Non-Fiction Books

You’ll notice that all the books I have chosen this time are written by women – it wasn’t my initial intention when I chose the theme, but these are books that I have read recently that all felt important and good enough to be talked about. They can, and indeed should be, read by both young (and not so young!) women and men and – again not through deliberate design – each one does have an important message or lesson for today's world.

Please click here to hear me talk to Jesse Mulligan about these worthy books on Radio New Zealand on Tuesday 26 August 2025.  

For Ages 11+

Normal Women

(Young Readers Edition)

By Philippa Gregory

Published in 2025

A lot of people will probably recognise this author - Philippa Gergory is a bestselling author of historical fiction for adults, many of which have been made into films and TV series including ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’. She has also written a series aimed at tweens and one for Young Adults too.

She originally published this non-fiction work in 2024 and has reworked it with a younger reader in mind. Following the history of life for British women from the Norman conquest (1066 and all that!) to 1994 it makes for some eye-opening reading. Written chronologically and grouped into sections (work, education, mental health, families, laws etc) within each time-frame, Gregory’s format is clear and engaging. She has added plenty of asides and personal narration to allow younger readers to fully appreciate the impact of each fact on women’s lives and relate to it in context of themselves.

Clever, interesting, fast paced and, in places, funny (in the ‘if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry’ way!). this will really capture younger readers attention. Fantastic for kids who are always looking for a good ‘did you know...’ opportunity and anyone who enjoys quizzes. Engaging for the whole family but particularly important for young women.     

For Ages 13+

So...strictly speaking the next three books are NOT young adult books, but the great thing about Young Adults is they can read all sorts of things depending on their interests, especially when it comes to non-fiction.

The Ancient Guide to Modern Life

By Natalie Haynes

Published in 2010

So, this is the oldest of this week’s choices – you will notice all the other books were published this year – and my only criticism of this book is that I wish she would do a revised edition to take into account all the political machinations that have happened around the world since 2010. I get the feeling comparisons of the leaders of the last 10 years, to some of those ancient leaders (tyrants) would be quite fascinating and revealing!

Natalie Haynes is a rare mix of academic and comedian (no, really, she is a classical scholar from the University of Cambridge, who also worked as a stand-up comedian) which means her books are scholarly and accurate, but also wry, caustic and laugh out loud funny! (You can see why I would love to see her write an updated version to cover the most recent round of narcissistic emperors!)

Haynes writes about what ancient democracy can teach us about our modern world, the evolution of politics and politicians, education, laws, philosophy and thinking, as well as the history of information, its access, control and use! For any young person remotely interested in why things happen the way they do and history repeating, they will find Haynes conversational style, written to entertain as well as to inform, engaging and interesting.   

A Different Kind of Power

By Jacinda Ardern

Published in 2025

Look, I know she is not everyone’s cup of tea, but you don’t have to agree with someone’s politics to read their biography and Jacinda was the leader through one of the most turbulent and momentous periods of our country’s recent history.

We know she is articulate, succinct and straight forward, so it’s no surprise that her book is easy to read and engaging and, apart from anything else, appealingly kiwi. She grew up in small town New Zealand and many of her childhood memories are ones we can all share.

Everything in this story that led to her arriving in parliament is thought-provoking background, but the story becomes really interesting once you start getting behind the scenes of all those events, decisions, comments, relationships and disagreements that we watched play out on the news each night. Insight into how decisions were made, what impacted them and how she coped and responded in private, made her feel very human and I spent a lot of time thinking back over how my family and I responded and reacted to everything that happened.

I was aware, by the time she left office, public opinion had turned against her, but until I read the book, I had no idea how visceral and personal it had become – it made me angry and sad that other New Zealanders thought it was okay to treat someone like that. I completely understand her decision to move away from New Zealand for the time being.

I think getting insight into how decisions were made, what impacted them, how parliament works and what really goes into governing our country, is important for our next generation of voters, so this book is very relevant for New Zealand’s Young Adults. It also proves girls can be strong, admired leaders, it proves leaders don’t have to compromise empathy and kindness to be successful but also acts as a warning for young people who are considering putting themselves out there as a public figure as to how vicious, personal and dangerous it can become. How awful is that?

For Ages 14+

Careless People: A story of where I used to work

By Sarah Wyn-Williams

Published in 2025

This is a properly scary horror story of the modern world and should be read by young adults, not so young adults and extremely old adults! Written by a New Zealander, who was a director of public policy at Facebook from 2011, until her dismissal in 2017, it is an unflinching exposé of the rise of the power of social media.

Born in Christchurch and trained as a lawyer, Wyn-Williams worked for over a decade in the Northern Hemisphere as a New Zealand diplomat and policy advisor. She was living in Washington D.C. when news of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake hit and with communication extremely patchy and news slow at filtering through; it was only through Facebook she found out her sister and family were alive. She then watched as Facebook was used in the following weeks and months as a tool of connection, news, support and to mobilise help on the ground in Christchurch, where it was needed. She immediately saw the huge potential of this tool on an international scale, and ran a determined, and extremely 'stalker-ish', campaign to get herself hired by Facebook, as she explains it, because she could immediately see the power for good it could be.

Wyn-Williams worked there as the influence and power of Facebook increased and for the ‘before and after’ of it going public, and had some deeply disturbing revelations about the part that Facebook and its algorithms played in the 2016 American elections and in instigating a campaign of ethic cleansing in Myanmar in 2017 – among other things that makes their early motto of ‘move fast and break things’ particularly disquieting.

I realise that any ‘tell all’ biography must be treated with caution, it is a one-sided conversation controlled entirely by the narrator and designed to make her decision to write the book and reveal behind the scenes, corporate secrets look heroic. But there is no denying she did have a seat on the corporate jet with all those well-known Facebook personalities – Zuckerberg, Sandberg, David Wehner – and would have been privy to all the same information they were and taking her part in the decision making.

I was unsurprised that META took Wyn-Williams to arbitration over this book, it is highly revealing and shows them in a very bad light, including some unflattering (and somewhat slanderous) portraits of Zuckerberg and Sandberg in particular, portraying the insular and all encompassing, life-dominating culture of these massive corporate companies in America. But META only managed to win an injunction to stop her doing any further publicity of the book, not stop the book itself. Interestingly META’s statement said that the book was "a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives” but never denied that any of the facts in the book were inaccurate, just the impressions and depictions of their personnel.

I do agree that Wyn-Williams is careful to portray herself as the lone voice of reason at the company and the writing of this book as a public service, which you have to take with a pinch of salt, but that doesn’t take away from the fact everything she talks about happened (see Amnesty International’s 2022 report on the atrocities in Myanmar and all the revelations about algorithms, interference in elections and referendums of the last few years). This book is just more evidence of the dreadful impact that social media and the internet can have, how all we ever see are half-truths and pieces of stories and how we are all constantly being manipulated without really understanding it.  Yes, it should be read with a critical eye, but it should still be read, especially by Young Adults, who are the first of the internet generation.     

Click here to access some of my past chats with Jesse on Radio New Zealand.