The 4 Nonfiction Books I’m Reading Next (And Why They Made the List)
{Nonfiction November Week 5}

How do you decide what to read next? One of my most reliable methods is simple: I trust the readers whose taste has proven itself over time.

That’s why I look forward to Nonfiction November every year. I get to collect trustworthy recommendations from bloggers I’ve followed for years—plus discover new voices I haven’t met yet. From this year’s posts around the web, I added 24 nonfiction titles to my growing 2026 reading list.

But four books rose to the top. I’m hoping to read these by the end of the year . . . but we’ll see.

Have you read any of these? What did you think?

1. Is a River Alive?
by Robert Macfarlane

I actually started this one last Saturday. Harry first recommended it last August, and I sampled it on my Kindle then. But hearing him mention it again this month at his blog Unsolicited Feedback nudged me to bump into my end-of-year reading. It seems like a fitting choice to close out my One Word of the Year: Ripple.

Harry writes,

“Is a River Alive? is a journey into an idea that Macfarlane says changes the world: the idea that rivers are alive. The book explores what it might mean for our relationship with nature, for our laws, economies and societies if we took this idea seriously.”

2. Banned Together
Our Fight for Readers’ Rights
edited by Ashley Hope Perez

My town’s independent bookstore has spent this year in our book club spotlighting banned books, so this title immediately caught my attention as a meaningful book to close out the year. (Next year’s club theme may be nonfiction, which I’m thrilled about.)

On her blog, My Head Is Full of Books, Anne recommends Banned Together because she wishes she’d had a resource like this when she was a teen librarian.

“It is a collection of essays, short stories, memoirs, graphic novels/biographies, poems, and lists of books and resources by YA authors who have recently found themselves in the same club—authors with at least one banned book.”

3. The Afterlife of Data
What Happens to Your Information When You Die and Why You Should Care
by Carl Öhman

Because my Ripple theme this year also includes thinking more proactively about end-of-life planning, I’ve been gathering information my daughter may someday need after I die. This book recommendation about what happens to our data after we die (also by Anne!) lands at exactly the right time.

This book appealed to Anne after she was looking through Facebook friends and discovered that many of them were no longer living, yet their data lived on. I’ve had the same experience.

“Did you know in a few years [2070] there will be more dead persons’ accounts on Facebook than live persons? And businesses are attempting to monetize the relationship between social media and grief?”

4. The Common Good
by Robert Reich

In these days when public trust feels dangerously absent, this book seems especially important. When it popped up on Deb’s recommendation list at her blog , I knew it belonged on my to-read list. I want to better understand what I can realistically do as an individual to help strengthen our declining social trust.

Deb says,

“Wow—everyone needs to read this book. . . . If you are feeling bleak about America, I urge you to read this book and act in ways that will work for the common good. I intend to try.”

Next Up on My 2026 Nonfiction List

To round out the top 10 of the 24 books I’ve chosen from Nonfiction November, here are the next 6 books I’m excited to get to next year:

5. Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything by B.J. Fogg, PhD, recommended by Anne
6. Monster: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer, recommended by Olivia
7. The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family by Jesselyn Cook by Jesselyn Cook, recommended by Heather
8. So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson, recommended by AJ
9. The View from Down Here: On being Disabled in an Ableist World by Lucy Webster, recommended by Liz
10. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by by Omar El Akkad, recommended by AJ

Your turn: What’s one nonfiction book you recommend often? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

It’s week 5 (the final week) of Nonfiction November, when we share what books made it onto our TBR. Join Deb at Readerbuzz to see more.

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