"bestseller"

2018 · Tara Westover · 334 pages · Non-Fiction

Tara Westover's memoir about growing up in a survivalist family in Idaho and eventually earning a PhD from Cambridge is one of the most gripping non-fiction narratives published in recent years. The writing is controlled and precise, rendering scenes of domestic danger and intellectual awakening with equal vividness. Westover doesn't moralize about her family or her choices, and that restraint gives the book its power. Some readers question the reliability of memory in a book that reconstructs dialogue and scenes from childhood. Others find the later academic chapters less compelling than the harrowing early sections. But as a story about what it means to educate yourself out of one world and into another, and what you lose in the process, it's unforgettable.

2011 · Yuval Noah Harari · 464 pages · Non-Fiction

Yuval Noah Harari's sweeping history of humanity is the kind of book that makes you feel smarter while you're reading it and leaves you with plenty to argue about afterward. The first half, covering the Cognitive Revolution and the Agricultural Revolution, is brilliant popular science writing that actually changes how you think about human history. The second half, where Harari shifts from historian to philosopher, is more uneven, relying on bold claims that sometimes outpace their evidence. Specialists in various fields have raised legitimate concerns about oversimplification. But as a book that makes you reconsider assumptions you didn't know you had, it remains one of the most stimulating non-fiction reads of the past decade.