Best Nonfiction and History books of November 2024, as chosen by the Amazon Editors
Music, murder, and mayhem—all three play a role in several of our Best of the Month History and Nonfiction books. November’s books also feature the brilliance and beauty of the natural world—the plants and animals, and those who are fighting to protect them. Looking for even more to read? Here are the Amazon Editors’ favorite books across all genres, published in November.
Vanishing Treasures is filled with the wonder and awe of the most extraordinary animals—the perfect book to lose yourself in, or to bring up at any family gathering to avoid talking about politics. Katherine Rundell, author of the beloved best-selling (and Amazon Editors’ Pick) Impossible Creatures, has written a nonfiction tale that will spark your curiosity and love of the natural world, and leave you highlighting incredible facts about five-century-old sharks that grow 23-feet long (but survive off the caloric equivalent of about a cookie a day), air-filled hedgehogs that burst like balloons, tuna that swim so fast the Pentagon models missiles on their bodies, wombats with lush fur as gold as Marilyn Monroe’s hair…. Reading about these enchanting animals is perhaps the only opportunity humans have to encounter them, as they’re exceedingly rare and endangered. And each comes alive in short, vibrant chapters and vivid sketches, inspiring readers to savor what we have, and perhaps strive to save what could soon be gone forever. —Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor
For the environmentally-conscious among us, it's often important to take a step back from what we believe the solution to our energy crisis is and examine if the right priorities are being set. This timely book forces the reader, particularly those who believe their opinion is the right one, to reckon with the fact that renewable energy doesn't necessarily mean clean. In our race to make every car electric, how often do we stop to think about just how much of the earth we need to dig up in order to make it happen? In our desire to have the latest tech, how many tons of earth needs to be displaced in order to create a single mobile phone? If you want to know how our need for power impacts the earth, Power Metal is a must-read. —Ben Grange, Amazon Editor
Braiding Sweetgrass author Robin Wall Kimmerer returns with a short but powerful call to change the way we look at the world. Kimmerer reveals the quiet power of the serviceberry, a plant that gives away its sweet fruit to birds—and in doing so, ensures its own survival. Kimmerer posits that we should model our economy after the serviceberry’s selfless act, and reap the rewards—instead of our current economy that threatens scarcity and resource hoarding. “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency,” Kimmerer writes. From both Indigenous wisdom and the plant world, we can learn to re-envision what our society values most. This important work is a clarion call that feels both revelatory and vital. —Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor
…Are you ready for it? Some books deserve to be read while blasting music in the background, and legendary music journalist Rob Sheffield’s is one of them. (Assuming the tunes are Taylor’s Version, of course.) Sheffield delivers a 224-page love story to Swift, delving into both her prowess as a singer and songwriter, while deftly slipping her lyrics into his writing—which is sure to delight Swifties who love to hunt for her famous Easter eggs. Clearly enchanted, Sheffield also goes deep into Swift’s outsize impact on our culture: “There’s nobody you can compare her to, not even the greats…at this point, she’s the most massive pop sensation since Michael Jackson or The Beatles, her popularity on the rise even when it seems like there’s nowhere for her to rise to.” The backlash to her “messy, fascinating” fame —which fans know all too well—only adds to her reputation, Sheffield says. Dear reader, this pocket-sized book would make a perfect stocking stuffer this holiday season. —Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor
Speaking of books with a soundtrack, you’ll definitely want to crank “The Messiah” while reading Charles King’s lively history. This book is about so much more than the story behind the classic holiday “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” oratorio though. It’s about the wild times that birthed the music played in every church, elevator, and department store come Christmastime. There are royals jockeying for power (including one more queen locked in a castle...forever?), murder and mayhem on the streets of London, witches being burned at the stake... and George Frideric Handel in the middle, dazzling with his music while essentially tap dancing for his supper. The drama rises and falls just as the stirring chords do. —Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor
Mark Harmon, star of the TV show NCIS, and Leon Carroll, Jr., a retired real-life NCIS special agent, have teamed up once again to pen a vivid and narrative account of history. Ghosts of Panama comes just one year after Ghosts of Honolulu, and both are Amazon Editors’ Picks. In Ghosts of Panama, tensions are running high in Panama City—especially after a Marine is gunned down. A special agent finds himself thrust into the action, investigating the murder, trying to protect his young family, privy to secrets that could damage both the US and Panama City. This tale is more riveting than any episode of the hit series, and even more impactful because it’s a true story. —Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor
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