7 unmissable non-fiction books to get excited about
Words by Alanya Smith
Photos: Getty
When it feels like you’re glued to your phone, a book can be the weapon to cut you out of the doomscrolling dungeon you’ve built in your bedroom. A great non-fiction book shares the same gripping narratives and expert-crafted storytelling that your favourite novels provide, but amplifies it with real people, real worlds and real consequences. Picking up a new non-fiction book can act as a map to navigating the community around you, or discovering a new one on the opposite side of the world.
If you’re not sure where to start, we’ve selected seven titles that we’re most excited to read in the year ahead...
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Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health by Daisy Fancourt (8 January)
If art be the food of love – let it carry on being part of a balanced diet, we say. In this book, Fancourt explores how sources like art, dance, poetry and even graffiti can positively impact our mental and emotional wellbeing. From acting as an instrument to tackling stress and depression, reducing feelings of isolation, and simply making us smile, the possibilities for how art can transform our lives for the better have never been more profound in our search for mindfulness.
Looking at Women, Looking at War by Victoria Amelina (12 February)
At the start of the conflict in Ukraine, Victoria’s life, writing a novel was turned upside down, and she became a war crimes researcher, documenting her surroundings as the conflict unfolded. After being killed by a Russian cruise missile while having dinner in 2023, this book shares a touching look at Amelina’s work that you’ll never forget.
Plastic Inc: Big Oil, Big Money and The Plan To Trash Our Future by Beth Gardiner (26 February)
If you look around you, there’s a high likelihood that there is plastic somewhere near you. How was it made? What’s it being used for? Where will it end up? In Plastic Inc, Gardiner’s investigation into plastic production to uncover who’s profiting as plastic pollution continues to rise. When life without plastic can feel unimaginable, this book is set to explore just how we manufactured a world with such stark contrasts between those benefiting and those being hurt by the material.
Baldwin by Nicholas Boggs (12 March)
2026 will see a host of pioneers having autobiographies hitting our shelves, including those from the likes of Cher and Liza Minnelli. There’s a host of books from trailblazers to choose from, but one of the ones we’re most excited to read comes from Nicholas Boggs, talking about the life and legacy of Harlem-born writer James Baldwin. The biography promises to walk through how Baldwin’s experiences travelling the world informed some of his most celebrated contributions to Black and queer literature.
Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age by Ibram X. Kendi (17 March)
Any book on politics can become a symbol to remember what political institutions looked like throughout history, savouring all of the mundane to scandalous details we forget over time. In Chain of Ideas, a rich history of global political and cultural movements helps to unpack ideas of replacement and exclusion in politics today.
Talking Classics: The Shock Of The Old by Mary Beard (16 April)
In a rapidly digital-centred world, pausing to think about the past can feel as dated as an analogue clock. If we stop to look at the mammoth-sized history of humanity, geography, or the most famous celebrities throughout history, it can truly be a better way of understanding the future of the world around us. Mary Beard is the classicist who will explain just how the likes of Beyonce, ancient Greece and revolutionaries continue to shape our world today.
How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance and the Race to Save Our Words by Sophia Smith Galer (7 May)
Language and linguistics have a deeper meaning to our daily lives that we likely don’t stop to pause and think about. How learning a new language can open new pathways in your future, or rekindling a language in your family history can help you learn about your past. By the end of the century, over 7,000 languages will be lost. Smith Galer’s explores the cultural and linguistic crisis across 10 languages to see how we can keep hold of integral parts of our identities before they’re lost forever.
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