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There’s still time to be changed by what you read in 2024. Make the most of it with these potent books of poems.

2024 was chock-full of auspicious debuts and sparkling returns from nonfiction’s heavy hitters. Journalists unearthed unreported histories and dug deeper into stories we thought we knew, while scientists and memoirists challenged us to look more closely at ourselves and our environments. Here are the 15 nonfiction books that floored us.

The greatest novels of 2024 were notably unafraid to rewrite the past, lacing shimmering, enriching new narratives through personal and cultural histories. Even better: Many of them made us laugh along the way. Read on for the 15 novels and graphic novels that most impressed, charmed and inspired us this year.

Stopping by Jungle on a Snowy Evening is a rare find. It’s a combo of old and new, clever and classic, innovative and familiar—perfect for any fathomable storytime scenario.

Michael Owen’s thoughtful, engaging biography illuminates the life and work of Ira Gershwin.

The Smell of Wet Dog is chock-full of luscious light verse designed to draw in even the most reluctant of poetry readers.

The Icon and the Idealist is a compelling, warts-and-all dual biography of the warring leaders of the early 20th-century birth control movement: Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett.

The illuminating Luncheons on the Grass asks 30 artists to create new works inspired by Manet’s eponymous masterpiece.

Get inside the mind of an artist, revisit Manet and celebrate queer life in some of 2024’s best art and photography books.

After reading Windsongs, kids and parents alike might find themselves creating their own poems, inspired by Douglas Florian’s poetry about the dew, drought, thunder and frost.