A List of Titles Discussed by the Non-Fiction Book Club
The Non-Fiction Book Club was founded in 2012. Here are the books we’ve discussed in the past. The links lead to the OCLN catalog.
2025
| Jan. | Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora |
| Feb. | The Trial of Lizzie Borden: A True Story by Cara Robertson |
| Mar. | The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery |
| Apr. | Columbine by Dave Cullen |
| May | Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Koller |
| Jun. | The Plot Against America A Novel by Philip Roth |
| Jul. | Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCour |
| Aug. | Buses Are a Comin’: Memoir of a Freedom Rider by Charles Person and Richard Rooker |
| Sep. | Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty by Mandy Matney |
| Oct. | The Wager : a Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann |
| Nov. | Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II by Elyse Graham |
2024
2023
| Jan. | The Girls of the Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan |
| Feb. | Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson |
| Mar. | The Library Book by Susan Orlean |
| Apr. | Trial by Fire: A Devastating Tragedy, a Hundred Lives Lost and a Fifteen-Year Search for the Truth by Scott James. |
| May | The Crown in Crisis: Countdown to the Abdication by Alexander Larman |
| Jun. | Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training by Adam Stern |
| Jul. | Walden by Henry David Thoreau |
| Aug. | Don’t Make Me Pull Over! An Informal History of the Family Road Trip by Richard Ratay |
| Sep. | The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff |
| Oct. | The Ghosts of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, the Women who Pursued Him, and the Murder that Shocked Jazz Age America by Karen Abbott |
| Nov. | One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America by Gene Weingarten |
2022
2021
2020
| Jan. | The Last Job: “The Bad Grandpas” and the Hatton Garden Heist by Dan Bilefsky |
| Feb. | “All the Real Indians Died Off” : and 20 other myths about Native Americans by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz |
| May | Voyage of the Mercy: The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine, and the Remarkable Story of America’s first Humanitarian Mission by Stephen Puleo |
| Jun. | Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston by Howard Bryant |
| Jul. | Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah |
| Aug. | The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk W. Johnson |
| Sep. | Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, A Virginia Town and a Civil Rights Battle by Kristin Green |
| Oct. | Above & Beyond: John F. Kennedy and America’s Most Dangerous Cold War Spy Mission by Casey Sherman and Mike Tougias |
| Nov. | The Fence: A Police Cover Up Along Boston’s Racial Divide by Dick Lehr |
| Dec. | Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck |
2019
2018
| Jan. | American Treasures : the Secret Efforts to Save the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Gettysburg Address by Stephen Puleo |
| Feb. | Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann |
| Mar. | Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard |
| Apr. | Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance |
| May | Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts |
| Jun. | Stranger in the Woods: the Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel |
| Jul. | The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley by Malcolm X and ALex Haley |
| Aug. | Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott |
| Sep. | Townie: a memoir by Andre Dubus III |
| Oct. | I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara |
| Nov. | Home Town by Tracy Kidder |
2017
2016
| Jan. | Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, The FBI, and a Devil’s Deal Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, The FBI, and a Devil's Deal by Dick Lehr |
| Feb. | The Race Underground : Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry that Built America’s First Subway by Doug Most |
| Mar. | Stealing Rembrandts : the Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heists by Anthony Amore |
| Apr. | The Greatest Treasure Hunt in History: the Story of the Monuments Men by Robert Edsel |
| May | We are Market Basket : the Story of the Unlikely Grassroots Movement that Saved a Beloved Business by Daniel Korschun and Grant Welker |
| Jun. | The Boys in the Boat : Nine Americans and their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown |
| Jul. | The Other Wes Moore : the Story of One Name and Two Fates by Wes Moore |
| Aug. | Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt |
| Sep. | Thunderstruck by Erik Larson |
| Oct. | Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow |
| Nov. | The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot |
2015
| Jan. | Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War by Nathaniel Philbrick |
| Feb. | The Finest Hours : the True Story of a Heroic Sea Rescue by Michael Tougias & Casey Sherman |
| Mar. | 1776 by David McCullough |
| Apr. | Ponzi’s Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend by Mitchell Zuckoff |
| May | The King’s Best Highway: The Lost History of the Boston Post Road, the Route That Made America by Eric Jaffe |
| Sep. | The Great Hurricane, 1938 by Cherie Burns |
| Oct. | The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger |
| Nov. | The Terrible Hours: The Greatest Submarine Rescue in History by Peter Maas |
2014
| Jan. | The Fence: A Police Cover-Up Along Boston’s Racial Divide by Dick Lehr |
| Feb. | The Ride : the Jeffrey Curley Murder and its Aftermath by Brian MacQuarrie |
| Mar. | A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr |
| Apr. | Gracefully Insane : the Rise and Fall of America’s Premier Mental Hospital by Alex Beam |
| May | The Path : a One-Mile Walk Through the Universe by Chet Raymo |
| Oct. | Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder |
| Nov. | The Map Thief : the Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps by Michael Blanding |
2013
| Jan. | The Crime of the Century: How the Brink’s Robbers Stole Millions and the Hearts of Boston by Stephanie Schorow |
| Feb. | Dark tide : the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 by Stephen Puleo |
| Mar. | A City in Terror : Calvin Coolidge and the 1919 Boston Police Strike by Francis Russell |
| Apr. | Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hackett Fischer |
| May | Cod: a Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlanksy |
| Oct. | Judge Sewall’s Apology : the Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of the American Conscience by Richard Francis |
| Nov. | Fire in the Grove: the Cocoanut Grove Tragedy and its Aftermath by John Esposito |
2012
| Feb. | Fatal Forecast: An Incredible True Tale of Disaster and Survival at Sea by Michael J. Tougias |
| Mar. | The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World’s Largest Unsolved Art Theft by Ulrich Boser |
| Apr. | American Bloomsbury : Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau : their lives, their loves, their work American Bloomsbury : Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau : their lives, their loves, their work by Susan Cheever |
| May | Sacco and Vanzetti : the men, the murders, and the judgment of mankind by Bruce Watson |
| Sep. | The Big House : a Century in the Life of an American Summer Home by George Howe Colt |
| Oct. | Samuel Adams : father of the American Revolution by Mark Puls |
| Nov. | A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger |