Top 10 Adult Non-Fiction of 2024!

YPRL Staff

28 January, 2025

The most loaned adult non-fiction books of 2024 covered a wide range of topics and genres - borrowers explored highly anticipated biographies, cookbooks, practical how-to guides and more! 

While we reflect and reminisce on some of our most popular titles of 2024, we are also excited to see changes in trends for 2025! What are your predictions for what genres, authors or new releases will be the most popular this year?  

#1: Dinner by Nagi Maehashi  

Also available as an eBook (Libby) 

150 dinner recipes. Fail-proof. Delicious. Addictive. The food you want to cook, eat and share, night after night. Through her phenomenally popular online food site, RecipeTin Eats, Nagi Maehashi talks to millions of people a year who tell her about the food they love. Now, in her first cookbook, Nagi brings us the ultimate curation of new and favourite RecipeTin Eats recipes - from comfort food (yes, cheese galore) to fast and easy food for weeknights, Mexican favourites, hearty dinner salads, Asian soups and noodles, and special treats for festive occasions. Featuring a photo and how-to video for every recipe (follow the QR code), readily available ingredients, Nagi's famously helpful notes, and Dozer, Australia's best-loved food tester, this is a kitchen-shelf must-have for the novice cook, the expert seeking to perfect technique (straight to the Beef Wellington!), and everyone in between. 

Borrowed 353 times! 

#2: Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder 

Also available as eAudio (BorrowBox), eBook (Libby), eBook (BorrowBox), Audiobook (MP3) 

Looking for wonder and some reprieve from the everyday, Anna Funder slips into the pages of her hero George Orwell. As she watches him create his writing self, she tries to remember her own. And when she uncovers his forgotten wife, it's a revelation. Eileen O'Shaughnessy's literary brilliance shaped Orwell's work and her practical nous saved his life. But why - and how - was she written out of the story? Using newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend, Funder recreates the Orwell's marriage, through the Spanish Civil War and WWII in London. As she rolls up the screen concealing Orwell's private life, she is led to question what it takes to be a writer - and what it is to be a wife. Compelling and utterly original, Wifedom speaks to the unsung work of women everywhere today, while offering a breathtakingly intimate view of one of the most important literary marriages of the 20th century. 

Borrowed 244 times! 

#3: The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lesson on Wealth, Greed and Happiness by Morgan Housel 

Also available as an eBook (Libby) 

Doing well with money isn't necessarily about what you know. It's about how you behave. And behaviour is hard to teach, even to really smart people. Money--investing, personal finance, and business decisions--is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real-world people don't make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life's most important topics. 


Borrowed 240 times! 

#4: Spare by Prince Harry Duke of Sussex 

Also available in Large Print, Audiobook (MP3), eBook (BorrowBox), eAudio (BorrowBox), eAudio (Libby), eBook (Libby). 

Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness-and, because he blamed the press for his mother's death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight. At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple's cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother...For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty.  

Borrowed 226 times! 

#5: One by Jamie Oliver 

A book to rival 15-Minute Meals and 5 Ingredients in its smart simplicity - a one-pan cookbook from Jamie. Quick and easy meals are even simpler when you cook with just one pot, pan or tray. And with each recipe using eight ingredients or fewer, requiring minimal prep (and washing up), they offer maximum convenience. ONE is packed with budget-friendly dishes you can rustle up any time: delicious work from home lunches, quick dinners the whole family will love, meals to get novice cooks started. With over 100 recipes that'll teach you simple one-pan techniques - chapters include Veggie Delights, Celebrating Chicken, Frying Pan Pasta, Batch Cooking and Puds & Cakes - there are plenty of no-fuss, tasty recipes that make this a must-have for every kitchen. 

Borrowed 223 times! 

#6: Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? By Julie Smith 

Also available as eAudio (BorrowBox), eAudio (Libby), eBook (Libby).  

Drawing on years of experience as a clinical psychologist, online sensation Dr Julie Smith shares all the skills you need to get through life's ups and downs. Filled with secrets from a therapist's toolkit, this is a must-have handbook for optimising your mental health. Dr Julie's simple but expert advice and powerful coping techniques will help you stay resilient no matter what life throws your way. Written in short, bite-sized entries, you can turn straight to the section you need depending on the challenge you're facing - and immediately find the appropriate tools to help. From managing anxiety, dealing with criticism or battling low mood, to building self-confidence, finding motivation or learning to forgive yourself, this book tackles the everyday issues that affect us all and offers easy, practical solutions that might just change your life. 

Borrowed 219 times! 

#7: Did I Ever Tell You This? A Memoir by Sam Neill 

Also available in Large Print, eBook (BorrowBox), eBook (Libby), Audiobook (MP3) 

Sam Neill tells the story of how he became one of the world's most celebrated actors, who has worked with everyone from Meryl Streep to Isabel Adjani, from Jeff Goldblum to Sean Connery, from Steven Spielberg to Jane Campion. By his own account, his career has been a series of unpredictable turns of fortune. Born in 1947 in Northern Ireland, he emigrated to New Zealand at the age of seven. His family settled in Dunedin on the South Island, but young Sam was sent away to boarding school in Christchurch, where he was hopeless at sports and discovered he enjoyed acting. He has worked around the world, an actor who has moved effortlessly from blockbuster to art house to TV, from Dr Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park movies to The Piano and Peaky Blinders. Did I Ever Tell You This? is the work of a natural storyteller who is a superb observer of other people, and who writes with love and warmth about his family. 

Borrowed 195 times! 

#8: Garden of Your Dreams: A Practical Guide to Your Best Outdoor Transformation Ever by Charlie Albone 

Let award-winning garden designer and landscape expert from Better Homes & Gardens Charlie Albone walk you through the process of turning your outdoor space into your own personal oasis. Start by identifying your dream design style, then learn how to make a plan that works for your site, budget and aspirations. Create an entertaining space you are proud of, prepare the soil and then the real fun begins - planting! 

Borrowed 191 times! 

#9: Tonight’s Dinner 2 by Adam Liaw 

Australia’s favourite cook Adam Liaw is back with Tonight's Dinner 2, the sequel to his bestselling recipe collection of mighty meals for every day featuring 80 all-new recipes inspired by Adam’s hit SBS series, The Cook Up. Make magic in the kitchen with a series of diverse dishes across a range of chapters. Tonight's Dinner 2 provides simple, satisfying meal ideas and captures what Australians want to eat now, served with a side of Adam’s signature wit and expert advice. For everyone from busy singles to on-the-go families, this delicious and original collection takes the grind out of midweek cooking with nutritious meals that are quick and affordable. What are you having for Tonight's Dinner? 

Borrowed 191 times! 

#10: Thrifty Gardening: Money-Saving Tips and Know-How for a Flourishing Garden by The Country Women’s Association of Victoria 

Thrifty Gardening shows you how to get the most from your edible or ornamental garden, season by season. From how to grow from seed, what to plant and sow when, which garden tasks to do when, it's all here. Armed with this compact reference, you'll be ready when the right moment comes to encourage healthy growth by pruning, mulching, weeding, seeding, feeding or cropping. The advice comes with an always timely reminder to sit back and enjoy what you grow - whether veggies, herbs, fruits, flowers or trees - and some simple recipes for how to make the most in the kitchen of the bounty from your plot. There are garden project ideas, advice for getting the kids involved, plus hints and tips for how to outsmart pests and bugs that want to derail your efforts. 

Borrowed 191 times! 

But wait, there's still more to explore!

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