The Best Nonfiction Books of 2025

It’s been another big year for technology and AI, but books on geopolitics and global political rivalries are front and centre on the shortlist of the 2025 Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award. FT journalist Andrew Hill, the prize’s organizer, talks us through the six books that made the cut—from the enigmatic founders of multi-billion- and trillion-dollar businesses to the challenges governments face in achieving growth and prosperity.

Every year, we ask our philosophy editor Nigel Warburton to select the best new philosophy books aimed at the general reader. In 2025, he's chosen—among other things—biographies of Schopenhauer and Wittgenstein, and a carefully-curated collection of Existentialist writings.

Every year, the judges for the Royal Society Book Prize search for the most informative and most readable new books on scientific subjects. In 2025, their shortlist of the best popular science books includes a history of extinction in the colonial world, and the heartrending story of the struggle to save the world's first seed bank during the Siege of Leningrad. We spoke to the botanist Dr Sandra Knapp, chair of the judging panel.

We gathered together a selection of five new and noteworthy self-help and psychology books that advise us on how we might become stronger willed, more creative and better conversationalists—as well as exploring the science behind music therapy and the enduring fascination of horror movies.

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.

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.

Every year, the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award—the world's longest-running sports writing prize—highlights the very best new books in the genre. We asked Alyson Rudd, chair of the judges, to introduce us to this year's winner—The Escape, by cyclist Pippa York and reporter David Walsh—and the six runners-up.  

Editors at AudioFile magazine, who reviewed more than 2,000 books in 2025, pick out their favourites in the 'history and nonfiction' category—from the American struggle for independence to the ruminations of a food celebrity.

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.

Every year, the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards highlight the very best of recently published place writing, and select their 'travel book of the year.' We asked judge Tom Parfitt, the author and former foreign correspondent, to talk us through the six travel books that made the 2025 shortlist.