The Penguin Hotline Recommends: Gifts for the Narrative Nonfiction Fan
Hotline staff expert Matthew Boyd, Associate Publisher and Marketing Director of Penguin Press, weighs in on the best books for those who love narrative nonfiction.
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Add to BookshelfWhat You Have Heard Is True
by Carolyn Forché
Imagine you’re a young poet, and a mysterious stranger comes to your house, imploring you to come to El Salvador, to witness the violence and fear that’s beginning to tear his country apart. Don’t you need guns, soldiers? you ask him. No, we need poets to tell our story to the rest of the world. A beautiful and harrowing memoir about finding yourself and your calling under the most extreme of circumstances.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Buried
by Peter Hessler
This is a book that’s difficult to describe. It’s about life during the Egyptian Arab Spring, yes, but it’s also about archaeology, history, language, religion, kings, queens, garbage men, government bureaucracy, and lingerie merchants. Truly transporting, like all great nonfiction.
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$19.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Psychopath Test
by Jon Ronson
The funniest book I’ve ever read about the scariest people I can imagine. I’ll read anything Jon Ronson writes.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Bad Blood
by John Carreyrou
By now, everyone knows the story of Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes. But what sets this book apart from the various Theranos podcasts and documentaries is how it implicates Silicon Valley culture at large. There’s a reason Holmes was able to dupe everyone for so long, and this book shows us how.
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$19.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Man in the Rockefeller Suit
by Mark Seal
So many of my choices are about psychopaths. What does that say about me? This is the story of a con man, a real-life “Talented Mr. Ripley,” and the trail of destruction – and death – he leaves in his wake.
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$24.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Dark Path
by David Schickler
I’ve given this memoir to more friends than I can remember. It’s that good. I’ve never read anything that better describes both the crippling confusion and ecstatic joy (which can hit you at the same time) of growing up.
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Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
by Alexandra Fuller
Alexandra Fuller writes with such grace and humor about her remarkable childhood and family. If you haven’t read her yet, this is the place to start. A beautiful and moving memoir about growing up in war-torn Africa.
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$20.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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She Said
by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey
A thrilling “journalism procedural” about what it took to uncover Harvey Weinstein’s crimes: the dogged reporting, the late night phone calls, the secret meetings, the legal showdowns, and the brave women who came forward to tell their story.
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$19.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Most Dangerous Book
by Kevin Birmingham
Catnip for book lovers: The story of James Joyce’s Ulysses, a manuscript so controversial in the early 1900s that you risked jail time just for reading it. If you’ve been waiting for a thriller where the heroes are writers, publishers, and booksellers, this one’s for you.
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$24.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Furious Hours
by Casey Cep
There’s a universe in which Harper Lee wrote a second book, a true crime story that rivalled In Cold Blood in its blend of reportage and artistry. But in the universe we all share, Furious Hours is the closest we’ll get to reading it. For fans of Harper Lee and/or true crime, which is to say, all of us.
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$19.00Buy from Other Retailers:
