Nonfiction Books
Last updated: April 29, 2025
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Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution
by Tania Branigan -
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Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire
by Nandini Das -
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The Violence of Colonial Photography
by Daniel Foliard -
4
Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation
by Kris Manjapra -
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Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World
by Irene Vallejo -
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Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living
by Dimitris Xygalatas
The 2023 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, recommended by Madawi Al-Rasheed
The 2023 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, recommended by Madawi Al-Rasheed
The annual British Academy Book Prize seeks out books that promote ‘global cultural understanding’—something we could all do with more of right now. Anthropologist Madawi Al-Rasheed, a visiting professor at LSE and one of the prize’s judges, talks us through the six excellent books that made the 2023 shortlist, from the ancient Library of Alexandria to fire walking in contemporary Greece.
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The Russo-Ukrainian War
by Serhii Plokhy -
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King: A Life
by Jonathan Eig -
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Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials
by Marion Gibson -
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How to Flourish: An Ancient Guide to Living Well
by Aristotle & Susan Sauvé Meyer (translator) -
5
Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity
by Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson
Notable Nonfiction of Early Summer 2023, recommended by Sophie Roell
Notable Nonfiction of Early Summer 2023, recommended by Sophie Roell
As high summer hits the northern hemisphere, Sophie Roell, editor of Five Books, takes a look at the many nonfiction books published over the last three months. With so many books coming out that are both readable and written by people who know what they’re talking about, reading remains one of the most enjoyable ways to make sense of the world around us.
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Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall
by Anna Funder -
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Nothing to Envy
by Barbara Demick -
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Behind the Beautiful Forevers
by Katherine Boo -
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Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
by Patrick Radden Keefe -
5
City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp
by Ben Rawlence
The Best Narrative Nonfiction Books, recommended by Samira Shackle
The Best Narrative Nonfiction Books, recommended by Samira Shackle
Narrative nonfiction is a style of writing that takes the facts and dramatises them to create novelistic retellings of real life events. Samira Shackle, author of Karachi Vice, a book that offers vivid insight into the lives of five of the city’s residents, recommends five books that have inspired her—and explains how a writer might begin to carve ‘plot’ and ‘characters’ from reams of research material.
The Best True Crime Books, recommended by David Grann
True crime books can be all too easily chalked up as a genre of grisly murders and cheap, voyeuristic thrills—but to do so would be to overlook compelling evidence to the contrary. David Grann, whose true crime book revisits long-forgotten, or concealed, crimes in the Osage community of Oklahoma, raises the bar with examples of true crime books rich in historical discovery, literary merit and the kind of political inquiry these murky times are calling for.
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G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
by Beverly Gage -
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The Grimkés: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family
by Kerri K. Greenidge -
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Mr. B: George Balanchine’s Twentieth Century
by Jennifer Homans -
4
Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life
by Clare Mac Cumhaill & Rachael Wiseman -
5
Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times
by Aaron Sachs
The Best Biographies of 2023: The National Book Critics Circle Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
The Best Biographies of 2023: The National Book Critics Circle Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
Talented biographers examine the interplay between individual qualities and greater social forces, explains Elizabeth Taylor—chair of the judges for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle award for biography. Here, she offers us an overview of their five-book shortlist, including a garlanded account of the life of J. Edgar Hoover and a group biography of post-war female philosophers.
Unusual Histories, recommended by Geoff Dyer
The author of But Beautiful and Zona tells us about different ways of writing history, and gives us five examples where innovative or experimental approaches have paid off.
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In The Shadow of the Mountain
by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado -
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High: A Journey Across the Himalaya, Through Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, and China
by Erika Fatland, translated by Kari Dickson -
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Crossed Off the Map: Travels in Bolivia
by Shafik Meghji -
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The Slow Road to Tehran: A Revelatory Bike Ride through Europe and the Middle East
by Rebecca Lowe -
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The Po: An Elegy for Italy's Longest River
by Tobias Jones
The Best Travel Books of 2023: The Stanford Travel Writing Awards, recommended by Cal Flyn
The Best Travel Books of 2023: The Stanford Travel Writing Awards, recommended by Cal Flyn
Every year, Stanfords, the best travel bookshop in the world (in our view), sponsors the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards, with travel writers and journalists judging the best travel book in a number of categories. Here Cal Flyn, our deputy editor, takes us through the eight books shortlisted for the 2023 ‘Travel Book of the Year’ award, taking us from Bolivia to Singapore via Europe, the Middle East and the top of Mt. Everest.
The Best Narrative Nonfiction, recommended by Peter Hessler
Writer and journalist Peter Hessler selects five books, from Haight Ashbury to a fifth grade classroom, which show how nonfiction can bring true stories to life through literary techniques. He chooses the best of narrative nonfiction.
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The Fire of the Dragon: China’s New Cold War
by Ian Williams -
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Invasion: Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine’s Fight for Survival
by Luke Harding -
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Who Cares: The Hidden Crisis of Caregiving, and How We Solve It
by Emily Kenway -
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The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy
by Philippe Sands -
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The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule
by Angela Saini
The 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Writing, recommended by Martha Lane Fox
The 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Writing, recommended by Martha Lane Fox
The Orwell Prizes are the UK’s most prestigious prizes for writing about politics, awarded annually to books and articles that best meet George Orwell’s own ambition “to make political writing into an art.” Martha Lane Fox, chair of this year’s judging panel, talks us through the shortlist of the 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Writing, awarded annually to a nonfiction book.
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The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
by Amitav Ghosh -
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Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: Reflections on the End of a Civilization
by Roy Scranton -
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Love in the Anthropocene
by Bonnie Nadzam & Dale Jamieson -
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The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets since the Depression
by Angus Burgin -
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The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy
by Michael E Mann & Tom Toles
The best books on The Politics of Climate Change, recommended by Naomi Oreskes
The best books on The Politics of Climate Change, recommended by Naomi Oreskes
‘We’re on a path that is going to lead to tremendous destruction and yet most of us are going about our lives as if nothing particularly special is happening.’ The science of climate change is incontrovertible but deniers persist and political and economic solutions continue to be – systematically – frustrated. Time is running out, says Naomi Oreskes