Highlighting the books that are changing how readers, critics, and scholars think
We aggregate ratings of reviewers, readers and scholars to create a single measure designed to find the nonfiction books that are shaping ideas: The I Index.
Highly Rated by Critics
Want Me: A Sex Writer’s Journey into the Heart of Desire
62 /100
Tracy Clark-Flory
62
/100
Letters to My White Male Friends
94 /100
Dax-Devlon Ross
94
/100
The Ceiling Outside: The Science and Experience of the Disrupt...
48 /100
Noga Arikha
48
/100
Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets
78 /100
Burkhard Bilger
78
/100
This Is Major: Notes on Diana Ross, Dark Girls, and Being Dope
91 /100
Shayla Lawson
91
/100
Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our ...
98 /100
Stephen Walker
98
/100
In the Weeds: Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anth...
88 /100
Tom Vitale
88
/100
Guston in Time: Remembering Philip Guston
72 /100
Ross Feld
72
/100
Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evol...
91 /100
Cat Bohannon
91
/100
Me and Sister Bobbie: True Tales of the Family Band
91 /100
Willie Nelson, Bobbie Nelson, David Ritz
91
/100
Highly Rated by Readers
A Heart That Works
98 /100
Rob Delaney
98
/100
Redeeming Justice: From Defendant to Defender, My Fight for Eq...
98 /100
Jarrett Adams
98
/100
The Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in I...
98 /100
Jesse Katz
98
/100
Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution
98 /100
Elie Mystal
98
/100
The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade a...
98 /100
Vincent Bevins
98
/100
Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our ...
98 /100
Stephen Walker
98
/100
Our Bodies, Their Battlefields: War Through the Lives of Women
98 /100
Christina Lamb
98
/100
Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments
98 /100
Joe Posnanski
98
/100
Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artistâs Memoir of the Jim Crow S...
98 /100
Winfred Rembert, Erin I. Kelly, Bryan Stevenson
98
/100
Voices from the Pandemic: Americans Tell Their Stories of Cris...
97 /100
Eli Saslow
97
/100
Highly Rated by Scholars
The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade a...
98 /100
Vincent Bevins
98
/100
Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Mo...
97 /100
Tarana Burke
97
/100
An Immense World
96 /100
Ed Yong
96
/100
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 16...
96 /100
Ibram X. Kendi, Keisha N. Blain
96
/100
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosp...
95 /100
Heather McGhee
95
/100
What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition
95 /100
Emma Dabiri
95
/100
A Childhood: The Biography of a Place
95 /100
Harry Crews, Tobias Wolff
95
/100
Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America
94 /100
Ijeoma Oluo
94
/100
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals i...
94 /100
Tim Alberta
94
/100
The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021
94 /100
Peter Baker, Susan Glasser
94
/100
Best Of 2024
The Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in I...
98 /100
Jesse Katz
98
/100
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge o...
97 /100
Adam Higginbotham
97
/100
Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz
97 /100
József Debreczeni, Paul Olchváry, Jonathan F...
97
/100
Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir
96 /100
Tessa Hulls
96
/100
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central Ameri...
96 /100
Jonathan Blitzer
96
/100
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent
96 /100
Judi Dench, Brendan O'Hea
96
/100
Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last G...
94 /100
Keith O'Brien
94
/100
The Lucky Ones
93 /100
Zara Chowdhary
93
/100
The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City
93 /100
Kevin Baker
93
/100
We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance
92 /100
Kellie Carter Jackson
92
/100
Best Of 2023
Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments
98 /100
Joe Posnanski
98
/100
Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism
96 /100
Rachel Maddow
96
/100
Journeys of the Mind: A Life in History
95 /100
Peter Brown
95
/100
Last On His Feet: Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century
95 /100
Youssef Daoudi, Adrian Matejka
95
/100
Wonder Drug: The Secret History of Thalidomide in America and ...
95 /100
Jennifer Vanderbes
95
/100
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals i...
94 /100
Tim Alberta
94
/100
Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa’s Greenwood...
94 /100
Victor Luckerson
94
/100
Strong Female Character
94 /100
Fern Brady
94
/100
King: A Life
94 /100
Jonathan Eig
94
/100
Touching the Art
94 /100
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
94
/100
New Releases
The Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in I...
98 /100
Jesse Katz
98
/100
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge o...
97 /100
Adam Higginbotham
97
/100
Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir
96 /100
Tessa Hulls
96
/100
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent
96 /100
Judi Dench, Brendan O'Hea
96
/100
Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last G...
94 /100
Keith O'Brien
94
/100
The Lucky Ones
93 /100
Zara Chowdhary
93
/100
The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City
93 /100
Kevin Baker
93
/100
We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance
92 /100
Kellie Carter Jackson
92
/100
Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America
92 /100
Shefali Luthra
92
/100
The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence O...
91 /100
Zoë Schlanger
91
/100
