Coming this autumn, we have an exploration of life in rural China by Yan Lianke and Tracy Daugherty’s new biography of author Cormac McCarthy. Enjoy 5 New Non Fiction Books Oct 2026!
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5 New Non Fiction Books Oct 2026
The Women by Yan Lianke
Part memoir and part literary nonfiction, The Women captures the harsh and unequal experience of being a woman in 1970s and 80s rural China. Written by the award winning author Yan Lianke, the book is both a tribute to the women who shaped his life and a sociological critique of China’s treatment of women. “In the countryside, the human being is a worker,” but rural women’s work is diminished, their hardship ignored. Through humor and tragedy, Lianke shares their story and reveals a side of Chinese life rarely accessed by the West.
The Bookshop by Andrew Pettegree
Bookshops are a comforting sight on our high streets, warm and welcoming spaces in which to browse, meet friends and occasionally buy books. They may feel timeless, yet their history is a restless and turbulent one, filled with as many entrepreneurial street hawkers and illicit trades as with beloved institutions.
The Bookshop, from the celebrated author of The Library and The Book at War, explores the evolution of bookselling from the cramped collectors’ shops frequented by Samuel Pepys to the radical feminist bookshops of the 70s, the rise of monolithic chains and the new world of online selling. Connecting stories and lives that span centuries, countries and continents, The Bookshop brings us into beloved bookshops of today and looks forward to the possible experience of booksellers of tomorrow.
Monstrous Bitch by Eleanor Johnson
How an ancient myth about a sexually voracious, baby-slaying, loudmouthed demoness became the defining misogynistic archetype of Western civilization
For as long as human societies have been telling stories, the patriarchy has felt threatened by women. In this book, Eleanor Johnson provides an engaging cultural history of a figure she calls the “monstrous bitch,” the notorious female who has haunted the patriarchal imagination for centuries, feared for her sexual promiscuity, her exercise of reproductive agency and control, and her outspoken way of contesting patriarchal power.
An irreverent look at a pervasive trope that runs through four thousand years of Western culture, Monstrous Bitch reveals that while representations of the powerful woman have evolved over time, the fear and demonization of her remains the same.
Sleeping Beauties by David Byrne
So many breakthroughs in arts or science were like this, lost on their initial audience and only later revived and acknowledged to be genius.
This book asks, why do some ideas fall asleep? And how do they wake up?
We love to believe in a meritocracy of ideas – that genius is always recognised, innovation always seized upon and rewarded. Yet so many of the people we now recognise as the world’s great creators initially got little traction for their work. It was only later, often much later, that their work comes roaring back to life and made a lasting impact.
Discoveries as diverse as dark matter to continental drift, technologies from solar panels to the steam engine, artists from Brueghel to Vermeer to Melville all created ‘sleeping beauties’. Ranging across many centuries and the full scope of human endeavour, Byrne explores their stories and gives us a lens for identifying future breakthroughs.
Humbling yet hopeful, these stories celebrate the courage to try new things and the wisdom to embrace them.
Cormac McCarthy: A Legacy Revisited by Tracy Daugherty
Cormac McCarthy is hailed as one of America’s greatest novelists, often compared to Melville and Faulkner, and his epic western Blood Meridian is widely considered a masterpiece of historical fiction. In his body of work, the nation’s story is told in incomparably vivid shades of violence, greed, and love. Early in life, McCarthy chose to devote himself almost exclusively to his literary pursuits.
A Legacy Revisited movingly details what this choice cost him in his family relationships, his marriages, and his friendships. Mentally and physically restless, often solitary and yet gregarious and charming, McCarthy lived as wildly, complexly, and close to the bone as any of his characters, journeying often to remote locations, communing deeply with the natural world, and traversing intricate emotional and psychological terrain. In his novels, he reported wisdom hard-learned through harsh experience and intense observation. With precision and grace, Cormac McCarthy: A Legacy Revisited recounts his story from poverty to riches, obscurity to worldwide acclaim, and is a must-read for both lifelong fans and new McCarthy readers alike.
If you enjoyed 5 New Non Fiction Books Oct 2026, check out 5 New Non Fiction Books Sep 2026