As we reach the halfway point of Cromaine's 2025-2026 Winter Reading Challenge, your Cromaine staff are excited to recommend a variety of non-fiction titles to enjoy! Whether you want to learn about a favorite celebrity, baking or cooking, history, technology, or maybe about yourself, there are endless topics to explore with our wonderful non-fiction collection. Stop by the Library and find a non-fiction title that interests you, or choose one from our list of recommended reads below!
Don't forget that the more books you read, the greater your chances of winning a grand prize for the Winter Reading Challenge-- visit our website to learn more about this year's Adult Winter Reading Challenge, which features a variety of reading activities on a Bingo sheet. Each activity on the bingo card earns you one ticket to enter into a grand prize drawing-- and, complete a virtual bingo by finishing five of the challenges in a row, column, or diagonal line, and earn five additional tickets!
Happy reading, and happy learning!
100 Rules for Living to 100 by Dick Van Dyke
On the eve of his 100th birthday, national treasure Dick Van Dyke brings us this autobiographical collection of life advice, stories, and reflections on how he's maintained a zest for life. Dick Van Dyke danced his way into our hearts with iconic roles in Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Now, as he's about to turn 100 years old, Dick is still dancing and approaching life with the twinkle in his eye that we've come to know and love. In 100 Rules for Living to 100, he reveals his secrets for maintaining your joie de vivre and making the most out of the life you've been given. Through stories of his pivotal childhood, moments on film sets, his expansive family, and finding love late in life, Dick reflects on both the joyful times and the challenges that shaped him. His indefatigable spirit and positive attitude will surely inspire readers to count the blessings in their own lives, persevere through the hard times, and appreciate the beauty and complexity of being human.
All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert
In 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya. They became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: The two were in love. They were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe. What if your most beautiful love story turned into your biggest nightmare? What if the dear friend who taught you so much about your self-destructive tendencies became the unstable partner with whom you disastrously reenacted every one of them? And what if your most devastating heartbreak opened a pathway to your greatest awakening? All the Way to the River is a landmark memoir that will resonate with anyone who has ever been captive to love—or to any other passion, substance, or craving—and who yearns, at long last, for liberation.
Baking For the Holidays: 50+ Cozy, Seasonal Treats to Get You Through the Winter by Sarah Kieffer
Delight family and friends with edible gifts and whip up some delicious baked goods to treat yourself through the long winter months after the holidays have ended. With cozy holiday imagery, a lovely, clean aesthetic, and easy yet innovative recipes, this is a go-to cookbook for baking enthusiasts, anyone who loves the holiday season, and, of course, fans of Sarah Kieffer and her hugely popular baking books 100 Cookies,100 Morning Treats, and 100 Afternoon Sweets.
Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten
In her long-awaited memoir, Ina Garten-- aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon--shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table. Here, for the first time, Ina Garten presents an intimate, entertaining, and inspiring account of her remarkable journey. Ina’s gift is to make everything look easy, yet all her accomplishments have been the result of hard work, audacious choices, and exquisite attention to detail. In her unmistakable voice (no one tells a story like Ina), she brings her past and her process to life in a high-spirited and no-holds-barred memoir that chronicles decades of personal challenges, adventures (and misadventures) and unexpected career twists, all delivered with her signature combination of playfulness and purpose.
Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
Leadership is not about titles, status, and wielding power. A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for recognizing the potential in people and ideas, and has the courage to develop that potential. Four-time #1 New York Times bestselling author Brené Brown has spent the past two decades studying the emotions and experiences that give meaning to our lives, and the past seven years working with transformative leaders and teams spanning the globe. She found that leaders in organizations ranging from small entrepreneurial startups and family-owned businesses to nonprofits, civic organizations, and Fortune 50 companies all ask the same question: How do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders, and how do you embed the value of courage in your culture?
A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children by Haley Cohen Gilliland
With the launching of El Proceso in 1976 Argentina, hundreds of pregnant women are kidnapped. After giving birth in captivity, the women are “disappeared,” and their babies secretly given to other families—many of them headed by police or military officers. For mothers of pregnant daughters and daughters-in-law, the source of their grief is twofold—the disappearances of their children, and the theft of their grandchildren. A group of fierce grandmothers forms the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, dedicated to finding the stolen infants and seeking justice from a nation that betrayed them.
A Flower Traveled in My Blood is the rarest of nonfiction that reads like a novel and puts your heart in your throat. It is the product of years of extensive archival research and meticulous, original reporting. It marks the arrival of a blazing new talent in narrative journalism. In these pages, a regime tries to terrorize a country, but love prevails. The grandmothers’ stunning stories reveal new truths about memory, identity, and family.
How to Be Bold: The Surprising Science of Everyday Courage by Ranjay Gulati
In How to Be Bold, Ranjay Gulati offers a powerful playbook for becoming bolder and braver than we ever thought possible. Rather than leaving brave deeds to mythological heroes and resigning ourselves to apathy or cowardice, we can train ourselves to step up and act in the face of uncertainty. The key, Gulati argues, is to adopt ways of thinking that allow us to neutralize or moderate our fears. By shifting how we see ourselves and the world, we can lower the odds that we'll freeze up in the moment while also sustaining courage over prolonged periods. We also can inspire others around us to display what Gulati calls collective courage.
Signs by Laura Lynne Jackson
Laura Lynne Jackson is a psychic medium and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Light Between Us. She possesses an incredible gift: the ability to communicate with loved ones who have passed, convey messages of love and healing, and impart a greater understanding of our interconnectedness. Though her abilities are exceptional, they are not unique, and that is the message at the core of this book. Understanding "the secret language of the universe" is a gift available to all. As we learn to ask for and recognize signs from the other side, we will start to find meaning where before there was only confusion, and see light in the darkness. We may decide to change paths, push toward love, pursue joy, and engage with life in a whole new way.
Wintering by Katherine May
An intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down. Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered. A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May's story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing Arctic seas. Ultimately, Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear.
You to the Power of Two: Redefining Human Potential in the Age of Identic AI by Joseph Bradley
As our digital identities become smarter and more capable, we enter the age of “Identic” AI: a place where ever-present AI companions streamline daily tasks, enhance wellbeing, and offer lifelong learning. For professionals, these intelligent agents will amplify creativity, boost productivity, and expand human potential. But with this extraordinary promise comes profound risks—to individuals, businesses, and society itself. Identic AI will reshape how we work, learn, and connect. Will we harness its power for a more equitable future, or will we let it shape us in ways we can’t control? The future isn’t written. It’s ours to create.