2026 NONFICTION AUTHOR SERIES

Monday, January 19, 2026

The Bookshop, a New York Times best-seller, is an affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life: from department stores to independent shops, from highbrow dealers trading in rare first editions to sidewalk vendors, and from chains to special-interest community venues.  People Magazine said the book is “fascinating – a heartfelt, essential love letter to the literary sanctuary of bookstores and the people who run them.”  The book was a Goodreads Choice Award Winner in History and Biography and named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 “must read books” of 2024.

Evan Friss is a history professor at James Madison University and the author of two prior books on cycling.

Photo Credit: Joanna Eldredge Morrissey

Monday, February 2, 2026

Why We Love Football, an instant best-seller, recounts 100 iconic moments in college and professional football over the course of many decades.  The stories are entertaining, thrilling, enlightening, heartbreaking, hilarious, and always fascinating.  From hidden gems to famous incidents, the book is, at bottom, about the people in the sport and will appeal to the most ardent fan as well as the casual spectator.  The Washington Post said the book was “entertaining and informative.”  The Associated Press agreed, saying that Why We Love Football is “[a] thoroughly enjoyable look back at the players and plays that have come to define America’s most popular sport.”

Joe Posnanski has been identified by the Wall Street Journal as “contemporary sports writing’s biggest star.”  He is the author of eight books, including New York Times best-sellers Why We Love Baseball and The Baseball 100.  He has been named National Sportswriter of the Year by five different organizations and is the winner of two Sports Emmys for his work on the Olympics for NBC.  He writes at JoePosnanski.com and currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his family.

Monday, February 16, 2026

King: A Life, a New York Times best-selling biography of Martin Luther King Jr., won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for biography.  Exhaustively researched and vividly written, this is the first biography of King to include recently declassified FBI files.  The book provides an intimate examination of a courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his civil rights movement but was rarely at peace with himself.  The New York Times hailed the book as a “landmark biography,” and the Chicago Tribune said the book “is such a nuanced biography, it’s like having Martin Luther King sitting in your living room, reading a newspaper.”

Jonathan Eig is the author of five other books, three of which became New York Times best-sellers.  One of those prior best-sellers was Luckiest Man:  The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig.

Photo Credit:  Doug McGoldrick

Tuesday, March 17, 2026

The Wide Wide Sea, a New York Times best-seller, probes the mystery of Captain James Cook’s death on his last exploratory voyage for England.  On July 12, 1776, Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on the HMS Resolution for a trip that would take him to the far reaches of the Pacific.  Two-and-a-half years later, Cook was killed by the native population on the island of Hawaii.  Cook’s unexpected murder was all the more baffling because, among European explorers, he was known as the one who had the most respect for indigenous peoples and cultures.  The Associated Press said the book was “riveting,” and the Los Angeles Times hailed The Wide Wide Sea as a book “that will enthrall Cook’s admirers, inform his critics, and entertain everyone in between.”

Hampton Sides is the author of five other New York Times best-sellers, including Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers.

Photo Credit: Kitty Leaken