Cal Flyn, Deputy Editor

Our teenage years are often fraught with emotion, experimentation and the crises that arise with the coming of age. Here, the novelist and memoirist Tyler Wetherall discusses the memoirs of girlhood in which she found echoes of her own experiences—and perhaps you will too.

The boundaries between biography, history and news are very porous, says Elizabeth Taylor—chair of the judging panel for the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. Here, she introduces us to the five-strong shortlist of books, all of which, she notes, made headlines or “contributed to a substantial revision of history.”

The history of Africa is rich with stories of mighty empires, canny politicking, and complex belief systems. But too often history books written by outsiders focus solely on its colonial past. It’s time to read more books about African history by African writers, argues the broadcaster Zeinab Badawi—whose African History of Africa was recently shortlisted for a Nero Book Award. Here, she recommends five brilliant books to get you started.

Historical fiction, as a genre, is not known for its laugh-a-minute qualities. But that’s not to say there isn’t space for humour, when the events of the past have so often been surreal, ironic, or downright disastrous. Toby Clements, whose new novel A Good Deliverance takes the form of a 15th-century prison confession, recommends five of the funniest historical novels.

We ask our philosophy editor Nigel Warburton to recommend five of the most notable new books in his specialist area at the end of every year. In 2024, his nominations for the best philosophy books of 2024 include an introduction to the work of Karl Marx, a study of sentience in animals, and an examination of suicide through the work of the Greek tragedians.

Seamus Heaney argued that poetry might not change the world, but it could change our perception of the world. Now, a new prize set up in his name seeks to honour exciting new work with a political edge. Poet Paula Meehan, one of the judges of the inaugural PEN Heaney Prize, talks us through their shortlist of six poetry books and pamphlets we should be reading in 2024.

Every year, the £50,000 Booker Prize is awarded to a work of fiction newly published in English. We spoke to the composer Nitin Sawhney, one of this year’s judges, about their search for a shortlist, and why these six books—including the winning title, Samantha Harvey’s space station novel Orbital—are the best novels of 2024.

Every year, judges for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize ferret out the very best in newly published comic fiction. This year, the seven-novel shortlist ranges from steampunk fantasy to romantic comedy—and they are, says judge Justin Albert, the funniest books of 2024.

The ‘Deep’ South is a complicated place with a complicated history. But that’s what makes it such an effective literary setting, says Xan Brooks—author of The Catchers, a story of Blues music and exploitation that unfolds in the Mississippi Delta. Here he recommends some of the best historical fiction set in the American South, including novels by Flannery O’Connor and Mark Twain.

The interplay of real life and the generation or dissemination of ideas serves as the fascinating focus of the intellectual biography. Here, Henry Oliver—author of Second Act, a compelling new book about late-blooming intellectuals, artists, and thinkers—selects five of the best intellectual biographies, including studies of the lives of the novelist George Eliot and the philosopher Derek Parfit.