The short list is out for the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize, so all you non-fiction readers, grab your glasses and get comfy–you’ve got some reading to do!  You’ll find the short list below, and click here for an interesting article on books that may change our view of the world.

The winner of the prize will be announced on November 12th. The full shortlist is:

• Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum, by Katherine Boo (Portobello Books)

• Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest, by Wade Davis (The Bodley Head)

• The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot, by Robert Macfarlane (Hamish Hamilton)

• The Better Angels of our Nature: A History of Violence and Humanity, by Steven Pinker (Allen Lane)

• The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain, by Paul Preston (HarperPress)

• Strindberg: A Life, by Sue Prideaux (Yale University Press)