The Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest, established in 1980, is a category of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Works are eligible during the year of their first US publication in English, though they may be written originally in languages other than English.
| 1980 | Without Fear or Favor | Winner | [1] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number | Winner | ||
| 1982 | Winner | |||
| 1983 | Lost in the Cosmos | Winner | ||
| 1984 | Cities and the Wealth of Nations | Winner | ||
| 1985 | , Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven M. Tipton | Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life | Winner | |
| 1986 | Winner | |||
| 1987 | Winner | |||
| 1988 | Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country | Winner | ||
| 1989 | Winner | |||
| 1990 | Disappearing through the Skylight: Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century | Winner | ||
| and Paul Wilson | Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Huizdala | Finalist | [2] | |
| My Traitor’s Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience | ||||
| 1991 | Why Americans Hate Politics: The Death of the Democratic Process | Winner | ||
| Finalist | [3] | |||
| 1992 | Winner | |||
| and Mary D. Edsall | Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics | Finalist | [4] | |
| Den of Thieves | ||||
| 1993 | Mexican Americans: The Ambivalent Minority | Winner | ||
| African Laughter: Four Visits to Zimbabwe | Finalist | [5] | ||
| Paul Kennedy | Preparing for the Twenty-First Century | |||
| 1994 | Diplomacy | Winner | ||
| Original Intent and the Framers of the Constitution: A Disputed Question | Finalist | [6] | ||
| Brent Staples | Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White | |||
| 1995 | Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black | Winner | ||
| Beyond Individualism: How Social Demands of the New Identity Groups Challenge American Political and | Finalist | [7] | ||
| and John Lie | Blue Dreams: Korean Americans and the Los Angeles Riots | |||
| and Gary Sandefur | Growing Up With a Single Parent: What Hurts, What Helps | |||
| We, the Jury: The Jury System and the Ideal of Democracy | ||||
| 1996 | Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War | Winner | ||
| Finalist | [8] | |||
| All God’s Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence | ||||
| Ashes to Ashes: America’s Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris | ||||
| Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs, and Declarations of Independence | ||||
| Evan Thomas | ||||
| Turning Stones: My Days and Nights with Children at Risk | ||||
| 1997 | Winner | |||
| Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster | Finalist | [9] | ||
| Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfect Suburb | ||||
| Race, Crime, and the Law | ||||
| 1998 | We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda | Winner | ||
| American Beach: A Saga of Race, Wealth, and Memory | Finalist | [10] | ||
| Articles of Faith: A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars | ||||
| Cold New World: Growing Up in a Harder Country | ||||
| On the Outside Looking In: A Year in an Inner-City High School | ||||
| 1999 | with Ovie Carter (photographer) | Sidewalk | Winner | |
| Finalist | [11] | |||
| Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War | ||||
| Chosen By God: A Brother’s Journey | ||||
| 2000 | Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War | Winner | ||
| Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon | Finalist | [12] | ||
| Pitching Around Fidel: A Journey into the Heart of Cuban Sports | ||||
| 2001 | Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America | Winner | [13] | |
| States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering | Finalist | [14] | ||
| Tom and Huck Don’t Live Here Anymore | ||||
| 2002 | Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex | Winner | ||
| Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Stargazers Are Probing Deep Space, and Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril | Finalist | [15] | ||
| and Kira Brunner (editors) | ||||
| Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich | ||||
| 2003 | Winner | |||
| Cut Time: An Education at the Fights | Finalist | [16] | ||
| Jarhead: A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles | ||||
| Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith | ||||
| Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11 | ||||
| 2004 | Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War | Winner | ||
| Blue Blood | Finalist | [17] | ||
| Bound to Please | ||||
| 2005 | Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War | Winner | [18] | |
| Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story | Finalist | [19] | ||
| Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Criminal Courthouse | ||||
| Still Looking: Essays on American Art | ||||
| 2006 | Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance | Winner | [20] [21] | |
| Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone | Finalist | [22] | ||
| Strange Piece of Paradise | ||||
| 2007 | Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point | Winner | ||
| Finalist | [23] | |||
| 2008 | Winner | [24] [25] | ||
| My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey | Finalist | [26] | ||
| 2009 | Zeitoun | Winner | [27] | |
| Columbine | Finalist | [28] | ||
| and Sheryl WuDunn | Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide | |||
| Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness | ||||
| 2010 | Winner | [29] [30] | ||
| and Joe Nocera | All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis | Finalist | [31] | |
| Just Kids | ||||
| War | ||||
| 2011 | Thinking, Fast and Slow | Winner | [32] | |
| El Narco: Inside Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency | Finalist | [33] | ||
| Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything | ||||
| 2012 | Winner | [34] [35] | ||
| Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into Battlegrounds | Finalist | [36] | ||
| On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines—and Future | ||||
| Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power | ||||
| 2013 | Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital | Winner | [37] [38] | |
| Finalist | [39] | |||
| Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief | ||||
| Manifest Injustice: The True Story of a Convicted Murderer and the Lawyers Who Fought for His Freedom | ||||
| Thank You for Your Service | ||||
| 2014 | Winner | [40] [41] | ||
| Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End | Finalist | [42] | ||
| Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption | ||||
| Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free | ||||
| 2015 | Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security | Winner | ||
| Blue: The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing | Finalist | [43] | ||
| Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land | ||||
| Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic | ||||
| How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century | ||||
| 2016 | with Bela Shayevich (trans.) | Winner | [44] | |
| Finalist | [45] | |||
| City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp | ||||
| 2017 | Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America | Winner | [46] | |
| Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America | Finalist | [47] | ||
| 2018 | Winner | [48] | ||
| 2019 | Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration | Winner | [49] [50] [51] | |
| Finalist | ||||
| Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators | ||||
| No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us | ||||
| 2020 | Winner | [52] | ||
| Finalist | [53] | |||
| Waiting for an Echo: The Madness of American Incarceration | ||||
| Separated: Inside an American Tragedy | ||||
| 2021 | Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could | Winner | [54] | |
| Finalist | [55] | |||
| Halfway Home: Race, Punihsment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration | ||||
| Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury | ||||
| 2022 | Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America | Winner | [56] | |
| Finalist | ||||
| They Knew: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent | ||||
| Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families — and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World | ||||
| 2023 | We Were Once A Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America | Winner | [57] | |
| Bettina L. Love | Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal | Finalist | ||
| Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson | American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15 | |||
| Christina Sharpe | Ordinary Notes | |||
| Raja Shehadeh | We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir |