Nonfiction Books For Fall

It is no secret that we love to read nonfiction and today we have a list of great nonfiction books for fall.

Do you read seasonally? Are the books that you pick up in June totally different from the type of books that you pick up in October?

For me, it varies. When it comes to fiction, if a book is set during the winter, I like to read it during the fall or winter. If a book is set at the beach or during the summer, I usually prefer to read it during hot weather.

When it comes to nonfiction, I read more true crime in the fall. I read it all year, but I tend to read more during the fall.

I have also found that I read longer books this time of year. I think that is because the days grow shorter, and I read more in the evenings than I do during the summer months.

During the summer I often want a quicker lighter read, but this time of year I am more likely to pick up a book that takes a little longer to read.

I also tend to read more nonfiction books about food this time of year. I think that is because I cook and bake more during the fall and winter.

This list of great nonfiction books for fall includes all of those things. It has true crime, a book about mushrooms, a couple of more historical type of books, and more.

Nonfiction Books For Fall

As always, this list contains only books that we have read. There are so many great nonfiction books that we could have added to it, but our lists only contain books that we have read and can recommend.

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. We love this book. It is my all time favorite book that is set in Oklahoma. It is a true crime story about the Osage Indians in Oklahoma. It is a well-written fascinating story that is so bizarre that it sounds like fiction. 

Devil In the White City by Erik Larson. Erik Larson is a must read author for me. I love his nonfiction writing. This one is a fascinating true crime story that combines The World’s Fair, architecture, medicine, murder, detective work, famous people, and so much more.

The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist by Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington. Longtime readers will probably recognize this true crime book. Both my husband and I loved it. We have recommended this book to so many people. However, I don’t think it has received the attention it deserved.

The Last Castls by Denise Kiernan. Biltmore is known as the Nation’s Largest Home. The Last Castle is about Biltmore and Vanderbilt’s family, but it is about so much more. It has a lot of history in general.

It contains facts about presidents, Europe, the Depression, lesser-known facts about forestry and architecture in America.

Forty Autumns by Nina Willner. This book is on the list because of the title, but it is one of my all-time favorite nonfiction books.

Forty Autumns follows a family through multiple generations that lived on both sides of the Berlin Wall. There are a lot of books written about WWII, but very few books have been written about life in communist life in Eastern Europe following WWII. 

I read this book years ago, not long after it came out and it is still one of my favorite nonfiction reads.

Isaacs Storm by Erik Larson. This one seems appropriate because fall is hurricane season and this book is about a hurricane in Galveston Texas in 1900. Erik Larson does an excellent job making this storm and the history of Galveston, Texas come alive.

Canyon Dreams by Michael Powell. This is a book about basketball. Fall is football season, but basketball season comes after football season, so it seems to fit.

Okay, so maybe that isn’t the best reasoning, but this book came to mind when I was thinking about nonfiction books for the fall.

This book did not get the attention it deserved when released in 2019. And fall does seem like a good time to read books about sports. This one would make an excellent book for the sports fan in your life.

Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger. This is a book about football which makes it perfect for reading during football season. If you know anything about football and Texas, then they take football seriously.

The Day World Came To Town by Jim Defede . This is a great time of year to read a book about 9/11 and this one is a great one to read. It is an inspiring story about the power of making a difference in the middle of disaster and suffering.

The Mushroom Hunters by Langdon Cook. Fall is mushroom season, at least in the Pacific Northwest area where I grew up. I actually grew up mushroom-picking back in the 1980s when the gourmet craze was just starting to pick up.

It is a hard way to make money, but I learned a lot doing it. There is nothing quite like hunting for mushrooms on a rainy, cold fall day in northwest Oregon.

If you have ever wondered about the world of gourmet mushrooms and where they come from you will probably enjoy this one. It is also a good book for people who love books about food and cooking.

Home Fires by Julie Summers. When I was thinking of fall books this was one that came to mind. Honestly, I am not sure why because it doesn’t really have a fall theme. It is about WWII and the Women’s Institute in Britain during WWII.

I think this book made me think about Fall because it is about women living life during WWII while also mending fences, gardening, working outside the home, and doing jobs that the men were no longer home to do. I think it is the country life in England that makes me think of this as a good fall read.

Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. I have not read this one, but Grace has. A book about the Mayflower just seems fitting for fall and November. I need to add this one to my to-be-read list.

Midnight In Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham. If you grew up in the 1980s, you probably remember the news headlines about the exploding at the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station, in the U.S.S.R. It caused the worst nuclear accident in history.

This book shares the story of what happened during the building of the nuclear plant and the city that surrounded it, the build up to the accident, and the month and years after the disaster.

The explosion occurred in April 1986, but because of what the book covers, it feels like a fall read. This book is especially good for those who enjoy both history and science.

Dead Wake by Erik Larson. Yes, another Erik Larson book. It is no secret that I am an Erik Larson fan. I love how he writes about history.

This is another book where the event happened in the spring, but it feels like a fall read to me because it is about a shipwreck in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

It is about the Lusitania, a luxury ocean liner that set sail from New York to Liverpool in 1915. At the time, Germany declared the waters around Britain a warzone. The passengers and crew set sail expecting to be at sea for a few days. Instead, a German U-boat torpedoed the Lusitania, killing over one thousand people.