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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations
@fivebooks.com
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Five Books is a book recommendation website where experts pick the five best books in their subject (as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases) http://fivebooks.com
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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 27d
Browse all our 'best books of 2025' lists (both fiction and nonfiction):
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The Best Books of 2025 - Five Books Expert Recommendations
The best books of 2025, our annual best-of-the-year lists including fiction and nonfiction, history and historical fiction, philosophy and many more
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"It is from the Greek—eu, meaning ‘well’ or ‘good’, and the suffix –genēs, as in genes, genetics— so it basically means ‘well born'"
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Eugenics
Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw and Marie Stopes were all proponents of eugenics. Why? Philippa Levine, University of Texas professor, explains.
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January 13, 2026 at 6:00 AM
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"One of the ironies a century on from the revolution of 1911 is that in some ways China is a completely different country...and yet many of the problems..revolutionaries...were trying to solve are still very relevant"
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Modern China
In October 1911, China’s last imperial dynasty fell. The legacy of that revolution remains deeply ambiguous in today’s People’s Republic. China scholar Rana Mitter tells us about the country’s…
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January 13, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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“The genius of representative democracy is that it separates how we as citizens feel about the system of government from how we feel about the government of the day”
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The Administrative State
Harvard economist Paul Tucker recommends the best books on liberalism's dilemma, and offers a deep exploration of "the administrative state".
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January 12, 2026 at 10:00 PM
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NEW
Did you make a New Year's resolution to learn a new language? Feeling curious about Japan? Experienced language teacher Kazuki Morimoto recommends the best books to learn Japanese fivebooks.com/best-books/t...
The Best Books to Learn Japanese
The best textbooks to learn Japanese, recommended by Kazuki Morimoto, specialist in teaching Japanese as a foreign language
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January 12, 2026 at 8:49 PM
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"If you’re in a dispute and someone tells you “singular ‘they'” is a modern, politically correct abomination, look it up. You’ll find citations going back to 1375 from one great author after another, and the point is yours."
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Grammar Books That Prove What They Preach
Most grammar books say 'do this, and that's that.' But who says? How do they know? Real rules are grounded in the facts of actual standard usage. Here are five grammar books that show their work,…
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January 12, 2026 at 7:01 PM
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"The scientific method is the only reliable method of achieving knowledge. It displaces ignorance without destroying wonder."
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The Emergence of Understanding
British chemist and prominent atheist, Peter Atkins, discusses why he thinks science is the only way to make sense of the world
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January 12, 2026 at 4:01 PM
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"Each translator would use the vernacular and slang of their own day. So a 19th-century translation, say, would sound a bit like Dickens."
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Historical Novels Set During the Classical Era
Five historical novels set during the Classical era, chosen by Ferdia Lennon—author of a Nero Award-shortlisted novel set in ancient Sicily.
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January 12, 2026 at 2:02 PM
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"The Marquis de Sade was an aristocrat from a Provençal family, born in 1740. Born to a very old—and he was very proud of this—noble family."
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The Marquis de Sade
The word 'sadism' derives from the Marquis de Sade, the infamous 18th century French aristocrat. His works such as Justine and The 120 Days of Sodom are profoundly disturbing, retaining the ability…
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January 12, 2026 at 12:01 PM
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"Travellers to Chile will agree that it is almost impossible to get a Chilean to tell you what they’re really thinking."
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Chile
Chile is a country of extremes says travel writer and translator Natascha Scott-Stokes, who has lived there for nearly two decades. She chooses five books that give a good sense of the country, from…
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January 12, 2026 at 6:00 AM
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"A lot of people find it very difficult to write about climate change because it is not something that lends itself to comic effect, and it is not something that people often want to write about"
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Renewable Energy
The chief executive of Good Energy says we need to think big if we want to cut our use of high-carbon energy. She tells us about the intersection between business, politics and doing the right thing
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January 12, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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Those who love historical fiction have plenty of choice among the list of past Booker Prize-winning novels. We put together an overview of the Booker's past victors that will sweep you from Tudor England to 20th-century India by way of the 19th-century Outback.
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Booker Prize-Winning Historical Novels
Highly recommended historical fiction with excellent literary credentials—a list of Booker Prize-winning historical novels.
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January 11, 2026 at 10:00 PM
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NEW: "On the one hand, he was a successful military leader; on the other hand, he was a friend of many French philosophes, most notably Voltaire." Adam Storring of @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social tells us all about Frederick the Great of Prussia:
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Frederick the Great
Frederick the Great (1712-1786) embodied two ideas of kingship: on the one hand, the traditional one of the warrior monarch, and on the other, an enlightened monarch, patron of the arts, a social…
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January 11, 2026 at 7:00 PM
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NEW: "Most experts would agree that we don’t know everything there is to know about gravity" James Riordon, author of Crush (@mitpress) recommends books to read on gravity:
fivebooks.com/best-books/g...
Gravity
Since the 17th century, we've been aware that the force that causes apples to fall from a tree is the same force that holds the planets in the sky, but we still don't know everything there is to know…
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January 11, 2026 at 4:00 PM
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"Coming to Britain from Germany as I did, you suddenly realise that this is a nation obsessed by gardens. Everyone thinks that digging flowerbeds is great entertainment and for a foreigner it seems quite a bizarre pastime."
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Horticulture
The best books on horticulture, as recommended by Andrea Wulf.
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January 11, 2026 at 2:01 PM
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"He gives us a list of qualities that are supposed to elicit the sublime. So: obscurity, darkness, towering heights, irregularity, being hidden and unknown, and so forth."
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The Sublime
Five of the best books on the concept of 'the sublime', as recommended by Prof Robert Clewis, editor of The Sublime Reader
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January 11, 2026 at 12:00 PM
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“ Samuel Johnson said in 1777 that if there were a referendum in England, people would vote for the restoration of the Stuarts.”
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Jacobitism
The failure of the Stuarts to win back the English or Scottish throne changed the course of history, enabling the buildup of a highly centralized British state and, possibly, America's war for…
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January 11, 2026 at 6:00 AM
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"Thutmose III was a great warrior pharaoh who forged the Egyptian empire all the way south into modern Sudan and all the way north up into Syria. There is the most beautiful statue of him, perfectly preserved, in the Luxor Museum"
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Ancient Egypt
Cambridge Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson discusses his favourite works on Ancient Egypt — from the first book he bought on the subject to an authoritative coffee-table tome.
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January 11, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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"I think the mistake people often make is to think that experts get to the top rather quickly and to think we wouldn’t be able to get that good in a short time frame."
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Champions
Table tennis champion and author of Bounce: How Champions are Made, Matthew Syed believes that winning is partly the placebo effect of confidence.
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January 10, 2026 at 10:01 PM
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"Could all of us, wherever we live, find a bit more wildness and nature on our doorstep?"
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Local Adventures
Wonderful as it would be to climb Mount Everest or row across the Atlantic, not all of us will get the chance to go on an epic adventure. But that doesn't mean we can't go exploring. Alastair…
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January 10, 2026 at 7:01 PM
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"A coffee table book needs to be an object of beauty, but to be recommended by experts on Five Books it also needs to be informative and enlightening. Below are all the coffee table books that have been recommended on our site, from Ancient Egypt to expolanets."
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Coffee Table Books - Five Books Expert Recommendations
Coffee table books recommended by experts in Five Books interviews. These are books that are not only look nice but will make you smarter
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January 10, 2026 at 4:01 PM
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"Burnout has something to do with a feeling of fundamental inadequacy in the face of the tasks life imposes on us. Not just work tasks, but the tasks of relationships, of personal administration, everything really."
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Burnout
The best books on burnout and exhaustion, recommended by Josh Cohen, psychoanalyst and author of Not Working: Why We Have to Stop.
fivebooks.com
January 10, 2026 at 2:02 PM
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"It seems to me that anxiety over work seems to have a more prominent place at the front of people’s minds in the consulting room"
fivebooks.com/best-books/b...
Burnout
The best books on burnout and exhaustion, recommended by Josh Cohen, psychoanalyst and author of Not Working: Why We Have to Stop.
fivebooks.com
January 10, 2026 at 2:01 PM
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“The labor of Latinos was essential to the making of modern Los Angeles”
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Food Studies
The best food studies books, recommended by Dartmouth Professor Matt Garcia, author of a bottom-up history of agricultural production in Los Angeles.
fivebooks.com
January 10, 2026 at 12:00 PM
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"It is from the Greek—eu, meaning ‘well’ or ‘good’, and the suffix –genēs, as in genes, genetics— so it basically means ‘well born’; and the way it developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is that it came to be thought of as the science of good breeding."
fivebooks.com/best-books/e...
Eugenics
Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw and Marie Stopes were all proponents of eugenics. Why? Philippa Levine, University of Texas professor, explains.
fivebooks.com
January 10, 2026 at 6:00 AM
fivebooks.com
"Even our most sacred rituals are being accelerated. The US has churches that are playing around with drive-through funerals."
fivebooks.com/best-books/s...
Slow Living
The best books on Slow Living, as recommended by journalist and author Carl Honoré
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January 10, 2026 at 2:00 AM