There’s no shortage of good reading on the horizon. Among the nonfiction books that we’re most eagerly anticipating this spring, you’ll find memoirs by celebrities (Liza Minnelli, Arsenio Hall), acclaimed novelists (Manil Suri, Jayne Anne Phillips) and others, along with true crime narratives, books about science and technology, biographies of the Rolling Stones and the “Doonesbury” creator Garry Trudeau, and more.
March
Memoir
Arsenio
by Arsenio Hall
The “Coming to America” star turned talk show host paints a vivid, outrageous portrait of the comedy scene of the ’80s and ’90s. Expect cameos from Richard Pryor, Muhammad Ali, Tupac Shakur, Patti LaBelle, Maya Angelou, Jay Leno and, of course, his co-star Eddie Murphy.
true crime
Cave Mountain
by Benjamin Hale
What begins as a day hike gone wrong quickly veers into ghost story territory. The disappearance of a 6-year-old girl — Hale’s cousin — may be only the latest twist in this stranger-than-fiction tale of a doomsday cult deep in the Arkansas Ozarks.
cultural history
Chain of Ideas
by Ibram X. Kendi
The author of the acclaimed 2019 treatise “How to Be an Antiracist” is back with another book about the state of Western bigotry. This time his focus is “great replacement theory,” the concept that there is an elite conspiracy to nudge white people in Europe and the United States off the map by encouraging low birthrates and promoting an influx of Black and brown immigrants. Kendi argues that replacement theory animates much of our politics today, and traces its evolution from the tirades of a French novelist to halls of power in Viktor Orban’s Hungary and Donald Trump’s America.
memoir
In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man
by Tom Junod
The veteran magazine writer has been trying to understand his swaggering, womanizing father since he was 16. Decades later, the family secrets Junod uncovers form the backbone of this detective story turned masculinity memoir.
MEMOIR
Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!
by Liza Minnelli
In the annals of showbiz survivors, has there ever been anyone more showbiz, and more a survivor, than Liza Minnelli? This memoir (as told to the singer Michael Feinstein) hits the professional highs (an Oscar, an Emmy and three Tonys); the personal highs (those nights at Studio 54); and plenty of the lows, including four marriages and about as many trips to rehab.
FAMILY HISTORY
Kutchinsky’s Egg
By Serena Kutchinsky
When Kutchinsky was a child, her life was turned upside down by her father’s obsession with crafting the world’s largest jeweled egg. Long after her family’s jewelry firm had been ruined and her family decimated by the scope of her father’s fixation, the author returns to the demons that drove him — and the mystery of the missing Argyle Library Egg.
sports
Metropolitans
by A.M. Gittlitz
For fans who’d prefer not to relive the Mets’ epic September meltdown — all the more painful when you consider the team’s gargantuan 2025 payroll — Gittlitz delivers a wide-ranging history of New York baseball’s “working-class-coded” underdogs, whose outsize role in the civil rights, antiwar and labor movements might dwarf its checkered performance on the field.
history
Stay Alive
by Ian Buruma
How do people get by under authoritarianism? That’s the question that haunts this human-scale chronicle of Berlin during the Third Reich. Through letters, journals and memoirs, Buruma paints the portraits of everyday Berliners who did their best to keep their heads down, conform or compromise when the Nazis took over and dictatorship turned to war and genocide.
science
When the Forest Breathes
by Suzanne Simard
If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it … it decomposes, leaving behind nutrients and carbon dioxide for young seedlings to absorb. It’s not as much of a head-scratcher as the original thought experiment, but that’s exactly Simard’s point in this ecological study and treatise on natural life cycles — both human and botanical.
April
Literary criticism
Against Breaking
by Ada Limón
The popular 24th poet laureate of the United States offers a slim, approachable meditation on poetry as a lens through which readers can view themselves and the world.
current events
The Future Is Peace
by Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon
Two authors, one Palestinian and one Israeli, set off on a weeklong expedition across their conflict-stricken homelands in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack, advocating for nonviolence and reconciliation.
Political Science
How to Be a Dissident
by Gal Beckerman
Following his 2022 examination of movement building, “The Quiet Before,” Beckerman zooms in on individual dissidents throughout history to ask: What do they have in common? And how might a modern activist — or even just your average Joe — incorporate those shared characteristics and philosophies into everyday life?
true crime
London Falling
by Patrick Radden Keefe
Consider this a real-life Harlan Coben novel. After 19-year-old Zac Brettler plunges to his death in the Thames, his grieving family discovers his secret life, where he posed as the heir of a phony Russian oligarch. From there, Keefe reconstructs the seedy underbelly of London that the Brettlers delve into as they attempt to pinpoint what — or who — killed their son.
music
The Rolling Stones
by Bob Spitz
Spitz, who has written books about the Beatles, Julia Child, Ronald Reagan and the 1969-70 Knicks, reports on one of the most documented groups in rock history.
memoir
A Room in Bombay
by Manil Suri
Drawing from thousands of letters sent over three decades, Suri’s memoir revisits the single room in a crumbling, crowded apartment in Bombay (now Mumbai) that his family shared. Part prison, part haven, the room is imbued with deeper meaning as Suri wrestles with his enduring love for his mother.
Memoir
Small Town Girls
by Jayne Anne Phillips
The celebrated novelist’s memoir in essays is a nostalgia-steeped ode to Appalachia with pieces ranging from a history of the feuding Hatfields and McCoys to sketches of small-town beauty salons and more.
Food Memoir
Salt, Sweat & Steam
by Brigid Washington
Washington, a Trinidadian food writer, was volunteering as a pantry chef at a restaurant in Raleigh, N.C., when she landed a spot at the vaunted Culinary Institute of America. She recounts the bruises and burns of that experience while offering insight into the pleasures of island cooking in this discerning memoir.
history
This Land Is Your Land
by Beverly Gage
From the opening of Disneyland in 1955 to a night at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, Gage’s road trip through our past approaches history with an eye for the people who have kept America’s founding ideals alive.
history
This Vast Enterprise
by Craig Fehrman
Fehrman’s rigorous account sheds light on previously overlooked historical figures and political machinations during the Lewis and Clark expedition, drawn from an impressive mountain of research involving dozens of archives, over 100 interviews and Indigenous oral histories passed down over generations.
May
travelogue
American Rambler
by Isaac Fitzgerald
The author of “Dirtbag, Massachusetts” seeks “to separate legend from story from memory from fact” as he traces the path of the American gardener and folk hero Johnny Appleseed from Massachusetts to Indiana.
True Crime
The Family Man
by James Lasdun
The gothic tale of Alex Murdaugh, the South Carolina lawyer who was convicted of murdering his wife and younger son. Lasdun, who covered the case for The New Yorker, writes that “justice may have been served,” but “the human element of the story didn’t seem to add up.”
technology
I Am Not a Robot
by Joanna Stern
Stern, a tech journalist, relied on A.I. for everything from household chores to medical advice over the course of a year — reports back with a lighthearted, accessible account of her findings.
essays
The Land and Its People
by David Sedaris
The prolific humorist recounts his travels and travails in Guatemala, Kenya, Vatican City and elsewhere in an essay collection sprinkled with his characteristic wit.
essays
On Witness and Respair
by Jesmyn Ward
The two-time National Book Award winner collects a decade’s worth of nonfiction, from reflections on Black literary giants to personal essays on the death of her husband and raising her son in a fractured America.
memoir
Renaissance of a Boss
by Rick Ross
In his third book, Ross, the Southern rapper known for his husky baritone, pulls out of a creative rut through travel to far-flung places, detailing his creative process and offering advice on how to “bounce back from flops.”
biography
Trudeau & Doonesbury
by Joshua Kendall
Garry Trudeau, creator of the celebrated Doonesbury cartoon series, had a knack for strips skewering politicians and capturing public sentiment in the space of a few panels. In this biography featuring more than 200 cartoons, Kendall traces the artist’s life from his childhood in the Adirondack Mountains to his momentous coverage of Watergate and Vietnam.
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