I read A LOT of Non-Fiction... Here Are My Favorite Books of the Year. 

The most unexpected but best memoir I read this year was “Down the Drain” by Julia Fox. I couldn’t believe I was reading something real! You love reading books that take place in NYC so I highly recommend it. She is a great writer too!

Gonna take the rec for A Little History! I thought I hated history when I was younger, but I’ve come to realize it was just the dense, impersonal way that it gets taught in schools so often. It wasn’t until college where I was taking art history classes that I was able to connect history to the current moment and learn to appreciate the humanity in every time period.

the editing on this video is beautiful

Good non-fiction and good fiction are complementary palette cleansers. Really good non-fiction writing hits certain spots that very good fiction writing doesn't always hit, but that's likely by design. "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann is probably my fave non-fiction book this year. I have not seen the film yet.

The way this came on the day that I've been searching through my StoryGraph for book recs. Beautiful!

I haven't read any non fiction this year (other than my curriculum) but I am getting more and more invested in the stories you recommend, I utterly love it.

the best nonfiction book i read this year was “when breath becomes air” and it was PHENOMENAL

I've been watching through your old vids and it's been fun watching your sub count climb so quickly from around 15 k to now 21.3! congrats :D

Love your channel! Any plans on a holiday book guide? For different people in your life… enjoyed the last one

My favorite non-fiction of this year was "Into the wild". I feel the same about this book as you feel for "Wild". 🙂 Congrats on the 20k, queen! To many more! 💙

Top 5 Best Things About Ana Wallace Johnson, 2023: 1) She is so glamorous: Whether tromping through the woods on some misguided vacation, lounging about her luxurious NYC apartment, or prowling the city's bookstores, AWJ brings the Glamour with a capital G. I can only assume the magazine is named after her. 2) She reads. A lot: There is nothing more appealing than someone who loves reading, and AWJ loves reading so much she climbs onto her youtube platform every week to tell us about all her reading. And we are better for it! 3) She is fashionable: And I say this as someone who is known far and wide for having zero fashion sense regarding my own apparel, but I know real fashion when I see it, and AWJ embodies real fashion. She does her own thing, and it always works. That's real fashion. Take notes, people! 4) She's a hipster. But in a good way: Yes, yes, I know, we all know--hipsters are a scourge that should be all exiled to live in Brooklyn together where they belong. But a rare few hipsters, like AWJ, would be given an exemption from this horrific and just punishment because she is the unique hipster who is not a snob! It's true! She freely admits her faults and foibles and actually takes advice that people give her : 0 I know, I know--hipsters take no one's advice but their own! But not AWJ. She has evolved to a higher plane. Perhaps beyond all of us. 5) She likes year-end lists: Year-end lists are the best. They are, frankly, indispensable. Imagine if you fell into a Rip Van Winkle-like sleep (or had some terrible accident that put you into a coma, if you're more fatalistic)--when you woke up after a year, what would you do? You'd check all the year-end lists to see what you missed. And--obviously, people--watch a year's worth of AWJ all in one sitting, which would be like the best thing ever. Can you even imagine?

The Glass Castle is 👌 top tier this year. Heartache and heartwarming wrapped in 1

My favorite nonfiction books that I read this year are Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami (my first Murakami and I loved it) and Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. Congratulations on reaching 20,000 members!!🎉 I found your channel when it was around 900 ❤

great list!! idk if this counts as non-fiction but i loved the everyman’s pocket poems books and libraries collection. also i love the color in your videos, makes them so much fun to watch!

your videos are a combination of my two favourite things: literature and unintentional asmr.

Ana, your videos are like my petroleum lamp which never fails to light up after the first spark. It creates the condition needed for reading. You could say your are the pavlovian bell to my reading gland. Which sounds like a line from das parfum, which is a little concerning. Well, keep shining your light!

My top 10 10. Frankenstein - Mary Shelly 9. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole 8. As a Man Thinketh - James Allen 7. Mere Christianity - CS Lewis 6. Notes from the Underground - Feodor Dostoyevsky 5. Inside the Third Reich - Albert Speer 4. John Adam - David McCullough 3. Pax - Tom Holland 2. Slaughter House Five - Kurt Vonnegut 1. Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse

oooh I love end of year lists! I have found some great books both through best of and worst of lists. This has been a meh year for me for reading in general but especially non fiction. Hoping to get my reading groove back in '24

I also love John Waters, I read a lot of his books this year but not Crackpot just yet. Someone else mentioned Julia Fox's memoir, I loved that too. I got really into celebrity memoirs this year for my nonfiction reads, I typically don't enjoy them but the Pamela Anderson, Britney Spears, and Julia Fox memoirs were great reads.

Ah amazing, I love your videos and I love nonfiction books. So this video was the perfect combination. My favorite nonfiction books this year were I am I am I am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell. This book touched me deeply and I am thinking about it a lot even 6 months later. The other one was In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado. It is a real masterpiece in my opinion. Very unique writing style and bery personal. At the same time enriched with a lot of knowledge and studies and literature references. I want to reread both books next year. Another great memoir was Know my Name by Channel Miller (about the Stanford rape case). Incredible book that everyone should read. Wild is waiting for me on my bookshelf for years now. I will definitely read it next year.

Will be gonna buy Eiger Dreams Wind I hope I'll love them!

Awesome to find someone cool that talks about non-fiction as well!

Love this list. A great underrated Patrick Radden Keefe book is The Snakehead! He’s one of my favorite authors.

bloody love an end of year list

one of my fav books is one by Raynor Winn, about her and her husband hiking the east coast path in the UK. read it several times now. I believe its called The salt path in English (read it in dutch). And i will definitely read the books by Oliver Sacks and Cheryl Strayed!

Sontag's book was a favorite for me this year. I think I was on an art kick as I also read and really enjoyed Seven Days in the Art World by Thornton and the $12 Million Stuffed Shark by Thompson. That one was an interesting read about the contemporary art and what people will pay for it.

i find non-fiction reads quite daunting however this was great condensed material for me to pluck the courage and dive in ✨

AWJ, I just finished reading Endurance by Alfred Lansing, you simply must read it! It’s proto-Krakauer, about Shackleton’s 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole, you would love it. Hugely recommend, for you especially!!!

its "could not care less". if you could care less that means you do care some.

Great video and some wonderful books. Favourite non-fiction book of this year was the biography of Agatha Christie by Lucy Worsley called Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman.

I unfortunately had more nonfiction misses this year than hits, BUT the one hit was absolutely amazing - "The Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollan. Hopefully 2024 is a better nonfiction year for me - maybe reading from your list can help with that! 😁

I'm about to finish Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom. It is about anthropodermic books - books bound in human skin. Explores the stories behind the people who bound them and those whose skin was bound. Fascinating and easy to read. I'm liking it a lot.

I am not a fan of nonfiction but listening to you talk about these books has made me want to read some of them. I am definitely intrigued by An Anthropologist on Mars. I also want to read Wild. I am struggling with the aging process and need some encouragement. I have some spinal issues that limit my mobility and it is very stressful. I find books about people who face challenges but succeed against the odds very motivating. So, maybe that book is just what I need.

I have to check out some of those books. The books I read consist of a 50/50 fiction and nonfiction work, and in many cases, fiction and nonfiction are conversing. Reading nonfiction works such as Dopesick and Empire of Pain can be paired with a novel by Stephen Markley, "Ohio," Say Nothing can be conversing with Anna Burns' "Milkman". I'm here for books with great storytelling, be it fiction or nonfiction. Also, there's more than one narrative.

If Wild is your favorite out of this group, try Lost on the Appalachian Trail.

Just loved Wild - “Everything is Figure-Outable” by Marie Forleo… Inspiring pick me up…

A Life of One’s Own Nine Women Writers Begin Again by Joanna Biggs and Too Much and Not the Mood by Durga Chew-Bose were my 2 nonfic faves this year!

Yeah, I'm reading more nonfiction recently also. I put Regarding the Pain of Other on Hold at the NYPL. So I'll read that one.

I’m going to recommend Liliana’s invincible summer, The climb and waiting to be arrested at night. These are the best non fiction books I’ve read this year

I always to try non fiction bok groups ...never find them.

Love your cardigan! Where is it from? :)

I read white tiger from your another recommendation video, minor problems but it was good so thank you and Congrats on your subscribers. The non fiction I read recently was from spiritual genre "freedom the first and last" by j krishnamurti and I liked it so much that I keep recommending it to everyone. I don't think I have ever seen life in that way and from whatever wakes of life one comes from I do think everyone should give it a try atleast once. Another gorgeous inspiring short book I read was "Jonathan Livingston seagull"; it is about a bird's journey, i know how it sounds but its such a beautiful classic........

Is Barry Lopez on your radar? Because I think you might really enjoy (well, any of his, but especially) "Horizon".

I loooove Oliver Sacks! He has such a sympathetic, human approach to psychology

I’m more of a non-fiction reader too

I meant to read "Wild" ages ago and only picked it up about a month ago. I liked it, but found it a bit slow in places. Still it's a wonderful read. I'm currently reading The Puma Years by Laura Coleman. Maybe you know, maybe you don't. This is also a memoir and if you like animals this might be worth checking out. Thank you for sharing your list.

I’ve only read three non-fiction this year: I’m Glad My Mom Died, Atomic Habits, and (currently reading, more than half way through) The Myth of Normal. I would recommend all three. Edit: I read Wild about 10 years ago and I still think about it! Not sure if she still has a podcast but I loved all her love and relationship advice.

“Hello Molly!”, “In the Dream House” and “Why Fish Don’t Exist” are some of my favorite nonfiction books of this year.

Highly recommend “tiny beautiful things” by Cheryl Strayed, if you haven’t read it already!

Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H. and Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me by Ada Calhoun were my favorites this year. Oh and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. I know we're on the same page about this book lol and I'll die on this hill.

if you liked dopesick then my memoir called 'not the flag' is about my story and how i became an opioid addict in long island ny early 2000's. The dentist sold me prescription pills and I became hooked, but I had already been infected when I went to Iran for vacation and served in the IRGC in Iran my very first time at the age of 17 and was introduced to opiates there because they were given out like candy. Due to potential retaliation from the Iranian government, I didn't detail too much of my story. I will spill all the beans in detail when my wife and kids arrive in California . A short 50-page memoir outlines the series of events. perhaps you and your audience will enjoy it...I love your channel and your recs!

The best non-fiction I read this year was Into Thin Air, i had to let Jon know its effect on me and he acknowledged my comment. Krakauer is a fantastic writer, I'm getting through his works one at a time.

I laughed when you talked about Wild being so in your face that you didn’t want to read it because I felt the same. I also disliked the gigantic shoe on the cover. A few years ago I read it and it changed my life. Now I keep multiple used book copies of Wild on my shelf just in case I run into someone who has not read it and I think they would love it. I also keep extra copies of The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls for this same purpose. Please, please, please, put down whatever you are reading and get a copy of this book. Don’t watch the movie, read the book. It along with Wild and Just Kids by Patti Smith are the most extraordinary memoirs I’ve come across. By this I mean, there are images and snippets in these books that you can’t forget about. They stay as vivid in your mind as if they were your own memories and the writing is so gorgeous I underline entire passages.

I read „Free: Coming of Age at the End of History“ by Lea Ypi last year and loved it. The author talks about how she grew up in socialist Albania through the lens of her own family. Really interesting and inspiring!

I loved "Crackpot" by John Waters ! He is hilarious !

Here's my favorite nonfiction reads of 2023 1. The woman in me by britney spears 2. Spare prince harry 3. What my bones know by Stephenie foo 4. I have the right to by chessy prout 5. Lucky me by sachi parker 6. Pageboy by elliot page 7. Tell me everything by minka Kelly

What a non-fiction charming girl!!!

One of my favorite nonfiction books of the year was Muppets in Moscow by Natasha Lance Rogoff. Games Without Rules The Often Interrupted History of Afghanistan by Tamim Ansary was good too.

Omg I'm so earlyyyyyy lyyyyyy❤

What did you think of The Solace of Open Spaces? I own it but haven’t started! ❤️

My favorite line from Wild: "Besides, I already knew about the ten thousand things. They were all the named and unnamed things in the world and together they added up to less than how much my mother loved me. And I her."

I definitely get what you mean about historical nonfiction. This year has been the first time I've really dove into historical fiction - I'd kind of put off a lot of nonfiction for a while because it can be daunting when you don't know where to start, especially in the case of historical or medical nonfiction. But this year I'm the dramaturg on a production of Marie Antoinette (a play by David Adjmi), so a natural part of researching her has involved reading about her. I've admittedly not finished either of the books about her that I'm reading because I'm also reading a lot of other things for school or leisure or personal research, but it's been interesting reading Stefan Zweig's biography alongside Antonia Fraser's biography, among other shorter articles and essays here and there. What I've found in my research so far is that a lot of writing on Marie Antoinette can get very dense because she had quite an eventful life (and death), but also, for lack of a better way of putting it, no one seems to really have a normal opinion about Marie Antoinette. So some of the writing about her can get very unhinged as well, which says a lot about the way Marie Antoinette is situated in history and culture, but also sometimes makes the reading process simultaneously frustrating at times and easier to lean into or even entertaining. Approaching some of these books I was very nervous about getting overwhelmed or feeling stupid by dense historical information (which granted, sometimes can still happen), but then some of these texts would have kind of bizarre passages that even if they were off-putting politically, they would be kind of funny to me because it felt like a crack in the façade of the super cerebral, academic ("unbiased") image that these biographers hold, if that makes sense. Also, I reread Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, and that piece always hits for me. Bechdel is a fascinating person to me, and I wish more people knew about her beyond being the name in the Bechdel test. To me, Fun Home is very well crafted both in terms of being a graphic memoir as well as a literary piece. It's certainly not an easy read emotionally, but it's something that a part of me thinks everyone should read at some point in their life. I've been wanting to read more nonfiction in general, and some books on my list for that include other works by Alison Bechdel, as well as a lot of books by Oliver Sacks, and many of the books you've mentioned (I too am greatly entertained/intrigued by John Waters).

I only read two non-fiction books this year and I loved them both. I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell (the writer of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait). And The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel. It reads like a novel.

Hike the pct instead it's more fun

Affected?

100 Years War On Palestine by Rashid Khalidi + many more Palestinian non fiction about the occupation.

you have an extraordinary knack for seducing the mind effortlessly, but please stop making me buy books thank you 😅

There are different ways to look at people who can tolerate Klosterman. I must figure that you are of a very sweet nature and feel bad for him, bless you. To think that you were just being born when some of us were being exposed to his early drivel in the pages of the then-existent New York Press. Then the big publishers started printing his books with "Cocoa Puffs" in the titles. Perhaps yours is a more forgiving generation!

أهلا وسهلا How old are you, do you work out ? You look like a model by the way Do you live in a castle? Your house looks a lot like mine and I haven't seen many houses decorated like that in the western world except castles or mansions. Sorry for all my questions, youtube recommended me your channel btw.

I gotta get a woman with hair like yours and one that plays with it as much as you do

Can we stopppp talking about Skillshare? We've seen it. Everybody has this same sponsor. We got it.

my favourite non-fiction memoir was the argonauts by maggie nelson, honestly was amazing! my other fav was ‘chopin: a journey through romanticism’ by paul kildea, such a great music nonfiction read🙏🫶