The Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers: Nonfiction

Here are this week’s Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers for nonfiction, based on sales in hundreds of independent bookstores nationwide, generously provided by the American Booksellers Association. Compiled, designed, and distributed by The Independent Publishers Caucus.

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1. The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon
(Liveright)
2. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Milkweed Editions)
3. The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change by Rebecca Solnit (Haymarket Books)
4. Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade (Verso)
5. The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary by Terry Tempest Williams (Grove Press)
6. Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape by Manchán Magan (Chelsea Green)
7. I’m Just a Little Guy: How to Escape the Horrors and Get Back to Dillydallying by Charlie James, Paige Tompkins (Illus.) (Quirk Books)
8. Guinness World Records 2026 by Guinness World Records (Guinness World Records)
9. Ursula K. Le Guin’s Book of Cats by Ursula K. Le Guin (Library of America)
10. On Democracy by Walt Whitman (Library of America)
11. A Philosophy of Walking by Frédéric Gros, John Howe (Transl.) (Verso)
12. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Oregon State University Press)
13. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (Beacon Press)
14. Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis by Kelly Hayes (Ed.)  (AK Press)
15. Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade (Verso)
16. Stuff Every Bird Lover Should Know (Stuff You Should Know #32) by Alice Sun (Quirk Books)
17. The Company of Owls: A Memoir by Polly Atkin (Milkweed Editions)
18. How to Love (Hardcover Gift Edition (Mindfulness Essentials #13) by Thich Nhat Hanh, Jason DeAntonis (Illus.) (Parallax Press)
19. The End of My Life Is Killing Me: The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker by Annabelle Gurwitch (Zibby Publishing)
20. How to Relax (Mindfulness Essentials #5) by Thich Nhat Hanh (Parallax Press)
21. The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl (Spiegel & Grau)
22. Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian (Spiegel & Grau)
23. S.P.Q.R.: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard (Liveright)
24. Don’t Believe Everything You Think: Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning & End Of Suffering by Joseph Nguyen (Authors Equity)
25. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (Liveright)
26. H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (Grove Press)
27. The Overthinker’s Guide to Making Decisions: How to Make Decisions without Losing Your Mind by Joseph Nguyen (Authors Equity)
28. We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution by Jill Lepore (Liveright)
29. The Chronicles of DOOM: Unraveling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast by S.H. Fernando, Jr. (Astra House)
30. The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon (Grove Press)
31. Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III by Shyam Sankar, Madeline Hart (Bombardier Books)
32. America’s Founding Son: John Quincy Adams, from President to Political Maverick by Bob Crawford (Zando)
33. An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (Beacon Press)
34. On Censorship by Ai Weiwei (Thames & Hudson)
35. Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn’t Easy by Daniel Okrent (Yale University Press)
36. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis (Haymarket Books)
37. Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit (Haymarket Books)
38. On Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, Hannah Arendt (Library of America)
39. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (New World Library)
40. Reproductive Wrongs: A Short History of Bad Ideas About Women by Sarah Ruden (Liveright)

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