Would you like to gain a wider window on today’s world through the books you read?

Then I’m here to help. My Substack is for anyone who’d like to expand their reading horizons through non-fiction. Taking in both recently-published books and others that have been out there for a time, I will highlight the best books to read across the genres, and across a broad spectrum of themes.

From memoir to self-help, and from current affairs and activism to popular science and travel, I’ll suggest dozens of stimulating books to buy - if possible please - from your local independent bookshop; or of course borrow from your local library.

So why should you take my suggestions? A voracious - and omnivorous - reader from childhood, I have been writing about non-fiction as a freelance journalist for the past 30 years. My non-fiction reviews and author interviews have run every month in The Bookseller since the year 2000. I have judged several non-fiction book prizes, including chairing the judging panel for the 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize, the UK’s premier award for non-fiction. And most recently, I was a non-fiction category judge for the 2024 Nero Book Awards. Without trying to make myself sound like some kind of grandee, the more I read, the better guide I become o the best books out there.

But if I were merely flexing my personal opinions, I wouldn’t be doing my job justice. After all, I’m a straight, arty-farty, cisgender white woman and borderline nerd; middle-aged and living in Middle England. So if I’m going to recommend the ‘best of books’, I have a responsibility to understand how all these factors might skew where I bestow my favours. And I take that responsibility seriously.

More than ever, the ability to make leaps of imagination and empathy must be enshrined in the recommendations I make. I must be able envisage what other people entirely unlike me might want and need to read. It helps that I have young adult children with their own lifestyles and social media habits. It helps not to live in London. It helps to try and stay a little ahead of the curve and to prioritise the new and innovative; for which it helps to be alive to the left-field and proudly independent, both in publishing and bookselling.

And just sometimes, I benefit from having the opportunity to champion books which have the ability to unite readers, wherever or whoever they are, in a sense of our common humanity and shared experience. Books which inform us, improve us, console us, allow us to see the world with new eyes, and give us hope with their stories of triumph over adversity, and of coming through dark times. “The Language of Kindness” by Christie Watson, “Black, Listed” by Jeffrey Boakye, “Diary of a Young Naturalist” by Dara McAnulty, “Lean in 15” by Joe Wicks (yes I was the first person ever to interview The Body Coach), “The Lightless Sky” by Gulwali Passarlay, “War Doctor” by David Nott, “brother.do.you.love.me” by Manni & Reuben Coe, are but a few that didn’t fit into the photo above. It is books like these which make my work an immense privilege - and a joy.

You’ll notice that all these books are non-fiction. I would always advocate reading books for pleasure first and foremost, and novels, poetry, short stories, comics are all part of that pleasure picture. But it is my belief, living in our turbulent 21st century world of disinformation and fragmented, social media-stoked opinion, consuming a healthy and varied diet of accessible, carefully-researched, and insightful non-fiction is more important than it has ever been.