To celebrate our Favourite Australian Book Award (have you voted yet?), we’re getting each of our talented book buyers on the blog to talk about their area of expertise – what their favourite books were, what the big trends were, who were the breakout authors and which books became surprise bestsellers.
Today’s post is from Joel Naoum, our non-fiction category manager. Read on!
This was such a fascinating year in trade non-fiction. Unlike in previous years, there weren’t necessarily any breakout new releases that dominated the charts all year (which is not to say we didn’t have some big bestsellers!).
After choosing my picks, I realised there was definitely a prevailing theme amongst the best non-fiction books of 2019: the presence of women’s stories, mental health stories, LGBTQIA+ stories and Indigenous stories. This was also a big year for political activism and it was definitely reflected in the books that were published.
Another trend that emerged this year was in non-fiction that reads as prose – there were quite a few innovative books published here and overseas that could have easily been mistaken for fiction if they were misshelved in the bookshop.
Scroll down to see my favourites!
Your Own Kind of Girl
by Clare Bowditch
ARIA Award-winning singer and actress Clare Bowditch confronts her inner critic in this no-holds-barred memoir.
Buy it here
The Erratics
by Vicki Laveau-Harvie
This is a memoir about a dysfunctional family, about a mother and her daughters. But make no mistake. This is like no mother-daughter relationship you know …
Buy it here
Breaking Badly
by Georgie Dent
At 24, life was good for Georgie Dent. After graduating with top marks she landed her dream job at a prestigious Sydney law firm and moved in with a boyfriend she adored. She had the world at her feet and no right to break. But she did. Badly.
Buy it here
Growing Up Queer in Australia
edited by Benjamin Law
Spanning diverse places, eras, genders, ethnicities and experiences, these are the stories of growing up queer in Australia. With contributions from David Marr, Fiona Wright, Nayuka Gorrie, Steve Dow, Holly Throsby, Sally Rugg, Tony Ayres, Nic Holas, Rebecca Shaw, Kerryn Phelps and many more.
Buy it here
The Woman Who Cracked the Anxiety Code
by Judith Hoare
The true story of Dr Claire Weekes, the little-known mental-health pioneer who revolutionised how we see the defining problem of our era- anxiety.
Buy it here
The Girls
by Chloe Higgins
In a memoir of breathtaking power, Chloe Higgins describes the heartbreaking aftermath of one terrible day. It is a story of grieving, and learning to leave grief behind, for anyone who has ever loved, and lost.
Buy it here
How Powerful We Are
by Sally Rugg
One of Australia’s leading activists takes you behind the scenes of one of Australia’s biggest campaigns to show how we can use our voice to champion what we believe in.
Buy it here
Yellow Notebook: Diaries Volume One 1978-1987
by Helen Garner
Recorded with frankness, humour and steel-sharp wit, these accounts of her everyday life provide an intimate insight into the work of one of Australia’s greatest living writers.
Buy it here
About a Girl
by Rebekah Robertson
Rebekah Robertson’s extraordinary personal story of raising her transgender child, Georgie Stone, who has become a voice not just for other transgender kids – but for an emerging generation.
Buy it here
Australia Day
by Stan Grant
In this book, Australia Day, his long-awaited follow up to Talking to My Country, Stan talks about reconciliation and the indigenous struggle for belonging and identity in Australia, and about what it means to be Australian.
Buy it here
Vote for your Favourite Australian Book of 2019!
Best of 2019: Current Affairs 
The Booktopia Podcast: Jay Kristoff, Rachael Treasure, Diane Armstrong, and Rebekah Robertson!
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