The best sports books of 2014
Roy Keane and Kevin Pietersen provided titillation, while two wonderfully esoteric titles took the cycling book into uncharted territory. And then there was the Oscar Pistorius case, writes Tim Lewis
The best science books of 2014
Elizabeth Kolbert laid bare the devastating effect we’re having on our fellow species, while the superb Wildlife Photographer of the Year book showed us just what we risk losing, writes Robin McKie
The best fiction of 2014
The big names – Amis, McEwan – were unfairly overlooked, while a debut about a doll’s house deservedly became a bestseller, writes Viv Groskop
The best biographies of 2014
Boris Johnson’s paean to Churchill provided amusement while a life of Czech dissident Václav Havel proved revelatory, writes Robert McCrum
The best photography books of 2014
Sean O’Hagan picks the year’s best photography books, fromeerie volcanic landscapes at night to famous photographs reshaped in Play-Doh
The best architecture books of 2014
Rowan Moore picks the year’s best architecture books, from a study of Latin American cities to a dictionary of Duchamp
The best art books of 2014
Contemporary art stars proved thoughtful in print while Whistler and Rembrandt drew perceptive analysis, writes Peter Conrad
The best history books of 2014
Two fine books on traitors united the cold war and Elizabethan England, while an anti-fascist diary proved unforgettable, writes Ian Thomson
The week in TV: Wild Weather with Richard Hammond; Homeland; Imagine: Colm Tóibín
Richard Hammond was reduced to shouting about the weather, while the entire cast of Homeland seemed on the verge of collapse, writes Andrew Anthony
The best nature literature of 2014
Taking in shrews, rolling meadowland and newly resurgent birds of prey, Stephen Moss strolls though the year’s best nature writing
Best science fiction books of 2014
Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice broke awards records and Rachel Pollack made her comeback in a year of time travel, Tarot and tech. By Adam Roberts
The best politics books of 2014
From Nigel Farage and the rise of Ukip to Andy Coulson and the phone-hacking scandal – Helen Lewis on the politics books that won our votes this year
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies review – exactly what it promised to be
Andrew Pulver: The final section of Peter Jackson’s monumental Tolkien trilogy rounds off the story of Bilbo Baggins with the monumental confrontation its title suggests
The 100 best novels: No 63 – Party Going by Henry Green (1939)
Set on the eve of the second world war, this neglected modernist masterpiece centres on a group of bright young revellers delayed by fog, says Robert McCrum
In Spite of Oceans: Migrant Voices by Huma Qureshi review – 10 tales that ‘peer into the cracks’ in migrants’ lives
This collection explores the tension between migrants and those they left behind as they struggle to make a new life, says Anita Sethi