Non-Fiction Necessities
For the lifelong learners, self-improvement enthusiasts, and anyone eager to explore new ideas and perspectives. These non-fiction books provide enriching experiences that will spark conversation and inspire personal growth.
Must-read memoirs from cultural icons
Immerse yourself in the creative universe of Margaret Atwood for a riot of life, art and everything in between: the greatest writer of our time tells her own story.
As she explores her past, Atwood reveals more and more about her writing, the connections between real life and art – and the workings of one of our boldest imaginations.
Top of the Pops, December 1988 . The world sat up as a young woman made her debut: gold bra, gold bomber jacket, and proudly, gloriously, seven months pregnant. This was no ordinary artist. This was Neneh Cherry.
Musician. Songwriter. Collaborator. Activist. Mother. Daughter. Lover. Friend. Icon. This is her story.
Picks for the inquisitive reader
From the world-leading gut scientist and no. 1 bestselling author of Food for Life ,
Drawing on his own cutting-edge research, and including practical tips for buying and making fermented foods, Tim demystifies the world of ferments, and introduces us to some of his favourites.
Immersive, globe-spanning and full of detail and drama, The Revolutionists is an unprecedented account of a seismic decade that transformed the modern world.
Set against the backdrop of the Cold War and packed with revelations about iconic events such as the deadly attack on the Munich Olympic, Israel’s raid on Entebbe, the Iranian revolution and the rise of Islamic extremism, this is a sweeping, scrupulously reported historical narrative with the pace and suspense of a thriller.
For thirty years Anne Enright has been paying attention: casting her lucid and distinctive gaze across the world, literature and her own life, and gifting us with her precise insights.
Attention brings Anne Enright’s wide-ranging cultural criticism, literary and autobiographical writing together for the first time. Electrifying, probing and exuberant, this is a defining collection from one of our most distinguished literary voices.
Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has brought us where we are today.
Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power.
Information is not the raw material of truth, nor is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes and, in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.
Books that offer some shelf -relfection
The Examined Life
When it comes to love why do we find things so difficult? Drawing on over forty years of candid and surprising conversations with his patients, Stephen Grosz asks, what gets in the way of our falling in love? And what must we do to stay there?
Are you constantly worried about what people think of you, if they like you, if they’re mad at you? This book will help you understand why.
Weaving her own moving story with case studies and thought-provoking exercises, Meg will show you how to identify your needs, rethink conflict and build stronger connections: empowering you to stop focusing on what others think and start living for you.
Explore the UK from a new perspective
Rory Stewart spent nearly a decade as MP for Britain’s most rural constituency, Penrith and the Border. As he came to know and love this part of Cumbria, he found inspiration in the beauty of its landscape, its rugged history as a frontierland, and in the spirit of its people.
Drawing on pieces originally written for a local newspaper, Middleland is an urgent and inspiring portrait of rural Britain today. These are stories of beauty and ingenuity, which also show us what a better politics might look like.
Britain has always been a craft land. For generations what we made with our hands defined our identities, built our communities and shaped our regions. Craftland chronicles the vanishing skills and traditions that once governed every aspect of life on these shores.
Stepping inside the workshops of blacksmiths and wheelwrights, cutlers and coopers, bellfounders and watchmakers, we glimpse not only our past but another way of life: one that is not yet lost and might still shape our future.
Stories of inspiration and hope
On the morning of 12 August 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage in upstate New York, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black rushed down the aisle towards him, wielding a knife. His first thought: So it’s you. Here you are.
What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. Now, for the first time, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey of healing and recovery. This is an intimate and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art – and finding the strength to stand up again.
Dramatic in scope and deep in feeling, Raise Your Soul is an intimate portrait of three generations caught up in the whirlwind of history.
At its heart are the women whose resilience, defiance and courage inspired the visionary economist Yanis Varoufakis most. Through their lives, he not only lays bare his own political soul, but confronts the dark forces of authoritarianism that still haunt Europe and beyond, reigniting hope in all of us that we can rise once more.
This is the unforgettable life story of one of the most fearless and inspiring figures of our time.
As dramatic as Navalny’s life – and full of the passionate belief that good and freedom will prevail - it is an astonishingly positive account of a heroic life.
From one kiss comes a chain reaction. Question 7 is a masterpiece of memoir from the winner of the Baillie Gifford and the Booker prize.
By way of H. G. Wells and Rebecca West’s affair, through 1930s nuclear physics, to Flanagan’s father working as a slave labourer near Hiroshima, this chain of events culminates in a young man finding himself trapped in a rapid on a wild river, not knowing if he is to live or to die…
