best non fiction books uk 2022

Culture | Books

World Book Day: The best non-fiction books to read in 2022, from Margaret Atwood to Matthew Perry

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The pause of 2020 seems to have led many to reflect on their lives - subsequently, 2022 is the year of the memoir.

There will be big name autobiogs from the likes of Matthew Perry, Edward Enninful, Minnie Driver and Jarvis Cocker, alongside stories of survival, creativity, grief and motherhood.

We can also expect thrilling new books of essays and ideas, as well as those touching on urgent political issues and recent history. Non-fiction fan? Here’s what you’ll be reading this year. (If you’re looking for a fiction fix, don’t miss our guide to the best novels coming in 2022 .)

I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home by Jami Attenberg

What better way to start the new year than by reading a memoir all about getting in touch with your creativity? Whipsmart novelist Jami Attenberg shares how she pieced together a writing career while travelling the world, dissecting what it takes to build an artistic life. Prepare to be inspired. (out now, Serpent’s Tail)

Pre-order it here

The Cure for Sleep by Tanya Shadrick

Days after having her first child, Tanya Shadrick nearly died. The experience, she says, shocked her into the realisation that she was sleepwalking through life. This hypnotically written debut memoir, all about claiming a bolder, more risk-taking life, reads like a fable. (out now, Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

The BBC: A People’s History by David Hendy

The future of the BBC has been under intense debate this year (and that shows no sign of abating), but what about its past? This timely book charts the history of Auntie Beeb, and makes the case for the broadcasting institution being as much of a national treasure as the NHS. (out now, Profile)

Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood

This new volume of essays from Margaret Atwood covers the rollercoaster ride of recent history, from the Trump presidency to the climate crisis to the pandemic. It may feel like we’re stuck in an onslaught of endless peril, but it’s worth looking to one of literature’s most trusted voices to try and make sense of it all. (March 1, Chatto & Windus)

The Instant by Amy Liptrot

Amy Liptrot’s marvellous memoir The Outrun, about her return to her home on the Orkneys amid the tumult of her early twenties, was so evocative it made us feel the wind billowing in our hair. Her follow-up is about what happened next: Liptrot booked a one-way flight to Berlin and landed in an electric love affair. (March 3, Canongate)

The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation by Cathy O’Neil

What is the relationship between shame and power - and is shame being weaponised? Smart thinker Cathy O’Neil tackles the question in this book, exploring whether public shaming is becoming dangerous.  (March 22, Allen Lane)

A Line Above the Sky by Helen Mort

The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul: This drag queen does not care if you hate him

Clear by Carys Davies: a novel with the electric hum of a thriller

'Lost' Gabriel García Márquez novel will be published next week

Meet the fitness influencer defying stereotypes about ageing

The wonderful prize-winning poet Helen Mort has written a gorgeous memoir all about the great outdoors and the impulse to go to our limits. Exploring her love of climbing and experiences of early motherhood, she neatly dovetails her own story with that of her hero Alison Hargreaves, a record-breaking climber who died aged 30 while descending K2. (March 24, Ebury)

Ten Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby

Hannah Gadsby’s show Nanette won the Edinburgh Comedy Prize, became a Netflix smash hit and has been credited with creating an entirely new genre of comedy. In her first book, she writes about everything that led up to it. (March 29, Atlantic)

When the Dust Settles by Lucy Easthope

Lucy Easthope’s job is to help people rebuild their lives after terrible things happen. As the world’s number one authority on disaster recovery, she’s helped in the aftermath of traumatic events from the 7/7 bombings to the Grenfell Tower fire. In her fascinating memoir, which also covers the work she’s done throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, she shares her experiences of the frontline. (March 31, Hodder)

An Accidental Icon by Norman Scott

Ben Whishaw played Norman Scott in the hugely acclaimed drama A Very English Scandal in 2018, all about his affair with Jeremy Thorpe (played by Hugh Grant) and Thorpe’s subsequent attempt to have him bumped off. Now Scott is telling his story in his own words with this memoir.  (April 7, Hodder)

In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom

In January 2020, novelist Amy Bloom took a trip to Switzerland with her husband; they were travelling to the Dignitas clinic so that Brian, who had Alzheimers, could end his life. Now Bloom has written about it, in an unflinching memoir about love and death that’s been described as “transcendent”. (April 7, Granta)

The Palace Papers by Tina Brown

Magazine queen Tina Brown’s book The Diana Chronicles is the only book worth reading on the people’s princess. We’re giddy with excitement that she’s written a follow-up on what’s been going on with the royals since Diana’s death, from the loss of Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother and Prince Philip, to the allegations surrounding Prince Andrew’s links to Jeffrey Epstein. Oh, and a small story you might have heard about called Megxit. (April 26, Century)

The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight

Take the addictive storytelling of Patrick Radden Keefe and mix it with the stranger-than-fiction stuff of a Jon Ronson podcast, and you’ll get Sam Knight’s must-read first book. Based on his spellbinding New Yorker article about a 1960s study of people who thought they could predict disasters (launched by the Evening Standard’s Science Editor, no less), it’s a spooky, gripping read about the difference between fate and coincidence - and has already been bought by Amazon in a 19-way auction for the screen rights.  (May 5, Faber)

Managing Expectations by Minnie Driver

All hail Minnie Driver - one of our most underrated actresses is apparently also a rather brilliant writer. Her series of essays, on growing up, fame, family, motherhood and the “messy business of being alive” will be released in the spring.  (May 3, Bonnier)

This Is Not a Pity Memoir by Abi Morgan

As the acclaimed screenwriter of films like The Iron Lady and Suffragette, Abi Morgan usually writes about the lives of other people. For her memoir, she’s turning the lens back on herself, beginning with the day she found her husband collapsed on their bathroom floor, and everything that happened next.  (May 12, John Murray)

I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys by Miranda Seymour

The elusive novelist Jean Rhys went off the radar for decades before gaining critical recognition later in life, and endured poverty, depression and addiction. This major new biography of the Wide Sargasso Sea writer covers uncharted territory, exploring the first 17 years of her life in Dominica, which were a great influence on her work - something no biography has yet done. (May 12, William Collins)

Tenants by Vicky Spratt

As house prices continue to rise, Generation Rent look more locked in than ever. This major new book on the history and politics of renting, from Vicky Spratt, Housing Correspondent at the i Paper, will put the issue firmly on the agenda, with personal accounts of those affected. (May 12, Profile)

Good Pop Bad Pop by Jarvis Cocker

This incredibly entertaining book from Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker isn’t so much a memoir as a trip through the things that have made him who he is. He was inspired to write it when he cleared out his loft and found a trail of detritus that has informed his creative life. So basically Marie Kondo, but make it Britpop. (May 26, Jonathan Cape)

None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary by Travis Alabanza

Travis Alabanza’s excellent play Overflow , about a trans woman under siege in a nightclub toilet, was one of the most thrilling bits of new theatre writing to be staged in the last two years. Now they have penned a book all about living beyond the gender binary, and questioning restrictive social frameworks. (Aug 4, Canongate)

Without Warning and Only Sometimes by Kit de Waal

Kit de Waal’s acclaimed debut novel My Name Is Leon is set to be a major BBC drama in 2022, directed by Bush Theatre boss Lynette Linton. It’ll also be the year that de Waal tells her own story: her memoir, all about growing up mixed race in 1960s and 70s Birmingham, hits the shelves in the summer. (Aug 18, Tinder Press)

A Visible Man by Edward Enninful

It’s a year of must-read memoirs - here’s another one to add to the pile. In 2017, Edward Enninful became the first black editor-in-chief of British Vogue; since taking the helm, he’s redefined the magazine and the people that it champions. Now he’s telling his own story - written, as you’d expect, with style.  (Sept 6, Bloomsbury)

Wifedom: The Visionary Writer, the Invisible Wife by Anna Funder

Big Brother is watching you, but the literary world often isn’t watching the wives of so-called geniuses, roundly ignoring them instead. This important new book from Anna Funder, shedding light on the life of Eileen Orwell - wife of 1984 author George - has been described as “a blazing feminist masterpiece”. (Sept 22, Viking)

Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan

Based on over 40 hours of interviews with journalist Sean O’Hagan, this new book features intimate thoughts from Nick Cave on life, music, grief, and much more. After winning the book in a 10-way auction, Canongate’s publishing director Francis Bickmore described it as “the spiritual vitamin shot we all need right now”. (Sept 22, Canongate)

The Diaries of Alan Rickman

The much-missed actor Alan Rickman started writing a diary in the early 1990s and continued to do so until his death in 2016. In total there are 27 volumes, covering everything from his work on Sense and Sensibility to Harry Potter, to his laser-sharp verdicts on the many plays he went to see. They’ve been collected and edited into a book, which will be published in the autumn. Bound to be a total gem. (Autumn, Canongate)

Matthew Perry’s memoir

Get ready for The One Where Chandler Writes His Memoir. Matthew Perry, aka Chandler Bing, is the first of the Friends cast to write about his life, and the currently untitled book will arrive in the autumn. Documenting life on one of the most popular sitcoms ever, as well as his struggles with addiction, it sounds like Perry’s book will offer Friends fans a lot more insight than the megahyped but distinctly meh 2021 reunion .  (Autumn, Headline)

Prince Harry’s memoir

We’re expecting shockwaves late in the year, when Prince Harry’s memoir is “tentatively scheduled” for publication. The Duke of Sussex is sharing his own account of his life, from childhood through to military service, marriage and fatherhood. Hazza tells us: “I’m writing this not as the prince I was born, but the man I have become.” (Penguin, late 2022)

The Best Nonfiction Books of 2022

Whether you’re looking to learn, laugh, or lose yourself in a great story, there’s something here for every kind of reader.

Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. We may earn a commission from these links.

Our favorite nonfiction books of the year, several of them just the very best books of the year , touch on some of the most pressing topics of our time, from autocracy to conspiracy to healthcare reform. They vary in form, from reported nonfiction to memoir to a comic guidebook to supervillainy. Whether you’re looking to learn, laugh, or lose yourself in a great story, there’s something here for every kind of reader.

The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, by Paul Newman

After six decades of Hollywood superstardom, it’s difficult to imagine that anything could remain unknown about Paul Newman . But that’s the particular magic trick of this memoir, assembled by way of a literary scavenger hunt. Between 1986 and 1991, Newman sat down with screenwriter Stewart Stern for a series of soul-baring interviews about his life and career. With the actor’s encouragement, Stern also recorded hundreds of hours worth of interviews with his friends, family, and colleagues. The whole enterprise was destined to become Newman’s authorized biography, but his feelings on the project soured; in 1998, he gathered the tapes in a pile and set fire to them. Luckily, Stern kept transcripts—over 14,000 pages worth. Now, those transcripts have been streamlined into this honest and unvarnished memoir, in which the actor speaks openly about his traumatic childhood, his lifelong struggle with alcoholism, and his tormenting self-doubt. But the highs are there too—like his 50-year marriage to actress Joanne Woodward—as well as the mysteries of making art, and the “imponderable of being a human being.” All told, the memoir is an extraordinary act of resurrection and reimagination.

Bad Sex, by Nona Willis Aronowitz

When Teen Vogue ’s sex columnist decided to end her marriage at 32 years old, chief among her complaints was “bad sex.” Newly divorced, Aronowitz went in search of good sex, but along the way, she discovered thorny truths about “the problem that has no name”—that despite the advances of feminism and the sexual revolution, true sexual freedom remains out of reach. Cultural criticism, memoir, and social history collide in Aronowitz’s no-nonsense investigation of all that ails young lovers, like questions about desire, consent, and patriarchy. It’s a revealing read bound to expand your thinking.

The High Sierra, by Kim Stanley Robinson

A titan of science fiction masters a new form in this winsome love letter to California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range. Constructed from an impassioned blend of memoir, history, and science writing, The High Sierra chronicles Robinson’s 100-plus trips to his beloved mountains, from his LSD-laced first encounter in 1973 to the dozens of ​​“rambling and scrambling” days to follow. From descriptions of the region’s multitudinous flora and fauna to practical advice about when and where to hike, this is as comprehensive a guidebook as any, complete with all the lucid ecstasy of nature writing greats like John Muir and Annie Dillard.

My Pinup, by Hilton Als

Has any book ever roved so far and wide in just 48 pages as My Pinup ? In this slim and brilliant memoir, Als explores race, power, and desire through the lens of Prince. Styling the legendary musician in the image of his lovers and himself, Als explores injustice on multiple levels, from racist record labels to the world's hostility to gay Black boys. “There was so much love between us,” the author muses. “Why didn’t anyone want us to share it?” These 48 meandering pages are difficult to describe, but trust us: My Pinup is a heady cocktail you won’t soon forget.

Bloomsbury Publishing Dirtbag, Massachusetts, by Isaac Fitzgerald

In this bleeding heart memoir, Fitzgerald peels back the layers of his extraordinary life. Dirtbag, Massachusetts opens with his hardscrabble childhood in a dysfunctional Catholic family, then spins out into the decades of jobs and identities that followed. From bartending at a biker bar to smuggling medical supplies to starring in porn films, it’s all led him to here and now: he’s still a work in progress, but gradually, he’s arriving at profound realizations about masculinity, family, and selfhood. Dirtbag, Massachusetts is the best of what memoir can accomplish. It's blisteringly honest and vulnerable, pulling no punches on the path to truth, but it always finds the capacity for grace and joy. “To any young men out there who aren’t too far gone,” Fitzgerald writes, “I say you’re not done becoming yourself.”

Dickens and Prince, by Nick Hornby

What do Charles Dickens, nineteenth century chronicler of social issues, and Prince, modern-day music’s master of sensuality, have in common? You’d be forgiven for struggling to come up with an answer, but for Nick Hornby, the ties are obvious—and numerous, too. In Dickens and Prince , the biographical similarities between these two late luminaries come into plain sight. But what really links Dickens and Prince, Hornby argues, is their “particular kind of genius”—as the author reveals, both shared an extraordinary drive to create and generated massive bodies of work, even though they died before reaching sixty. But beneath the surface of this fascinating biography, there lies a warm and wise craft book about what it takes to make great art in any century. Read an interview with Hornby here at Esquire.

Because Our Fathers Lied, by Craig McNamara

How do we reckon with the sins of our parents? That’s the thorny question at the center of this moving and courageous memoir authored by the son of Robert S. McNamara, Kennedy’s architect of the Vietnam War. In this conflicted son’s telling, a complicated man comes into intimate view, as does the “mixture of love and rage” at the heart of their relationship. At once a loving and neglectful parent, the elder McNamara’s controversial lies about the war ultimately estranged him from his son, who hung Viet Cong flags in his childhood bedroom as a protest. The pursuit of a life unlike his father’s saw the younger McNamara drop out of Stanford and travel through South America on a motorcycle, leading him to ultimately become a sustainable walnut farmer. Through his own personal story of disappointment and disillusionment, McNamara captures an intergenerational conflict and a journey of moral identity.

Raising Lazarus, by Beth Macy

Macy’s gripping follow-up to the mega-bestselling Dopesick finds her in a familiar milieu: back on the frontlines of the opioid crisis, where she embeds with healthcare workers, legislators, and activists seeking to save lives and heal communities. Where Dopesick focused on addiction sufferers and their families, Raising Lazarus turns the lens to the fight for justice, from the prosecution of the Sackler family to the reformers pioneering innovative treatments for the afflicted. Enlightening and exhaustive, it’s at once a damning exposé about greed and a moving paean to the power of community activism.

Fight Like Hell, by Kim Kelly

With a galvanizing groundswell of unionization efforts rocking mega-corporations like Amazon and Starbucks, there’s never been a better time to learn about the history of the American labor movement. Fight Like Hell will be your indispensable guide to the past, present, and future of organized labor. Rather than structure this comprehensive history chronologically, Kelly organizes it into chapter-sized profiles of different labor sectors, from sex workers to incarcerated laborers to domestic workers. Each chapter contains capsule biographies of working-class heroes, along with a painstaking focus on those who were hidden or dismissed from the movement. So too do these chapters illuminate how many civil rights struggles, like women’s liberation and fair wages for disabled workers, are also, at their core, labor struggles. After reading Fight Like Hell , you’ll never look at American history the same way again—and you may just be inspired to organize your own workplace. Read an interview with Kelly here at Esquire.

Phasers on Stun!, by Ryan Britt

Whether you're a tried and true Trekkie or a newbie hooked on Strange New Worlds , there's something for every science fiction obsessive in this lively cultural history of Star Trek . Through extensive reporting and research, Britt takes us inside the franchise's nearly sixty-year history, from its influence on diversifying the space program to its history-making strides for LGBTQIA+ representation. Featuring interviews with multiple generations of cast members and creatives, Phasers On Stun! merrily surprises, informs, and entertains. Read an exclusive excerpt about Star Trek 's efforts to diversify television here at Esquire.

Year of the Tiger, by Alice Wong

In this mixed media memoir, disability activist Alice Wong outlines her journey as an advocate and educator. Wong was born with a form of progressive muscular dystrophy; as a young woman, she attended her dream college, but had to drop out when changes to Medicaid prevented her from retaining the aides she needed on an inaccessible campus. In one standout essay, Wong recounts her struggle to access Covid-19 vaccines as a high-risk individual. The author's rage about moving through an ableist world is palpable, but so too is her joy and delight about Lunar New Year, cats, family, and so much more. Innovative and informative, Year of the Tiger is a multidimensional portrait of a powerful thinker.

Fen, Bog & Swamp, by Annie Proulx

The legendary author of “Brokeback Mountain” and The Shipping News delivers an enchanting history of our wetlands, a vitally important but criminally misunderstood landscape now imperiled by climate change. As Proulx explains, fens, bogs, swamps, and estuaries preserve our environment by storing carbon emissions. Roving through peatlands around the world, Proulx weaves a riveting history of their role in brewing diseases and fueling industrialization. Imbued with the same reverence for nature as Proulx’s fiction, Fen, Bog, and Swamp is both an enchanting work of nature writing and a rousing call to action. Read an exclusive interview with the author here at Esquire.

Butts, by Heather Radke

This crackling cultural history melds scholarship and pop culture to arrive at a comprehensive taxonomy of the female bottom. From 19th-century burlesque to the eighties aerobics craze to Kim Kardashian’s internet-breaking backside, Radke leaves no stone unturned. Her sources range from anthropological scholarship to Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back,” making for a vivacious blend, but Butts isn’t all fun and games. Radke explores how women’s butts have been used “as a means to create and reinforce racial hierarchies,” acting as locuses of racism, control, and desire. Lively and thorough, Butts is the best kind of nonfiction—the kind that forces you to see something ordinary through completely new eyes.

Novelist as a Vocation, by Haruki Murakami

In this winsome volume, one of our greatest novelists invites readers into his creative process. The result is a revealing self-portrait that answers many burning questions about its reclusive subject, like: where do Murakami’s strange and surreal ideas come from? When and how did he start writing? How does he view the role of novels in contemporary society? Novelist as a Vocation is a rare and welcome peek behind the curtain of a singular mind.

How You Get Famous: Ten Years of Drag Madness in Brooklyn, by Nicole Pasulka

Pasulka takes us tumbling down a glittery rabbit hole in this engrossing look at the last decade of Brooklyn ballroom culture. How You Get Famous introduces readers to electric performers like Merrie Cherry, who overcame a stroke to continue her drag career; Aja, a multiple-time contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race ; and Sasha Velour, who made waves with her bald head. Through this electric constellation of performers, Pasulka paints a vivid portrait of a singular subculture: joyful and scrappy, it’s gone on to galvanize a community and inspire a wider cultural movement.

The Last Resort: A Chronicle of Paradise, Profit, and Peril at the Beach, by Sarah Stodola

Quick—picture your perfect vacation. Does it involve staying at a resort and sipping a Mai Tai on the beach? We’re not out to yuck anyone’s yum, but beachgoers everywhere need to read this gripping account about the dark side of paradise. In The Last Resort , Stodola investigates the origins of beach culture, revealing that our understanding of the beach as paradise is actually a modern concept; it wasn’t until the 18th century that the seaside wellness craze changed our views about the ocean, once seen as a fearsome foe. Today, beach travel has become de rigueur, but it carries heavy costs, as it strangles local economies, threatens natural resources, and widens social inequality. After reading The Last Resort , you’ll never look at an all-inclusive vacation quite the same way.

Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence, by Ken Auletta

Twenty years ago, Ken Auletta wrote a definitive New Yorker profile of Harvey Weinsten, which exposed the movie mogul as a violent and volatile person. But one story remained frustratingly ungraspable: though it was rumored that Weinstein was a sexual abuser, none of his victims would go on the record. Award-winning journalists including Megan Twohey, Jodi Kantor, and Ronan Farrow would later draw on Auletta’s reporting in their quests to expose the truth about Weinstein. Now, with his erstwhile subject behind bars, Auletta is revisiting him anew—and paying dogged attention to the systems that allowed him to operate unchecked. From the executives who abetted him to the brother who covered his tracks, Weinstein didn’t act in a vacuum, Auletta reveals—rather, he was enabled at nearly every turn. Exhaustively reported and utterly enraging, Hollywood Ending is a damning look at Hollywood’s history of corruption and complicity.

The Last Days of Roger Federer, by Geoff Dyer

“Life is weather. Life is meals,” the great James Salter once wrote. Life is also endings, according to Dyer, as fine and curious a cultural critic as they come. In this roving volume, Dyer explores ​​“things coming to an end, artists’ last works, time running out,” from Roger Federer’s impending retirement to Nietzsche’s descent into madness. Assessing the long twilight of his many subjects, Dyer leads us through the peripatetic maze of his free-associative thinking. Expect to emerge from the other side feeling grateful for “this magnificent life, whatever ruin comes in its wake.”

The Gotti Wars, by John Gleeson

For decades, Mafioso John Gotti captivated the American imagination. This notorious mobster, known as “The Dapper Don,” became a sartorial icon and graced the cover of Time (by way of an Andy Warhol portrait)—until it all came crashing down, thanks to federal prosecutor John Gleeson. The Gotti Wars is the riveting story of Gleeson’s fight to bring Gotti to justice, which spanned years, brought him into the crosshairs of organized crime, and ultimately took down five major mob families. It’s an electrifying true crime story of the Mafia-smitten 80s and 90s, to be certain, but also a vivid memoir of Gleeson’s development as a lawyer, and an excavation of the celebrity culture that turned a murderer into a superstar. Suspenseful and multifaceted, The Gotti Wars can’t be missed.

Dress Code, by Véronique Hyland

In an age where what we wear is shaped as much by algorithms and influencers as by personal taste, the fashion landscape looks different than ever before. To make sense of it all, turn to this roving, insightful collection of essays from a bona fide fashion expert, who breaks down everything from normcore to politicians’ wardrobes to the ubiquity of leggings. Rich in historical context and cultural criticism, Dress Code unpacks how clothing is both personal and political, and how it deserves serious consideration as a distinctive lens on the world. After all, as Hyland writes, “With fashion, you have no choice but to opt in.”

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14 best literary non-fiction books of 2022

Spend some time with donne, dickens and those truth-bending geniuses who write book blurbs. lucy atkins and laura freeman on reads for bibliomaniacs.

F or the most hardcore book-lovers, only books about books will do. And these are the very best, covering the tumultuous life of Jean Rhys, the sexy inspiration behind John Donne’s poetry, the true story of The Waste Land and the mystery of Agatha Christie’s own disappearance.

Jean Rhys used to talk of the “magics” made on Dominica, the Caribbean island on which she was born. This heady, haunted life is full of magics. Miranda Seymour’s biography is bewitching . Rhys, the author of Wide Sargasso Sea , was inspired and impossible, insecure and imperious, an ingenue who turned into a termagant. “No one who has read Jean Rhys’s first four novels can suppose that she was good at life,” her publisher Diana Athill wrote, “but

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33 must-read non-fiction books for 2022

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The best non-fiction books of 2022, from Notes on Heartbreak to White Debt

Books have the power to change the way we see the world. anna bonet selects this year's mind-expanding must-reads.

Hysterical by Pragya Agarwal

Why are women more likely to be branded hysterical than men – and is there any truth to it? Behavioural scientist Agarwal debunks well-worn myths in this fascinating account of gendered emotions.

(Canongate, £16.99)

brother. do. you. love. me. by Manni & Reuben Coe

The title of this book is the disconcerting text Mannie received from his brother, who has Down’s Syndrome, which prompted his mission to remove him from the care system. An enriching read.

(Little Toller, £22)

About a Son by David Whitehouse

Morgan Hehir enjoyed football , the pub and making music – until he was stabbed to death by strangers. This is the story of his father’s reckoning with grief and search for justice – a desperately sad, yet rallying book.

(Phoenix, £16.99)

What We Want by Charlotte Fox Weber

Offering a fly-on-the-wall look at her therapy room, Fox Weber explores our 12 most common desires – from power to belonging. What We Want is one of those books that will make you look at your life (and self) anew.

(Wildfire, £20)

Happy Mind, Happy Life by Dr Rangan Chatterjee

From the renowned GP comes a book on happiness bursting with tips that are both genius and easy to implement, making it one of the most practical wellbeing books on the shelves.

(Penguin Life, £16.99)

How to Live When You Could Be Dead by Deborah James

You’d be hard pressed to find a single person who wasn’t moved by the story of Dame Deborah, who passed away this year from bowel cancer. Her legacy continues with this life-affirming book.

(Vermilion, £14.99)

Don’t Forget to Scream by Marianne Levy

Every person – parent or not – ought to read these first-person essays on modern motherhood . Beautifully written and searingly honest, the book propels silent truths to the fore.

(Phoenix, £14.99)

Let’s Talk by Nihal Arthanayake

While this book from the BBC Radio 5 Live presenter will teach you how to be a great conversationalist, its power extends beyond that, offering a path to effective dialogue in an increasingly divided world.

(Trapeze, £16.99)

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Dr Julie Smith

From managing anxiety to dealing with criticism, this is a toolkit of deceptively simple strategies for life’s troubles. Everyone could benefit from the wisdom of Dr Smith, a clinical psychologist.

(Michael Joseph, £16.99)

Bitch by Lucy Cooke

Chronicling examples of dominant, promiscuous, competitive and aggressive female species across the animal kingdom, Cooke turns everything you thought you knew about evolution and female biology upside-down.

(Doubleday, £20)

Sex Bomb by Sadia Azmat

Azmat is both a sex-loving comedian and a hijab-wearing Muslim. Sex Bomb is the wickedly entertaining story about marrying up these two factors – as well as an important stereotype-smashing read.

(Headline, £18.99)

The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight

A magnificent journey into fate, coincidence and prognostication, this is a deep-dive into the investigations of a psychiatrist who monitored people’s forebodings in the 60s.

(Faber, £14.99)

The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel

This eye-opening read is an overdue revisionist history of art – ignoring the pale, male canon to celebrate female artists who have been overlooked for centuries.

(Hutchinson Heinemann, £30)

This is Not a Pity Memoir by Abi Morgan

A heartbreaking account of what happened when The Split creator’s husband went into a coma, only to wake up and need round-the clock care – and also the joyful story of their lives together.

(John Murray, £14.99)

A Heart that Works by Rob Delaney

This tender memoir, about the actor losing his two-year-old son to a brain tumour, is achingly sad but his meditations on loss, family and hope are so profound you’ll come out the other side of this book a different person.

(Coronet, £16.99)

White Debt by Thomas Harding

After the author found out his family had made money from plantations worked on by enslaved people, he set about investigating Britain’s sinister and unspoken legacy of slavery in this vital read.

(W&N, £20)

Quilt on Fire by Christie Watson

Subtitled “The Messy Magic of Midlife”, nurse Christie Watson is deliciously funny and candid about life as a perimenopausal woman in all its (sweaty) glory. A book to gift all your sisters, mothers and friends.

(Chatto & Windus, £16.99)

The Life Inside by Andy West

West teaches philosophy in prisons – and learns a great deal himself about guilt, free will and forgiveness in doing so. A compassionate look at our justice system and the complexities of those behind bars.

(Picador, £16.99)

Notes on Heartbreak by Annie Lord

After reading this memoir, a raw dissection of Vogue columnist Lord’s break-up and everything that led up to it, your perception of love, life and starting afresh will be altered for the better.

(Orion, £16.99)

Raven Smith’s Men by Raven Smith

In weaving memoir with an exploration of modern masculinity, Vogue columnist Smith has produced a witty, highly readable collection in which he grapples between his love for, and dismay about, men.

(Fourth Estate, £14.99)

Takeaway by Angela Hui

Many of us feel a fondness toward our local takeaway but this memoir, recounting Hui’s childhood living above her family’s Chinese takeaway in rural Wales, will instil an even deeper appreciation.

The Go-Between by Osman Yousefzada

Yousefzada depicts his childhood growing up within a devout Pashtun patriarchal community amid the red-light district of 80s and 90s Birmingham with such vividness, it is as though you are there with him.

(Canongate, £14.99)

How to Stand Up to a Dictator by Maria Ressa

Journalist and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner pens an astonishing account of holding truth to power, becoming enemy of the Philippines’ former president and facing a lengthy jail sentence.

(WH Allen, £20, out 17 Nov)

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The best new books out in 2022

A month-by-month guide to the most exciting fiction, non-fiction and children’s books out in 2022.

Wahala by Nikki May (6 Jan)

Set to be one of the most talked-about books of the year, this debut novel is an explosive tale of love, race and family. Fearlessly political about class, colourism and clothes, Wahala follows three mixed-race friends living in London and is soon to be a major BBC series.

The Book of Sand by Theo Clare (6 Jan)

In this unique, compelling novel a group of extraordinary characters are driven to the very limit of their endurance in two very different worlds. Willing to fight to the death, only the strongest will survive. An audacious standout, The Book of Sand is lyrical and devastating.

Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman (27 Jan)

An immersive and gripping historical novel set in Georgian London, the discovery of a mysterious ancient Greek vase sets in motion conspiracies, revelations and romance. Atmospheric and addictive, Pandora is a story of secrets and deception, fate and hope.

Non-Fiction

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Dr Julie Smith (6 Jan)

Drawing on years of experience as a clinical psychologist, online sensation Dr Julie Smith shares her expert advice and powerful coping techniques in this warm, insightful book. Written in bite-sized entries on topics from anxiety to low mood to motivation, it tackles issues that affect us all and offers practical solutions to help.

Bigger Than Us by Fearne Cotton (20 Jan)

In her latest book, Fearne Cotton shares the insight of wise minds and what they can teach us about happiness, connection and hope. For anyone seeking a path through life, Bigger Than Us offers inspiration for tapping into the strength and comfort around us and for releasing the blocks and insecurities that hold us back.

Worn by Sofi Thanhauser (25 Jan)

Tracing the origins of garment-making through time and around the world, Worn explores the social, economic and environmental impact of our clothes. Through the stories of linen, cotton, silk, synthetics and wool, it looks beyond care labels to show how clothes reveal the truth about what we really care about.

The Lost Sounds by Robert Macfarlane, Jackie Morris and Chris Watson

From woodland to moorland to the sea, Britain is home to a vast array of natural settings – each with its own unique sounds. With a foreword by Robert Macfarlane , artwork by Jackie Morris and a fascinating ‘making of’ interview with sound recordist Chris Watson, The Lost Sounds is an immersive natural listening experience, taking you across the UK through the sounds of nature.

Children's and YA

Peppa Pig: Peppa’s Royal Party (6 Jan)

It’s the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, and Peppa Pig and her friends have been invited to the royal garden party! They’re so excited but when they arrive, there’s been a huge mix up. Can Peppa help save the day?

The Green Planet by Leisa Stewart-Sharpe & Kim Smith (6 Jan)

Wannabe naturalists will love this non-fiction book that delves into the hidden world of plants. From caring for each other to tricking animals into working for them, plants are truly incredible.

Leonora Bolt: Secret Inventor by Lucy Brandt & Gladys Jose (20 Jan)

Leonora Bolt is only nine years old but she’s already a super talented inventor. She loves spending her days in her top-secret laboratory. But her Uncle Luther has been watching her closely, and has an evil plan for Leonora’s greatest invention yet…

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson (3 Feb)

Juggling lives and crossing continents, Black Cake is an extraordinary story of how the inheritance of secrets, betrayal and memoires can shape a family for generations. Soon to be a major Hulu series produced by Oprah, this unforgettable debut is as moving as it is delicious.

The Herd by Emily Edwards (3 Feb)

A thought-provoking novel set to spark hot debates, The Herd is about two best friends. Godmothers to each other’s daughters, little do they know they differ radically over one very important issue. When one of them, afraid of being judged, tells what is supposed to be a harmless white lie, the consequences are catastrophic.

When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo (10 Feb)

In When We Were Birds we meet a down-on-his-luck gravedigger and a woman whose mother is dying. Their destinies intertwined, both have something that the other needs. Rich with magic and wisdom, it is an exuberant tale of loss and renewal that explores what it means to love and be loved.

Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes (17 Feb)

Twenty-five years after the iconic bestseller Rachel’s Holiday burst into our lives, Rachel is back in Marian Keyes ’ hilarious, heart-warming sequel. These days Rachel thought she was settled… but with the reappearance of a man she’d once loved, is she about to discover that no matter what our age, everything can change?

Run And Hide by Pankaj Mishra (24 Feb)

Run and Hide is the story of three friends who soar from humble beginnings to sky-high success in an age of upheaval and breakdown. But someone is about to pay for their many transgressions. A searing examination of rampant materialism and spiritual bankruptcy, it is a shimmering tale for our times.

Otherlands by Thomas Halliday (1 Feb)

Journey back in time to the dawn of complex life with award-winning palaeobiologist Thomas Halliday’s staggering history of life on Earth. An exhilarating exploration of the worlds that were here before ours, Otherlands immerses us in a series of distant eras and ancient landscapes.

Are You Really OK?   by Stacey Dooley (3 Feb)

In this powerful book, Stacey Dooley opens up the conversation about mental health in young people, to challenge the stigma and stereotypes around it. Working in collaboration with medical experts, campaigners and charities, she talks to those directly affected to help tell their stories and shine a light on the factors that play a part.

Block, Delete, Move On by LalalaLetMeExplain (10 Feb)

Good news: it’s not you, it’s them. This is not a dating book that promises to find you a person to love; instead, it will help you to identify the troublesome ones before it’s too late. It will empower you to recognise your worth and see that it’s perfectly possible to be contentedly single, too.

Bluey: Grannies (3 Feb)

Bluey and her sister Bingo have decided to dress up as grannies. But in the middle of their game, they come across a very important question: can grannies dance? This book is perfect for fans of the hit Aussie TV series.

Hey Duggee: The World Book Day Badge (17 Feb)

The Squirrels are trying to decide which book they’d like Duggee to read to celebrate World Book Day. Trouble is they can’t seem to make up their minds! Should they choose a story about a clown or a detective? Or should they just make up their own story?

Rocket Rules: Ten Little Ways to Think Big! by Nathan Bryon & Dapo Adeola (17 Feb)

Rocket from Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola ’s award-winning story Look Up! is back and this time, she’s got ten rules for living life in the best way possible. Created for World Book Day 2022, this book will inspire young readers to think big.

The Promise by Damon Galgut (3 March)

Winner of the 2021 Booker Prize , The Promise charts the crash and burn of a white South African family. As time passes, one question hovers over them: can you ever escape the repercussions of a broken promise? In this confident, deft and quietly powerful novel, sharp and tender emotional truths hit home.

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan (3 March)

In this timely, remarkable debut, the state has decided that a mother is not fit to care for her daughter and must be re-trained. Soon, mothers everywhere will be re-educated. Impossible to put down, The School for Good Mothers is an explosive novel about love and the pressures of perfectionism, parenthood and privilege.

Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson (7 March)

From America’s beloved superstar and one of its great storytellers comes an exciting thriller about a young singer-songwriter on the rise – and on the run. Desperate to escape her troubled past, she’s determined to do whatever it takes to survive.

Stepping Up by Sarah Turner (17 March)

When an unspeakable tragedy turns Beth’s life upside down, it’s not long before she feels seriously out of her depth. But with the help of her best friend and neighbour, this time she’s determined she’s not giving up. Funny and tender, it is a story about digging deep and finding magic in things that were there all along.

French Braid by Anne Tyler (24 March)

The major new novel from Anne Tyler , French Braid is a brilliantly perceptive, painfully true and funny journey deep into one family’s foibles, from the 1950s right up to the changed world of today. Faultless and profound, it is a moving meditation on the small moments that can make up a life and shape the future.

Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? By Lizzie Damilola Blackburn (31 March)

This hotly anticipated debut is total joy to read. When Yinka’s cousin gets engaged, she forms a plan to find herself a date. Warm, witty and bursting with charm, it’s a story of friendship, family, romance – and learning to love yourself.

Ammu by Asma Khan (17 March)

Asma Khan ’s Ammu, her mother, is the centre of their family. This book is a tribute to the simple home-cooking from her kitchen in Calcutta. These Indian dishes will bring warmth to your kitchen when you need a quick meal to share with family and friends – food to comfort, restore and nourish.

Every Family Has A Story by Julia Samuel (17 March)

Every Family Has A Story sees bestselling psychotherapist Julia Samuel turn from her work with individuals to sessions with a wide variety of families. Diving deep into eight case studies, she analyses a range of issues including separation, step-relationships, leaving home and loss. Showing how there can be forgiveness and learning amidst trauma and hardship, this is an honest and compassionate meditation on what we inherit and how we can create the families we wish for.

The Shame Machine by Cathy O’Neil (22 March)

In this revelatory book, Cathy O’Neil argues that shame is being weaponized by governments and corporations to attack the most vulnerable. With clarity and nuance, she dissects the relationship between shame and power. Who does the system serve? And, most importantly, how can we all fight back?

Horizons by James Poskett (24 March)

Horizons is a radical retelling of the history of science. Challenging both the existing Eurocentric narrative and our perceptions of revered individuals, it also celebrates the work of scientists neglected by history. In this ambitious, remarkable read, James Poskett reveals that scientific advancement is, and has always been, a global endeavour.

A Line Above the Sky by Helen Mort (24 March)

A Line Above the Sky blends memoir and nature writing to ask why humans are drawn to danger, and how we can find freedom in pushing our limits. It is a visceral love letter to losing oneself in physicality, whether climbing a mountain or bringing a child into the world, and an unforgettable celebration of womanhood in all its forms.

The Ship Asunder by Thomas Nancollas (31 March)

In this moving and original new history, Tom Nancollas goes in search of 11 relics that together tell the story of Britain at sea. From the swallowtail prow of a Bronze Age vessel to a stone ship moored at Baroque quayside, each one illuminates a distinct phase of our adventures upon the waves and brings us closer to the people, places and vessels that made a maritime nation. 

Gretel the Wonder Mammoth by Kim Hillyard (3 Mar)

After waking up and breaking free from her icy shell, Gretel learns she is the last surviving mammoth in the world. Everyone wants to meet her! But Gretel soon feels overwhelmed and isn’t sure how to talk to her friends about it… This is a sweet story about overcoming anxiety.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit Picture Book by Beatrix Potter (3 Mar)

It’s Peter Rabbit ’s 120th birthday this year! And to celebrate, we’re releasing this special picture book edition of Beatrix Potter’s classic tale. It includes all the original drawings and text; it’s just set out in a new format for little children.

The Last Firefox by Lee Newbery and Laura Catalán (3 Mar)

Charlie Challinor has been finding life a bit scary lately. But then he is made guardian of a firefox called Cadno, and things get a whole lot scarier. A wicked hunter is looking for Cadno, so it’s up to Charlie to find the bravery and strength he never thought he had.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (5 April)

Meet the unconventional, uncompromising Elizabeth Zott. In this fresh, funny and tender debut novel , we follow chemist Elizabeth through love, motherhood and TV stardom. An iconic heroine teaching women to challenge the status quo – she’s sure to leave you quite changed, too.

Companion Piece by Ali Smith (7 April)

A celebration of companionship in all its timeless and contemporary, spellbinding and shapeshifting forms, Companion Piece is the follow-up to Ali Smith ’s extraordinary Seasonal Quartet. A set of four novels – Autumn , Winter , Spring and Summer which were written and published in as close as possible to real time, between 2016 and 2020, providing commentary on world events.

Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes (14 April)

In the latest novel from Julian Barnes , a former student unpacks his teacher’s old notebooks and remembers her uniquely inquisitive mind. A truly original story, it’s also a loving tribute to philosophy, a careful evaluation of history and an invitation to think for ourselves.

No Less The Devil by Stuart MacBride (28 April)

It’s been seventeen months since the Bloodsmith butchered his first victim and Operation Maypole is still no nearer to catching him. Now isn’t the time to get distracted by other cases, but Detective Sergeant Lucy McVeigh soon finds herself without much choice. A dark, gritty and compulsive thriller, it’s a must-read for crime fiction fans.

Theatre of Marvels by Lianne Dillsworth (28 April)

Theatre of Marvels is the story of a Black, British actress’ rise to stardom – and what comes next. A deliciously immersive tale, it whisks you on an unforgettable journey across Victorian London in a bold exploration of race, class and gothic spectacle.

The Journey of Humanity  by Oded Galor (7 April)

A landmark, radically uplifting account of our species’ progress from one of the world’s pre-eminent thinkers, The Journey of Humanity offers breakthrough insights into the power of diversity and our capacity to tackle climate change. Its hopeful vision contains the keys not only to the thriving of our species but to our survival.

Emotion by Design by Greg Hoffman (7 April)

Join Greg Hoffman, Nike’s former Chief Marketing Officer, as he helps craft the company’s iconic campaigns for Ronaldo and Serena, Olympic Games and World Cup finals. In this part-guidebook part-memoir, his insights offer a revelatory method that will make any brand more creative: emotion by design.

The Lost Paths by Jack Cornish (13 April)

By 2026, 10,000 miles of undiscovered footpaths around Britain stand to be lost. Jack Cornish has spent the last five years walking these forgotten routes, and The Lost Paths is the result. Written with the hope it will show just how special these rights of way are, and how embedded each path is in our history, the book is a rallying cry to reclaim what has been lost and preserve it for future generations.

The Lives of Brian by Brian Johnson (14 April)

That AC/DC’s legendary front man got to do it all is one of the most cheering and entertaining stories in rock ‘n’ roll history. Warm, vivid and often laugh-out-loud funny, this life-affirming memoir tells the incredible story of one of the world’s most well-loved performers.

Bittersweet by Susan Cain (21 April)

In this inspiring book, author of the bestselling phenomenon  Quiet   Susan Cain explores the power of “bittersweetness” – a tendency toward sorrow and longing, an acute awareness of passing time, and a piercing joy when beholding beauty. At a time of profound discord and anxiety, Bittersweet brings us together and shows us how to transform our personal and collective pain into creativity, transcendence, and connection.

Portable Magic by Emma Smith (28 April)

The perfect book for bibliophiles, Portable Magic is a fascinating journey into our relationship with the physical book. Exploring the unexpected and unseen consequences of our love affair with books, it illuminates the ways in which this relationship is more reciprocal – and more turbulent – than we tend to imagine.

It's Time to... Clean Up! by Carly Gledhill (14 April)

Get little hands ready for some spring cleaning! This interactive board book is filled with different sliders and flaps for children to help vacuum, wash the dishes, and hang out the washing.

The Drama Llama by Rachel Morrisroe and Ella Okstad (14 April)

Every time Alex Allen worries a llama appears. And this wouldn’t be a problem, except the more Alex worries, the bigger the llama gets and the more trouble he causes. Will Alex ever be able to control his worries and lose this mischievous llama?

Wilder Than Midnight by Cerrie Burnell (28 April)

Saffy, Aurelia and Wild Rose are three girls who have all grown up to lead very different lives. They do have one thing in common though – Silverthorne. It’s a place filled with secrets and untold terrors, and together, this trio have the power to change everything.

The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani (5 May) 

Escape to sun-drenched, mid-century Europe in this poignant new novel about love, family and untold secrets. The Good Left Undone tells the tale of Domenica Cabrelli and the two great loves of her life. Decades later, her daughter Matelda realises she must unpack their family’s legacy and discover the real story of her mother’s wartime years before it’s too late.



Idol by Louise O’Neil (12 May) 

This is the story of Samantha, an influencer with a booming career and adoring young fans. When an essay about Samantha’s sexual awakening as a teenager with her female best friend Lisa goes viral, Lisa gets in touch to say that she remembers that night very differently... Riveting and bold, Idol interrogates how well we can ever really know those we follow online, and asks us to consider how effortlessly we choose which stories to believe.



With a Mind to Kill by Anthony Horowitz (26 May) 

Discover the explosive new chapter in the world of 007. In a mission where treachery is all around and one false move means death, James Bond must grapple with the darkest questions about himself. But not even he knows what has happened to the man he used to be…

How to Prevent the Next Pandemic by Bill Gates (3 May) 

Though the Covid-19 pandemic isn’t over, governments around the world are starting to talk about what happens next. Can we hope to prevent a new pandemic? Bill Gates believes the answer is yes, and in this book he lays out clearly and convincingly what all of us can do to not only ward off another Covid-like catastrophe – but to eliminate all respiratory diseases.



Life Time by Russell Foster (19 May)

Learn how to sleep better, work better and feel better with this fascinating guide to using the science of the body clock to create the optimum personal routine. Illustrating the surprising effects the time of day can have on our health, Russell Foster explains astonishing science that can help us to live healthier, sharper lives.

His Name Is George Floyd by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa (19 May)

In His Name is George Floyd we meet the kind young boy, high school football player and loving father constantly in search of a better life in a society determined to write him off. The book reveals the myriad ways that structural racism shaped Floyd’s life and death – and delivers a powerful exploration of how one man ended up touching the world.



Regenesis by George Monbiot (26 May)

In this bracingly original book, George Monbiot shows how we can resolve the biggest of our environmental dilemmas and feed the world without devouring the planet. A breathtaking vision of a new future, Regenesis explores the opportunity we now have to transform not only our food system but our entire relationship to the living world.



The Social Distance Between Us by Darren McGarvey (26 May)

If all the best people are in all the top jobs, then why is Britain such a bin fire? In this brilliant book, Darren McGarvey explores this question alongside society’s biggest issues – from homelessness and poverty to policing and overrun prisons. For anyone who feels that they don’t know where to start with helping to bring about much-needed change, start here.



Good Pop, Bad Pop by Jarvis Cocker (26 May)

We all have a random collection of the things that made us – photos, tickets, clothes, souvenirs – stuffed in a box or drawer somewhere. When Jarvis Cocker starts clearing out his loft, he finds a jumble of objects that catalogue his life. In Good Pop, Bad Pop , he unpacks this debris: evidence of a unique life, Pulp, 20th century pop culture, the good times and the mistakes.


All the Flowers Kneeling by Paul Tran (5 May)

This astonishing poetry collection charts the rebuilding of a self in the wake of extremity. Rich, resonant poems of desire, freedom, control and rebirth reach back into the past to show how it both scars and transforms. At once confessional and profoundly defiant, All the Flowers Kneeling is an essential testament to the human capacities for resilience, endurance and love.

Baby Touch: Rainbow (5 May)

Introduce first colours to your baby with this board book from the Baby Touch series . Each page features a different colour and textured patch for little hands to touch. A great one for encouraging interaction and stimulating babies’ senses.

The Good Turn by Sharna Jackson (12 May)

Eleven-year-old Josephine Williams has decided to start her own Girl Scout troop with her best friends Margot and Wesley. As the trio head out to earn their camping badges they come across an abandoned factory they just can’t help but explore… A must-read for fans of the Murder Most Unladylike series.

Ten Minutes to Bed: Little Fairy by Rhiannon Fielding and Chris Chatterton (26 May)

This new addition to the hit Ten Minutes to Bed series follows a little fairy called Poppy. Poppy spots a lost gnome looking for his glade, and she’s determined to help him. But will Poppy be able to fly him to safety and get herself back home before bedtime?

Meredith, Alone by Claire Alexander (9 June)

In this gorgeous debut novel, Meredith Maggs hasn’t left her house in 1,214 days. But she insists she isn’t alone. She has her cat Fred, visits from her friend Sadie, an online support group – plus jigsaws, recipes, Emily Dickinson and the internet. But something’s about to change. Does she have the courage to overcome what’s been keeping her inside all this time?



The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn (9 June)

Get ready to fall in love with this immersive, heart breaking and joyous novel. With her step-parents distracted by their endless party guests, Cristabel Seagrave and her siblings scratch together their own education. As war approaches and the roles they’re expected to play are no longer those they want, they must each find a way to write their own story.



The Poet by Louisa Reid (9 June)

Written in verse and charged with passion and anger, The Poet is a brilliant, beautifully written portrait of a deeply dysfunctional relationship, exploring coercive control, class and privilege. It’s also an utterly compelling tale of female solidarity and survival.

Unlawful Killings by Her Honour Wendy Joseph QC (9 June)

Every day in the UK lives are suddenly, brutally taken away. High-profile murder cases grab our attention in dramatic headlines – but every unlawful death tells a story. In this riveting book, Her Honour Wendy Joseph QC describes how cases unfold and exactly what it's like to be a witness to human good and bad.



I’ll Die After Bingo by Pope Lonergan (16 June)

I’ll Die After Bingo is a no-holds-barred account of what life inside a care home is really like. Featuring night-time drama, incontinence pads and the uniquely dark humour of one double-amputee Alzheimer's patient, it shows us  everything there is to know about Britain's care system. Funny and heartfelt, it challenges us to think differently about the value of our elderly and the carers who look after them.



Birdgirl by Mya-Rose Craig (30 June)

One of the most anticipated debuts of 2022, Birdgirl is the story of Mya Rose – birder, environmentalist and diversity activist. To date she’s seen over five thousand different types of bird: half the world’s species. Her journey is defined by her love for these creatures, and in pursuing her passion she has become ever-more determined to campaign for our survival.

Black in Time by Alison Hammond (2 June)

In her new book, TV presenter Alison Hammond journeys back in time to learn about some amazing Black people from history. From Mary Seacole to George Bridgetower, this non-fiction pick is an inspiring read for all children.

Welcome to Dinosaur School by Rose Cobden and Loretta Schauer (23 June)

It’s Jewel the dinosaur’s first day at school and the nerves are kicking in! But once she’s settled in her new classroom, it turns out school isn’t really that scary after all. This charming picture book is perfect for children due to start primary school.

The Midnighters by Hana Tooke and Ayesha L. Rubio (23 June)

Fans of The Unadoptables will love this new tale from author Hana Tooke. There’s the mysterious disappearance of a friend, a large gothic city, a secret society known as the Midnight Guild, and a little bit of magic…

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (14 July)

In this magnificent novel, two children meet in a hospital gaming room. When they spot each other again eight years later, their collaborations make them superstars. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow takes us on a dazzling quest as it examines the nature of identity, creativity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play and, above all, our need to connect.



 The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell (21 July)

Loved The Family Upstairs ? Find out what happens next in this gripping sequel. When a bag of human bones is discovered on the foreshore of the River Thames, DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene and must follow a trail of clues. These point to four deaths, an unsolved mystery, and a family whose secrets can’t stay buried forever… 



The Retreat by Sarah Pearse (21 July)

In the new locked-room thriller from the author of The Sanatorium , guests at a wellness retreat receive a warning that a woman’s body has been found at the bottom of a cliff. With a storm on the way, they’re told not to panic; to stick together and ignore any rumours about the island and its history. When the weather clears they’ll be taken back to the mainland. Until then, they should enjoy their stay… 



Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It by Janina Ramirez (21 July)

The Middle Ages are often seen as a bloodthirsty time of Vikings, saints and kings: patriarchal societies which oppressed and excluded women. But if we dig a little deeper, we can see that the 'dark' ages were anything but. With this fascinating book, see the medieval world with fresh eyes and discover why so many remarkable women were removed from our collective memories.

Trixie Pickle Art Avenger by Olaf Falafel (7 July)

Bullies had better watch out as Art Avenger Trixie Pickle is about! This new story from comedian and author Olaf Falafel follows Trixie as she teaches school bullies a lesson using her art skills. Perfect for fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Little Seahorse and the Big Question by Freddy McConnell & Rosalind Beardshaw (7 July)

In Little Seahorse and the Big Question , Papa and Little One are exploring what they need most. Clean water, friends and a home are all very important – but they need each other the most. Written by journalist and seahorse dad Freddy McConnell, this touching picture book is for all kinds of families.

That's Not My Name! by Anoosha Syed (28 July)

It’s Mirha’s first day of school and she can’t wait to learn and meet all her new classmates. However, she finds everyone keeps mispronouncing her name and goes home wondering whether she should get another. But her mum helps Mirha see that her name is extra special.

The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid (11 August)

From the bestselling author of Exit West comes a new novel of love, loss, and rediscovery. It is the story of a man who wakes one morning to find that his skin has turned dark, his reflection a stranger to him. Soon reports of similar occurrences begin to surface. A masterful treatise on race, prejudice and nationalism, The Last White Man invites us to envision a future that dares to reimagine who we think we are, and how we might yet be together.



The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan (18 August)

The Queen of Dirt Island is a searing, jubilant tale about four generations of women. It is a story of terrible betrayals and fierce loyalties, of isolation and togetherness, of transgression, forgiveness, desire, and love. It is about all the things family can be and all the things it sometimes isn't. And it is a celebration of the powerful stories that bind generations together.



The Long Knives by Irvine Welsh (25 August)

In the second book of Irvine Welsh ’s CRIME series, Ritchie Gulliver MP is found dead having been castrated and left to die in an empty Leith warehouse. Vicious, racist and corrupt, many thought he had it coming. But nobody predicted this. As Detective Ray Lennox unravels the truth, and the list of attacks grows, he must put his personal feelings aside. But one question persists... Who are the real victims here? 

A Ladybird Book: The Ancient Egyptians by Sidra Ansari & Anja Sušanj (4 August)

This new addition to the A Ladybird Book series will take you back in time to when the ancient Egyptians lived. The civilisation lasted for over 3,000 years and saw the emergence of ideas and inventions such as mathematics and toothpaste!

Crash! Bang! Wallop! by Neil Clark (11 August)

Crash, Bang, and Wallop are all boisterous and love making lots of noise. But when they meet three quieter characters, the trio find that they can still have fun in quiet moments. Little ones will love reading this fun rhyming book.

How to Grow a Dragon by Rachel Morrisroe & Steven Lenton (18 August)

Sarah and Mr Pottifer have received a delivery of dragodil seeds. And although unexpected, this means they can now grow helpful dragon pets for their customers! But it quickly becomes apparent that these fiery beasts are not well-behaved at all.

Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris (1 September)

In 1660, General Edward Whalley and Colonel William Goffe cross the Atlantic – they are on the run and wanted for the murder of King Charles I. In London, Richard Nayler is tasked with tracking them down. He’ll stop at nothing until the two men are brought to justice. This thrilling new novel is an epic journey across continents, and a chase like no other.



Love Untold by Ruth Jones (1 September)

The funny, moving and uplifting new novel from Ruth Jones , co-creator of Gavin & Stacey and author of bestsellers Never Greener and Us Three .



Lessons by Ian McEwan (13 September)

When Roland Baine’s wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, he is finally forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. Epic, mesmerising and deeply humane, Lessons is a chronicle for our times – a powerful meditation on history and humanity through the prism of one man's lifetime.



The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman (15 September)

A new mystery is afoot in the third book in the Thursday Murder Club series from Richard Osman . We can’t wait.

Colditz by Ben MacIntyre (15 September)

In a Gothic castle on a hilltop in the heart of Nazi Germany, an unlikely band of British officers spent WWII plotting daring escapes from their Nazi captors. But that tale contains only part of the truth. The astonishing inside story, revealed for the first time in this new book, is a tale of the indomitable human spirit, but also one of snobbery, class conflict, homosexuality, bullying, espionage, boredom, insanity and farce. Deeply researched and full of incredible human stories, this is the definitive book on Colditz.



Landlines by Raynor Winn (15 September)

Following The Salt Path and The Wild Silence , in Landlines Raynor Winn embarks on her most ambitious walk to date. With husband Moth she travels from the dramatic beauty of the north-west corner of Scotland, to the familiar territory of the South West Coast Path. Chronicling her journey, she maps not only the physical terrain, but also captures the collective consciousness of a country facing an uncertain path ahead.



Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes by Rob Wilkins (29 September)

In 2015,  Terry Pratchett was working on his finest story yet – his own. Following his untimely death from Alzheimer's, the mantle of completing Pratchett’s memoir was passed to Rob Wilkins, his former assistant and friend. This is Pratchett’s extraordinary story – from his early childhood to the literary phenomenon that his Discworld series became; and how he met and coped with the challenges that Alzheimer's brought with it.

The Whisperling by Hayley Hoskins (1 September)

It’s 1897 and 12-year-old Peggy Devona has a very rare gift – she is a Whisperling and can speak to the dead. She keeps her skill a secret as those in her village fear anyone who is different. But when her best friend is accused of murder, Peggy has to draw on her abilities to solve the case and prove Sally’s innocence.

Speak Up! by Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola (15 September)

Rocket is an avid bookworm and loves her weekly trips to the library where she reads all about inspirational figures from the past. But when Rocket learns that her local library is going to be shut down, she is determined to speak up – just like Rosa Parks – and save the day.

The Ministry of Unladylike Activity by Robin Stevens (29 September)

Those who have been missing the escapades of Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong will be delighted to learn that author Robin Stevens has a brand-new series. It’s the Second World War, and a secret arm of the British government is training up spies. Hazel’s little sister May Wong knows there is no one more perfect to become a spy than a child. She offers up her services but is turned away. So, Hazel and her friend Eric, take matters into their own hands…

Darling by India Knight (20 October)

Marooned in a sprawling Norfolk farmhouse, teenager Linda Radlett feels herself destined for greater things. She longs for love, but how will she ever find it? She can't even get a signal on her mobile phone. In this razor-sharp, gloriously funny retelling of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love , we follow Linda's journey – one wilder, more surprising and more complicated than she could ever have imagined.


Nightwalking: Four Journeys Into Britain After Dark by John Lewis-Stempel (20 October)

As the human world settles down each evening, nocturnal animals prepare to take back the countryside. In this beautiful book, acclaimed nature writer and farmer John Lewis-Stempel takes us on four walks through the four seasons, revealing a world bursting with life and normally hidden from view.



 Autobiography by Malorie Blackman (20 October)

In Malorie Blackman ’s long-awaited autobiography, the author shares her extraordinary story – from a childhood surrounded by words, to the 83 rejection letters she received in response to her first project, to the children's laureateship. It explores the books that have made her, and the background to some of the most beloved children's stories of today. It is an inspiring account of the power of words to change lives. 



Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World by Ha-Joon Chang (27 October)

Explore economic thinking – about globalisation, climate change, immigration and more – in its most digestible form. In Edible Economics , Ha-Joon Chang makes challenging ideas more palatable by plating them alongside stories about food from around the world. Myth-busting, witty and thought-provoking, it shows that getting to grips with the economy is like learning a recipe: if we understand it, we can change it – and, with it, the world.



Manorism by Yomi Sode (27 October)

Through poems about family, survival and the complexities of belonging, Manorism examines the lives of Black British men and boys. From exploring the ongoing pressure of code-switching, to charting the dramatic reconciliations surrounding a death in the family, this thrillingly original book is a must for all lovers of poetry and its power.

I Am, You Are by Ashley Harris Whaley and Ananya Rao-Middleton (13 October)

Written by disability activist Ashley Harris Whaley, I Am, You Are offers a thorough explanation about disability for children, parents, carers, and teachers. It includes explanations on key words and concepts alongside beautiful illustrations. A must-have for every child.

My Name is Malala by Malala Yousafzai and Mariam Quraishi (18 October)

Malala Yousafzai is known all over the world for her tireless activism and bravery in the face of oppression. This board book that charts her life is a wonderful introduction for younger readers and will inspire anyone who reads it.

Peter Rabbit: Tales from the Countryside (27 October)

Featuring 24 stories inspired by Beatrix Potter’s original tales, this compendium of Peter Rabbit tales for every season will delight all readers. Join Peter as he harvests apples in the autumn, stargazes on a winter’s night, finds a missing lamb in the spring, and enjoys a picnic in the summer.

Fourteen Days edited by Margaret Atwood (1 November)

Set in a Lower East Side tenement in the early days of the pandemic, Fourteen Days is a dazzling, heart-warming novel with an unusual twist: each character has been secretly written by a different, major literary voice – from Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston to Dave Eggers and Celeste Ng. One to look forward to, it portrays how, beneath the loss and suffering, some communities managed to become stronger. 


Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami (8 November)

Haruki Murakami fans are sure to be delighted with this unique look into the mind of the master storyteller. In Novelist as a Vocation , the famously reclusive writer shares what he thinks about being a novelist, his thoughts on the role of the novel in our society, his own origins as a writer, and his musings on creativity. 



A Private Spy by John le Carré (3 November)

Don’t miss this collection of letters from John le Carré , spanning decades from his childhood to the Cold War to his final years. By turns intimate and comic, tender and clear-sighted, A Private Spy offers a rare and illuminating portrait of one of the greatest British novelists of our time.



 The Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee (3 November)

In his most spectacular book yet, Siddhartha Mukherjee tells the story of how scientists discovered cells, began to understand them, and are now using that knowledge to create new humans. Making complex science thrilling, he continues his exploration of what it means to be human. Told in six parts, laced with his own experience as a researcher, doctor and prolific reader, The Song of the Cell is both panoramic and intimate – a masterpiece.

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The Best Reviewed Nonfiction of 2022

Featuring bob dylan, elena ferrante, kate beaton, jhumpa lahiri, kate beaton, and more.

We’ve come to the end of another bountiful literary year, and for all of us review rabbits here at Book Marks, that can mean only one thing: basic math, and lots of it.

Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be calculating and revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2022, in the categories of (deep breath): Fiction; Nonfiction; Memoir and Biography; Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror; Short Story Collections; Essay Collections; Poetry; Mystery and Crime; Graphic Literature; and Literature in Translation.

Today’s installment: Nonfiction .

Brought to you by Book Marks , Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.”

1. In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing  by Elena Ferrante, trans. by Ann Goldstein (Europa)

12 Rave • 12 Positive • 4 Mixed

“The lucid, well-formed essays that make up In the Margins  are written in an equally captivating voice … Although a slim collection, there is more than enough meat here to nourish both the common reader and the Ferrante aficionado … Every essay here is a blend of deep thought, rigorous analysis and graceful prose. We occasionally get the odd glimpse of the author…but mainly the focus is on the nuts and bolts of writing and Ferrante’s practice of her craft. The essays are at their most rewarding when Ferrante discusses the origins of her books, in particular the celebrated Neapolitan Novels, and the multifaceted heroines that power them … These essays might not bring us any closer to finding out who Ferrante really is. Instead, though, they provide valuable insight into how she developed as a writer and how she works her magic.”

–Malcolm Forbes ( The Star Tribune )

2. Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age by Dennis Duncan (W. W. Norton)

14 Rave • 8 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an excerpt from Index here

“The cleverly punctuated title of Dennis Duncan’s book, Index, A History of the, should signal that this isn’t a dry account of a small cogwheel in the publishing machine. Instead, it is an engaging tale of the long search for the quickest way to find what you need in those big, information-rich things called books. It is indeed an adventure, and ‘bookish’ in the most appealing sense … Duncan goes into fascinating detail about all this—page numbers get an entire chapter of their own—with digressions into curious byways of booklore and literature … From ancient Egypt to Silicon Valley, Duncan is an ideal tour guide: witty, engaging, knowledgeable and a fount of diverting anecdotes. The book skews toward the literary, but anyone interested in the 2,200-year journey to quickly find what one needs in a book will be enlightened, and will never again take an index for granted. The well-designed book also includes nearly 40 illustrations. As might be expected, the index—created not by the author but by Paula Clarke Bain—is magnificent.”

–Steven Moore ( The Washington Post )

3. We Don’t Know Ourselves by Fintan O’Toole (Liveright) 17 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed • 1 Pan

“One of the many triumphs of Fintan O’Toole’s We Don’t Know Ourselves is that he manages to find a form that accommodates the spectacular changes that have occurred in Ireland over the past six decades, which happens to be his life span … it is not a memoir, nor is it an absolute history, nor is it entirely a personal reflection or a crepuscular credo. It is, in fact, all of these things helixed together: his life, his country, his thoughts, his misgivings, his anger, his pride, his doubt, all of them belonging, eventually, to us … O’Toole, an agile cultural commentator, considers himself to be a representative of the blank slate on which the experiment of change was undertaken, but it’s a tribute to him that he maintains his humility, his sharpness and his enlightened distrust …

O’Toole writes brilliantly and compellingly of the dark times, but he is graceful enough to know that there is humor and light in the cracks. There is a touch of Eduardo Galeano in the way he can settle on a telling phrase … But the real accomplishment of this book is that it achieves a conscious form of history-telling, a personal hybrid that feels distinctly honest and humble at the same time. O’Toole has not invented the form, but he comes close to perfecting it. He embraces the contradictions and the confusion. In the process, he weaves the flag rather than waving it.”

–Colum McCann ( The New York Times Book Review )

4. Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

14 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an excerpt from Super-Infinite here

“Rundell is right that Donne…must never be forgotten, and she is the ideal person to evangelise him for our age. She shares his linguistic dexterity, his pleasure in what TS Eliot called ‘felt thought’, his ability to bestow physicality on the abstract … It’s a biography filled with gaps and Rundell brings a zest for imaginative speculation to these. We know so little about Donne’s wife, but Rundell brings her alive as never before … Rundell confronts the difficult issue of Donne’s misogyny head-on … This is a determinedly deft book, and I would have liked it to billow a little more, making room for more extensive readings of the poems and larger arguments about the Renaissance. But if there is an overarching argument, then it’s about Donne as an ‘infinity merchant’ … To read Donne is to grapple with a vision of the eternal that is startlingly reinvented in the here and now, and Rundell captures this vision alive in all its power, eloquence and strangeness”

–Laura Feigel ( The Guardian )

5. Thin Places by Kerri ní Dochartaigh (Milkweed) 12 Rave • 7 Positive • 2 Mixed

“Can the Irish border be described as a ‘thin place’? Never have I read such an eloquent description for the omnipresent border in our psyche … Readers will draw their own meaning from Ní Dochartaigh’s words, and she allows space for them to ponder … This debut is not a memoir in the traditional sense; nor is it simply a polemic about the sectarian violence that tore through the author’s childhood in Derry; instead, it combines both of these elements under the insistent gaze of the poet-writer who is always keen to draw our attention to nature … Readers may be surprised at the depths that  Thin Places explores. Do not mistake its appreciation of the natural world for anything twee or solely comforting … This is not for the faint-hearted …

Ní Dochartaigh’s writing is generous and she leaves little for the reader to surmise in those dark days she describes in startling detail … The darkness in her subject matter lends itself to the light, however. The natural world at large is a balm for her … It might sound incongruous to write about the beauty of the whooper swan and the enduring effect of Troubles in the same paragraph, but Ní Dochartaigh’s manages it … This is a book full of hope found in dark places and it confronts some of the realities of the Irish border and the enduring effect it has on our lives.”

–Mia Colleran ( The Irish Independent )

6. Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri (Princeton University Press)

8 Rave • 14 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Lahiri mixes detailed explorations of craft with broader reflections on her own artistic life, as well as the ‘essential aesthetic and political mission’ of translation. She is excellent in all three modes—so excellent, in fact, that I, a translator myself, could barely read this book. I kept putting it aside, compelled by Lahiri’s writing to go sit at my desk and translate … One of Lahiri’s great gifts as an essayist is her ability to braid multiple ways of thinking together, often in startling ways … a reminder, no matter your relationship to translation, of how alive language itself can be. In her essays as in her fiction, Lahiri is a writer of great, quiet elegance; her sentences seem simple even when they’re complex. Their beauty and clarity alone would be enough to wake readers up. ‘Look,’ her essays seem to say: Look how much there is for us to wake up to.”

–Lily Meyer ( NPR )

7. Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly)

14 Rave • 4 Positive Watch an interview with Kate Beaton here

“It could hardly be more different in tone from [Beaton’s] popular larky strip Hark! A Vagrant … Yes, it’s funny at moments; Beaton’s low-key wryness is present and correct, and her drawings of people are as charming and as expressive as ever. But its mood overall is deeply melancholic. Her story, which runs to more than 400 pages, encompasses not only such thorny matters as social class and environmental destruction; it may be the best book I have ever read about sexual harassment … There are some gorgeous drawings in Ducks of the snow and the starry sky at night. But the human terrain, in her hands, is never only black and white … And it’s this that gives her story not only its richness and depth, but also its astonishing grace. Life is complex, she tell us, quietly, and we are all in it together; each one of us is only trying to survive. What a difficult, gorgeous and abidingly humane book. It really does deserve to win all the prizes.”

–Rachel Cooke ( The Guardian )

8. The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan (Simon & Schuster)

10 Rave • 15 Positive • 7 Mixed • 4 Pan

“It is filled with songs and hyperbole and views on love and lust even darker than Blood on the Tracks … There are 66 songs discussed here … Only four are by women, which is ridiculous, but he never asked us … Nothing is proved, but everything is experienced—one really weird and brilliant person’s experience, someone who changed the world many times … Part of the pleasure of the book, even exceeding the delectable Chronicles: Volume One , is that you feel liberated from Being Bob Dylan. He’s not telling you what you got wrong about him. The prose is so vivid and fecund, it was useless to underline, because I just would have underlined the whole book. Dylan’s pulpy, noir imagination is not always for the squeamish. If your idea of art is affirmation of acceptable values, Bob Dylan doesn’t need you … The writing here is at turns vivid, hilarious, and will awaken you to songs you thought you knew … The prose brims everywhere you turn. It is almost disturbing. Bob Dylan got his Nobel and all the other accolades, and now he’s doing my job, and he’s so damn good at it.”

–David Yaffe ( AirMail )

9. Stay True by Hua Hsu (Doubleday)

14 Rave • 3 Positive Listen to Hua Hsu read an excerpt from Stay True here

“… quietly wrenching … To say that this book is about grief or coming-of-age doesn’t quite do it justice; nor is it mainly about being Asian American, even though there are glimmers of that too. Hsu captures the past by conveying both its mood and specificity … This is a memoir that gathers power through accretion—all those moments and gestures that constitute experience, the bits and pieces that coalesce into a life … Hsu is a subtle writer, not a showy one; the joy of Stay True sneaks up on you, and the wry jokes are threaded seamlessly throughout.”

–Jennifer Szalai ( The New York Times )

10. Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos (Catapult)

13 Rave • 2 Positive • 2 Mixed Read an excerpt from Body Work here

“In her new book, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative , memoirist Melissa Febos handily recuperates the art of writing the self from some of the most common biases against it: that the memoir is a lesser form than the novel. That trauma narratives should somehow be over—we’ve had our fill … Febos rejects these belittlements with eloquence … In its hybridity, this book formalizes one of Febos’s central tenets within it: that there is no disentangling craft from the personal, just as there is no disentangling the personal from the political. It’s a memoir of a life indelibly changed by literary practice and the rigorous integrity demanded of it … Febos is an essayist of grace and terrific precision, her sentences meticulously sculpted, her paragraphs shapely and compressed … what’s fresh, of course, is Febos herself, remapping this terrain through her context, her life and writing, her unusual combinations of sources (William H. Gass meets Elissa Washuta, for example), her painstaking exactitude and unflappable sureness—and the new readers she will reach with all of this.”

–Megan Milks ( 4Columns )

Our System:

RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points

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NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Didn’t tick off all your 2022 must-reads? Here’s our pick of the best non fiction books to catch up on

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Non-fiction reads topped the charts last year – and with January a notoriously quiet month, now is the time to catch up on your reading list before all the new releases hit our bookshelves .

Check out our pick of the best memoirs, biographies and non-fiction from 2022 – and feel smug in the knowledge that they’re almost all are currently being sold at discount prices in Waterstones.

Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman

Drawing on rarely seen sources, this lively and entertaining biography by Lucy Worsley rescues the Queen of Crime from the fusty trappings of the Edwardian era, to present her as a thoroughly modern woman.

Learn how Agatha Christie went surfing in Hawaii, and how her deceptively simple whodunnits betrayed her interest in the new science of psychology.

Not so cosy after all then. Buy for £21.99 from Waterstones.

Madly Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries

Spanning from 1993 to December 2015, just before his death from pancreatic cancer , these diaries from the much-missed Harry Potter star Alan Rickman, edited by Alan Taylor, are everything you might wish from an actor’s memoir: gossipy, anguished, and full of sumptuous detail.

There are the first nights, the lunches (Rickman seems to have spent most of his time in The Ivy) and of course, his waspish views of fellow luvvies.

‘Never divulge anything to her that you do not want spread like soft margarine,’ he writes of Frances Barber. Ouch.

Buy for £12.50 from Waterstones.

Friends, Lovers And The Big Terrible Thing

‘You can track the trajectory of my addiction if you gauge my weight from season to season,’ writes Matthew Perry, aka Chandler, in this no-holds-barred account of the dark underbelly of Friends.

‘When I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; when I’m skinny it’s pills. When I have a goatee, it’s lots of pills.’

Friends made him stinking rich but also desperately unhappy and Perry – who writes well if not without self-regard – spares readers not an inch of the whole sorry tale. Buy from Waterstone for £18.99.

Faith, Hope And Carnage

Comprising a series of extended conversations between Nick Cave and the journalist Seán O’Hagan, this book has a lot to say on Cave’s history of heroin addiction, his views on the creative process, and the turbulence of life with the Bad Seeds.

Primarily, though, it’s a book about grief, with Cave almost unbearably articulate on the loss of his 15-year-old son Arthur in 2015.

Strangely life-affirming in its own unique Cave way. Buy from Waterstones for £18.99.

Ready For Absolutely Nothing

The lives of the extremely rich invariably have a gruesome fascination, and so it proves in this outlandish endearing memoir from What Not To Wear’s Susannah Constantine.

It’s full of fabulous Sloaney tidbits, including hanging out with Princess Margaret and dating Imran Khan – who apparently wooed her with the immortal line: ‘You have perfect breasts’. Great fun.

Buy from Waterstones for £10.

And Finally

The latest memoir by the retired neurosurgeon Henry Marsh recounts his experiences on the front line of life and death not as a surgeon, but as a patient.

Diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, he ruminates here on the side of illness he never got to witness in his career: the private loneliness, grief and sheer frustration of it all.

As ever he writes beautifully, his interest in the human body and mind as hummingly alive as ever. Buy from Waterstones for £8.49.

The Palace Papers

Last year was yet another tumultuous one the royals.

Thank goodness then for Tina Brown to help guide us through it with her usual scissor-sharp wit.

Scything her way though the last 25 years, from the death of Diana to the schism of Megxit, she saves almost no one, including the late Queen, her gimlet eye, although its fair to say Prince Andrew emerges the least smelling of roses.

Of all the books about the Royals published last year, this is the most indecently enjoyable.

Buy from Waterstones for £9.49.

The Fall Of Boris Johnson

A hugely vivid fly-on-the-wall account of Boris’s last nine months in office from a man who saw most of it: the FT’s Whitehall editor Sebastian Payne. It has all the pace, intrigue, complexity and dirt worthy of the finest Netflix drama.

Buy from Waterstones for £22.00.

Diary Of An Invasion by Andrey Kurkov

Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov’s diaries recount the first six months since Russia invaded in Ukraine and those who lived there had their lives changed forever.

With the sort of eye-witness detail missing from even the most rigorous newspaper account, this book makes for essential reading. (Mountain Leopard) Buy from Waterstones for £14.99.

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The best books of 2022

From Hanya Yanagihara’s epic novel to a brilliant memoir by Bono … Guardian critics pick the year’s best fiction, politics, science, children’s books and more. Tell us about your favourite books in the comments

Hanya Yanagihara’s follow-up to A Little Life, Percival Everett’s biting satire and Ali Smith’s playful take on lockdown – Justine Jordan reflects on a year in fiction. Read all fiction

Children’s books

Imogen Russell Williams picks the best titles for children and teenagers, from a spooky tale by Philip Pullman to the long-awaited new novel from SF Said – plus books for young readers by Oliver Jeffers and Maggie O’Farrell. Read all children’s books

Crime and thrillers

Cosy crime from Ajay Chowdhury, a new Rebus novel and a handful of excellent debuts – Laura Wilson rounds up the best page-turners. Read all crime and thrillers

Science fiction and fantasy

A verse novel written in Orcadian Scots, a unique UFO story and a distinctive time-travel tale from the author of Station Eleven – Adam Roberts selects five of the best science fiction and fantasy books. Read all science fiction and fantasy

Biography and memoir

Fiona Sturges chooses the best memoirs, from Alan Rickman’s posthumous diaries to Michelle Obama’s follow-up to Becoming, as well as compelling biographies of Agatha Christie and John Donne. Read all biography and memoir

History and politics

Reflections on the British empire, urgent stories of deadly migrant routes and a Nobel peace prize-winner’s thoughts on the future of democracy – Alex von Tunzelmann ’s choice of books about our past and present. Read all history and politics

Jonathan Liew picks five of the year’s best books about sport, including a thought-provoking history of Black footballers and a fascinating biography of Geoffrey Boycott. Read all sport

With subjects ranging from the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic to the potential of digital virtual worlds, Alok Jha selects the year’s top science books. Read all science

Black and queer communities are centred in much of this year’s poetry, including Joelle Taylor’s account of butch lesbian counterculture and Warsan Shire’s captivating take on home and identity – Rishi Dastidar chooses the best collections. Read all poetry

Graphic novels

James Smart picks out the finest comics and graphic books, from thoughtful memoirs to vividly illustrated fiction. Read all graphic novels

Bono’s autobiography, oral histories of hip-hop and heavy metal and a smart reflection on Black women in pop – Alexis Petridis ’s pick of books about music and musicians. Read all music

Rachel Roddy on the best food books of the year, from stories of growing up in a Chinese takeaway to pressure cooker recipes and a guide to snacking. Read all food

To browse all of the Guardian’s best books of 2022 visit guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply.

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BOOKS SPRING PREVIEW: NONFICTION

17 New Nonfiction Books to Read This Season

Two journalists dive into George Floyd’s life and family; Viola Davis reflects on her career; a historian explores the brutal underpinnings of the British Empire; and more.

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By John Williams ,  Tina Jordan and Joumana Khatib

Whether you want to read about current events, memoirs or history, this season brings plenty of new titles.

Memoirs & Biographies | Current Affairs | History, Revisited | Other

MEMOIRS & BIOGRAPHIES

‘ Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama: A Memoir, ’ by Bob Odenkirk

Odenkirk’s memoir might have also been titled “Obscurity Obscurity Obscurity Fame.” He was a cult favorite of comedy fans in the late 1990s for his work on the sketch-comedy series “Mr. Show,” but his supporting role in “Breaking Bad” and his starring turn in the show’s prequel, “Better Call Saul,” made him a household name. His memoir charts his dogged and unlikely path from Chicago comedy clubs to leading man.

Random House, out now

‘ Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand ,’ by John Markoff

Brand might be best known for his countercultural magazine Whole Earth Catalog, which first published in 1968. In that same decade, Brand was a participant in the exploits of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters. Now 83, he went on to a long and varied life of thought and activism in the realms of environmentalism, Native American rights and personal computing. Markoff, a former technology reporter for The New York Times, wraps his arms around the whole story in this new biography.

Penguin Press, out now

‘ Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation ,’ by Maud Newton

In her first book, Newton, a critic and essayist, digs deep into her family’s past, from Depression-era Texas to witch-hunting Massachusetts, not flinching at what she sees. Closer to the present day, she wrestles with her father’s racism and her family’s religious extremism. Rooted in the personal, Newton’s book opens out to an examination of a culture besotted with Ancestry.com and 23andme.com , and asks what we’re really looking for in the past.

Random House, March 29

‘ Keats: A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph ,’ by Lucasta Miller

The poet Keats died at 25 in 1821, and his short life and brilliant work have inspired a vast amount of literature. In her new book, Miller says that literature often overlooks how rowdy and subversive Keats really was. She wants to shine light on aspects of his life and work “that haven’t always made it into the popular imagination, which still tends to make him appear rather more ethereal than he actually was.”

Knopf, April 19

‘ Finding Me: A Memoir ,’ by Viola Davis

Davis, a fixture on television and movie screens, the winner of an Oscar (for “Fences”) and an Emmy (for “How to Get Away With Murder”), found steady work and then stardom as an actor after growing up in incredibly difficult circumstances. In her memoir, she writes of the poverty and food insecurity her family suffered in Rhode Island when she was a child, and of how acting changed her life, leading to a college scholarship, Juilliard and the theater and Hollywood success that followed.

HarperOne, April 26

‘ This Body I Wore: A Memoir ,’ by Diana Goetsch

In 2013, at 50, Goetsch’s life started to collapse. Her success as a writer and public-school teacher masked a decades-long depression. In a blog for The American Scholar in 2015 , Goetsch wrote about how she “longed daily to be a woman,” a longing she had suppressed since childhood. Her new memoir is about her own transition and the story of the trans community over the course of her lifetime.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, May 24

CURRENT AFFAIRS

‘ The Trayvon Generation ,’ by Elizabeth Alexander

Less than a month after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Alexander published an essay in The New Yorker titled “The Trayvon Generation,” in which she wrote about the young people who had grown up in the past 25 years, repeatedly watching stories that “instructed them that anti-Black hatred and violence were never far.” Her worry for that generation, including for her own sons, was braided with a consideration of the “creative emergences” in Black communities. This book expands on that widely shared essay.

Grand Central Publishing, April 5

‘ Seek and Hide: The Tangled History of the Right to Privacy ,’ by Amy Gajda

Amy Gajda, a law professor at Tulane, examines the history of privacy in America, from the concerns of the Founding Fathers to the concerns of those who carry an ever-larger trove of personal data around in our pockets every day. In recounting the long history of debates over privacy, Gajda differentiates between everyday citizens and the press, and explains the hazards of both too little privacy and too much privacy.

Viking, April 12

‘ A Brief History of Equality ,’ by Thomas Piketty. Translated by Steven Rendall

Piketty, an economist and the author of perhaps the most surprising best seller in recent memory (the 800-plus page “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”), here synthesizes his ideas about the persistence of economic inequality in a shorter form. But as the “equality” in the title suggests, he also emphasizes the ways in which progress has been made. “In the long term, the march toward equality is very clear,” he recently said . “I really want to insist on that.”

Belknap Press, April 19

‘ His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice ,’ by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

Floyd’s name and face traveled around the world soon after he was killed on May 25, 2020 . This book by two Washington Post reporters — building upon a six-part series in The Post — fills in the life behind the tragedy. It traces the roots of Floyd’s family to slavery and sharecropping, recounts his segregated childhood education in Houston and draws the connections between his adult life and crises in American housing, criminal justice and policing.

Viking, May 17

HISTORY, REVISITED

‘ Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire ,’ by Caroline Elkins

“Empire was not just a few threads in Britain’s national cloth,” writes Elkins, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. “It was the fabric from which the modern British nation was made.” She explores how brutality was inextricably bound up in Britain’s colonial project — and was in fact a central part of its “civilizing” mission — focusing on a few historical episodes, including the Morant Bay Rebellion, the Irish War of Independence, the Second Boer War and others.

Knopf, March 29

‘ The Hangman and His Wife: The Life and Death of Reinhard Heydrich ,’ by Nancy Dougherty

Heydrich, the powerful SS chief, was the principal architect of the Holocaust, nicknamed the “hangman of the Gestapo” and “the butcher of Prague.” Dougherty died in 2013, before she finished this book, so Christopher Lehmann-Haupt — a longtime literary critic for The Times — completed it. Lehmann-Haupt died in 2018.

Knopf, May 24

‘ Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor ,’ by Kim Kelly

In this wide-ranging survey, Kelly unearths the stories of the people — farm laborers, domestic workers, factory employees — behind some of the labor movement’s biggest successes.

Atria/One Signal, April 26

‘ River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile , by Candice Millard

In the 19th century, the British explorers Richard Burton and John Speke set out to trace the Nile River, a yearslong process that led Speke to what he eventually called Lake Victoria. But Millard shows that the men did not “discover” anything — local populations knew very well where the headwaters of the Nile were — and their journey was greatly helped along by Sidi Mubarak Bombay, an East African man who was sold into slavery and sent to India before finding his way back to the continent.

Doubleday, May 17

‘ Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist ,’ by Frans de Waal

De Waal — whose sprightly, intelligent, utterly compelling studies of bonobos and chimpanzees have taken on such topics as empathy, grief and compassion — here turns to gender and sex. “Whereas it is true that gender goes beyond biology, it’s not created out of thin air,” he writes. “There is every reason, therefore, to see what we can learn about ourselves from comparisons with other primates.”

Norton, April 5

‘ Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong ,’ by Louisa Lim

“The act of writing about Hong Kong has become an exercise in subtraction,” says Lim, a journalist and author who was raised there. She refers to her efforts to protect her sources, by removing identifying details that could endanger them, but the point has a bigger resonance in the story of a place whose history has often been overtaken by a colonial point of view. With this book, Lim set out to to put Hong Kongers at the center of the story, weaving together portraits of citizens with major historical moments — the British takeover in 1842, the transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997, the pro-democracy protests in recent years.

Riverhead, April 19

‘ The Premonitions Bureau: A True Account of Death Foretold ,’ by Sam Knight

What are those foreboding visions that people sometimes have? Are they, in fact, real? This is the fascinating story of the psychiatrist John Barker, who invited fellow Britons to share their premonitions with him after becoming convinced that the 1966 Aberfan disaster — in which an avalanche of coal slurry buried a Wales school and other buildings — had been foretold by supernatural signs.

Penguin Press, May 3

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Nonfiction Books » Best Nonfiction Books of 2022

Nonfiction of 2022: fall roundup, recommended by sophie roell.

Reading nonfiction books is an excellent way of getting a grip on the realities of the world around us, whether it's how to live, how to run a country, or understanding how the universe works. Five Books editor Sophie Roell looks at some notable new nonfiction books published since June.

The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes

Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions by Sabine Hossenfelder

Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle by Jody Rosen

Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century by Brad DeLong

The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris

1 The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes

2 existential physics: a scientist’s guide to life’s biggest questions by sabine hossenfelder, 3 two wheels good: the history and mystery of the bicycle by jody rosen, 4 slouching towards utopia: an economic history of the twentieth century by brad delong, 5 the facemaker: a visionary surgeon's battle to mend the disfigured soldiers of world war i by lindsey fitzharris.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” said Spanish-born philosopher George Santayana (1863–1952), in a quote that often does the rounds on social media to emphasize the importance of understanding history. The problem is that history is highly subjective, and its study, especially in school, traditionally part of a country’s nation-building project. The Story of Russia by British historian Orlando Figes explores the history that Russians tell themselves, an important narrative to be aware of if we’re to make sense of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine .

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Many congested cities around the world have been experimenting with bicycles as a solution, with public electric bike and scooter schemes making lots of European cities much easier and more fun to get around. As I biked across Rome, Italy, late one night this summer to catch the train back to my childhood home in Frascati—the wind in my hair and without even breaking a sweat—I said to myself, ‘This is it! This is the answer to life, the universe and everything!’ Reading Two Wheels Good by American journalist Jody Rosen was a robust antidote to my euphoric bicycle moment. It’s not only a history of the bicycle but a history of our attitudes to bicycles, both for and against. The current bike craze is only one of many since Karl van Drais unveiled his Laufsmachine in Mannheim, Germany, in 1817 and I still seem to spend more time in my car stuck in traffic than on my bike.

I like books that look at how to live and explore what specific thinkers or traditions down the ages have to say on the subject that might help me get a better perspective on why we’re here. In How to Be Authentic , Skye Cleary writes about how the French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir —author of The Second Sex amongst many other writings both fiction and nonfiction—has influenced her life. This is an existentialist take on being a human being, in other words, you have to make your own meaning and even your own person–there’s no mould you can just slip into. The chapters are divided into themes “Friendship”, “Happiness” etc. I recommend dipping into them one at a time rather than reading the book to cover-to-cover, as this is an impressive but exhausting personal philosophy.

A book that’s received a lot of coverage—including from Paul Krugman in the New York Times , who called it “magisterial”—is Slouching Towards Utopia by Brad DeLong . ‘Slouching’ is one of my favourite words, so I was happy to see it in a book title, though I don’t think it does justice to what’s been achieved in economic terms over the long 20th century he covers. It’s been more of an exciting hurdle race with frequent and sometimes catastrophic crashes. DeLong is a macroeconomist at UC Berkeley who is also very interested in history (he first came to my attention for his ‘Liveblogging’ of World War II), and this book is valuable because it’s a global history of the 20th century told by someone who understands economics. Over more than 500 pages, you’ll get historical details (eg why the Nazis were called the Nazis) but also his analysis of why, for example, China was economically behind Japan in the early 20th century or Argentina has not been able to join the ranks of the wealthiest nations. After reading this book, you’ll want to read some Hayek and Polanyi , if you haven’t already.

Lastly, if you enjoy medical history (I do, partly because it’s a reminder of how far we’ve come in the last century-and-a-half), Lindsey Fitzharris, author of the Wolfson History Prize-shortlisted The Butchering Art, about Joseph Lister , had a new book out this summer. Set in World War I, it’s called The Facemaker   and tells the story of another extraordinary surgeon, Harold Gillies, who used his skills to help to restore the looks of young men who came out of the trenches horribly disfigured. Like her previous book, this one is not for the squeamish.

Part of our  best books of 2022  series.

September 11, 2022

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Article   •  18 August 2022

20 of the best non-fiction books of 2022, see some of the best non-fiction books of 2022 so far, as well as more great titles coming this year..

The best non-fiction books of 2022 from Dr Julie Smith, James Patterson, Julia Gillard and more.

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?   by Dr Julie Smith

If you liked  Atomic Habits,  consider  Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? a must-read. Full of simple, straightforward advice, this book provides plenty of tools to help you change your life for the better. By TikTok sensation and clinical psychologist Dr Julie Smith , the book is warm and informal, making it an approachable read for everyone.

SELF-HELP • PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Patting the Shark by Tim Baker

Tim Baker was living the dream. A beautiful family, a lifetime of exotic travel, and a beach-side home. But it all came toppling down when he received a surprise diagnosis: stage four, metastatic prostate cancer. Tim’s account is raw and vulnerable as it brings awareness to the disease that affects one in seven men in Australia.

MEMOIR • POIGNANT

Diana, William, and Harry  by James Patterson

Twenty-five years after her tragic death, bestselling author James Patterson tells the story of Princess Diana’s life as a mother and global icon. The heartbreaking, true account shines a light on the strength of her love for her sons – a trait that remains an enduring inspiration for the entire world today.

TRUE STORIES  • ROYAL FAMILY

Embrace Kids  by Taryn Brumfitt and Zali Yager

Imagine a world where young people don’t feel held back by their bodies. That’s what Taryn Brumfitt and Dr Zali Yager set out to inspire in writing  Embrace Kids , a body-positive handbook for parents, children, and teens. Coinciding with Brumfitt’s new documentary of the same name, the book helps parents understand their own journey and instil self-love in their children.

FAMILY & HEALTH  • PSYCHOLOGY • PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Smart, Stupid and Sixty   by Nigel Marsh

From the bestselling author of  Fat, Forty and Fired  and TED talk speaker Nigel Marsh comes  Smart, Stupid and Sixty.  Chronicling Nigel’s own experience of turning sixty, the book offers both humour and poignancy in its observations on the ‘third trimester’ of life.

MEMOIR • PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

POWER   by Kemi Nekvapil

Blending inspiring stories with author Kemi Nekvapil’s reflective coaching practices, POWER provides the tools to navigate challenges ranging from discrimination to self-doubt. Having grown up in foster care, Kemi was forced to learn to make her own choices and use her voice without apology. 

Mezcla   by Ixta Belfrage

From the co-author of  Ottolenghi FLAVOUR  comes this fun, flavour-packed cookbook dedicated to everyday eating with special occasion energy. In Spanish,  mezcla  means  mix  and that’s exactly what these recipes do by reinventing ‘fusion’ flavours. The book includes several quick, flavourful recipes that are sure to become a staple in your cooking rotation.

COOKBOOK • FOOD & DRINK

The Scrap Iron Flotilla   by Mike Carlton

When the British asked Australia for help at the outbreak of World War II, the government sent five destroyers to help bolster the British Royal Navy in the Mediterranean. The Nazis dismissed them as a load of scrap iron, but the destroyers played a pivotal role in escorting troop and supply convoys throughout the war.

HISTORY • WARFARE

Time Wise   by Amantha Imber

Learn how to level up your life with advice from behavioural scientist and podcast host Amantha Imber. Drawing on the habits of the world’s most highly effective people,  Time Wise  is a toolkit of proven strategies that will help you improve your productivity in every sector of your life. Whether you’re a CEO or a university student, this research-backed guide will help you achieve more in less time.

BUSINESS • MANAGEMENT • PRODUCTIVITY

His Name is George Floyd   by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

Written by two award-winning reporters, this book is the only definitive biography of George Floyd. By zooming in on the portrait of this one life, the authors deliver a powerful exploration of institutional racism and a public reckoning of unprecedented breadth and intensity.

BIOGRAPHY • TRUE STORIES

Reckoning   by David Hill

Reckoning  is a heartbreaking account of the abuse that author David Hill and other Forgotten Children survived at the Fairbridge Farm School in New South Wales. Part memoir, part oral history, the book recounts the shocking systemic abuse of innocent children. The book catalysed a battle for justice, which resulted in the Fairbridge kids being awarded a record $24 million in compensation by the NSW Supreme Court. 

NON-FICTION PROSE

How Civil Wars Start   by Barbara F. Walter

Most of us don’t know it, but we are living in the world’s greatest era of civil wars. Since 1946, over 250 armed conflicts have broken out around the world, and that number continues to rise today.  How Civil Wars Start  outlines why they happen and how to avoid them in the hopes of providing a path back toward peace.

SOCIETY & CULTURE • LAW • POLITICS

How to Prevent the Next Pandemic  by Bill Gates

In 2014, Bill Gates gave a now-famous TED talk that warned of the arrival of pandemics in the near future – a prediction that was recently proven correct with the outbreak of COVID-19. Drawing on his studies of pandemics and firsthand experience with the Gates Foundation, the book outlines what we can all do to help prevent another pandemic.

MEDICINE • ECONOMICS • SCIENCE

The Palace Papers  by Tina Brown

Bestselling author Tina Brown provides an explosive insider look at the Royal Family over the last twenty years. Based on unprecedented sources and research, the book takes readers behind palace walls to tell the real story of the Windsors since the death of Diana.

BIOGRAPHY • ROYAL FAMILY

Coming soon.

Not Now, Not Ever   by Julia Gillard   

Ten years on from Julia Gillard’s famous misogyny speech ,  Not Now, Not Ever  explores the history and culture of misogyny and gender in the media and politics. With contributions from several experts and artists, the book explores a roadmap for the future with next-generation feminists Sally Scales, Chanel Contos and Caitlin Figueiredo. Out 5 October 2022.

BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT • FEMENISM • POLITICS

Bryce Courtenay: Storyteller   by Christine Courtenay

Told by the late Bryce Courtenay’s wife, Christine Courtenay, this long-awaited memoir of the Australian author reads like one of his epic fictions. With a look back at Courtenay’s personal story, the book chronicles his 34-year career in advertising and the bestselling writing that followed it. Out 1 November 2022.

BIOGRAPHY • MEMOIR • AUSTRALIAN AUTHOR

Investing with She’s on the Money  by Victoria Devine  

From the podcaster and bestselling author of She’s on the Money,  Victoria Devine comes this guide to building wealth through investing. Covering topics like superannuation, the stock market, and property investment, the book sets out to provide women with the guidance and education to build future wealth in no time. Out 20 September 2022.

SELF-HELP • FINANCE • INVESTING

The Light We Carry   by Michelle Obama

The Light We Carry  is a powerful, insightful follow-up to Michelle Obama’s bestselling memoir  Becoming.  Opening a frank dialogue with readers, Michelle considers the questions that many of us grapple with in everyday life. With the same humour and compassion that made  Becoming  a bestseller, this book shares the habits she has developed to overcome obstacles. Out 16 November 2022.

SELF-HELP • MEMOIR • PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Logan Martin: Journey to Gold  by Logan Martin

In  Logan Martin: Journey to Gold , the Olympic gold medallist and X-Games champion shares his inspiring journey to the top of the BMX freestyle podium. This testament to his dedication and self-discipline provides a peek into Logan’s life – from his smooth confidence to attention-grabbing tattoos. Out 18 October 2022.

BIOGRAPHY • BMX • ATHLETE

Fifteen Seconds of Brave   by Melissa Doyle

In this intimate and insightful book, award-winning journalist Melissa Doyle shares the stories of the most resilient people she has met throughout her 25-year-long career. Calling on her years of reporting from the front lines of triumph and tragedy, Melissa lays out the hard-won wisdom that the survivors she’d met shared with her throughout her career. Out 1 November 2022.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT • TRUE STORIES

Want more non-fiction? Check out this book list featuring non-fiction must-reads of 2022 .

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Best Nonfiction Books of 2022

These compelling narratives are not to be missed.

It’s been an exceptional year for nonfiction literature — and the narratives below are the best of the best. From gripping true crime and bestselling memoirs to enthralling scientific investigations, here are the best nonfiction books of 2022.

By Paul Holes

An instant New York Times bestseller, Unmasked by detective Paul Holes is an honest and fascinating work, equal parts true crime and memoir . Holes chronicles his unparalleled career cracking cold cases and bringing serial murderers to justice, from the kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard to the 20-year manhunt for the Golden State Killer. Along the way, he discloses the glories as well as the setbacks. Being a detective offers its fair share of rewards, yet Holes has sacrificed more than just a good night’s sleep; his job has strained his relationships with his loved ones and taken a serious toll on his peace of mind. In Unmasked, Holes offers an unforgettable look at the life of a criminal investigator and grapples with the question that haunts anyone committed to the pursuit of justice: but at what cost?

The Viral Underclass

By steven thrasher.

In The Viral Underclass, recently long-listed for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, LGBTQ scholar and social critic Steven Thrasher delivers a powerful portrait of survival in the pandemic era and a searing critique of inequitable health-care systems. Thrasher thoroughly examines the socioeconomic divides that plague our present moment to expose the outsize role class and privilege play in surviving a viral outbreak. Drawing on insight from medical experts and community leaders, and interweaving harrowing accounts of viruses like HIV and COVID-19, Thrasher’s eye-opening debut reveals the true human cost of disease.

Black Skinhead

By brandi collins-dexter.

From political activist Brandi Collins-Dexter, Black Skinhead presents an excellent meditation on political disaffection in Black America and the strained alliance between Black voters and the Democratic Party. Collins-Dexter looks beyond the polls in her acclaimed essay collection, writing with both humor and unflinching honesty to consider the evolving state of Black political culture in sports, music, movies, and beyond. A timely assessment of Black identity and the changing shape of politics in present-day America, Black Skinhead is a must-read.

By Paul Pringle

Fans of hard-hitting investigative journalism books are sure to love Paul Pringle’s Bad City, which exposes institutional rot and corruption in sunny California. In April 2016, Pringle received a tip at his desk at the L.A. Times about a drug scandal involving Dr. Carmen Puliafito, the head of the University of Southern California’s esteemed medical school. But what began as a stand-alone investigation into a salacious lead soon exposed a web of corruption and cover-ups that stretched across Greater Los Angeles. Pringle, a Pulitzer Prize–winning author , thrillingly chronicles how he and his fellow Times reporters took on one of California’s most commanding institutions in Bad City, delivering a riveting read that The New York Times calls “a masterclass in investigative journalism.”

Growing Up Biden

By valerie biden owens.

In this bestselling family memoir that “shines with heart and humanity” ( Publishers Weekly ), Valerie Biden Owens opens up about her life as the younger sister of President Joe Biden and her barrier-breaking career in politics as one of the first female campaign managers in United States history. Biden Owens candidly discusses her early years growing up in the Biden household, the only girl in a house full of boys, and later stepping in to help care for her brother Joe and his sons after the tragic loss of his wife and daughter. In addition to being there for Joe Biden as a sister, Biden Owens has stood by her brother’s side as a trusted political adviser and confidante, overseeing his run for high school class president up through his seven straight U.S. Senate victories to his presidential victory in 2020.

Number One Is Walking

By steve martin.

Comedy fans will light up with glee reading Number One Is Walking, Steve Martin’s “irresistibly charming” ( Publishers Weekly , starred review) illustrated memoir. Enhanced by artwork from New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss, Martin’s new narrative takes readers along for the ride as he looks back on his legendary career in showbiz, revisiting the sets of movies like Three Amigos and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and relating uproarious Hollywood misadventures with Paul McCartney, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams, and many more. Brimming with Martin’s signature wit and charm, Number One Is Walking will leave you smiling from cover to cover. Readers should also check out the bestselling A Wealth of Pigeons , Martin and Bliss’s first illustrated literary collaboration, where Martin provides the punch lines and Bliss provides the artwork.

I’m Glad My Mom Died

By jeanette mccurdy.

Former child star Jeanette McCurdy wows with her eyebrow-raising debut, I’m Glad My Mom Died . McCurdy’s early years as a child actor were anything but glamorous; she was subjected to calorie restrictions, privacy violations, and head-to-toe cosmetic scrutiny under her mother’s management. When McCurdy lands a breakthrough role in Nickelodeon’s iCarly, her mother is elated, but Jeanette herself is on the verge of a breakdown. The young actor finds herself battling addiction, eating disorders, anxiety, and toxic relationships — and then her mom is diagnosed with cancer. A New York Times bestseller, McCurdy’s memoir is an unflinchingly funny account of an overbearing mother, the dark side of child stardom, and the healing potential of therapy.

The Palace Papers

By tina brown.

Calling all royal watchers ! Tina Brown is your guide to the House of Windsor in her bestselling The Palace Papers, which serves as a kind of follow-up to The Diana Chronicles. Brown walks readers through the trials, triumphs, and intrigue of the British royal family in her latest work, from the headline-grabbing affairs and tragic death of Princess Diana to the rise of Kate Middleton and Harry and Meghan’s shocking departure from royal life. Though Queen Elizabeth II swore there could never again be a family member whose celebrity threatened the status quo of the British monarchy, Brown’s juicy account suggests that the future of the Windsors is far from certain. The Los Angeles Times calls The Palace Papers “an excellent primer for the unpredictable years ahead.”

Go-To Dinners: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

By ina garten.

Serving up a delicious meal can be stressful — even if you’re one of America’s most celebrated chefs . In Go-To Dinners, Ina Garten presents a delectable collection of recipes for crowd-pleasing dishes that can be made with less stress. Stuffed with simple-to-assemble recipes and prep-ahead tips, Garten’s latest makes mealtime both easy and enjoyable, transforming dinner into an opportunity to gather around the table with good food and great company.

By Viola Davis

In the bestselling Finding Me, Academy Award–winning actress Viola Davis delivers a touching new memoir of self-discovery. Tracing her life story from Rhode Island to New York to red-carpet success in Hollywood, Davis’s narrative is a testament to the strength and persistence required to make your dreams a reality. It’s also a reminder to remain true to yourself and it encourages readers to embark on their own journey of acceptance and self-love. A fiery and excellent read, Finding Me is “raw in its anger, shocking in its frankness, often downright vulgar — and wonderfully alive with Davis’s passion poured into every page” (Associated Press).

Starry Messenger

By neil degrasse tyson.

In Starry Messenger, renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson surveys human civilization through a cosmic lens. While social strife and war plague life on Earth, deGrasse Tyson looks to the stars in search of guidance about our planet and our place in the universe. In doing so, the author reveals scientific truths that unite us all under one dazzling sky. A New York Times bestseller, Starry Messenger brims with warmth, optimism, and awe, and it serves as a hopeful book to read during these trying times.

The Song of the Cell

By siddhartha mukherjee.

Siddhartha Mukherjee embarks on a medical journey of epic proportions in The Song of the Cell . The author of the award-winning nonfiction book The Emperor of All Maladies explores humanity at the cellular level in his latest acclaimed narrative, tracing the history of the cell from its discovery in the late-1600s to modern-day breakthroughs in medicine and cellular manipulation. Enriched by stories from doctors, scientists, and patients, Mukherjee’s sterling narrative invites us all to marvel at life’s potential and the limitless possibilities of the human body.

The Monster’s Bones

By david k. randall.

In The Monster’s Bones , journalist David K. Randall traces the discovery of the first fossilized tyrannosaurus rex remains, revealing how the finding forever changed our understanding of the past, our planet, and humanity’s place in history. Through captivating prose, Randall chronicles the Earth-shattering impact of the T. rex discovery, guiding readers from the mad fossil hunts of the Gilded Age to a primordial planet when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and finally to our present-day fascination with prehistoric creatures. A lively read for science buffs and laypeople alike, The Monster’s Bones is a monstrously good time.

By Putsata Reang

Ma and Me by Putsata Reang is a heartbreaking memoir about the immigrant experience and the struggle for reconciliation. The author was just an infant when she and her family fled war-ravaged Cambodia in search of sanctuary. They found transport on an overloaded naval vessel and spent the next three weeks traveling to the Philippines. Throughout the ordeal, baby Putsata clung to life. In fact, at a certain point, she appeared dead; the captain of the vessel ordered Reang’s mother to throw the body overboard. Ma Reang refused, and instead she nursed Putsata back to health once they reached an American military base. It’s this life debt that Putsata Reang feels compelled to repay, striving to be an exemplary daughter and exceed her mother’s expectations. And yet, despite the author’s best efforts, it’s never enough. Years later, when a 40-year-old Reang tells her mother that she’s getting married to a woman, their relationship appears ready to break completely.

Time Is a Mother

By ocean vuong.

We conclude our list with a singular work of poetry that blurs the lines between biography, memory, and incantation — and while we know the poetry genre transcends the fiction–nonfiction paradigm, we still need to sing the praises of this evocative read. Award-winning writer Ocean Vuong movingly explores themes of grief, loss, and family in his second poetry collection, Time Is a Mother . Time expands and contracts as the author ruminates on his mother’s passing, reckoning with his grief and mourning her death while also striving to move beyond it. It’s an intimate and artful work. Esquire calls Time Is a Mother “aesthetically ambitious and ferociously original.”

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50 notable works of nonfiction

The year’s best memoirs, biographies, history and more.

‘Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me,’ by Ada Calhoun

Calhoun’s memoir offers an unsparing portrait of her father , New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl, and the difficulties of their relationship. She also dives into the lives of a host of influential artists and writers, many of whom Schjeldahl interviewed for a biography of the poet O’Hara that never came to pass.

‘American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis,’ by Adam Hochschild

America has fallen prey to mythical enemies and demagogues several times in its history, as Hochschild reminds us in his portrait of one era , 1917 to 1921, when racism, white nationalism, and anti-foreign and anti-immigrant sentiment challenged the country’s ideals.

‘Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation,’ by Maud Newton

Troubled by her family’s legacy of violence, mental illness and racism, Newton delves into genetics and cognitive science to wrestle with questions of inheritance. She also draws on anthropology, history, religion and philosophy to understand our national obsession with genealogy.

‘As It Turns Out: Thinking About Edie and Andy,’ by Alice Sedgwick Wohl

In this family memoir , Wohl discusses her sister Edie Sedgwick’s important but brief collaboration with Andy Warhol. The book also offers a troubling look into the siblings’ complicated family life.

‘Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, From Vietnam to Today,’ by Craig McNamara

In this staggering book , McNamara struggles to come to terms with his father, former defense secretary Robert McNamara, who supervised the tragedy of the Vietnam War and was a distant, uncommunicative parent.

‘Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridders at America’s Edge,’ by Ted Conover

Conover lends a compassionate ear to “the restless and the fugitive, the idle and the addicted, and the generally disaffected” living outside the American mainstream on an isolated Colorado prairie. With his thorough reportage, he conjures a vivid, mysterious subculture populated by men and women with riveting stories to tell.

‘Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan,’ by Darryl Pinckney

In the 1970s, the literary critic Elizabeth Hardwick guided the 20-something Darryl Pinckney through the upper echelons of Manhattan literary and intellectual life. This memoir of that apprenticeship — by one of our most distinguished writers on African American culture, literature and history — provides a “you are there” account of those thrilling years.

‘Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America,’ by Maggie Haberman

In this illuminating portrait , Haberman lays special emphasis on Trump’s ascent in the late-1970s and 1980s New York world of hustlers, mobsters, political bosses, compliant prosecutors and tabloid scandalmongers.

‘Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness,’ by Andrew Scull

Scull tells the story of psychiatry in the United States from the 19th-century asylum to 21st-century psychopharmacology through its dubious characters, its shifting conceptions of mental illness and its often-gruesome treatments.

‘Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery,’ by Casey Parks

Despite its title, this memoir is about two misfits : Parks and an enigmatic character named Roy Hudgins. Parks, a reporter for The Washington Post, captures life in small-town Louisiana and probes Hudgins’s story to explore questions she asks herself about her own sexuality.

‘Easy Beauty: A Memoir,’ by Chloe Cooper Jones

Jones, a philosopher and journalist, uses her experience of disability to examine the ways others perceive bodies they find difficult. In the process, she writes about subjects from tennis to motherhood to Beyoncé in elegantly tuned prose.

‘Eliot After “The Waste Land,” ’ by Robert Crawford

Drawing heavily on T.S. Eliot’s often romantic correspondence with Emily Hale, which was under seal until 2020, this mesmerizing biography helps unpack the personal life of the famously ascetic poet.

‘Esmond and Ilia: An Unreliable Memoir,’ by Marina Warner

In this double portrait of her parents during the first years of their marriage, Warner follows them from the English countryside to Cairo. The book, largely constructed from documents, family stories and imaginative projection, recaptures a worldly, decadent atmosphere.

‘Finding Me,’ by Viola Davis

Davis is known today as the acclaimed actress whose credits include “Doubt,” “Fences” and “How to Get Away With Murder.” This memoir covers her career , but it’s more focused, with brutal candidness, on her traumatic childhood and how it shaped her later success.

‘Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History,’ by Lea Ypi

Ypi’s beguiling memoir of innocence and experience in Albania’s communist era and its aftermath is told through intimate stories of a taken-for-granted life devolving into uncertainty. It serves as a profound primer on how to live when old verities turn to dust.

‘Getting Lost,’ by Annie Ernaux, translated by Alison L Strayer

This book by the French writer , winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in literature , is made up of diary entries she wrote from 1988 to 1990. They document a Parisian affair with a married Soviet diplomat, a relationship she fictionalized in her short novel “ Simple Passion .”

‘The Great Stewardess Rebellion: How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 Feet,’ by Nell McShane Wulfhart

Travel writer Wulfhart chronicles how stewardesses organized to combat all manner of indignities, such as forced retirement at age 32, demeaning “girdle checks” and draconian weight limits, and in the process transformed the airline industry.

‘His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice,’ by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

This vivid and moving account by Post reporters Samuels and Olorunnipa draws on more than 400 interviews to help depict the world that George Floyd lived in — and the circumstances that led to his death.

‘Imagining the End: Mourning and Ethical Life,’ by Jonathan Lear

In a world buffeted by multiple catastrophes, from gun violence to the destructive effects of climate change, psychoanalyst and philosopher Lear offers a hopeful path through grief and confusion.

‘The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir,’ by Karen Cheung

In this blend of memoir and reportage , Karen Cheung shows how Hong Kong is changing under the pressures of gentrification and China’s authoritarian crackdown. This is a love letter to the city, but it’s one that is free of romanticized illusion and frank about its failings.

‘Index, a History of the: A Bookish Adventure From Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age,’ by Dennis Duncan

A lively tour , from ancient Egypt to Silicon Valley, of a section of books that readers often treat as an afterthought. Duncan is an ideal tour guide: witty, engaging, knowledgeable and a fount of diverting anecdotes. Don’t skip this book’s own index, which is, of course, a work of art.

‘The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa’s Racial Reckoning,’ by Eve Fairbanks

Exploring the realities of life after apartheid in South Africa, Fairbanks depicts the complexities and disappointments of an ongoing period of change. Her journalistic approach welcomes readers who know little about the country, but she also offers a great deal for those more familiar with its struggles.

‘The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness,’ by Meghan O’Rourke

Acclaimed poet O’Rourke brings lyrical precision to this combination of memoir and reportage about “living at the edge of medical knowledge.” O’Rourke’s physical ailments over many years were often misdiagnosed or dismissed by doctors. In this book, she describes living with her pain while also investigating what we do and don’t know about chronic disease.

‘In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss,’ by Amy Bloom

In this deeply stirring memoir , novelist Amy Bloom recounts the emotional journey she took with her husband, Brian, who chose to end his life after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Bloom’s technical prowess is evident in her conscription of banal details to preface profound and sobering insights into love, marriage and death.

‘Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America,’ by Dahlia Lithwick

Arguing that true justice requires gender equality, Lithwick profiles women who have attempted to push back on legalistic attempts to restrict their rights — and those of others. She presents them not as superheroes but as real people who rely on other women in their collective effort to change things for the better.

‘Lessons From the Edge: A Memoir,’ by Marie Yovanovitch

A career diplomat, Yovanovitch was thrust into the public eye during the first impeachment of Donald Trump. In her memoir , she takes readers through her global career while also attending to the ways Trump has changed things at home.

‘A Life of Picasso: The Minotaur Years, 1933-1943,’ by John Richardson

The fourth and final volume of John Richardson’s life of Picasso is a worthy follow-up to its highly acclaimed predecessors. Completed amid difficult circumstances — Richardson, who died in 2019, was in his 90s and going blind — it is only about half their length. But it is just as rich and astounding.

‘Lost and Found: A Memoir,’ by Kathryn Schulz

This memoir by the Pulitzer-winning New Yorker writer considers the emotional whiplash of a two-year span when her father died and she met the woman who would become her wife.

‘Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self,’ by Andrea Wulf

Focusing on intellectual life in Jena, Germany, at the turn of the 19th century, Wulf explores how a small group of thinkers reworked our understanding of the relationship between philosophy and action.

‘Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) From an Ink-Stained Life,’ by Margaret Sullivan

Sullivan, the former Washington Post media columnist and New York Times public editor, argues that media outlets are failing to adapt vigorously enough to the distortions of reality in the nation’s daily discourse, putting an already fragile democracy in grave jeopardy.

‘The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor — the Truth and the Turmoil,’ by Tina Brown

This episodic examination of the royal family’s difficulties since the death of Princess Diana in 1997 features a combination of preexisting press accounts and Brown’s reporting. It’s both high-minded and gossipy, and addictively readable.

‘Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe,’ by David Maraniss

Thorpe, one of the most accomplished athletes who ever lived, was often met with racist derision during his own day. In this deeply researched biography , The Post’s Maraniss offers a sympathetic portrait of an extraordinarily talented man.

‘README.txt: A Memoir,’ by Chelsea Manning

The general outline of Manning’s story is widely known, but in her memoir she captures the more personal feel of her actions and experiences. “Everyone now knows — because of what happened to me — that the government will attempt to destroy you fully,” she writes. Here she shows how she preserved herself in the process.

‘Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy,’ by David J Chalmers

In chapters studded with references to popular culture and informed by high-level philosophical scholarship, Chalmers explores serious questions about whether we live in a simulation . Ultimately, he argues, it may not matter if our world is not as “real” as it seems.

‘Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original,’ by Howard Bryant

Baseball Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson was known for his competitiveness, outsize personality and superlative talent. Bryant’s vivid and extensive account , written with access to Henderson and his wife, Pamela, shines a light on this unique and charismatic legend.

‘River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile,’ by Candice Millard

Many books have been written about the 19th-century European explorers who tried to find the Nile’s source, but this one adds new dimensions to the story . It is especially revealing on the conflicts between two of the most famous men who helped direct some of those expeditions, but it also attends to some of those largely ignored by past historians.

‘Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth,’ by Elizabeth Williamson

If the horrors of the Sandy Hook school shooting were not enough, the families of the murdered children were mercilessly stalked afterward by conspiracy theorists and confronted with vile and obscenity-laden threats, as Williamson meticulously documents in her account of this assault on grieving parents, truth and society itself.

‘Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers,’ by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green

Pointedly frank but never too unkind, this memoir from musical theater composer and novelist Rodgers dishes on Stephen Sondheim and other luminaries. And though it’s full of gossip, it also documents Rodgers’s journey to self-understanding.

‘Solito: A Memoir,’ by Javier Zamora

In this valuable book , Zamora recounts his terrifying nine-week journey to the United States from El Salvador in 1999, when he was 9 years old, and his struggles growing up in the mythic land of Big Macs on his way to becoming a distinguished poet.

‘Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us,’ by Rachel Aviv

Hospitalized at age 6 for “failure to eat,” New Yorker staff writer Aviv became fascinated by the early phases of mental illness, the time before it remakes a person’s identity. In this work , she explores several cases, including her own youthful experience, and assesses the stories people tell themselves about their mental disorders.

‘Tasha: A Son’s Memoir,’ by Brian Morton

“Tasha” is the novelist Brian Morton’s (“ Starting Out in the Evening ”) bracing account of his mother’s final years . “How can you see your parents clearly?” he wonders. He gives it his best, passionately chronicling his mother’s knotty past alongside his present exhaustion, exasperation and anguish.

‘This Body I Wore: A Memoir,’ by Diana Goetsch

Goetsch, an acclaimed poet, here writes about her life as a transgender woman, from the first stirrings of awareness as a young child to formative adult years in the cross-dressing world of New York to transition later in life. Along the way, her personal story casts light on the history of the larger trans community over the course of her lifetime.

‘Truly, Madly: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and the Romance of the Century,’ by Stephen Galloway

Galloway traces the fraught romance of Leigh and Olivier , a couple whose marriage was characterized by great passion — as well as other, more mercurial passions. He is especially sharp on the question of Leigh’s mental health.

‘Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation,’ by Linda Villarosa

Race plays an enormous role in health care in the United States, with Black people in particular often facing enormously unequal treatment. Villarosa unpacks some of those dangerous inequities in a book that is both deeply researched and profoundly devastating .

‘The War of Nerves: Inside the Cold War Mind,’ by Martin Sixsmith

Sixsmith leads readers through many of the misunderstandings that characterized the conduct of both sides during the Cold War. He also records some of the many ways that Russia and the United States provoked one another, sometimes with near-disastrous results.

‘Watergate: A New History,’ by Garrett M. Graff

Though it explores familiar territory, this book brings the Watergate era to life in a new way, thanks in part to its attention to the “flawed everyday people” who shaped the events as they played out. It also works to correct some of the many errors and omissions in past records.

‘Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War,’ by Roger Lowenstein

The Civil War remade America — and paying for it remade the American financial system. Business writer Lowenstein draws on decades of scholarship to tell the story of how that transformation played out.

‘We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland,’ by Fintan O’Toole

Journalist O’Toole brilliantly weaves the story of his life with several momentous decades in his country’s history. The result is a memoir , starting from his working-class roots in Dublin, where he was born in 1958, and an account of how Ireland struggled to join the modern world.

‘When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm,’ by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe

A masterful work of investigative journalism, this book delves into the often-dubious business practices of one of the world’s largest and most powerful management consulting firms.

‘You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays,’ by Zora Neale Hurston

This volume collects 51 essays by the author of “ Their Eyes Were Watching God .” It demonstrates Hurston’s formidable range, showing her skills as a critic, anthropologist, journalist and more. Some of the texts included appear in print for the first time here.

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The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023

These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser.

T he best nonfiction books of the year dug deep, mining both personal and global history to uncover essential truths. John Vaillant captured the horrors of a wildfire to study the consequences of climate change. Matthew Desmond dissected how poverty persists in the United States and made a compassionate call for greater equity. Tracy K. Smith detailed her complicated mission to learn more about her ancestry and urged us to examine whose stories we deem worth preserving. Their books are among the most impactful nonfiction published in 2023. Here, the 10 best books of the year.

More: Read TIME's lists of the best songs , albums , movies , TV shows , podcasts and video games of 2023.

10. King, Jonathan Eig

In the first major biography of Martin Luther King Jr . in decades, journalist Jonathan Eig paints a complex and fully human portrait of an American leader. Drawing on newly released FBI files, telephone transcripts, and more, Eig presents King like he’s never been seen before. The author unveils this research in fresh and exciting turns, unpacking the activist’s public work alongside his private life. King is a nuanced new look at a civil rights icon.

Buy Now: King on Bookshop | Amazon

9. Fire Weather , John Vaillant

At the center of John Vaillant’s Fire Weather is a horrific real-life story that serves as a deafening wake-up call. The book traces the events of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, in which 88,000 Canadians were displaced after their homes and neighborhoods were destroyed in a fiery blaze over the course of just one afternoon. In describing the natural disaster, Vaillant breaks down the science in accessible terms and offers an important account of the consequences of climate change.

Buy Now: Fire Weather on Bookshop | Amazon

8. Liliana's Invincible Summer , Cristina Rivera Garza

For three decades, poet Cristina Rivera Garza has been haunted by her sister’s murder. In July 1990, Liliana, an architecture student living in Mexico City who loved swimming and cinema, was killed. Though an arrest warrant was filed for Liliana’s ex-boyfriend, he disappeared during the investigation. So, in 2019, Rivera Garza decided to seek answers to what happened to her beloved sister herself. She recounts her quest for information and justice, and uses her sister’s story to tell a larger one about domestic violence and femicide .

Buy Now: Liliana's Invincible Summer on Bookshop | Amazon

7. Poverty, By America , Matthew Desmond

In 2017, sociologist Matthew Desmond won a Pulitzer Prize for Evicted, which analyzed why so many American families were facing eviction in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. His latest book revisits similar themes, this time focusing on why poverty is so prevalent in the U.S . With an empathetic hand, he writes about the systems that keep Americans from living above the poverty line, and implores us all to fight for ways to bring prosperity to the masses.

Buy Now: Poverty, By America on Bookshop | Amazon

More: The 100 Must-Read Books of 2023

6. How to Say Babylon, Safiya Sinclair

As a child growing up in Jamaica, Safiya Sinclair had to adhere to her Rastafarian father’s strict rules, which governed everything from the clothes she wore to the people she was allowed to see. But the author managed to educate herself on other ways of living and decided to use her voice to break free. In her memoir, Sinclair captures her turbulent coming of age, and how she grappled with realizing that the traditions she was raised in were suffocating her. The result is a moving portrait of a woman’s self-empowerment.

Buy Now: How to Say Babylon on Bookshop | Amazon

5. You Could Make This Place Beautiful , Maggie Smith

After her marriage falls apart, Maggie Smith inspects the pieces of the life she once knew to pave a path forward. You Could Make This Place Beautiful finds Smith dissecting the very form in which she is writing as she constantly questions the purpose of memoir and the stories we tell ourselves. Mining her heartbreak and memories both with her husband and without him, Smith moves between rage, sorrow, and grief. And through it all, she illustrates her unwavering love for her son and daughter.

Buy Now: You Could Make This Place Beautiful on Bookshop | Amazon

4. A Day in the Life of Abed Salama , Nathan Thrall

In February 2012, 5-year-old Milad Salama boarded a bus with his fellow Palestinian classmates en route to a theme park. But he never made it there. The bus crashed outside Jerusalem, and the children aboard it were injured or killed. This devastating scene propels Nathan Thrall’s book , which follows Milad’s father Abed from his first romance to the day of the collision, all told against the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict . Thrall tackles the subject with care and expertise, introducing the lives of several Israelis and Palestinians to illuminate their struggles and complex histories.

Buy Now: A Day in the Life of Abed Salama on Bookshop | Amazon

3. To Free the Captives , Tracy K. Smith

In her memoir, Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith crafts a searing narrative about being Black in America. She excavates her past to better understand the racial violence that persists today, wading through generations of her family’s history. But as she tries to learn more about her lineage, beginning with the Alabama town where her father grew up, Smith realizes that the research process itself is fraught and riddled with missing pieces.

Buy Now: To Free the Captives on Bookshop | Amazon

2. Doppelganger, Naomi Klein

What would you do if all of a sudden people started mixing you up with a person whose beliefs you can’t stand? Leftist activist and author Naomi Klein has been forced to answer this exact question: she is constantly confused with Naomi Wolf, who has spent the past few years spreading antivaccine rhetoric and fringe conspiracy theories. Klein investigates how “other Naomi” became the type of public figure she is today, taking a dizzying trip through the current cultural landscape to examine politics, misinformation, and the slippery path to radicalization.

Buy Now: Doppelganger on Bookshop | Amazon

1. Some People Need Killing , Patricia Evangelista

The title of Patricia Evangelista’s memoir is rooted in a conversation the journalist once had with a vigilante who made that unnerving declaration. Her home country, the Philippines, was full of people who shared the same belief as this man—like those working for the state, who carried out thousands of killings of citizens during President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs.” Evangelista tells the stories of those who were lost in the struggle, and interrogates the language we use to describe violence.

Buy Now: Some People Need Killing on Bookshop | Amazon

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10 books to add to your reading list in April

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Critic Bethanne Patrick recommends 10 promising titles, fiction and nonfiction, to consider for your April reading list.

April’s book releases cover some difficult topics, including Salman Rushdie discussing his 2022 maiming, Leigh Bardugo’s fiction about the dark arts and Ada Limón’s poetry anthology about our fragile world. However, like April, there is also sunshine: Leif Enger’s wild Great Lakes love story, Helen Tworkov’s beautiful memoir of Buddhism and a collection of the inimitable Maggie Nelson’s essays. Happy reading, happy spring!

I Cheerfully Refuse: A Novel By Leif Enger Grove Press: 336 pages, $28 (April 2)

An unusual and meaningful surprise awaits readers of Enger’s latest, which takes place largely on Lake Superior, as a man named Rainy tries to reunite with his beloved wife, Lark. While the world around this couple, a dystopian near-future American where billionaires control everything, could not be bleaker, the author’s retelling of the myth of Orpheus (who went to the underworld to rescue his wife) contains the authentic hope of a born optimist.

The Familiar: A Novel By Leigh Bardugo Flatiron Books: 400 pages, $30 (April 9)

Bardugo departs from novels of dark academia in a standalone to make the hairs on your neck stand up, set in 16th century Spain. A hidden Sephardic Jew and scullery maid named Luzia Cotado matches wits with fellow servant Guillén Santángel. Luzia discovers a secret of Guillén’s, but she’s already fallen in love with him. And because he knows hers, too, they might both avoid the Spanish Inquisition. It’s a gorgeous tale of enchantments both supernatural and earthly.

The Sleepwalkers: A Novel By Scarlett Thomas Simon & Schuster: 304 pages, $28 (April 9)

A couple honeymoons at a Greek resort. What could go wrong? In Thomas’ hands, plenty – especially as the author has never written a comfortable story; her books, from “PopCo ” to “Oligarchy,” crackle with unreliable characters, as well as big philosophical ideas. In this case, the new marriage’s breakdown is chronicled through letters between the spouses, and sometimes bits of ephemera, that ultimately untangle a dark mystery relating to the title.

The Garden: A Novel By Clare Beams Doubleday: 304 pages, $28 (April 10)

Few novels of literary fiction are written as well as “The Garden,” let alone given its sadly relevant retro setting, a 1940s country-estate obstetrical program. Irene Willard walks through its gates having endured five miscarriages; pregnant again, she and her war-veteran husband George desperately hope for a live birth. But as Irene discovers more about the woman who controls all here, Dr. Bishop, she fears carrying to term as much as she once feared pregnancy loss.

Reboot: A Novel By Justin Taylor Pantheon: 304 pages, $28 (April 23)

David Crader, former teen TV heartthrob, just wants to reboot his career when his old show “Rev Beach” has a moment. His life has devolved through substance abuse, divorce and underemployment. But when he and colleagues launch a remake, devolution continues: The protagonist’s struggles are mirrored by climate-change issues, from flooding to wildfires. Despite that darkness, Taylor’s gift for satire might make this a must-read for 2024 beach bags.

You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World By Ada Limón (Editor) Milkweed Editions: 176 pages, $25 (April 2)

A wondrous artist herself, Limón is currently poet laureate of the United States, and this anthology is part of her signature project, “You Are Here,” which will also feature poetry as public art in seven national parks. Released in conjunction with the Library of Congress, the collection features 50 previously unpublished poems by luminaries including Jericho Brown, Joy Harjo, Carl Phillips and Diane Seuss, each focusing on a piece of regional landscape.

Like Love: Essays and Conversations By Maggie Nelson Graywolf Press: 336 pages, $32 (April 2)

While all of the pieces in Nelson’s new book have previously been published elsewhere, they’re made fresh here both through being collected and through their chronological placement. Readers can practically watch Nelson’s incisive mind growing and changing as she speaks with colleagues such as Hilton Als and Judith Butler, or as she writes about queerness, motherhood, violence, the lyrics of Prince and the devastating loss of a friend.

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder By Salman Rushdie Random House: 204 pages, $28 (April 16)

On Aug. 12, 2022, the author Salman Rushdie was speaking at upstate New York’s Chautauqua festival when a man rushed the stage and attempted to murder him. Rushdie, a target of Iranian religious leaders since 1989, was permanently injured. In this book, he shares his experience for the first time, having said that this was essential for him to write. In this way, he answers violence with art, once again reminding us all that freedom of expression must be protected.

Lotus Girl: My Life at the Crossroads of Buddhism and America By Helen Tworkov St. Martin’s Essentials: 336 pages, $29 (April 16)

Dworkov, founder of the magazine Tricycle, chronicles her move from a 1960s young-adult interest in Buddhism to travels through Asia and deep study in the United States of the different strands that follow the Buddha’s teachings. Tworkov mentions luminaries such as the artist Richard Serra, the composer Charles Mingus and the Dalai Lama, but she’s not name dropping. Instead, she’s strewing fragrant petals from her singular path to mindfulness that may help us find ours.

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War By Erik Larson Crown: 592 pages, $35 (April 30)

Even diehard Civil War aficionados will learn from Larson’s look at the six months between Lincoln’s 1860 election and the surrender of Union troops under Maj. Robert Anderson at Charleston’s Ft. Sumter. Larson details Anderson’s secret Christmas redeployment and explores this individual’s contradictions as a former slave owner who loyally follows Lincoln’s orders. The author also shares first-person perspective from the famous diaries of the upper-class Southerner Mary Chesnut. All together, the book provides a riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult.

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10 Best Harlan Coben Book Adaptations, Ranked

• Harlan Coben's thrilling storytelling and intricate plots make his novels well-suited for on-screen adaptations.
• The TV adaptations of Coben's books often explore relatable themes such as family, deception, and the consequences of past actions.
• His recent TV adaptation, Fool Me Once, became the UK's most-watched show on Netflix, showcasing Coben's growing popularity and potential for future adaptations.

Harlan Coben is a prolific American author, renowned for his mastery in crafting suspenseful and intricately plotted thrillers. With around 80 million books sold worldwide, Coben's literary repertoire includes numerous bestsellers that have been translated into a plethora of languages. His work is exceptionally well-suited for on-screen adaptations due to his thrilling storytelling, intricate plots, and compelling characters. His novels often blend suspense, mystery, and family drama , providing the perfect backdrop for the most gripping of thrillers.

The rich complexity of his stories, filled with unexpected twists and turns, provides a perfect cinematic canvas for directors and writers to bring his narratives to life via a visual medium. Coben's exploration of relatable themes such as family, deception, and the consequences of past actions makes it appealing to audiences across the globe.

Currently, he’s under contract with Netflix, and has seen significant success globally with a slew of hit TV adaptations. His popularity only seems to be growing with his most recent TV adaptation, Fool Me Once , released earlier this year, becoming the UK's most-watched show on Netflix in its first week, with 37.1 million views (per Variety ) and was a hit worldwide. With plenty more books in his catalog, there’s plenty more potential adaptations to look forward to. In the meantime, these are the 10 best Harlan Coben book adaptations you can watch right now.

Gone for Good (2021)

This 2021 French Netflix TV adaptation of Gone for Good follows Guillaume Lucchesi, whose life is turned upside down when his brother suddenly disappears. The show adeptly combines suspense and drama as it navigates through Guillaume's quest to uncover the truth behind his brother's mysterious vanishing act.

A Rare Miss for Coben

While Gone for Good wasn’t awful, and still benefits from the strengths of Coben's incredible source material, unfortunately, this French adaptation too often decided to stray from the book, resulting in one of the more poorly received adaptations. With a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of just 38%, the most common criticisms revolved around these deviations, with some feeling that the adaptation failed to capture the essence and intricacies of the original story. Pacing issues and changes to key plot elements further contributed to a disconnect with fans of the book. Stream on Netflix

Hold Tight (2022)

A Polish adaptation based on Coben's 2008 novel, Hold Tight explores the slow unraveling of life in a close-knit, affluent Warsaw suburb, when a young man disappears shortly after his friend's death. In this suspenseful tale, the fabric of the community is pulled apart, revealing hidden secrets and lies that cast a shadow over the seemingly idyllic setting.

Propelled by the Cast's Performances

The highlight of this miniseries lies in the performances of its talented cast, specifically, their ability to convey the complex emotions and tension inherent in the narrative. It generally manages to succeed in maintaining the essence of the original story while introducing fresh elements for a visual medium. Stream on Netflix

Tell No One (2006)

Tell no one.

Release Date

Tell No One is the first and only feature film adaptation based on a Harlan Coben book. Released in 2006, this French movie, directed by Guillaume Canet, tells the story of Dr. Alex Beck, who, eight years after his wife's brutal murder, receives an anonymous email suggesting she may still be alive. As Alex delves into the mystery, he becomes entangled in a web of conspiracy, involving corrupt police, hidden motives, and a past he thought he understood.

A Great Movie That Could Have Been a Better TV Show

Canet's movie adaptation captures the nuanced emotions and relentless tension of Coben's novel, keeping audiences enthralled as the layers of deception are peeled away. It seamlessly weaves a complex mystery with emotional depth. While there’s not a lot to criticize here, it just seems to be the case that Coben's adaptations work better as TV series , as the episodic format enables a more thorough adaptation of the source material, allowing for even deeper character development and a more impactful gradual unfolding of mysteries. Stream on Prime Video

Safe (2018)

A miniseries on Netflix released in 2018, Safe revolves around Tom Delaney, a widowed surgeon who discovers hidden secrets within a seemingly secure gated community after his teenage daughter goes missing. As Tom unravels the mystery behind her disappearance, he navigates through a labyrinth of lies, deceit, and unexpected alliances, capturing the intense atmosphere of Coben's book while delivering a barrage of unexpected twists.

A Taut Thriller Led by Michael C. Hall

Safe skillfully navigates complex relationships and hidden secrets, keeping viewers on the edge of their seats with each episode. Michael C. Hall's stirring performance as Tom is on-point, and the supporting cast complements the story with equally captivating portrayals. The meticulous pacing ensures a steady build-up of tension, while unexpected twists and turns maintain a sense of unpredictability. Even more so than other works in Coben’s catalog, the exploration of moral dilemmas and the consequences of characters' actions adds greater depth to the overall narrative. Stream on Netflix

The Stranger (2020)

The Stranger is a hit British 2020 Netflix series, following Adam Price as his life takes a dark turn when a mysterious stranger reveals a devastating secret about his wife. As Adam's world unravels, the series interweaves multiple storylines involving other residents of a seemingly idyllic town, each connected by the stranger's unsettling revelations.

How Secrets Can Tear Us Apart

The show not only maintains the gripping suspense inherent in Coben's original work, but also delves into the complexities of human relationships, morality, and the consequences of buried secrets. It’s a roller coaster of suspense and intrigue, as it creates a complex web of connections that keeps the audience guessing, which is further enhanced by its expertly handled pacing. Stream on Netflix

Shelter (2023)

Read Our Review

Shelter , the American mystery drama television series based on Harlan Coben's 2011 young adult novel, brings to life a gripping narrative. It stars Jaden Michael, Constance Zimmer, Abby Corrigan, and Adrian Greensmith, and follows the journey of Mickey Bolitar, played by Michael, who embarks on a new life in Kasselton, New Jersey, after his father's sudden demise.

As Mickey navigates the challenges of his new environment, he becomes entangled in the enigmatic disappearance of Ashley Kent, a fellow student at his school. Unraveling the mystery leads him deep into a dark underworld hidden beneath the seemingly tranquil suburban community of Kasselton. Despite positive reviews, the series faced an untimely end as it was canceled after just one season in 2023.

Dark Thriller Meets The Goonies

Differing from most on this list, not only was it released on Prime Video as opposed to Netflix, it also adopts a slightly lighter tone. Based on Coben's young adult novel of the same name, it, at times, is reminiscent of classics like The Goonies and E.T. in its youthful charm. Despite this slightly lighter atmosphere, Shelter is far from a fluffy teen mystery.

Indeed, it’s dark and skillfully preserves Coben's hallmark elements of clever storytelling, suspense, and unexpected twists. This combination makes it a thrilling and nail-biting experience suitable for audiences of all ages, seamlessly blending Coben’s dark and thought-provoking flair for thrillers with the nostalgic joy of youthful adventure. Stream on Prime Video

The Woods (2020)

The Woods , adapted into a Polish Netflix TV series in 2020, follows prosecutor Paweł Kopiński who is haunted by the unresolved disappearance of his sister in the woods 25 years earlier. As he takes on a case involving the murder of a boy at a summer camp, Paweł discovers connections to his sister's vanishing act, leading him down a gripping path of uncovering long-buried secrets and facing the consequences of a past he thought he left behind.

A Skillful Blend of Suspense, Mystery, and Complex Characters

With a terrific 89% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the series skillfully maintains the suspenseful undertones present in Coben's original book, while weaving a complex narrative that explores the impact of the past on the present. Featuring a skillful blend of suspense, mystery, and character development, viewers appreciated the sharp storytelling, which remains faithful to the source material while adding nuanced layers to enhance the viewing experience. The cast's performances have been particularly praised, with not a lackluster performance in sight. Stream on Netflix

Fool Me Once (2024)

Fool me once.

Fool Me Once is a 2024 eight-part British Netflix series, starring Michelle Keegan and Joanna Lumley, adapted by Danny Brocklehurst from Coben's 2016 novel. Premiering on the first day of this year, the story revolves around Maya Stern, who believes there’s more to her husband’s murder than meets the eye.

At the same time, Maya's niece Abby and nephew Daniel embark on a quest to uncover the truth behind their mother's murder and the intriguing connections linking both cases. The series weaves a suspenseful narrative, keeping viewers on the edge as it explores the complexities of deception and family secrets, in typical Coben fashion.

The UK's Most-Watched Show on Netflix

Numbers don’t lie: Fool Me Once quickly became the UK's most-watched show on Netflix in its first week, with 37.1 million views, and was a hit across the globe. While some found the plot to be somewhat convoluted and unrealistic, fans of Coben were impressed with its faithfulness to the source book. With strong performances across the board from its stellar cast, it’s not hard to see why this twisty-turny dark mystery thriller is already one of the year’s biggest hits. Stream on Netflix

Related: Fool Me Once Ending, Explained

Stay Close (2021)

When a photograph resurfaces in Stay Close , it sets off a chain of events that unravels long-buried secrets, intertwining the fates of seemingly unrelated individuals. As the plot unfolds, viewers are taken on a roller coaster of emotions, navigating through unexpected twists and turns. This acclaimed British miniseries hit Netflix in 2021, and stars Cush Jumbo and James Nesbitt.

A Mind-Messing Adaptation

Stay Close earns its stripes as one of the coolest TV thrillers out there. It's full of jaw-dropping twists that'll have you questioning literally everything and an array of characters that are supported by the great writing and powerful performances that bring the drama to life. The series dives deep into sordid secrets and tangled relationships, turning it into a psychological thrill ride that messes with your mind in the best way possible. All this, combined with its super slick cinematography, makes it among the greatest Coben adaptations to date. Stream on Netflix

The Innocent (2021)

Released in 2021, The Innocent is a Spanish Netflix series that stars Mario Casas as Mateo Vidal, whose life takes a grim turn after an unintentional killing, leading him into a murky world of mystery and murder. Just as he begins to experience love and the taste of freedom, a haunting phone call shatters his newfound tranquility, thrusting him back into the nightmare he thought he had escaped.

A Perfect Score on Rotten Tomatoes

With a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, it earns the distinction as the best Harlan Coben book adaptation so far. Its meticulous adherence to Coben's source material ensures a faithful representation of his work, satisfying fans and drawing in new audiences. The series strikes a perfect balance between suspense and character development, creating a narrative that is not only compelling, but emotionally resonant.

The cast's performances excel, breathing a whole new life into Coben’s characters. On top of all this, the top tier production quality and perfect pacing further contribute to making a wonderfully entertaining, cohesive, and immersive viewing experience. Stream on Netflix