A largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean becomes George Washington's aide-de-camp, a founding father, and the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.

This genre-bending memoir blends the personal, the political, and the philosophical into a distinctive story of love, pregnancy, feminism, family, and freedom.

Schiff separates fact from fiction to reconstruct the life and world of the most influential woman in ancient Egypt.

The life of an architect who constructed Chicago's 1893 World's Fair is interwoven with that of a serial killer who stalked his victims there.

This memoir weaves universal themes of nature, nurture, and memory with the narrator’s own coming out, her father’s hidden queerness, and his mysterious death.

A comprehensive history of New York City dating back from the Native American tribes that first settled the island through 1898.

This groundbreaking memoir details the death of Eggers's parents and his experience raising his younger brother.

Maya Angelou endures racism, trauma, and poverty in 1930s Arkansas and overcomes them through the strength of her character and the power of literature.

A kaleidoscopic narrative of the 1959 murder of a family in rural Kansas and the search for their killers.

A first-hand account of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which four expedition teams were trapped by a deadly storm.

The author recounts her difficult childhood growing up in a Texas oil town.

A son struggles to come to terms with his parents' experiences during the Holocaust.

Humorous essays about Sedaris's family, his moving to France, and attempts to learn a new language.

In Savannah, Georgia, a rebellious young man is killed in the mansion of a prominent antique dealer.

In the early 2000s, the Oakland Athletics flew in the face of conventional baseball wisdom, leading them to unexpected success.

A precocious young girl shares her experience of growing up in Tehran through political unrest and the Islamic Revolution.

Dillard reflects on the spiritual and experiential aspects of the cycles of nature over the course of a year at Tinker Creek in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains.

A prescient examination of the impact of pesticides on the environment and the chemical industry's spurious marketing claims.

Essays that paint a picture of life in 1960s California—then the epicenter of American counterculture.

Profiles of eccentric characters create an examination of the margins of 1940s–1960s New York life and culture.

A chronicle of the mass migration of the African American population from the South towards northern and western cities between 1915 and 1970.

A first-generation Chinese-American woman recounts growing up in America in this blend of memoir and folktale.