Across our site, we have thousands of nonfiction book recommendations, divided by subject matter. Below, you'll find more general recommendations, useful if you're in the mood for nonfiction, want to read a really, really good book, but don't really mind so much what it's about.
There are vast numbers of new books published every year, which makes choosing some of the best ones seem somewhat random and subjective. To try and get some objective sense of which books to read, our first port of call every year is always the Baillie Gifford Prize, the UK's most prestigious nonfiction prize. Judges scour hundreds of books—many of them lengthy tomes—to find the best nonfiction books of the year.
Also in nonfiction:
History books | Philosophy books | Psychology books | Art History books | Economics books | Religion
-
1
Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
by Martin Lings -
2
Mumbai To Mecca: A Pilgrimage to the Holy Sites of Islam
by Ilija Trojanow, translated by Rebecca Morrison -
3
Mecca: The Sacred City
by Ziauddin Sardar -
4
Islam: A Short History
by Karen Armstrong -
5
Islamic Mystical Poetry
ed. Mahmood Jamal
The best books on The Meaning of Ramadan, recommended by Tharik Hussain
The best books on The Meaning of Ramadan, recommended by Tharik Hussain
During Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, Muslims fast during daylight hours and refrain from sinful behaviours. We asked Tharik Hussain, author of acclaimed travelogue Minarets in the Mountains and the new companion guide Ramadan Mubarak, to choose five texts that offer readers insight into the true meaning of Ramadan.
The best books on The Scottish Highlands, recommended by Annie Worsley
The Scottish Highlands are known for the stark splendour of the landscape and the bellowing of the stags. They have inspired many classic works of poetry and nature writing, says Annie Worsley—the author of a memoir set on Scotland’s rugged north west coast. Here, she recommends five books on the Scottish Highlands that portray the people and their place.
-
1
The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748–1789
by Robert Darnton -
2
France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain
by Julian Jackson -
3
Monet: The Restless Vision
by Jackie Wullschläger -
4
Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849
by Christopher Clark -
5
Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire
by Nandini Das
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2024 Duff Cooper Prize, recommended by Susan Brigden
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2024 Duff Cooper Prize, recommended by Susan Brigden
If you’re looking for nonfiction with a literary sensibility and a historical bent, the books highlighted by the annual Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize are a great place to start. British historian Susan Brigden, author of Thomas Wyatt: The Heart’s Forest and one of the prize’s judges, talks us through the 2024 shortlist — from war and revolution to the splendours of Mughal India and Monet’s garden at Giverny.
-
1
The Shortest History of Economics
by Andrew Leigh -
2
Maurice and Maralyn: A Whale, a Shipwreck, a Love Story
by Sophie Elmhirst -
3
Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan
by Ruby Lal -
4
How the World Made the West: A 4,000-Year History
by Josephine Quinn -
5
Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense
Saul Perlmutter, Robert MacCoun and John Campbell
Nonfiction Books to Look Out for in Early 2024, recommended by Sophie Roell
Nonfiction Books to Look Out for in Early 2024, recommended by Sophie Roell
From the origins of sex to the effects of social media, from the invention of the wheel to the race against climate change, Five Books editor Sophie Roell gives an overview of the new nonfiction books appearing in January, February and March of 2024.
-
1
Peacemakers
by Margaret MacMillan -
2
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
by James Shapiro -
3
Nothing to Envy
by Barbara Demick -
4
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
by Patrick Radden Keefe -
5
Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest
by Wade Davis -
6
One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time
by Craig Brown
The Best Nonfiction of the Past Quarter Century: The Baillie Gifford Prize Winner of Winners, recommended by Sophie Roell
The Best Nonfiction of the Past Quarter Century: The Baillie Gifford Prize Winner of Winners, recommended by Sophie Roell
“All the best stories are true” runs the tagline of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, the UK’s pre-eminent nonfiction book award. This year, to celebrate the prize’s 25th birthday, a panel of judges picked out books for a winner of winners award, making for an excellent collection of nonfiction books from the last quarter of a century, as Five Books editor Sophie Roell explains.
-
1
Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World
by John Vaillant -
2
Mr. B: George Balanchine’s Twentieth Century
by Jennifer Homans -
3
Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance
by Jeremy Eichler -
4
Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849
by Christopher Clark -
5
Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution
by Tania Branigan -
6
Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children
by Hannah Barnes
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist, recommended by Frederick Studemann
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist, recommended by Frederick Studemann
If you’re looking for compelling stories that also happen to be true, the UK’s Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction is a great place to start. Frederick Studemann, Literary Editor of the Financial Times, talks us through the six brilliant books that made the 2023 shortlist, from a gripping account of a 2016 firestorm in Alberta to the shadow the Cultural Revolution continues to cast over today’s China. Read more nonfiction book recommendations on Five Books
The Best Books by War Correspondents, recommended by James MacManus
A war correspondent’s job is to be as close to the front line as possible and to provide as unbiased an account of a conflict as they can, explains the veteran journalist James MacManus. Here he selects five of the best books by war correspondents and explains why memories of that lifestyle now offer him literary inspiration.
The best books on Hallucination, recommended by Ben Alderson-Day
Hallucinations can be strange, alarming, even sometimes exciting. They affect the mentally ill and the chemically altered, but also those suffering from migraine, Parkinson’s, and even grief. Researcher Ben Alderson-Day talks us through this odd phenomenon as he selects five of the best book on hallucination.
-
1
Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World
by John Vaillant -
2
Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution
by Tania Branigan -
3
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
by Ed Yong -
4
Right Kind of Wrong: Why Learning to Fail Can Teach Us to Thrive
by Amy Edmondson -
5
Resistance: The Underground War in Europe, 1939-1945
by Halik Kochanski
Award-Winning Nonfiction of 2023, recommended by Sophie Roell
Award-Winning Nonfiction of 2023, recommended by Sophie Roell
We live in a golden age for nonfiction, with many highly readable books about important issues published every year. As 2023 comes to a close, Five Books editor Sophie Roell introduces the nonfiction books that won prizes this year.
The Best Narrative Nonfiction, recommended by Catherine Manegold
The author and former New York Times reporter says that some of the very best writing today is nonfiction — and that seductive narratives can yank readers into the most diverse range of subjects