Top nonfiction books 2023: 29 must-reads from Prince Harry to Pamela

Are you attempting to stockpile the top nonfiction books for 2023? There’s a huge variety of nonfiction reads to choose from this year, from climate change and eating disorders, to social commentary on race and privilege. Looking across the major publishers, here’s a swathe of some of the top memoirs, essays and deep dives to look at this year:

Top nonfiction books to look out for in 2023:

• 📚 Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond. The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in America. Read the review of Matthew Desmond’s book Poverty, By America.
• 📚 The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg. The Climate Book is a collective non-fiction book directed by the climate activist Greta Thunberg. The original English edition was published in October 2022.
• 📚 Living in the Light by Deepak Chopra, MD and Sarah Platt-Finger. A ground-breaking guide to the philosophy and practice of yoga from master of modern meditation Deepak Chopra.
• 📚 Spare by Prince Harry. The publication date is just days after the three-year anniversary of Harry and Meghan stepping back from the Royal Family. Read Prince Harry’s Spare review.
• 📚 Saving Time: Discovering A Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell. In this dazzling, subversive, and deeply hopeful reframing of time, Odell takes us on a journey through other temporal habitats. Read the full review on Jenny Odell’s Saving Time.
• 📚 Awe by Dacher Keltner. “Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world,” said Keltner. Read the review on Dacher Keltner’s book Awe.
• 📚 The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control by Katherine Morgan Schafler. From psychotherapist Morgan Schafler, an invitation to every “recovering perfectionist” to challenge the way they look at perfectionism, and the way they look at themselves. We had the pleasure of interviewing Katherine Morgan Schafler.
• 📚 Making Great Relationships by Rick Hanson, PhD. New research shows that you create your relationships every day with the things you do and say, which gives you the ability to start improving them now.
• 📚 A Few Days of Trouble by Reverend Wheeler Parker, Jr and Christopher Benson. The last surviving witness to the lynching of Emmett Till tells his story, with poignant recollections of Emmett as a boy. Read the review on A Few Days of Trouble.
• 📚 Drama Free by Nedra Glover Tawwab. From the bestselling author of Set Boundaries, Find Peace, a road map for understanding and moving past family struggles — and living your life your way.
• 📚 I’m Black Do You Don’t Have To Be by Colin Grant. This is a memoir told through a series of intimate intergenerational portraits. 
• 📚 Transitional by Munroe Bergdorf. As time goes on, we all develop as people. We all transition. It’s what unites us, not what separates us.
• 📚 It’s OK To Be Angry About Capitalism by Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders takes on the 1% and speaks blunt truths about a system. Check out the review on It’s OK To Be Angry About Capitalism by Bernie Sanders.
• 📚 Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia by Hadley Freeman. From Freeman, the bestselling author of House of Glass, comes her searing and powerful memoir about mental ill health and her experience with anorexia. Read the review on Hadley Freeman’s Good Girls.
• 📚 Dispatches From the Diaspora by Gary Younge. A powerful collection of journalism on race, racism and black life and death from one of the nation’s leading political voices.
• 📚 The Patriarchs: How Men Came To Rule by Angela Saini. In this bold and radical new book, award-winning science journalist Saini goes in search of the true roots of gendered oppression. Check out the interview with The Patriarchs author Angela Saini.
• 📚 Is This OK? by Harriet Gibsone. An outrageously funny, raw and painfully honest account of trying to find connection in the age of the internet. We spoke to Is This OK? author Harriet Gibsone.
• 📚 I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was by Ruby Wax. I’m Not as Well as I Thought I Was is Wax’s most honest and raw book to date – an insight into the depths of her psyche.
• 📚 American Whitelash by Wesley Lowery. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lowery confronts the sickness at the heart of American society: the cyclical pattern of violence that has marred every moment of racial progress.
• 📚 A Yard of Sky: A Story of Love, Resistance and Hope by Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The book will tell the full story of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imprisonment in Iran and her husband’s campaign for her release.
• 📚 Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson. Love, Pamela, Anderson’s memoir has been described by herself as “raw and unfiltered”. Read our review of Pamela Anderson’s book.
• 📚 Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H. A queer hijabi Muslim immigrant survives her coming-of-age by drawing strength and hope from stories in the Quran.
• 📚 The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. A beautifully written debut about creativity from legendary music producer Rick Rubin. Here is our review of Rick Rubin’s book The Creative Act.
• 📚 Wolfish by Erica Berry. For fans of Helen MacDonald’s H is for Hawk and Mary Roach, Berry’s Wolfish blends science, history, and cultural criticism in a years-long journey to understand our myths about wolves.
• 📚 Why Women Grow by Alice Vincent. Women have always gardened, but our stories have been buried with our work. Alice Vincent is on a quest to change that.
• 📚 Black Ghosts by Noo Saro-Wiwa. The travel memoir of a Nigerian woman in China exploring the intersections and divides between the two cultures and the lives of African economic migrants. (Out November 2023).
• 📚 All The Houses I’ve Ever Lived In by Kieran Yates. In prose that sparkles with humour and warmth, Yates charts the heartbreaks and joys of a life spent navigating the chaos of the housing system. We were fortunate to interview Kieran Yates on her book All The Houses I’ve Ever Lived In.
• 📚 The Good Life by Dr Robert Waldinger and Dr Marc Schulz. In this groundbreaking book, directors of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, Dr. Waldinger and Dr. Marc Schulz, bring together over 80 years of research.
• 📚 Above Ground by Clint Smith. Smith’s vibrant and compelling new collection traverses the vast emotional terrain of fatherhood, and explores how becoming a parent has recalibrated his sense of the world.

To that end, watch this space for season 3 of the How To Be Books Podcast to listen to many of these guests right here! Don’t forget to check out the interview we did with Gary Younge in season, talking about identity politics.

Check out the best nonfiction books of 2022.