Holiday books: The best nonfiction from memoirs to graphic novels

Two Sisters

By Åsne Seierstad, translated from the Norwegian by Seán Kinsella. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $28.)

In pure, clean prose, Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad tells the true story of two Somali sisters, refugees in Norway, who run off to Syria to join the jihad. Their distraught father heads after them, straight into the civil war, determined to bring them home. But who radicalized them? Where did they get the money? And what happened to them? This powerful, detailed nonfiction narrative is as gripping as any mystery.

The Big Fella

By Jane Leavy. (Harper, $32.50.)

Former Washington Post sportswriter Jane Leavy has written an entertaining, fast-paced biography of the great and versatile Babe Ruth. (He could pitch just about as well as he could whack the cover off the ball.) She corrects some old myths (no, he was not an orphan) and places the ballplayer at the forefront of all kinds of cultural change — especially the rise of the athlete as celebrity. This anecdote-packed book is lively and great fun to read.

Dopesick

Beth Macy turns her prodigious reporting and writing skills to the opioid crisis, tracing its origin to 1996 and the rise of OxyContin, which was prescribed widely and billed as nonaddictive. Macy shows how the pharmaceutical company pushed this powerful drug, giving million-dollar bonuses to sales reps and rewarding doctors with gifts and trips. Patients became addicted, crime rose dramatically, addicts lost their jobs, their homes, their families, their lives. A harrowing, infuriating, eye-opening book.

Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret

By Craig Brown. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $28.)

This highly entertaining book breaks the rules of biography, telling the life of Queen Elizabeth's younger, wild sister in a series of "glimpses," or anecdotes — sometimes reporting two and three versions of the same event. Craig Brown writes with warmth, voice and humor. You don't have to be the least bit interested in the royals to find this book a great read.

Educated

Tara Westover grew up on a mountainside in Idaho, the daughter of survivalists. She never attended school, but worked in her father's junkyard and helped her mother make herbal remedies to sell. How she clawed her way out of this dangerous, stultifying life and into the world of academe (she graduated from Brigham Young University and then went on to study at Harvard and Cambridge) is a fascinating study in fierce determination.

Sharp

By Michelle Dean. (Grove Press, $26.)

From Dorothy Parker and Mary McCarthy to Susan Sontag and Pauline Kael, journalist and critic Michelle Dean takes on 10 brilliant female writers of the 20th century and shows in what ways they were the same, in what ways they were different, and how all of them contributed mightily to the world of letters. "They came up in a world that was not eager to hear women's opinions about anything," Dean writes. A fascinating book, just right for these times.

Calypso

David Sedaris is best known for his screamingly funny, life-is-a-carnival-of-the-absurd essays, based (sometimes very loosely) on his own experiences. This new collection, "Calypso," has plenty of those pieces. But it also has longer essays that are more moving than humorous, pieces that explore his relationship with his sister Tiffany, who died by suicide, and pieces that ponder his own mortality. There's a lot to laugh at in this book, but there is also a lot of wisdom.

Belonging

By Nora Krug. (Scribner, $30.)

Nora Krug was born long after World War II ended, but the specter of Nazism and its connection with her family haunts her. Born in Germany and now living in the United States, Krug has written a thoughtful, engrossing graphic novel that is part scrapbook, part memoir, delving deep into her family's history and trying to find blame or exoneration. In the process, she tells the story of an entire generation.

Beneath a Ruthless Sun

In 1957, a wealthy Florida woman reported that she had been raped in her home by a black man, but a white developmentally disabled man was arrested for the crime and sent away for the next 20 years. Local journalist Mabel Norris Reese became intrigued by a story that didn't add up and set out to investigate. This narrative nonfiction account by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Gilbert King is a harrowing dive into Southern racism and thwarted justice.

Prince: Before the Rain

By Allen Beaulieu. (Minnesota Historical Society Press, $29.95.)

Other readers might fixate on the coy looks, the lingerie, those sultry brown eyes. But I keep looking at the boots: If not for the pain caused by those high-heeled boots, Prince might still be alive. In this collection of photos by Minneapolis photographer Allen Beaulieu — who was there from the very beginning — Prince is vibrantly alive again, pouting, flirting, dancing, posturing. With essays by rock critic Jim Walsh and musician Dez Dickerson.

Author

Beowulf Sheehan's "Author" is a collection of 100 mesmerizing portraits, ranging from close studies (James McBride, Patti Smith) to arty cropped images (half of Jonathan Ames, Noam Chomsky with a backlit nose). Some are smiling (Louise Erdrich, Roddy Doyle), some look disapproving (Chad Harbach), some are laughing (Claudia Rankine). I look and look and feel that by studying these portraits I can better understand the work.

The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons

Edited by Bob Mankoff. (Black Dog and Leventhal, $100.)

This is just what we need for the deep dark of winter: Fifteen pounds of cartoons, organized by topic (baseball, laziness, quarrels, shopping) and nicely packaged in two volumes housed in a bright red slipcase. All the greats are here: James Thurber, George Booth, William Steig, Roz Chast. Go to the gym, get buff, buy this book. It's hard to pick up, but it's equally hard to put down.

Laurie Hertzel is the senior editor for books at the Star Tribune.