Thirty books we'll be talking about for the rest of 2025

Sydney Morning Herald

3 days ago

The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century by Tim Weiner (July 17)
From the War on Terror to Russian interference, disinformation, cyber ops and moral quagmires, The Mission promises a deep dive into how the CIA has (and hasn't) adapted to a world far messier than the Cold War chessboard. Drawing on interviews with former CIA directors, station chiefs, and scores of top spies it asks: What does intelligence look like when truth itself is contested?
Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (August 19)
Ron Chernow, the biographer whose Alexander Hamilton launched a Broadway juggernaut, turns to America's original literary celebrity: Mark Twain. Expect the same sweeping research that defined Chernow's work on Grant and Washington, and fresh insight into Twain as the first modern superstar – a man who shaped how writers could court fame while skewering it.
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Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs (August 19)
Scholar Nicholas Boggs gives readers an intimate new portrait of James Baldwin – not just as an icon of American letters, but as a man who loved, grieved and changed the lives of those around him. This hybrid work braids biography, memoir and cultural history into a tender reckoning with Baldwin's enduring power.
All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation by Elizabeth Gilbert (September 9)
In her first non-fiction book in a decade, Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert charts the messy aftermath of grief, transformation and desire. All the Way to the River is billed as an unflinching reckoning with heartbreak, spiritual seeking and the deep currents that carry us where we least expect.
Waiting for Britney Spears by Jeff Weiss (September 16)
Journalist Jeff Weiss dives headlong into the fever dream of 2000s celebrity culture with this bracing cultural study of Britney Spears and the paparazzi machine that consumed her and of which she was a part. Part tabloid archaeology, part drug-fuelled noir, Weiss lays bare how complicity, obsession and profit worked in concert to devour a pop star in real time.
Fly, Wild Swans by Jung Chang (September 16)
Jung Chang, whose Wild Swans remains a landmark of twentieth-century memoir, returns with a sweeping new personal history that traces the echoes of her family's story across the changing face of modern China. Fly, Wild Swans is set to be a searching look at what it means to witness – and survive – generational upheaval.
Softly, as I Leave You by Priscilla Presley (September 23)
Decades after Elvis and Me, Priscilla Presley returns with a memoir that promises new insights about her life alongside – and beyond – the King of Rock and Roll. Expect reflections on her role as guardian of Elvis's legacy, but also her path to independence and the woman she became after Graceland's gates closed behind her.
Good Things by Samin Nosrat (September 23)
Nearly a decade after Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat became an instant classic, Samin Nosrat returns with Good Things, a joyful collection of more than 125 new recipes and kitchen rituals she cooks for herself and the people she loves. Expect simple, delicious dishes, gorgeously photographed and brought to life with playful infographics. Generous, precise and warm-hearted, this book feels like an invitation to savour the everyday moments that make good food truly good.
Elizabeth Harrower: The Woman in the Watch Tower by Susan Wyndham (October 1)
This much-awaited biography peels back the layers on Australian literary legend Elizabeth Harrower, who died in 2020 after decades as an enigmatic figure. The former Sydney Morning Herald literary editor explores Harrower's fiercely private life, complicated friendships and searingly sharp fiction. It's one of two biographies set to hit shelves this year, with Helen Trinca's Looking for Elizabeth out now.
Surviving Climate Anxiety by Thomas Doherty (October 7)
A leading voice in environmental psychology, Dr Thomas Doherty addresses the escalating mental health crisis fuelled by climate change. In Surviving Climate Anxiety, he presents a timely psychological framework for confronting eco-anxiety, offering readers practical strategies to process environmental distress, cultivate resilience, and engage constructively with our climate-altered world.
Paper Girl by Beth Macy (October 7)
Beth Macy, acclaimed for Dopesick and Raising Lazarus, turns her trademark blend of deep reporting and narrative compassion on her own past. Paper Girl chronicles the changes in Urbana, Ohio, where Macy grew up as a paper girl, delivering the local newspaper. Expect vivid storytelling from one of America's fiercest chroniclers of inequality, addiction and resilience.
Unapologetically Ita by Ita Buttrose (October 28)
Pioneering editor and former ABC chair Ita Buttrose reflects on her time in Australia's media from battling sexism in boardrooms, fronting the ABC through controversies and refusing, in her 80s, to fade quietly from Australia's cultural conversation. Publishers are promising the memoir is frank, intimate and razor-sharp. Cue the next Asher Keddie miniseries.
The Mushroom Tapes by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein (November 4)
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Three of Australia's sharpest non-fiction writers collaborate to tackle the murder case that has gripped the nation. The Mushroom Tapes sees Helen Garner (This House of Grief), Chloe Hooper (The Tall Man) and Sarah Krasnostein (The Trauma Cleaner) join forces in the Latrobe Valley courtroom – and in conversation. Fungi fever doesn't end there – Greg Haddrick's Mushroom Murders and Duncan McNab's Recipe for Murder will also sprout on shelves this spring.
Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood (November 4)
The literary legend's mind roams free in Book of Lives, a playful, elliptical memoir that refuses the conventional timeline. Instead, the grand dame of speculative fiction is set to offer fragments – dreams, diaries, mini-essays – that explore mortality, mischief and the many selves she's inhabited as poet, novelist, critic and constant observer of our species.
Joy Ride by Susan Orlean (November 4)
Beloved New Yorker writer and author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book, Susan Orlean is often called a national treasure for good reason. In Joy Ride, her most personal work yet, Orlean turns her sharp eye and boundless curiosity inward, charting a life spent chasing stories — from tiger owners to ten-year-olds, Saturday nights to Mt. Fuji. Part memoir, part masterclass in living a creative life, it promises to be a warm, witty reminder to find wonder in the everyday.