Best Nonfiction of 2012: The Top 25

by Gail Collins

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by Sylvie Simmons

Taking on a looming subject with intelligence and wit, Simmons manages to take the full measure of her man. Full review >

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by Katherine Boo

The best book yet written on India in the throes of a brutal transition. Full review >

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by Jonathan Kozol

Cleareyed, compassionate and hopeful. Full review >

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by Robert A. Caro

Before beginning the Johnson biography, Caro published a life of Robert Moses, The Power Broker(1974), a book many scholars... Full review >

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by Salman Rushdie

Aspects of a spy novel, a writer’s autobiography and a victim’s affidavit pulsing with resentment and fear combine to reveal... Full review >

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by Alison Bechdel illustrated by Alison Bechdel

Subtitled “A Comic Drama,” the narrative provides even fewer laughs than its predecessor but deeper introspection. Full review >

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by Tom Bissell

Stellar cultural writing—Bissell has the knowledge and wit to earn his provocations. Full review >

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by Christopher Hitchens

Certainly, Hitchens died too soon. May this moving little visit to his hospital room not be the last word from him. Full review >

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by Paul Auster

A consummate professional explores the attic of his life, converting rumination to art. Full review >

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by Michael J. Sandel

An exquisitely reasoned, skillfully written treatise on big issues of everyday life. Full review >

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by Jill Lepore

A superb examination of the never-ending effort to enhance life, as well as the commensurate refusal to ever let it go. Full review >

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by David Quammen

A wonderful, eye-opening account of humans versus disease that deserves to share the shelf with such classics as Microbe... Full review >

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by Andrew Solomon

An informative and moving book that raises profound issues regarding the nature of love, the value of human life and the... Full review >

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by John Fabian Witt

Truly remarkable, composed with all the precision and insight you expect from a law professor, marked by all the elegance... Full review >

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