Seattle Staff Faves 2025: Nonfiction
Each year we ask our staff across the library system for their favorite books published in the current year. Enjoy this variety of nonfiction staff favorites, with annotations by staff members or as noted. (created November 2025)
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Murderland
A provocative, eerily lyrical study of the heyday of American serial killers. From the 1940s through the 1980s, the number of serial killers in the U.S. rose precipitously, and the Pacific Northwest was, disproportionately, home for them... Fraser’s book is an engrossing and disturbing portrait of decades of carnage that required decades to confront. A true-crime story written with compassion, fury, and scientific sense. (Kirkus)
Format: Book
Availability: In-library use only at this time
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Grow Cook Eat
Grow the foods you love to eat! Grow Cook Eat is a full-circle handbook that takes you from sinking a seed into the soil to sitting down to a healthy, delicious meal prepared with vegetables harvested from your kitchen garden. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Foreign Fruit
Goh uncovers the history of empires inside a ubiquitous fruit. Goh’s quest for self-knowledge mirrors the journey of citrus itself. In smart, engrossing prose, Goh teaches us as much about the fruits as about ourselves .A brilliant history of the orange that, like citrus, defies classification. (Kirkus)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Bad Company
Greenwell’s debut does important work, scrutinizing a poorly understood sector of the economy that makes life more precarious for many Americans. Spotlighting four people whose lives were adversely affected by private equity—a doctor, a retail worker, a journalist, and an affordable housing advocate—she carefully demonstrates the human cost of an industry playbook that prizes cutting workers, slashing services, and raising prices. (Kirkus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Pacific Harvest
This guide to foraging over 70 edible species also highlights contemporary and historic wild food use as well as some indigenous uses. (adapted from publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Robert Wedderburn
A moving biography about the life, political values, and abolitionist legacy of Robert Wedderburn, the son of a defiant Black woman and her enslaver. Though Wedderburn died in obscurity, his hot temper and incendiary demands challenged and deeply influenced the radical leftist movements of his time. - Bean
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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What's Left
In this provocative and galvanizing treatise, journalist Harris grapples with what is to be done about climate change. Written in a lively and elegant style, this will convince readers that a better world, or at least the continued existence of this one, really is possible. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Empire of AI
Hao, an award-winning journalist who leads the Pulitzer Center's AI Spotlight Series, exposes the AI tech arms race from deep reporting on OpenAI and Sam Altman, writing about the ominous era these self-anointed tech barons are creating. (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Mainline Mama
In this stunning debut account, Harris, a PEN America Writing for Justice Fellow, discusses raising a child while her husband was incarcerated. This affecting dispatch from inside the carceral state is not to be missed. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Feral and Hysterical
A Bram Stoker Award–winning author presents a curated guide to over 200 horror books by women, featuring thematic reading lists, spoiler-free synopses and contributions from today’s top female voices in the genre. (NoveList)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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