Nonfiction Books
Last updated: December 11, 2024
Across our site, we have thousands of nonfiction book recommendations, on a vast array of topics. Below, you'll find some general recommendations, useful if you're in the mood for nonfiction, want to read a really, really good book, but don't mind 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. Fortunately, in the UK, we have the Baillie Gifford Prize. Judges scour hundreds of books—many of them lengthy tomes—to find the best books of the year. Our editor, Sophie Roell, also provides regular roundups of new nonfiction being published.
Best Nonfiction of 2024 | History books | Best Nonfiction of 2023 | Best Biographies | Memoirs & Autobiography | Short Nonfiction | Nonfiction Series| Science books | Philosophy books | Psychology books | Art History books | Economics books | Business Books | Religion books
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Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World
by Parmy Olson -
Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century
by Joya Chatterji -
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama
by Nathan Thrall -
A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?
by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith -
France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain
by Julian Jackson
10 Award-Winning Nonfiction Books of 2024
10 Award-Winning Nonfiction Books of 2024
All the winners of the nonfiction book prizes we cover at Five Books have now been announced. These include history, politics, business, science, sports and general nonfiction.
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1
Nuclear War: A Scenario
by Annie Jacobsen -
2
Question 7
by Richard Flanagan -
3
The Story of a Heart
by Rachel Clarke -
4
A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial
by Viet Thanh Nguyen -
5
Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin
by Sue Prideaux -
6
Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World
by David Van Reybrouck
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist, recommended by Isabel Hilton
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist, recommended by Isabel Hilton
From nuclear war to a heartbreaking medical story, from the memoirs of novelists and the life of an artist to the struggle for independence in Indonesia, British journalist Isabel Hilton introduces the six books that made the shortlist of the UK’s most prestigious nonfiction prize.
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1
Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
by John Milton Cooper -
2
Lenin: A Biography
by Robert Service -
3
Mao: The Man Who Made China
by Philip Short -
4
The Hitler of History
by John Lukacs -
5
Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1948
by Ramachandra Guha -
6
A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion
by Tom Segev
The Best Biographies of 20th Century Leaders, recommended by Michael Mandelbaum
The Best Biographies of 20th Century Leaders, recommended by Michael Mandelbaum
The first half of the 20th century was an era when individuals could have a huge impact on the course of history—whether for good or bad, argues political scientist Michael Mandelbaum. He recommends the best biographies to read about the eight world leaders who feature in his latest book, The Titans of the Twentieth Century, from Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) to Mao Zedong (1893-1976).
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Patriot: A Memoir
by Alexei Navalny -
2
Punishing Putin: Inside the Global Economic War to Bring Down Russia
by Stephanie Baker -
3
Hitler's People: The Faces of the Third Reich
by Richard J. Evans -
4
The Golden Road
by William Dalrymple -
5
The Peepshow: The Murders at Rillington Place
by Kate Summerscale
Notable Nonfiction Books of Fall 2024, recommended by Sophie Roell
Notable Nonfiction Books of Fall 2024, recommended by Sophie Roell
From the memoir of the brave politician who opposed Putin, to how the culture of ancient and early medieval India transformed the world, from a book about the people who surrounded Hitler, to a serial killer in 1950s London, Sophie Roell, editor of Five Books, introduces some of her favourite nonfiction books published in the last three months.
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Question 7
by Richard Flanagan -
Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World
by John Vaillant -
Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne
by Katherine Rundell -
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
by Patrick Radden Keefe -
One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time
by Craig Brown
Baillie Gifford Prize-Winning Nonfiction Books
Baillie Gifford Prize-Winning Nonfiction Books
It's a prize that has been awarded annually since 1999 to a book that speaks to an important issue but is also highly readable. Below you'll find all the winners of the Baillie Gifford Prize, the UK's most prestigious non-fiction book award—from a gripping account of a turning point in World War II to a terrifying forest fire in an oil town in Canada.
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1
King: A Life
by Jonathan Eig -
2
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom
by Ilyon Woo -
3
Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage
by Jonny Steinberg -
4
Monet: The Restless Vision
by Jackie Wullschläger -
5
Traces of Enayat
by Iman Mersal, translated by Robin Moger -
6
Fassbinder: Thousands of Mirrors
by Ian Penman
Award-Winning Biographies of 2024, recommended by Cal Flyn
Award-Winning Biographies of 2024, recommended by Cal Flyn
We asked Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn to put together a concise round-up of notable biographies of 2024, comprising the winners of relevant literary awards from the United Kingdom and the United States. The list includes two biographies of married couples and an “unclassifiable” literary detective story tracking down details of a forgotten Egyptian poet.
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1
The Corporation in the Twenty-First Century: Why (Almost) Everything We Are Told About Business Is Wrongfnew ec
by John Kay -
2
Tribal: How the Cultural Instincts That Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together
by Michael Morris -
3
Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World
by Parmy Olson -
4
The Longevity Imperative: Building a Better Society for Healthier, Longer Lives
by Andrew Scott -
5
Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War
by Christopher Kirchhoff & Raj Shah -
6
Growth: A History and a Reckoning
by Daniel Susskind
The Best Business Books of 2024: the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, recommended by Andrew Hill
The Best Business Books of 2024: the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, recommended by Andrew Hill
From how to channel the tribal instincts innate to Homo sapiens to the role of Silicon Valley in the future of warfare, the Financial Times book award—now in its 20th year—has a broad definition of what makes a good business book. FT journalist Andrew Hill, the prize’s organizer, talks us through the six excellent books that made the 2024 shortlist.
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1
Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization
by Ed Conway -
2
Smoke and Ashes: Opium's Hidden Histories
by Amitav Ghosh -
3
The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Global History of Mathematics & its Unsung Trailblazers
by Kate Kitagawa & Timothy Revell -
4
Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise Healthcare
by Annabel Sowemimo -
5
Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues
by Ross Perlin -
6
The Tame and the Wild: People and Animals after 1492
by Marcy Norton
The 2024 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, recommended by Charles Tripp
The 2024 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, recommended by Charles Tripp
The British Academy Book Prize is awarded annually for a nonfiction book that combines rigorous research with engaging writing—and promotes global cultural understanding. Charles Tripp, chair of this year’s judging panel, explains what that means and introduces the six books that made the 2024 shortlist.
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1
Everything is Predictable: How Bayes’ Remarkable Theorem Explains the World
by Tom Chivers -
2
Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
by Cat Bohannon -
3
Your Face Belongs to Us: The Secretive Startup Dismantling Your Privacy
by Kashmir Hill -
4
The Last of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction
by Gísli Pálsson -
5
Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality
by Venki Ramakrishnan -
6
A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?
by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith
The Best Popular Science Books of 2024, recommended by John Hutchinson
The Best Popular Science Books of 2024, recommended by John Hutchinson
Every year, the judges of the Royal Society Science Book Prize put together a shortlist of the smartest, sharpest, funniest science books of the previous twelve months. We asked the chair of the 2024 panel—the leading evolutionary biomechanics researcher Professor John Hutchinson—to talk us through their picks of the best new popular science books.
The Best Kindles in 2024, recommended by Maneetpaul Singh
With Amazon refreshing its entire range this year—including the introduction of the first colour Kindle—it’s hard to know which is the best Kindle for reading. We turned to Kindle expert Maneetpaul Singh, author of Kindle Bookworm, to talk us through the 2024 lineup.