27 April 2020
Many of us are finding it hard to get stuck into reading at the moment – which is where a short, powerful non-fiction read can help. Here, we’ve picked a list of short books, manifestos and essay collections to expand your mind and keep your attention.
Lots of the ebooks can be bought for the price of a takeaway coffee – a good swap, we’d say.
Let us know what you’re reading over on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Want non-fiction news like this in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletter.
Women & Power
Mary Beard
Giving a double dose of contemporary feminism and ancient history, Mary Beard’s #1 Sunday Times bestselling manifesto packs a huge punch in its 144 pages.
With wry wit, she revisits the gender agenda and shows how history has treated powerful women from the classical world to the modern day, from Medusa and Athena to Theresa May and Hillary Clinton.
Download the ebook | Buy your copy
The Lies That Bind
Kwame Anthony Appiah
In this fascinating, slim book, best-selling author Kwame Anthony Appiah presents a new exploration of race and identity politics.
Showing that our current collective identities are riddled with contradictions, he argues that social identities aren’t something we can simply do away with. They can usher in moral progress and bring significance to our lives by connecting the small scale of our daily existence with larger movements, causes, and concerns.
Download the ebook | Buy your copy
Turned Out Nice Again
Richard Mabey
In this beautiful love letter to weather, award-winning nature writer Richard Mabey weaves together science, art and memoirs to show the weather’s impact on our culture and national psyche.
We meet Golden Summers, our denial of winter, the Impressionists’ love affair with London smog, seasonal affective disorder and the mysteries of storm migraines; herrings falling like hail in Norfolk and Saharan dust reddening south-coast cars; moonbows, dog-suns, fog-mirages and Constable’s clouds; the fact that English has more words for rain than Inuit has for snow; the curious eccentricity of country clothing and the mathematical behaviour of umbrella sales.
And all in 112 pages.
Download the ebook | Buy your copy
The Making of You
Katharina Vestre
Join Katharina Vestre on an adventure to relive your very first moments. From your first cell to your first breath, this is your story
as you have never heard it before.
Did you know that it took three attempts to make your kidneys? Or that tiny twirling hairs on your back showed your other organs where to go? Or that hiccups are probably a legacy from our ancient, underwater ancestors?
It’s a miniature drama of cosmic significance.
Download the ebook | Buy your copy
Trials of the State
Jonathan Sumption
In this Sunday Times bestseller, expanding on his 2019 Reith Lectures, in just 128 pages Jonathan Sumption argues that the time has come to return some problems to the politicians.
In the past few decades, legislatures throughout the world have suffered from gridlock. In democracies, laws and policies are just as soon unpicked as made. It seems that Congress and Parliaments cannot forge progress or consensus. Moreover, courts often overturn decisions made by elected representatives.
Download the ebook | Buy your copy
The Little Book of Yes
Noah Goldstein, Steve Martin and Robert Cialdini
This pocket-sized book from the masters of influence will help bring persuasive science into all areas of your life, both personal and professional. Something lots of us could find useful right now…
21 short essays outline a range of effective persuasion strategies. Full of wisdom from the leaders in influence, with carefully curated advice, this little book is essential reading for any freelancer, manager, entrepreneur, parent or person who wants more from their world.
Download the ebook | Buy your copy
Bedtime Stories for Worried Liberals
Stuart Heritage
Anxious? Angry? Waking up in the middle of the night? Thumb sore from scrolling through the Guardian news app, even though it makes you want to cry? Us too.
But help is here, in a small and perfectly formed collection of 23 very short stories. Put down your phone, log off Twitter, and let yourself be lulled to sleep by stories from a world where Brexit disappears in a puff of smoke, Waitrose is free, and Fairy Godmothers look a lot like Barack Obama.
Download the ebook | Buy your copy
Anquetil, Alone
Paul Fournel
If you’re finding solace in getting out for a bike ride at the moment, indulge that feeling with Anquetil, Alone.
Jacques Anquetil was a cyclist with an aristocratic demeanor and a relaxed attitude to rules and morals. His womanising and frank admissions of doping appalled 1960s French society, even as his five Tour de France wins enthralled it.
Shortlisted for the Sports Book Awards 2018 for Biography of the Year and Cycling Book of the Year.
Download the ebook | Buy your copy
The Concise Laws of Human Nature
Robert Greene
Not strictly *short*, this brand new book is significantly shorter than its full-length parent!
From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The 48 Laws of Power comes the concise edition of the definitive book on decoding the behaviour of the people around you.
Distilling ancient wisdom and philosophy into essential texts for seekers of power, understanding and mastery The Concise Laws of Human Nature offers brilliant tactics for success, self-improvement, and self-defence.
Download the ebook | Buy your copy
Printer’s Devil Court
Susan Hill
And finally, some fiction (we hope…).
We couldn’t help but include this – in just 116 pages, the queen of the ghost story Susan Hill will have you questioning every dark corner in your house.
One murky November evening, a conversation between four medical students takes a curious turn and Hugh is initiated into a dark secret. In the cellar of their narrow lodgings in Printer’s Devil Court and a little used mortuary in a subterranean annex of the hospital, they have begun to interfere with death itself, in shadowy experiments beyond the realms of medical ethics.
Years later, Hugh has occasion to return to his student digs and the true horror of the events slowly becomes apparent.
Download the ebook | Buy your copy