12 Nonfiction Books We’re Excited About in 2019
By Elena Sheppard
With the start of 2019 comes a bevy of new books to explore. And while the list is overwhelmingly endless, we’ve done a little of the homework for you and selected a few nonfiction books we can’t wait to get our hands on. From works by icons like Toni Morrison, to debuts from rising stars like Jia Tolentino, 2019 has a little something for every type of nonfiction reader. Here are 12 forthcoming releases that have our nonfiction loving hearts all aflutter.
1. Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love, by Dani Shapiro (January 15)
Prolific best-selling memoirist and novelist Dani Shapiro’s new book is about a circumstance that wouldn’t have been possible a generation ago. After submitting her DNA to a genealogy website, Shapiro learns that the man she always knew to be her father, is not her biological father – it is from there that the story unfolds. Inheritance is about the secrets we keep, what makes a family, and the idea that technology has perhaps outpaced our emotional capacity.
2. Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive, by Stephanie Land (January 22)
Stephanie Land is a first-time author, and her memoir traces her years spent as a single-mother struggling to make ends meet as a housecleaner. For anyone who has never lived in poverty, the book promises to be an eye-opening view at what struggling to survive looks like in America.
3. Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts, by Jill Abramson (February 5)
Former executive editor of the New York Times, Jill Abramson uses her new book to explore how news media has changed over the past decade. Abramson follows the New York Times, the Washington Post, BuzzFeed, and Vice, to elucidate the differences in old vs. new media, and tackle issues of trust, profit, standards, and technology.
4. The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays, by Esmé Weijun Wang (February 5)
The Collected Schizophrenias won the Graywolf Nonfiction Prize, which means a lot of eyes are already on this read. In this, Wang’s first collection of essays, the writer confronts her journey toward her diagnosis of schizophrenia. Wang’s first book, a novel called The Border of Paradise, landed her on Granta’s prestigious once-in-a-decade Best of Young American Novelists list. Hype for her nonfiction debut abounds.
5. The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations, by Toni Morrison (February 12)
The Nobel Prize winning author of Beloved, requires no introduction. In her latest release, Morrison gives readers a chance to explore her non-fiction voice through her essays, speeches, and meditations.
6. White, by Bret Easton Ellis (April 16)
Bret Easton Ellis hasn’t released a book in a decade, but the author of American Psycho remains just as controversial as ever. In his first non-fiction release, White, Ellis takes on the century we live in and the “dangerous cult of likability“.
7. Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump, by Rick Reilly (April 2)
Rich Reilly has been called the “closest thing sportswriting ever had to a rock star”. Now his using his well-crafted powers to take on Trump in an unexpected way, by analyzing the way the president plays golf. The connections betweens Trump’s patterns on the putting green and in the White House are impossible to ignore.
8. What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About: Fifteen Writers Break the Silence, edited by Michele Filgate (April 30)
Born out of Filgate’s essay of the same name published on Longreads in 2017, this collection mines the talents of many brilliant writers all tackling the same topic of fractures in the relationships with the women who bore them. The collection features essays by Alexander Chee, Carmen Maria Machado, and Leslie Jamison, among others.
9. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion, by Jia Tolentino (August 6)
Since her move from Jezebel to the New Yorker, Jia Tolentino’s literary star has been on the rise. In her debut collection, Tolentino uses nine original essays to critique our culture’s current moment. The essays explore a range of topics including the expectation to forever be perfecting ourselves, and how the social internet has changed (essentially) everything.
10. The Witches Are Coming, by Lindy West (September 17)
One of the journalism’s most important feminist voices, West’s new book lays out how the misogyny of popular culture lay the groundwork for Trump’s inevitable election.
11. Make It Scream, Make It Burn, by Leslie Jamison (October 3)
The details about Leslie Jamison’s new collection, Make It Scream, Make It Burn, are scarce, but the title comes from her 2013 essay of the same name. We are eagerly awaiting more details.
12. In the Dream House, by Carmen Maria Machado (October)
Carmen Maria Machado’s highly celebrated debut collection of short stories came out in 2017. Machado is following up Her Body and Other Parties with this memoir about her experience in an abusive same-sex relationship.
