\n<\/p>\n
Discovering nonfiction that reads like a story but keeps the scholarship front and center is the great white whale hunt for bookish adventurers. Countless authors attempt the feat, but it\u2019s rare to find a book that showcases not only a fresh voice but also a new perspective.<\/p>\n
Scientific American staff read some truly exceptional nonfiction books in 2025 while on the prowl for intriguing stories, robust reporting and exceptional voices. Below is Scientific American\u2019s best nonfiction of 2025, culminating a year of reading and adding new books to the top shelf.<\/p>\n
If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n
All books featured here have been independently selected by our editors. If you buy something through links on our site, Scientific American may earn an affiliate commission.<\/p>\n
Empire of AI
by Karen Hao
Penguin Press
Tags: AI, Investigative<\/p>\n
Easily one of the most gripping nonfiction books I\u2019ve ever read, it keeps you hanging with cliff-hangers that envelop its dramatic characters, occasionally brave and often cowardly people hired and fired by artificial intelligence company OpenAI. One of the few journalists ever invited to interview OpenAI staff, Hao\u2019s expertise flies off every page, and her dozens of pages of notes and citations back it up. She doesn\u2019t hold back as she unveils the ivory towers and monied meetings driving AI, as well as the unrecognized workers around the globe sacrificing their mental health to build it safer. \u2014Brianne Kane, Associate Editor\/Books & Rights Manager<\/p>\n
Is a River Alive?
by Robert Macfarlane
W. W. Norton
Tags: Environment, History<\/p>\n
Does nature have inherent rights\u2014to be respected and to be protected and restored from damage? To find answers, nature writer Robert Macfarlane traveled to three very different rivers in Ecuador, India and eastern Canada. His keen observational eye and provocative prose reveal the majesty of the many degraded rivers around the world. \u2014Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor<\/p>\n
Replaceable You
by Mary Roach
W. W. Norton
Tags: Medical Science, Humor<\/p>\n
Roach has knocked it out of the park again. We follow her around the globe as she sniffs out the most curious, novel and extraordinary science happening in the amorphous field of human augmentation. In just the tip of the iceberg of her many adventures in this slim book, she interviews people who have elected to have their limbs removed, meets scientists studying pig organs and spends some time in an iron lung just to see what it feels like. Roach\u2019s writing is on full display on these pages. She\u2019s brilliant but also approachable and funny\u2014a dream dinner guest in your pocket. \u2014Brianne Kane, Associate Editor\/Books & Rights Manager<\/p>\n
Everything Is Tuberculosis
by John Green
Crash Course Books
Tags: Medical Science, History<\/p>\n
Everything Is Tuberculosis shatters the misconception of a disease too easily thought vanquished. In this urgent and compassionate work, John Green shows how this illness is still the world\u2019s deadliest infectious disease, and he does it with sharp reporting and deeply emotional storytelling. His voice resonates with clarity and conviction. The book combines history and science to make the unsettling point that tuberculosis is nothing but a social issue tied to inequality. Eye-opening and unsettling, it\u2019s a call to action against inequality to be remembered in nonfiction. \u2014Isabella Bruni, Digital Producer<\/p>\n
The Feather Detective
by Chris Sweeney
Avid Reader Press
Tags: True Crime, Bird Books<\/p>\n
In 1960 a commercial flight taking off from Boston Logan International Airport ran into a flock of birds and nosedived into nearby Winthrop Bay, killing 62 of the 72 people on board. Investigators sent bird remains embedded in the wreckage to the Smithsonian Institution in what became the first forensics case for Roxie Laybourne, a then up-and-coming taxidermist at the institute and the wonderful protagonist of this compelling, novel-like account. Journalist Chris Sweeney traces Laybourne\u2019s rise to become a legendary forensic ornithologist, one who in her career would identify the remains of more than 10,000 airplane-struck birds. \u2014Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor<\/p>\n
This Is for Everyone
by Tim Berners-Lee
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Tags: Technology, History<\/p>\n
This might be the first celebrity memoir I\u2019ve ever read, inspired by my former co-worker Hector Coronado\u2019s promise of \u201cRebecca Solnit\u2013esque optimism\u201d and an introduction to the technology behind the World Wide Web that non\u2013tech nerds could understand. It\u2019s a breezy ride through the life of Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, who peppers the Web\u2019s key technological developments and societal challenges with the occasional encounter with Bono or the Queen of England. Most powerful is Berners-Lee\u2019s dedication to his vision of what the Web, specifically, and the Internet writ large can be\u2014even as the rich and powerful have spent decades manipulating it to their own ends. \u2014Meghan Bartels, Senior Reporter<\/p>\n
Human Nature
by Kate Marvel
Ecco
Tags: Climate Change, History<\/p>\n
Marvel is a huge figure in the climate science world, and her book offers a compelling introduction to the science of how our planet is changing. But this engaging book does so much more. Each chapter explores one emotion that climate change can inspire in us. And sitting with these emotions isn\u2019t a frivolous distraction from the work that needs to be done, Marvel argues. Instead, feeling deeply about our world and the threats it faces\u2014the anger and fear and grief, of course, but also the wonder and surprise and hope\u2014is a necessary step in healing our planet. \u2014Meghan Bartels, Senior Reporter<\/p>\n
Take to the Trees
by Marguerite Holloway
W. W. Norton
Tags: Memoir, Nature<\/p>\n
Holloway, a professor of journalism at Columbia University, takes us to a new understanding about the trials and tribulations of ecology, contrasting the planet\u2019s environmental crisis with her own personal stories of survival. She climbs great hemlocks with a women\u2019s climbing group to overcome a fear of heights brought on by motherhood and the loss of her brother and mother. We learn along with her to appreciate the details, described so lovingly and painstakingly, of endangered trees. The spot illustrations of leaves, bark, roots and seeds by Ellen Wiener enliven our enjoyment even more. (Full disclosure: Holloway and I were colleagues at Scientific American for many years, and I was privileged to see her journalism career blossom.) \u2014Maria-Christina Keller, Copy Director<\/p>\n
They Poisoned the World
by Mariah Blake
Crown
Tags: True Crime, History<\/p>\n
An epic of science writing, for which Blake conducted more than 600 interviews, They Poisoned the World brings readers to Hoosick Falls, N.Y., where townspeople keep falling ill and dying from a mysterious cause. Meanwhile the local factories producing Teflon pump pollutants into local water supplies. Over decades, the dangers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, so called forever chemicals, come to light despite the manufacturers\u2019 attempts to keep dodging responsibility. This book will likely leave you horrified and enraged. But reckoning with the truth\u2014no matter how stomach-turning\u2014is the first step toward justice. \u2014Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor<\/p>\n
Raising Hare
by Chloe Dalton
Pantheon
Tags: Memoir, Nature<\/p>\n
If the sensation \u201ccozy\u201d were a book, it would be Chloe Dalton\u2019s memoir Raising Hare. She recounts her tale as a workaholic city slicker who starts living in a cottage in the English countryside during the height of the pandemic. Out on a walk one day, she comes across an abandoned newborn hare. After deliberating, she brings it home with her. Determined to maintain a kind of wild existence for the animal, she rearranges her life to care for the sweet creature. Along the way, Dalton discovers a newfound interest in the natural world and draws attention to how commercial agricultural practices harm wild animals. This book may especially appeal to animal lovers, but it will warm all hearts. \u2014Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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