Every month, our editorial team scours the publishing landscape for the most compelling and thought-provoking new nonfiction. Here are the books we’re most excited about for September 2026.
To help bring those books to life, we invite each author on our list to create a “Book Bite,” a fifteen-minute audio feature in which they share five of the most fascinating ideas from their book. Think of it as the smartest person you know giving you the highlights of a book they can’t stop talking about—except in this case, it’s the author.
So, without further ado, here are the September 2026 must-reads…
Leadership

- Leadership Intelligence: Science-Backed Strategies for Mastering 21 Everyday Management Challenges by Caroline Webb. View on Amazon
- Situated: Finding the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best by Angela Duckworth. View on Amazon
- What Could Possibly Go Right?: The Essential Journey to Scale an Enduring Culture by Danny Meyer. View on Amazon
- The Knot: Problems Can Be Solved by Seth Godin. View on Amazon
- Resilient Optimism: The Science of Sustaining a Positive Mindset in Tough Times by Michelle Gielan. View on Amazon
Personal Finance

- Time Freedom: Rethink Your Work and Money to Create a Life You Love Now by Brian Herriot. View on Amazon
- Say No to New: Why New Things Are Stealing Your Time, Money, and Happiness—And How to Take Back Your Life by Eric Athas. View on Amazon
- The Case for Quitting: The Surprising Benefits of Opting Out – Revolutionary Strategies for Personal Growth and Shifting Your Mindset on Perseverance by Lindsay Crouse. View on Amazon
- The Forever Paycheck: The New Retirement Strategy to Spend More, Worry Less, and Never Run Out of Money by Jean Chatzky. View on Amazon
- Worth the Risk: The Seven Myths That Keep Us from Taking the Chances We Need to Take by Allison Schrager. View on Amazon
Self-Help

- Worth: The New Science of Self-Esteem and Secure Attachment by Marisa Franco. View on Amazon
- The Opposite of Happiness: How Bad Feelings Make and Break Us by George Loewenstein. View on Amazon
- The Castle: Adventures in a World of Unraveling Men by Jon Ronson. View on Amazon
- Pardon Our French: The Parisian Way to a Happier Life by Alex Durand & Tom Carles. View on Amazon
- Brave Love, Great Sex: Harnessing Attachment Theory for Passionate Relationships by Laurie Watson & George Faller. View on Amazon
Politics

- Off Ramp: How to Be a Peacemaker in an Age of Contempt by Spencer Cox. View on Amazon
- Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People by Nikolas Bowie & Daphna Renan. View on Amazon
- The Great Refusal: A New Vision of Resistance by Casey Gerald. View on Amazon
- The American Way of Killing: The Invention of an Epidemic by Malcolm Gladwell. View on Amazon
Health

- Your Turn: How to Create a Midlife You Love by Allison Aubrey. View on Amazon
- Living the 100-Year Life: How to Build a Career That Lasts and a Life You Love by Lynda Gratton. View on Amazon
- Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body by Andrew Huberman. View on Amazon
- Heal Your Cells: Reversing the Irreversible–A Proven Plan to Heal Faster, Reclaim Energy, and Unlock Longevity by Josh Axe & Will Cole. View on Amazon
Team-Building

- Collective Confidence: The Winning Formula of the World’s Best Teams by Andre Martin. View on Amazon
- How to Read the Room: The Art and Science of Social Observation by Pamela Meyer. View on Amazon
- The Art of Fighting: The Transformative Power of Conflict by Priya Parker. View on Amazon
Parenting

- Coding Kids: Big Tech’s Battle to Remake Public Schools by Natasha Singer. View on Amazon
- Inconceivable: The Impossibility of Family in an Age of Uncertainty – A Journalist’s Global Investigation into the Forces Keeping People from the Families They Want by Anna Louie Sussman. View on Amazon
- Restoring Childhood: How to Set Kids Free in the Age of Anxiety by Peter Gray. View on Amazon
Technology

- Manage the Machine: How to Harness Human-AI Collaboration at Work by Paula Goldman. View on Amazon
- American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Bradley Onishi. View on Amazon
- Bytes and Bullets: Global Rivalries, Big Tech, and the New Shape of Modern Warfare by Steve Feldstein. View on Amazon
Business

- Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings: (When) Do Leaders Matter? by Jared Diamond. View on Amazon
- The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There by Owen Zidar & Eric Zwick. View on Amazon
- Gouged: The End of a Fair Price–and What That Means for Your Wallet by Lindsay Owens. View on Amazon
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