At the end of every year, we give our subscribers a peek at the books that most entertained or enlightened our staff over the past 12 months. This year’s list is an eclectic mix of nonfiction titles, including political histories, business books, and memoirs. Two of them—both about the events that helped spark the MeToo movement—reflect our professional predilection for an old-fashioned, behind-the-scenes look at investigative journalism. Most of these books were only recently published, but in one case we included an older book that has relevance to the events of today.

We think reading any of them will help make our subscribers smarter and more aware in the coming year. Next Saturday we’ll publish our recommendations for podcasts and streaming videos series or movies.