• The Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 - A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders
  • The Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 - Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing by Chris Bail
  • The Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 - Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy by Anne Sebba
  • The Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 - Career and Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey toward Equity by Claudia Goldin
  • The Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 - River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads by Cat Jarman

The Best Nonfiction Books of 2021, recommended by Sophie Roell

As the Covid pandemic gets another lease of life with the appearance of the omicron variant, those of us spending additional time at home may need a few more books to read. Here, Five Books editor Sophie Roell shares some of her favourite nonfiction books of the year, from history to economics, lessons on how to write like Chekhov to the part each of us can play in reducing political polarization.

  • The Best Fiction of 2021: The Booker Prize Shortlist - No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
  • The Best Fiction of 2021: The Booker Prize Shortlist - The Promise by Damon Galgut
  • The Best Fiction of 2021: The Booker Prize Shortlist - Bewilderment: A Novel by Richard Powers
  • The Best Fiction of 2021: The Booker Prize Shortlist - A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam
  • The Best Fiction of 2021: The Booker Prize Shortlist - The Fortune Men: A Novel by Nadifa Mohamed
  • The Best Fiction of 2021: The Booker Prize Shortlist - Great Circle: A Novel by Maggie Shipstead

The Best Fiction of 2021: The Booker Prize Shortlist, recommended by Maya Jasanoff

This year the Booker Prize finalists include new work from previous shortlistees Richard Powers and Damon Galgut, a sweeping historical novel by Maggie Shipstead, and a fragmentary account of a life lived ‘extremely online.’ Maya Jasanoff, Harvard historian and chair of the 2021 judging panel, talks us through the best fiction of the past year.

  • The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist - Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955 by Harald Jähner & Shaun Whiteside (translator)
  • The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist - Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
  • The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist - Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn
  • The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist - Things I Have Withheld by Kei Miller
  • The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist - Fall: The Mysterious Life and Death of Robert Maxwell, Britain's Most Notorious Media Baron by John Preston
  • The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist - Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi

The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist, recommended by Kathryn Hughes

Every year the judges of the Baillie Gifford Prize pick out the very best nonfiction books, the shortlist they come up with a brilliant way to find gripping books to immerse yourself in. Here cultural historian Kathryn Hughes, one of this year’s judges, talks us through the six books they chose for the 2021 shortlist, books that will draw you in, whatever the subject.

  • The Best China Books of 2021 - The Shortest History of China: From the Ancient Dynasties to a Modern Superpower by Linda Jaivin
  • The Best China Books of 2021 - Monkey King: Journey to the West Wu Cheng'en and Julia Lovell (translator)
  • The Best China Books of 2021 - The Chinese Communist Party: A Century in Ten Lives Edited by Timothy Cheek, Klaus Mühlhahn and Hans van de Ven
  • The Best China Books of 2021 - Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen
  • The Best China Books of 2021 - In the Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony by Darren Byler

The Best China Books of 2021, recommended by Jeffrey Wasserstrom

Whether you want to read the entire history of China in 250 pages or find out what’s going on right now in Xinjiang, enjoy a new translation of a 16th-century fantasy novel or delve into contemporary short stories, 2021 has been another good year for books about China. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chancellor’s Professor of History at UC Irvine, recommends his favourite China books of 2021.

  • The Best Politics Books To Read in 2021 - Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show by Jonathan Karl
  • The Best Politics Books To Read in 2021 - Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could by Adam Schiff
  • The Best Politics Books To Read in 2021 - How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future by Daniel Ziblatt & Steven Levitsky
  • The Best Politics Books To Read in 2021 - Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum
  • The Best Politics Books To Read in 2021 - Peril by Bob Woodward & Robert Costa

The Best Politics Books To Read in 2021, recommended by Larry Sabato

In many Western countries, citizens have long taken living in a democracy for granted. The last decade has changed all that, with fledgling democracies veering back to authoritarianism and even the most stable democracies being shaken by populist movements. Here, political scientist Larry J. Sabato turns the spotlight on the American republic, long a beacon for democracy around the globe, but now suffering its own internal turmoil. He recommends the best politics books to read in 2021, focusing on the United States.