It's May! Here's the Month's Best Nonfiction

From career breakthroughs to health science to economic history — the standout titles hitting shelves this month.

I’m excited to introduce a new batch of standout nonfiction, the most compelling and thought-provoking titles scheduled for release in May 2026. With so many great books, we’ve organized them by category…

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Next weekend is Mother’s Day! Why not give her a year of big ideas? Her first box will include Inside the Box by David Epstein and A World Appears by Michael Pollan. 20% off any new or gift membership with code MOM2026.

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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

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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

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Today's Book of the Day sponsor is Comeback by Alfred A. Marcus. Why do once-dominant companies like Intel, Amazon, Disney, and Tesla struggle to reclaim their former glory? Drawing on decades of strategy expertise, Marcus delivers a compelling framework for understanding corporate renewal — and the difficult path from survival to sustained success.

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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

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

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