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Best new non-fiction: quick links
Best new non-fiction
Average at best, Astrid Jorgensen – 30 September
Average At Best is a memoir about embracing mediocrity if you want to get anything done. As the creator of Pub Choir® – a global phenomenon that unites complete strangers to connect, laugh, and make beautiful music – Jorgensen takes you behind the curtain as she stares down her dizzying highs, her crushing lows, and everything in between.
Riots, Fiona Skyring – 30 September
From 1918, 1919 and into 1920 Australia was rocked by a series of riots involving returned soldiers. From brawls in small regional towns to major riots in capital cities, thousands of men took their grievances to the streets, where in some cases police spent days quelling the chaos.
Yet this noisy and violent chapter of our history has been absent from our contemporary commemorations of Anzac.
Silo Art second edition: journey through Australia’s Outdoor Art Scene, Alasdair McGregor – 30 September
In this illustrated coffee table book, Alasdair McGregor explores the creative and community forces driving this grass roots art movement. He visits the small towns where dreams of joining the burgeoning Silo Art Trail have united rural communities in efforts to transform their faded agricultural heritage into grand visions that instil pride and bring the tourists in.
Full tilt: A champion’s story of Ford, Holden and the defining era of motor-racing, by Colin Bond with John Smailes – 30 September
Bathurst winner, Australian Touring Car Champion, and the only man to have won on both sides of racing’s most iconic rivalry – Ford versus Holden – this is the high-octane story of motor-racing legend Colin Bond.
Guts, Melissa Leong – 30 September
Gold Logie-nominated TV personality and food icon Melissa Leong bites down on her demons in this memoir, exploring themes of abuse in the hospitality industry, racism, mental health and, for a light palate cleanser, the thrill of mouth-wateringly memorable food.
Defiance; stories of nature and its defenders, Bob Brown – 30 September
In Defiance, Bob Brown draws on his experience to inspire a new generation of individual and collective action. He reflects on the people and places that have shaped him, celebrates the irreplaceable beauty and value of nature and shares what motivates him to keep fighting.
The Butterfly Thief, Walter Marsh – 30 September
The story of the most audacious serial heist in the history of Australia’s museums – and the British gentleman adventurer who pulled it off and got away with it – in a scientific true crime caper stretching around the globe.
Oliphant, Roland Perry – 30 September
The extraordinary life of the man behind the atomic bomb, radar and much more, a maverick scientist from Australia who changed the course of history.
Beyond Baking, Philip Koury – 30 September
Beyond Baking is an evolution is an exploration of how far baking can go when it’s guided by flavour, process, and purpose, rather than tradition alone – upping the ante on plant-based baking by using natural ingredients to make sweet and savory recipes.
The Seeker and the Sage, Brigid Delaney – 30 September
How Stoic principles can help us navigate the challenges of our divided, unstable world. Can the principles of Stoicism lead us to a peaceful, ‘good’ life? We are all going to die, so how should we live?
Femonomics, Corrine Low – 30 September
To be a woman today is to be overwhelmed from every angle. The data proves that the odds are still stacked against us – biologically, culturally, economically. But that same data can empower us to make choices that will reclaim our time, energy and help us find joy. Economist Corinne Low explodes the myths about what makes women successful and happy.
Destination Moon, Kate Reid – 30 September
Destination Moon is a memoir about passion and finding purpose from the woman whose mid-career 180 turn led her from Formula 1 to opening the world-famous Lune Croissanterie.
2026 Australasian Sky Guide, Nick Lomb – 1 October
Opening with an essay by Kāi Tahu woman Victoria Campbell on the cultural significance of the heliacal rising of Matariki in winter, this book features monthly sky maps, with details of the movement of the planets, stars and constellations. It also offers the latest information on the solar system and its history, as well as tips for optimal viewing.
Be(wilder): Journeys in Nature, Darryl Jones – 1 October
In (Be)wilder, urban ecologist Darryl Jones explores how people around the world interact with wildlife. He spends time with bearded pigs in Borneo, rock ptarmigans in the Arctic, birdwatchers in Iowa and conservationist farmers in Australia’s Snowy Mountain.
Silence is my Habitat: Ecobiographical essays, Jessica White – 1 October
Jessica White has been deaf since she was four years old. Through ecobiography, which dwells on a person’s interaction with their ecosystem and how this shapes their sense of self, she considers how deafness encouraged and moulded her relationship to the natural world.
Calendar, Vanessa Berry – 1 October
In Calendar Vanessa Berry presents a year through 365 objects, collecting the everyday, familiar, curious, and unusual. Inspired by the 18th century French Republican calendar, in which every day was dedicated to an object, Berry set about writing her own object calendar over the course of a year, writing in real-time.
Confessions of a minor poet: Phil Brown – 1 October
Phil Brown tells all (well almost all) in this account of his career in literature and journalism from The Morning Bulletin in Rockhampton to Melbourne’s Sunday Age and back to The Courier-Mail in Brisbane. He shares his challenges as a young surfer foolishly yearning to be a poet and his personal struggles on the road to becoming a writer with a fluctuating passion for poetry and a top drawer full of rejection slips.
Unfinished Revolution: the Feminist Fightback, Virginia Haussegger – 1 October
In 1975, the fight was alive. It was the year the United Nations declared International Women’s Year as a marker of progress and aspiration.
Fifty years on, award-winning journalist Virginia Haussegger shines a light on the feminist revolution in Australia, capturing its spirited momentum and a fatigued lag.
Plant collecting in another planet E.H. Wilson in Australia 1920-21, Margaret Grose – 1 October
Ernest H. Wilson (1876-1930), trained at Kew Gardens, became Harvard’s most famous plant collector in the early decades of the 20th century, and established his fame through travels in China and his photography. In 1920-21 Wilson collected in Australia, where he was astounded by the plants he found and thought them so different to anything in the Northern Hemisphere that it was like collecting in ‘another planet.’
Brave New Wild, Richard King – 1 October
A cohort of organisations insist that geo-engineering, nanotech and AI can solve our environmental crisis. But by bending nature to our will, could we break ourselves in the process?
Don’t Ask the Trees for Their Names: Stories of Leaving and Becoming, edited by Edited by Oula Ghannoum and Loubna Haikal – 1 October
An anthology of stories about migration to Australia by nine first-generation Arab women.
When Australia became a Republic, Esther Anatolitis – 1 October
Esther Anatolitis examines the key moments in our emergence as a republic and maps out new paths to securing legitimate independence for a more honest society.
Giants, Jem Creswell – 1 October
Over a five-year period, photographer and filmmaker Jem Cresswell took more than 11,000 images of one of nature’s most majestic creatures – the humpback whale. Cresswell selected the most striking of these images to document the Southern Hemisphere humpback whales that breed and calve in the waters surrounding the Tongan Trench.
Elizabeth Harrower: The woman in the watch tower, Susan Wyndham – 1 October
In this biography, Susan Wyndham grapples with the elusive Elizabeth Harrower. She immerses us in the author’s tumultuous family, her complex friendships with Patrick White, Christina Stead, Kylie Tennant and Shirley Hazzard, and her timeless probing of the human spirit in five novels.
Living with Schizophrenia, Margaret Leggatt and Mary Ryllis Clark – 1 October
In Living with Schizophrenia, two mental health advocates, researcher and founder of SANE Australia Margaret Leggatt and journalist Mary Ryllis Clark, explore the myths and mistruths around schizophrenia, as well as how we can improve treatment options and ensure earlier interventions for those with schizophrenia and their families.
Fault Lines: Australia’s Unequal Past, Edited by Seumas Spark and Christina Twomey – 1 October
The essays in Fault Lines present a powerful re-examination of legal and political actions present a powerful re-examination of legal and political actions that have shaped – and often scarred – individual lives and communities across history.
It’s a Scorcher!: Tales of the Australian summer, William McInnes – 14 October
In this collection of nostalgic stories, William McInnes recalls moments in time and memories of summers past. He takes us back to the energy-sapping heat of Redcliffe in the 1960s and 70s, ruminates on budgie smugglers, remembers holiday road trips that went on forever and epic Boxing Day Tests that stopped fans in their tracks.
Turbulence: Australian Foreign Policy in the Trump era, Clinton Fernandes – 14 October
Turbulence: Australian Foreign Policy in the Trump Era is a manual for understanding the present and navigating the future. It addresses the serious challenges Australia faces as Trump upends geopolitical tectonic plates and shows that a shrewd calculus is at work behind the chaos.
Early Photography in Colonial Australia, Elisa Decourcy – 14 October
This book offers the first major study of photography’s arrival and establishment in colonial Australia. It places photos in conversation with prints, sketches and watercolours to explore how the medium adapted to the Australian culture.
Read: Best new non-fiction books September 2025
The Mushroom Murders, Greg Haddrick – 14 October
Greg Haddrick tells the fascinating inside story of the triple murder trial that gripped the country and made headlines around the world. With details not previously published, it is the compelling story of a troubled family and a poisonous mushroom that is readily found in parks and gardens.
Code of Silence: How Australian Women Helped Win the War, Diana Thorp – 22 October
As World War II climbed to its crescendo in the Asia Pacific, the Australian government called in a new weapon: women. Within this female arsenal was a top-secret group focused on signals intelligence.
Ride on, Michelle Payne with Angus Fontaine – 28 October
A decade after her dramatic launch into fame, celebrated jockey Michelle Payne reflects on what she’s learned about love, loss, courage and kindness. The Melbourne Cup: the most prestigious horse race in Australia and never won by a female jockey – until 2015.
Unapologetically Ita, Ita Buttrose – 28 October
Ita Buttrose has been a defining force in shaping Australia’s cultural and social landscape for over six decades. Now in her eighties, Ita is as passionate as ever about the many causes important to her, the future of Australia, and living meaningfully to the very end of our lives.
