Nonfiction Books
Last updated: October 09, 2025
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Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
by Matthew Walker -
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When Brains Dream: Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep
by Antonio Zadra & Robert Stickgold -
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The Awesome Power of Sleep: How Sleep Supercharges Your Teenage Brain
by Nicola Morgan -
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Sleep Paralysis: Night-mares, Nocebos and the Mind-Body Connection
by Shelley R Adler -
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Sleep in Early Modern England
by Sasha Handley
Books About Sleep, recommended by Five Books interviewees
Books About Sleep, recommended by Five Books interviewees
A solid sleep schedule is the bedrock of a healthy lifestyle. But a surprising number of people either struggle to maintain a good routine, or to stay asleep once they finally manage to drift away. We’ve gathered together a list of recommended books for anyone out there ready to get serious about sleep.
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A Thousand Threads: A Memoir
by Neneh Cherry -
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The Story of a Heart
by Rachel Clarke -
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Raising Hare
by Chloe Dalton -
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Agent Zo: The Untold Story of a Fearless World War II Resistance Fighter
by Clare Mulley -
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What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World’s Ocean
by Helen Scales -
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Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China
by Yuan Yang
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Women’s Prize for Nonfiction, recommended by Kavita Puri
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Women’s Prize for Nonfiction, recommended by Kavita Puri
Now in its second year, the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction aims to highlight the very best new nonfiction books written by women. We asked Kavita Puri, the journalist and chair of this year’s judging panel, to talk us through the shortlist: from a gentle lockdown animal memoir to a thrilling true story of a WW2 secret agent.
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Italy Reborn: From Fascism to Democracy
by Mark Gilbert -
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Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World
by Kathryn Hughes -
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The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham
by Lucy Hughes-Hallett -
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Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe: Male-Male Sexual Relations, 1400-1750
by Noel Malcolm -
5
Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin
by Sue Prideaux -
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Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin, and the Battle Between Science and Religion
by Michael Taylor
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Duff Cooper Prize, recommended by Minoo Dinshaw
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Duff Cooper Prize, recommended by Minoo Dinshaw
It’s a nonfiction book prize that values “style, rigour, argument, meatiness, readability, freshness, oddity and individuality,” says Minoo Dinshaw, author of Friends in Youth and one of this year’s judges. He introduces the six brilliant books that made the shortlist of this year’s Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, from the history of post-World War II Italy to the disputes caused by the discovery of dinosaur fossils.
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Russia Starts Here: Real Lives in the Ruins of Empire
by Howard Amos -
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The Baton and the Cross: Russia's Church from Pagans to Putin
by Lucy Ash -
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To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement
by Benjamin Nathans -
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Patriot: A Memoir
by Alexei Navalny, translated by Arch Tait with Stephen Dalziel -
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To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power
by Sergey Radchenko -
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‘A Seditious and Sinister Tribe’: The Crimean Tatars and Their Khanate
by Donald Rayfield
The Best Nonfiction Books on Russia: The 2025 Pushkin House Prize, recommended by Gulnaz Sharafutdinova
The Best Nonfiction Books on Russia: The 2025 Pushkin House Prize, recommended by Gulnaz Sharafutdinova
The Pushkin House Book Prize is awarded annually for a nonfiction book that encourages “public understanding and intelligent debate about Russia.” Political scientist Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, chair of this year’s judging panel, talks us through the six fantastic books shortlisted in 2025, illuminating different parts of Russia’s politics and history — from the memoir of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in 2024, to a history of the Russian Orthodox Church and its role in propping up political regimes from the Middle Ages to the present.
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At the Edge of Empire: A Family's Reckoning with China
by Edward Wong -
Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World
by Anne Applebaum -
Broken Threads: My Family from Empire to Independence
by Mishal Husain -
Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary
by Victoria Amelina -
The Baton and the Cross: Russia's Church from Pagans to Putin
by Lucy Ash
The Best Politics Books of 2025: The Orwell Prize for Political Writing
The Best Politics Books of 2025: The Orwell Prize for Political Writing
From conspiracy theories wreaking havoc in US politics to poignant memoirs of painful events around the globe, the books shortlisted for the 2025 Orwell Prizes, the UK’s most prestigious awards for writing about politics, have been announced. These are the eight books shortlisted for the ‘Orwell Prize for Political Writing,’ awarded annually to a nonfiction book. The comments are from the judging panel, chaired by UK diplomat and former ambassador to the US Kim Darroch.
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The Greek Revolution and the Violent Birth of Nationalism
by Yanni Kotsonis -
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Abortion: A History
by Mary Fissell -
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Maria Theresa: Empress
by Richard Bassett -
4
Stronger: The Untold Story of Muscle in Our Lives
by Michael Joseph Gross -
5
House of Huawei: The Secret History of China's Most Powerful Company
by Eva Dou
Notable Nonfiction Books of Early 2025, recommended by Sophie Roell
Notable Nonfiction Books of Early 2025, recommended by Sophie Roell
As March draws to a close, Sophie Roell, editor of Five Books, looks at some of the nonfiction books that have come out in the first three months of 2025, from the biography of one of the world’s great female leaders to better ways to measure a country’s economy.
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Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends
by Lonnie Johnson -
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The Siege of Vienna: The Last Great Trial Between Cross & Crescent
by John Stoye -
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Maria Theresa
by Edward Crankshaw -
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Vienna: How the City of Ideas Created the Modern World
by Richard Cockett -
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The Man Without Qualities
by Robert Musil -
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The Capuchin Crypt (aka The Emperor's Tomb)
by Joseph Roth
The best books on Austria, recommended by Nicholas Parsons
The best books on Austria, recommended by Nicholas Parsons
Today, the Republic of Austria is a small country in Central Europe, but for centuries, it was the fulcrum of events going on in Europe, as the Habsburgs led the Holy Roman Empire—and later the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire—until it all fell apart after World War I. Nicholas Parsons, author of the excellent The Shortest History of Austria, introduces us to books and novels that bring to life the history of a political, intellectual, and cultural powerhouse.
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Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar
by Cynthia Carr -
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Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution: A History from Below
by Jane Kamensky -
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Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers
by Jean Strouse -
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Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People
by Tiya Miles -
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The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker
by Amy Reading
The Best Biographies: The 2025 NBCC Shortlist, recommended by Mary Ann Gwinn
The Best Biographies: The 2025 NBCC Shortlist, recommended by Mary Ann Gwinn
We always look forward to the shortlists for the National Book Critics Awards, on the basis that literary critics are probably the best read people out there. Here, we asked the garlanded critic Mary Ann Gwinn to talk us through the five biographies highlighted in 2025.
The Best 19th-Century Books
The 19th century was a golden age for books, with the flourishing of great realist novels, as well as epic adventure stories and what would turn out to be distinct genres, including sci-fi, horror, and mystery. It was also an important time for the history of ideas, with the publication of key books that would change the world, and how we view it, forever.
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Nuclear War: A Scenario
by Annie Jacobsen -
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Question 7
by Richard Flanagan -
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The Story of a Heart
by Rachel Clarke -
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A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial
by Viet Thanh Nguyen -
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Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin
by Sue Prideaux -
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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.