOUSE: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado
9781644450383
Trade paperback available now

Machado’s dire narrative is leavened with her characteristic wit, playfulness, and openness to inquiry. She casts a critical eye over legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek, and Disney villains, as well as iconic works of film and fiction. The result is a wrenching, riveting book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be.