Literary Nonfiction
Last updated: September 12, 2024
The best books on Diaries and Autobiography, recommended by Craig Brown
The Private Eye satirist and author recommends five entertaining published diaries, from Andy Warhol to Harpo Marx – and tells us why parody is a pickpocket
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1
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by Malcolm X and assisted by Alex Haley, Laurence Fishburne (narrator) -
2
A Place to Stand
by Jimmy Santiago Baca -
3
Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison
by Shaka Senghor -
4
Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters
by Wally Lamb -
5
True Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall
by Mark Salzman
The Best Prison Literature, recommended by David Coogan
The Best Prison Literature, recommended by David Coogan
Prison literature can make difficult reading but is often incredibly touching, testimony to the resilience of the human spirit. David Coogan, an English professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who runs a creative writing workshop at Richmond City Jail, introduces ‘prison literature.’
The best books on Medicine and Literature, recommended by Gavin Francis
What can literature offer to medicine and what can medicine offer to literature? Author and physician Gavin Francis offers his professional opinion – and prescribes a list of five notable books at the intersection of his two great passions.
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The Memoirs Of Marguerite De Valois
by Marguerite De Valois -
2
Why Not Say What Happened?: A Memoir
by Ivana Lowell -
3
Casting with a Fragile Thread: A Story of Sisters and Africa
by Wendy Kann -
4
The Mighty Queens of Freeville
by Amy Dickinson -
5
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
by Cheryl Strayed
The best books on Memoirs of Dauntless Daughters, recommended by Nancy Goldstone
The best books on Memoirs of Dauntless Daughters, recommended by Nancy Goldstone
In her book The Rival Queens, historian Nancy Goldstone explored the destructive relationship between Marguerite de Valois and her mother Catherine de’ Medici. Here she chooses five different memoirs that best explore the emotionally complex dynamics that characterise mother-daughter relationships.
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1
La Bibliothèque invisible
by Stéphane Mahieu -
2
Mirabiblia: Catalogo ragionato di libri introvabili
by Paolo Albani & Paolo della Bella -
3
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
by Laurence Sterne -
4
Nueva Enciclopedia
by Alberto Savinio -
5
The Afternoon of Mr. Andesmas
by Marguerite Duras
Enrique Vila-Matas on Books that Shaped Him
Enrique Vila-Matas on Books that Shaped Him
‘I like to show some restraint when it comes to making things up…’ The Spanish novelist Enrique Vila-Matas discusses the role of risk in writing, the ‘crisis of the novel’, and five books that have shaped his own work. (You can also read this interview in the original Spanish.)
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Wild Child: Coming Home to Nature
by Patrick Barkham -
2
English Pastoral: An Inheritance
by James Rebanks -
3
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
by Merlin Sheldrake -
4
The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge
by Jeffrey J Kripal -
5
Vesper Flights
by Helen Macdonald (author and narrator)
The Best Nature Books of 2020, recommended by Charles Foster
The Best Nature Books of 2020, recommended by Charles Foster
Charles Foster—the barrister, ethicist and bestselling author of Being a Beast—selects five brilliant nature books that reflect a new boom in nature writing in 2020, many of which ask us to examine more closely the interconnectedness of all things.
Editors’ Picks: Notable Books of 2019, recommended by Cal Flyn
Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn reflects on a year of spectacularly rich literary output, highlighting notable new books from Mary Gaitskill and Robert Macfarlane, as well as sparkling debuts that mark the arrival of exciting new literary voices in 2019.
The Best ‘Anti-Memoirs’, recommended by Yiyun Li
Yiyun Li, author of Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life, on the sheer messiness of life, the irrelevance of ‘I’, and why brutal honesty is often the truest way to capture the people we love the most
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Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee
by Casey Cep -
2
On Chapel Sands: My Mother and Other Missing Persons
by Laura Cumming -
3
The Lives of Lucian Freud: Youth 1922 - 1968
by William Feaver -
4
Maoism: A Global History
by Julia Lovell -
5
Guest House for Young Widows: Among the women of ISIS
by Azadeh Moaveni -
6
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
by Hallie Rubenhold
The Best Nonfiction Books of 2019, recommended by Stig Abell
The Best Nonfiction Books of 2019, recommended by Stig Abell
Every year, the Baillie Gifford Prize judges seek to identify the very best nonfiction books published in the last year. Here, the chair of this year’s judging panel Stig Abell talks us through the 2019 shortlist: a thrilling line-up of books that are as notable for their literary prowess as for their weight and significance.
The best books on Strong Women in Bad Marriages, recommended by Nancy Goldstone
The author of The Maid and the Queen takes us on an enjoyable ride through European history, looking at well-connected women who outwitted their husbands or asserted their independence.