I’m excited to introduce a new batch of standout nonfiction, the most compelling and thought-provoking titles scheduled for release in May 2026.
As always, we invite longlisted authors to create a “Book Bite”—a fifteen-minute audio recording where they share five big ideas from their book. Picture striking up a conversation with someone at a neighborhood block party…only they happen to be a brilliant nonfiction author.
So, without further ado, here are the May 2026 must-reads…
Career & Leadership
- Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better by David Epstein. View on Amazon
- Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance by Laura Vanderkam. View on Amazon
- Never Settle: Persuasion and Negotiation Skills to Get What You Want by Attia Qureshi & John Richardson. View on Amazon
- Get It in Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Your Rights at Work by Ryan Stygar. View on Amazon
- Teams That Meet the Moment:Practices for Effective Teaming in the Age of Complexity by Karina Mangu-Ward. View on Amazon
- Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad…And How Great Companies Stay Great by Eric Ries. View on Amazon
- Coachable: How the Greatest Performers Reach Their Highest Potential by Ric Bucher. View on Amazon
- Clock In:No-BS Advice for Getting Ahead in Your Career (Without Losing Your Mind) by Emily Durham. View on Amazon
- The Ambition Penalty:How Corporate Culture Tells Women to Step Up―and Then Pushes Them Down by Sefanie O’Connell. View on Amazon
- The Future of Work Is Grey: The Untapped Value of Age in the Workforce by Dan Pontefract. View on Amazon
Personal Development
- Mind Drama: The Science of Rumination and How to Outwit Your Inner Defeatist by Donna Jackson Nakazawa. View on Amazon
- What’s Going Right: A Powerful New Method for Optimizing Your Mental Health by Paul Conti. View on Amazon
- Addicted to Anxiety: How to Break the Habit by Owen O’Kane. View on Amazon
- A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and Connection by Nicholas Epley. View on Amazon
- How to Not Know: The Value of Uncertainty in a World That Demands Answers by Simone Stolzoff. View on Amazon
- Therapy Nation: How America Got Hooked on Therapy and Why It’s Left us More Anxious and Divided by Jonathan Alpert. View on Amazon
- A Time to Gather: How Ritual Created the World–and How It Can Save Us by Bruce Feiler. View on Amazon
- Flamboyance: The Power of Living Boldly by Jack Parlett. View on Amazon
History & Memoir
- After the Fall: From the End of History to the Crisis of Democracy, How Politicians Broke Our World by Ian Shapiro. View on Amazon
- All We Say: The Battle for American Identity by Ben Rhodes. View on Amazon
- Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World by Patrick Wyman. View on Amazon
- American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed by Isaac Fitzgerald. View on Amazon
- The Flag Was Still There: A History of the American Experiment in Five Anniversaries by David McKean & M. Todd Bennett. View on Amazon
- The Land and Its People by David Sedaris. View on Amazon
Economics
- How to Win a Trade War: An Optimistic Guide to an Anxious Global Economy by Soumaya Keynes & Chad Bown. View on Amazon
- The Secret History of Gold: Myth, Money, Politics, and Power by Dominic Frisby. View on Amazon
- Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work by Alvin Roth. View on Amazon
- For Better and Worse: The Complicated Past and Challenging Future of Marriage by Stephanie Coontz. View on Amazon
- Against Money by J. W. Mason & Arjun Jayadev. View on Amazon
Health
- Walk: Rediscover the Most Natural Way to Boost Your Health and Longevity–One Step at a Time by Courtney Conley & Milica McDowell. View on Amazon
- Signals: The Hidden Power and Secret Language of Hormones by Saira Hameed. View on Amazon
- Longevity Nation: The People, Ideas, and Trends Changing the Second Half of Our Lives by Michael Clinton. View on Amazon
- Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and New Science to Reclaim Your Well-Being by Manoush Zomorodi. View on Amazon
Science & Tech
- It’s (Just) Rocket Science: Exploring Physics Through Spaceflight Missions by Trisha Muro. View on Amazon
- I Am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything by Joanna Stern. View on Amazon
- AI for Good: How Real People Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Fix Things That Matter by Josh Tyrangiel. View on Amazon
- A Pox on Fools: The True Believers, Grifters, and Cynics Who Convinced Us to Reject Vaccines by Thomas Levenson. View on Amazon
Parenting
- Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children by Mac Barnett. View on Amazon
- Mother Tongue: A Memoir by Sara Novic. View on Amazon
- Birth Vibes: Stories and Strategies for an Empowered Birth by Jen Hamilton. View on Amazon
- GIRLS®: Generation Z and the Commodification of Everything by Freya India. View on Amazon
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