Reading can offer not only an escape but also a wealth of knowledge and an insight into different perspectives. As 2024 begins, brushing up your company library with a selection of handpicked general-interest nonfiction books could provide valuable insights for those rare breaks between your legal tasks. This list features selections that have touched on varied topics, from historical narratives to intriguing memoirs, and explores profound themes that can resonate with a spectrum of readers.
The list’s rules are simple: the compiler must have read the book in the previous twelve months, and audiobooks do not count. Novels also do not make the cut, however captivating they might be. Each of the chosen 15 nonfiction books had to be, in the compiler’s esteemed opinion, better than any of the others read during the preceding year.
- Escape from Colditz by P.R. Reid
- Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly
- The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire by William Dalrymple
- The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions by Peter Brannen
- A Lot Can Happen in the Middle of Nowhere: The Untold Story of the Making of Fargo by Todd Melby
- The Monster’s Bones: The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World by David K. Randall
- Hellhound on His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt in American History by Hampton Sides
- Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris
- Getting Out of Saigon: How a 27-Year-Old Banker Saved 113 Vietnamese Civilians by Ralph White
- Shadows at Dawn: An Apache Massacre and the Violence of History by Karl Jacoby
- Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick
- Bomb: The Race to Build — and Steal — the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin
- The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Healthy, Happy Self by Michael Easter
- Scarcity Brain: Fix Your Craving Mindset and Rewire Your Habits to Thrive with Enough by Michael Easter
- The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
This selection was curated by Jonathan Wolf, a civil litigator and author of Your Debt-Free JD. Wolf has made it his business to be financially and scientifically literate, leading him to share these compelling selections, promising a rich and captivating literary journey in 2024.