I don't mean to nitpick, Tom, but is this really your plan?

Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House: ( tw: domestic abuse; incredible book )

Edward Niedermeyer, Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors: ( he was always a scammer )

Cory Doctorow & Rebecca Giblin, Chokepoint Capitalism: ( creators as the canary in the consolidation coalmine )

Elena Cooper, Art and Modern Copyright: The Contested Image: ( history of British copyright )


Patrick Radden Keefe, Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks: ( shorter pieces )
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Don’t Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life: ( data science as life advice )

Andrew Liptak, Cosplay: A History: ( padded like a costume )

Ryan North, How to Invent Everything: ( advice for time travelers )
Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended on It: ( Beyond Getting to Yes )

Timothy Egan, The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero: ( in New York you can be a new man ).

Adam Higginbotham, Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster: ( gripping )
Patrick Radden Keefe, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland:  ( the evil that men and women do )
David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom: ( American hero )
Mae M. Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America: ( race related )
Matthew Karp, This Vast Southern Empire: Slaveholders at the Helm of American Foreign Policy: ( navies as race enforcers )
Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Hans Rosling, and Ola Rosling, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think: ( Modified optimism? )
Robert Leckie, Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific: ( eyewitness to history )
Shane Bauer, American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment: ( great book, unpleasant truths )
Jonathan M. Metzl, Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland: ( you don't need to read this but might want to anyway )

Alejandro de la Fuente & Ariela J. Gross, Becoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana: ( regional differences )
Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World: ( making of empire )
Kevin M. Levin, Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth: ( fake history )