12 Non-Fiction Books to Watch Out For

Publishers like to save their buzziest non-fiction for autumn, probably because it is holiday shopping season.

- Miguel Salazar and Laura Thompson

NEW YORK — The 2025 line-up includes celebrity memoirs, secret Nazi histories, Renaissance biographies, a prismatic group of true-crime offerings and immersive reporting on social movements past and present.

MEMOIR

MOTHER MARY COMES TO ME

By Arundhati Roy
Scribner, Sept 2

Arundhati Roy, author of the Booker Prize-winning novel The God Of Small Things, channels warmth, moral clarity and a sweeping bird's-eye view of modern India to tell her life story, which was shaped by poverty, violence, political upheaval and — most of all — the volatile single mother who raised her.

ALL THE WAY TO THE RIVER: LOVE, LOSS, AND LIBERATION

By Elizabeth Gilbert
Riverhead, Sept 9

The Eat Pray Love author returns with a love story about her relationship with Rayya Elias, her friend-turned-soulmate. Elias' terminal cancer diagnosis brought the two together, while simultaneously sending them spiraling into addiction. Gilbert told People magazine that All The Way To The River will plumb "the darker side of that spiritual, emotional and physical hunger" of her first memoir, "and how lost we can become in the endless search for connection and satisfaction".

THE BOOK OF SHEEN

By Charlie Sheen
Gallery Books, Sept 9

Since his youth, Charlie Sheen has been caught in the public eye, whether because of his father, actor Martin Sheen, his role in television series Two And A Half Men (2003 to 2015) or his highly publicized divorces and struggles with drug use. This memoir is an attempt to reclaim his narrative, he said in a statement. "It's time to finally read these stories directly from the actual guy."

Actor Charlie Sheen has written a memoir. PHOTO: SIMON & SCHUSTER