The Nonfiction Books You MUST Read in 2026
Year in Review: My Best Nonfiction Reads of 2025
2025 has come to a close. This year has gifted book lovers with thousands of new releases that have kept us happily reading from January to December. But whether you’re uncovering a new favorite author or returning to those books that you’ve read time and time again, I think we can all look back fondly on the books we’ve read this year.
I’ve selected twenty-four books1, across the areas of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as the best books I’ve read in 2025. The list you’re reading right now features my favorite nonfiction books of 2025.
If you would like to see my other lists, you’ll find them here:
A couple of ground rules for which books are included on this list. This list includes books that I’ve read and finished this year. If I read a book I liked this year and haven’t finished it yet, then it will not be included. If the book wasn’t technically released in 2025, that does not mean that it will be excluded.
I am, however, excluding rereads from these lists. Only books that I’ve read for the first time will be mentioned here.
Because I also do monthly reviews of the books I finish on What’s On My Mind, there will be some crossover with the Fresh Off the Shelf series. To make this article more worth your while, I’ve included a number of books not featured on those lists.
I would also like to inform returning newsletter subscribers that these Best Reads articles will be replacing the December 2025 entry of Fresh Off the Shelf. The books that would’ve been featured on that entry were included in these articles.
Without further delay, here are my best nonfiction reads of 2025.
Nonfiction
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
“Gentleman, I finished the eighth grade in Mason, Michigan. My high school was the black ghetto of Roxbury. Massachusetts. My college was in the streets of Harlem, and my master’s was taken in prison. Mr. Muhammad has taught me that I never need fear any man’s intellect who tries to defend or to justify the white man’s criminal record against the non-white man—especially the white man and the black man here in North America.”
—Malcolm X2
When someone is looking to fill in the gaps of their knowledge about the Civil Rights Movement, they’ll likely have to devote a lot of energy to the life and work of Malcolm X. This is for a good reason.
The life and legacy of Malcolm X is often simplified to being the more aggressive and violent contrast to the peaceful, nonviolent image portrayed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This simplification does a great disservice to not only Malcolm X and Dr. King, but to the nuanced strains of thought that have long existed in the African American struggle for civil rights, human rights, and social equality. There’s no better place to start learning about Malcolm X than with his own autobiography, written in collaboration with Roots author Alex Haley.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X humanizes a man that much of American society labels as a contrast to one of our nation’s greatest idols. And while Haley does much to elevate Malcolm on even ground with Dr. King—and with good reason—this account provides a clear understanding of Malcolm X’s upbringing and how he came to the political stances he would ultimately uphold.
In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, we witness the evolution of Malcolm Little from Michigan to the towering Malcolm X of the Nation of Islam—a voice for the affrimation of black identity and our right to exist in the nation we call home.
Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin edited by Devon W. Carbado and Donald Weise
“In a democracy all citizens have not only a right but also a solemn duty to vote, to advise on domestic affairs, and to address themselves to all aspects of foreign policy. […] to assume that any individual (particularly any civil rights worker) does not have the right to discuss any problem that affecst his nation is to propose that such an individual is still a second-class citizen.”
—Bayard Rustin3
Bayard Rustin is among the Civil Rights Movement’s greatest organizers and forces for social change. Though Rustin is most often acknowledged for his work organizing the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, this collection of his extensive writings provides a wide showcase of his efforts in other matters such as economic equality, international conflict, black cosmopolitanism, and gay rights. Time on Two Crosses is the best place to start when exploring Bayard Rustin and all his multiplicity.
