If you want to find our latest nonfiction book recommendations for 2024, please bookmark this page. Throughout the year, we'll be adding best of 2024 lists not only in general nonfiction, but also in more specific genres (such as history). Our lists include the latest books—picked out in round-ups by our editors—but also the results of 2024 book prizes as they're announced. Prizes are one of the best ways to find good books, as the books are picked out by a panel of judges who read dozens of books. Judges must also agree on which are the 'best' nonfiction books. Our editor round-ups, on the other hand, try to give a flavour of the range of new nonfiction books that are out there—focusing on the sheer variety. In general, they'll be covering a lot more than the five books displayed in the lists below:
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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.
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1
A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War
by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad -
2
The Britannias: An Archipelago’s Tale
by Alice Albinia -
3
The Gathering Place: A Winter Pilgrimage Through Changing Times
by Mary Colwell -
4
The Granite Kingdom: A Cornish Journey
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5
Wounded Tigris: A River Journey Through the Cradle of Civilisation
by Leon McCarron -
6
High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland
by Tom Parfitt
The Best Travel Writing of 2024, recommended by Shafik Meghji
The Best Travel Writing of 2024, recommended by Shafik Meghji
Every spring, the judges of the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards draw up a shortlist for the title of the ‘travel book of the year.’ The 2024 shortlist highlights six fascinating recent travelogues that wrestle with political and environmental issues, and explore the contrast between the outsider and the insider gaze.
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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.
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1
I Would Meet You Anywhere: A Memoir
by Susan Kiyo Ito -
2
Secret Harvests: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm
by David Mas Masumoto -
3
Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in an Egyptian Prison
by Ahmed Naji, translated by Katharine Halls -
4
How to Say Babylon: A Memoir
by Safiya Sinclair -
5
Story of a Poem: A Memoir
by Matthew Zapruder
The Best Memoirs: The 2024 NBCC Autobiography Shortlist, recommended by May-lee Chai
The Best Memoirs: The 2024 NBCC Autobiography Shortlist, recommended by May-lee Chai
It’s been a “phenomenal” year for autobiographical writing, says May-lee Chai—the award-winning author and chair of the judges for this year’s National Book Critics Circle prize for autobiography. Here she offers us a tour of the five memoirs that made their 2024 shortlist.
