The Nonfiction Files 1: Nonfiction Taxonomy

Introducing my brand new series on reading and thinking about nonfiction!

The Nonfiction Files

I want to talk about nonfiction.

I know you know I love nonfiction. It is my reading material of choice. It is what I reach for. It is what has shaped me as a reader and a person. It is what excites me.

However, I don’t feel like nonfiction gets its due. At least not in the online book spaces I am a part of or the literary institutions that champion books and hand out awards.

The main event seems to always be fiction.

That’s why I wanted to start this new series, The Nonfiction Files. It is all about, you guessed it, nonfiction! I want to explore the world of true stories from memoirs to true crime to history and beyond. I want to give nonfiction the same kind of close attention that fiction seems to be entitled to.

The plan for now is to drop a monthly installment of this series where I talk about how I read and think about nonfiction. I hope this will be wide ranging, not just book recommendation lists, but also comparing texts that do similar things, answering your questions, entry points into nonfiction books, and whatever else feels urgent.

The goal is to dig deeper into nonfiction.

More than anything I want to have fun thinking about the kinds of books I love most with this community that includes fellow nonfiction heads and a bunch of fiction forward folks I hope to convert¹.

This series is free to all. If you like what you read consider joining as a paid subscriber to get more content and to generally support my work here and across platforms!

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Nonfiction Taxonomy

Like any good field of study, nonfiction has a taxonomy all its own. At least in my mind it does. I think of it like the domain, kingdom, phylum etc. but for nonfiction books. Thinking like this helps me to sort what a book is doing versus what a book is about, and what other books it might be conversation with, even if that is outside the subject matter.

All of these definitions and classifications are my own, and may be at odds with how other folks define and think about nonfiction books.

And like all good taxonomy, you absolutely need a mnemonic to remember this by. Here is mine²…

Come get super smart talking texts.

As you might have imagined, I am accepting submissions here. mnemonic away in the comments.

It should be said, that unlike in animal taxonomy there can be overlap here. For example, a book could have multiple genres it is writing into. This is art after all, so please leave space of mixing and matching.

Category

Category is the overall approach the writing takes. There are four categories of nonfiction book writing. Journalism, Personal Narrative, History, and Instructional. Is this a historical text or one what that is committed to teaching the reader something literally?

A little further down you’ll find my definitions of the categories and genres with examples for each³.

Genre

From there we break down into genre. These are the constraints, rules and form that define the structure and approach of the book. My list isn’t exhaustive, and you could (and I do) argue many books fall into multiple genres at once. A book like Challenger, about the 1986 shuttle disaster, could easily find itself in historic events, investigative journalism, and true crime.

I want to be clear this categorization is not about subject matter. You could have a book that deals with the exact same subject or topic but fits in different categories. For example, Helter Skelter is an investigative work⁴ about the Manson Murders and trial. There is also the book Manson that covers a lot of the same information but is a biography. These books have similar content but are different genres.

It is pretty intuitive to think about books in this way when it comes to fiction (a romance novel about sibling rivalry vs a thriller about the same thing feel clear and distinct), and the same delineations are present in nonfiction.

Sub-genre

These are more specific constraints that define a genre. For example a memoir in essays is a memoir that is told through essays that should be able to be read as stand alone works outside the order or context of the book.

Ok, now it’s time for my full breakdown. Get ready to nerd out.

History

These books look back at people, philosophies, places, and events to capture the time and place in which they were produced. These books are never written by the subject.

Biography - the story of a person’s life as told by another person (or people).
Regan by Max Boot
His Name Is George Flyod by Robert Samuels & Toluse Olorunnipa

Historic Events - chronicling a specific event, moment, or phenomena in history.
Hiroshima Nagasaki by Paul Ham
Blood in the Water by Heather Ann Thompson

Oral History - a text that uses direct quotes from subjects to tell the story of a person, place, or thing.
When the Sea Came Alive by Garrett M. Graff
The World Only Spins Forward by Isaac Butler and Dan Kois

Instructional

Books that explain and teach the reader how to do something or solve a problem.

Cookbooks - books that have recipes and other instructions on how to cook food.
Start Here by Sohla El-Wayly
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

How-To - a book that explains the steps in order to accomplish a goal or master a skill.
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
So You Want to Start a Podcast by Kristen Meinzer

Self-help - books that teach personal or professional development and/or problem solving.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
The Memo by Minda Harts

Journalism

Books that collect and share information and related commentary on events, people, places, and ideas.

Cultural Criticism - a form of analysis that looks at the ways art intersects with society, politics, and/or history.
Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
White Girls by Hilton Als

Ethnography - writings about people and their experiences by studying them in their natural environments.
Soldiers and Kings by Jason De León
Evicted by Matthew Desmond

Expository - books thats explain topics and share information in a clear and straightforward manner.
Wordslut by Amanda Montell
How Democracies Die by Daniel Ziblatt & Steven Levitsky

Investigative - deeply reported books that examine people, events, or institutions to reveal a truth that has been hidden (intentionally or otherwise) from the public. This can also include the sub-genre of True Crime.
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

News - these books are informational and feature reporting about the most current topics and issues.
War by Bob Woodward
Abortion by Jessica Valenti

Persuasion - books in which the writer is trying to convince the reader of something and can rely on a myriad of tools to do so (rhetoric, research, data, etc).
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Personal Narratives

A book that tells the story of an event from the authors life or shares their perspective on a topic or ideology.

Autobiography - a first person, factual, narrative of one’s entire life. They are told chronologically and are often used as a tool to disseminate information or philosophy.
Assata by Assata Shakur
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley

Epistolary - a book that is primarily told through written text, often letters or diary entries.
Breathe by Imani Perry
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Memoir - a first person narrative that focuses on a central incident, moment, or element of one’s life. They are not always rooted in fact, but instead focus on emotional honesty. This genre includes the sub-genres of memoir in essays and memoir plus.
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
Good Talk by Mira Jacob

Personal Essays - a collection of essays that use the authors personal experiences to expand on a broader point or theory.
Thick by Tressie McMillan-Cottom
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

Travelogue - an account of the authors travels and reflections on place, people, and culture.
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara

Style

Style is how the book is written. It has nothing to do with rules or with content, but rather with tone and approach. There are four styles of nonfiction: narrative, academic, creative, and reported.

Academic texts are books that are (generally) intended for an academic audience, written by experts, and contribute to the field of study and discourse. These books will have citations, be deeply researched, and be held to a standard of peer review. You can often tell an academic book because it is published by an academic institution. Though this is not always the case.
Viral Justice by Ruha Benjamin
Brown and Gay in LA by Anthony Christian Ocampo

Creative nonfiction books use literary techniques and conventions to tell their story. They are not constrained by narrative arc and can explore and experiment with form, time, and place. This is also sometimes referred to as literary nonfiction.
South to America by Imani Perry
Liliana’s Invincible Summer by Cristina Rivera Garza

Narrative nonfiction is the kind of nonfiction you often hear described as “reads like fiction”, it is deeply concerned with plot and pacing and aims to build a clear narrative arc.
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall
We Were Once a Family by Roxana Asgarian

Reported nonfiction is straightforward in approach. It is providing the reader information crafted from research and sourcing. These books or focused on building an argument and making a point about a given topic.
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Paved Paradise by Henry Grabar

Subject

Once you have your category, genre, and style, I like to layer on subject. That is the overall big picture issue this book is dealing with. Think of this more like where will I find this book shelved in a library or bookstore? The subject could be anything like race, sports, philosophy or science. This is where the content of the book is rooted and from which the topic sprouts. While some books fit firmly in one category others may have their tentacles in a few different subjects.

Topics

Topic is easy, this is what the book is about. Think of it like subject is the last or family name and topics are the first name of individual family members. So if you take the subject of mass incarceration you could have topics that range from school to prison pipeline, policing, prison reform, recidivism, life behind bars prison, and on and on. As I’m sure you can imagine, a book can have many topics under a single subject.

Trope

This is the last piece to the taxonomy puzzle. A trope is a “a common or overused theme or device : cliché”⁵. In the case of nonfiction classification these are things like newsroom dramas, humanizing those who have committed crimes, 9/11 to purpose pipeline, and many, many more⁶. Not every work of nonfiction will include tropes.

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Putting It Together & Why Classifications Matter

So what does all of this look like for a single book? Let’s try it out on one of The Stacks Book Club picks from 2024, Master Slave Husband Wife.

Category: History
Genre: Biography
Style: Narrative nonfiction
Subject: Slavery
Topic: Escaping slavery, marriage, racism, abolition, colorism, sexism
Trope: Passing

Why does this matter?

I think there are two real ways that I use this system, sourcing books and talking about books.

When I am looking for a book it is helpful for me to know not only what subjects or topics I am interested in, but also the style I’m looking for. There are plenty of books about the ocean, but do I want a narrative look into a shipwreck? Or something more personal and creative about ocean life? I could also go for a glimpse into the world of free diving? So just knowing a subject isn’t enough for me, style is imperative here

The same things come into play when I am trying to recommend a book to someone. I need to know more than just what topics they like. I need to know what kind (style and genre) of books they like. If they’re like me, they will read across topics to get the pure rush from reading a great work of a narrative nonfiction. Or maybe they want to nerd out, in which case I am looking for academic books.

This is basically how I thought about creating my Nonfiction Reading Guide. It is how you get a list of books based on mood instead of just subject or topic.

The other main way I use all of this is when I am reviewing or talking about a book. I always want to judge a book’s success based off what the author was trying to do. In order to do that, I need to understand what traditions they are writing within (or trying to subvert).

If the author is writing an academic text I can’t hold that up to the same standard I might a creative travelogue. Likewise if a book portends to be a work of investigative journalism but keeps pushing memoir into the mix, that gives me pause on intent and execution⁷.

I think you all could use it in your reading lives in these ways and more. I hope you find it useful as you think about how you’ll read and discuss books. Not to mention arming you with the tools you need to pick your next favorite book of nonfiction. And do that soon so we can talk about it!

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That is it for the first installment of The Nonfiction Files. I am excited to continue to explore my love of nonfiction with all of you. I am eager to make this series a thoughtful and playful place to gush over nonfiction and work through some of the thornier issues in books based in “truth”. I am extremely open to feedback about the topics you might want to dig into with me, what you thought of today’s piece, or whatever else you want to share. Please send it all my way in the comments.

I also have to say a huge thank you to

Sara Hildreth

who helped me as I struggled to flesh this idea out, and even gave me notes and feedback on this first issue, including encouraging me to stick with the genres of nonfiction idea. If you are a creative person, get you a friend like Sara. She’s very good. And if you don’t already subscribe to her newsletter, what exactly are you waiting for?

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1. Or at least get you to read a little more nonfiction.

2. That I just made up for this post.

3. Where I could, I shared an example of a book we’ve covered on the podcast .

4. Sub-genre: true crime

5. Merriam-Webster dictionary definition

6. I wrote in-depth about nonfiction tropes here.

7. Yes, it can be done well, but either way more questions bubble up for me on the necessity and effectiveness on mixing these two genres.