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. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Milkweed)
2. The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon (Liveright)
3. The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss by Robert Macfarlane, Jackie Morris (W.W. Norton)
4. A Resistance History of the United States by Tad Stoermer (Steerforth)
5. Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian (Spiegel & Grau)
6. Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane (W.W. Norton)
7. The Wreck of the Mentor: A True Story of Death, Despair, and Deliverance in the Age of Sail by Eric Jay Dolin (Liveright)
8. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben (Greystone Books)
9. We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution by Jill Lepore (Liveright)
10. The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary by Terry Tempest Williams (Grove Press)
11. These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore (W. W. Norton)
12. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (Beacon Press)
13. The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change by Rebecca Solnit (Haymarket Books)
14. Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade (Verso)
15. An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (Beacon Press)
16. A Philosophy of Walking by Frédéric Gros, John Howe (Transl.) (Verso)
17. Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old by Mary Beard (University of Chicago Press)
18. How to Resist Amazon and Why: The Fight for Local Economics, Data Privacy, Fair Labor, Independent Bookstores, and a People-Powered Future! by Danny Caine (Microcosm Publishing)
19. A Philosophy of Walking by Frédéric Gros, John Howe (Transl.) (Verso)
20. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Oregon State University Press)
21. Too L.A.: Letters Never Sent (But Some Were) by Eve Babitz (NYRB)
22. The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government by Barbara McQuade (Seven Stories Press)
23. Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground by Zayd Ayers Dohrn (W. W. Norton)
24. Ursula K. Le Guin’s Book of Cats by Ursula K. Le Guin (Library of America)
25. Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life by Alex Mayyasi, Hosts of NPR’s Planet Money (Norton)
26. How to Relax (Mindfulness Essentials #5) by Thich Nhat Hanh (Parallax Press)
27. S.P.Q.R.: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard (Liveright)
28. How to Love (Mindfulness Essentials #9) by Thich Nhat Hanh, Jason DeAntonis (Illus.) (Parallax Press)
29. Guinness World Records 2026 by Guinness World Records
30. Don’t Believe Everything You Think: Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning & End Of Suffering by Joseph Nguyen (Authors Equity)
31. A Queer History of the United States: Revised And Expanded (ReVisioning History) by Michael Bronski
32. Elledge’s Nontrivial Trivia: The Seriously Enlightening Stories Behind Supposedly Simple Facts by John Elledge (Experiment)
33. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe (Oni Press)
34. I’m Just a Little Guy: How to Escape the Horrors and Get Back to Dillydallying by Charlie James, Paige Tompkins (Illus.) (Quirk Books)
35. Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War by Jane Rogoyska (Norton)
36. Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson (New Harbinger Publishing)
37. Constitution of the United States by Founding Fathers (Applewood Books)
38. The Wisdom of the Odyssey: Twenty-Four Life Lessons from Homer’s Epic by Phil Cousineau (New World Library)
39. How to Focus (Mindfulness Essentials #9) by Thich Nhat Hanh, Jason DeAntonis (Illus.) (Parallax Press)
40. Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape by Manchán Magan (Chelsea Green)

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