Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations
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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
"I’ve written about Antarctica, when I was a young woman, and it was a vision of hope and purity, innocence – a country where there had never been war."
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The Polar Regions
The acclaimed author discusses the Polar Regions. She says an African In Greenland is the best book ever written on Greenland - the story of a man from Togo who went there in the 1960s
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November 26, 2025 at 10:01 PM
"I’ve written about Antarctica, when I was a young woman, and it was a vision of hope and purity, innocence – a country where there had never been war."
fivebooks.com/best-books/s...
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NEW: The best business books of 2025, our annual interview with @andrewtghill.ft.com, organizer of the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award:
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The Best Business Books of 2025: the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award
It’s been another big year for technology and AI, but books on geopolitics and global political rivalries are front and centre on the shortlist of the 2025 Financial Times Business Book of the Year…
fivebooks.com
November 26, 2025 at 8:00 PM
NEW: The best business books of 2025, our annual interview with @andrewtghill.ft.com, organizer of the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award:
fivebooks.com/best-books/b...
fivebooks.com/best-books/b...
"There’s always this sense of multiple lives—that there were multiple routes I could have gone down. When I did choose to be part of a happy family, there was an impulse to destabilize it, to try to live another life or multiple lives again."
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Grief
The best grief books and the best books about mourning, loss and death recommended by Oxford academic and memoirist Sophie Ratcliffe.
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November 26, 2025 at 7:02 PM
"There’s always this sense of multiple lives—that there were multiple routes I could have gone down. When I did choose to be part of a happy family, there was an impulse to destabilize it, to try to live another life or multiple lives again."
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fivebooks.com/best-books/g...
"Born digital describes works that are created with a computer and are meant to be read on the computer."
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The Best Electronic Literature
The best electronic literature, recommended by literary scholar and digital literature specialist, Jessica Pressman.
fivebooks.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:04 PM
"Born digital describes works that are created with a computer and are meant to be read on the computer."
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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, but Ian managed to."
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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
fivebooks.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:00 PM
"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, but Ian managed to."
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"The United States originates in the anxiety of history, the anxiety of breaking away from an entirely old system into an entirely new system."
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The Best Novels about the History of the United States
An exploration of the history of the United States may require novels that are challenging to read but offer the reward of really making you think about a complex subject. Literary scholar Bernard T.…
fivebooks.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:01 PM
"The United States originates in the anxiety of history, the anxiety of breaking away from an entirely old system into an entirely new system."
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"If you’re representing a corporation on some contract issue or whatever, you might charge up to $1,000 an hour. If you’re doing a death penalty case it wasn’t long ago that we got paid $1,000 for the whole case and it would come out to below minimum wage."
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Capital Punishment
The lawyer, who’s defended many clients on death row, tells us why the legal system in capital cases is set up to fail, and says all of us should know more about what happens in an execution
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November 26, 2025 at 6:00 AM
"If you’re representing a corporation on some contract issue or whatever, you might charge up to $1,000 an hour. If you’re doing a death penalty case it wasn’t long ago that we got paid $1,000 for the whole case and it would come out to below minimum wage."
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"If you’ve been a bit bored by having the Victorians endlessly shoved down your throat at school, this might change your mind about history and the way you think about the past!"
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The Best Teen and Young Adult Historical Fiction
The very best historical fiction for teens, as recommended by historical novelist KJ Whittaker.
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November 26, 2025 at 2:00 AM
"If you’ve been a bit bored by having the Victorians endlessly shoved down your throat at school, this might change your mind about history and the way you think about the past!"
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"We started to use new methods in peace-building education; by using art, photography and new technologies, we develop multimedia projects that incorporate storytelling and historical remembrance."
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Bosnia
The best books on Bosnia, focusing particularly on the 1990s war and its cultural and humanitarian consequences.
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November 25, 2025 at 10:01 PM
"We started to use new methods in peace-building education; by using art, photography and new technologies, we develop multimedia projects that incorporate storytelling and historical remembrance."
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fivebooks.com/best-books/b...
“I wanted to write about what it means to grow up, to have to rely on your older brothers for wisdom and outlook on life.”
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Boyhood and Growing Up
The award-winning author says the family unit, like a country, can only be destroyed from within. He chooses the five best books on boyhood and growing up.
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November 25, 2025 at 7:01 PM
“I wanted to write about what it means to grow up, to have to rely on your older brothers for wisdom and outlook on life.”
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"Low-wage countries should theoretically be expected to catch up with the leaders on the back of technology adoption and capital investment. Still, perplexingly, there’ve been only halting signs of economic convergence."
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The Great Divergence
Why did Europe move ahead of the rest of the world in the early modern period? Books on 'the great divergence,' recommended by Davis Kedrosky
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November 25, 2025 at 4:03 PM
"Low-wage countries should theoretically be expected to catch up with the leaders on the back of technology adoption and capital investment. Still, perplexingly, there’ve been only halting signs of economic convergence."
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NEW: The best new science books for kids, recommended by Tamsin Mather, chair of the 2025 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize judging panel fivebooks.com/best-books/b...
Best New Science Books for Children: Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize 2025
The best new science books for kids: the 2025 Royal Society book prize shortlist, introduced by Professor Tamsin Mather
fivebooks.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:00 PM
NEW: The best new science books for kids, recommended by Tamsin Mather, chair of the 2025 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize judging panel fivebooks.com/best-books/b...
"I look for two things in a great book: great writing skill, technical brilliance if you like, or a soaring imagination, but also how the book makes me feel, particularly if it makes me feel things deeply."
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Modern Classics
Five of the best 'modern classic' books, as recommended by the Lake District shepherd and bestselling author James Rebanks
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November 25, 2025 at 12:02 PM
"I look for two things in a great book: great writing skill, technical brilliance if you like, or a soaring imagination, but also how the book makes me feel, particularly if it makes me feel things deeply."
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fivebooks.com/best-books/m...
"A lot of the choices we make with environmental impact are now choices we make consciously. We can ask what kind of world we want."
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Climate Change Innovation
Environmental studies professor Roger Pielke Jr says innovation is the only way to reverse climate change and chooses five books on the subject.
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November 25, 2025 at 6:00 AM
"A lot of the choices we make with environmental impact are now choices we make consciously. We can ask what kind of world we want."
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"I don’t think we really think enough about what children do and why they do it. We make too many judgments and pronouncements."
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Child Psychology and Mental Health
Clinical psychologist, author and broadcaster discusses the stigmas attached to mental health problems, and asks whether, as a society, we are really doing what's best for our children
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November 25, 2025 at 2:01 AM
"I don’t think we really think enough about what children do and why they do it. We make too many judgments and pronouncements."
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"Very unusually for his time, he is interested particularly in the science not just of what we see but of why something looks the way that it does in terms of our acts of seeing."
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Leonardo da Vinci
Every generation has its own Leonardo, and for many he remains a man of mystery. Professor Martin Kemp discusses the best books on Leonardo da Vinci.
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November 24, 2025 at 10:01 PM
"Very unusually for his time, he is interested particularly in the science not just of what we see but of why something looks the way that it does in terms of our acts of seeing."
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"When did human beings first become literate? Who was able to read in different societies – men or women, adults or children, masters or slaves?"
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The History of Reading
We can learn about the past not just through what was written but how it was read. Historian of books Leah Price tells us about reading aloud in Roman times, Gutenberg-era marginalia, and Middle Age…
fivebooks.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:30 PM
"When did human beings first become literate? Who was able to read in different societies – men or women, adults or children, masters or slaves?"
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fivebooks.com/best-books/h...
"It is sort of like a long-running love affair or being married for a long time. You constantly find new things out about your partner."
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Paris
The best books on Paris, as recommended by long-time Paris resident and American author David Downie. Discover the quintessential Paris with this reading list.
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November 24, 2025 at 4:03 PM
"It is sort of like a long-running love affair or being married for a long time. You constantly find new things out about your partner."
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fivebooks.com/best-books/p...
NEW: "We need a strong movement of people insisting that medicine and society take muscle seriously" Michael Gross, author of the brilliant "Stronger" (@duttonbooks.bsky.social) on why muscles are so important for our health:
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@schwarzenegger.bsky.social
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@schwarzenegger.bsky.social
The Best Strength Books
In Stronger, Michael Joseph Gross, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, investigates strength in all its dimensions. Over the decade he spent reporting it, Gross interviewed scientists, athletes,…
fivebooks.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:00 PM
NEW: "We need a strong movement of people insisting that medicine and society take muscle seriously" Michael Gross, author of the brilliant "Stronger" (@duttonbooks.bsky.social) on why muscles are so important for our health:
fivebooks.com/best-books/t...
@schwarzenegger.bsky.social
fivebooks.com/best-books/t...
@schwarzenegger.bsky.social
“We invent the Shakespeare that we want or that speaks to our time”
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Shakespeare's Reception
The best books on Shakespeare's reception or after-life, recommended by Shakespeare scholar Emma Smith of the University of Oxford
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November 24, 2025 at 12:01 PM
“We invent the Shakespeare that we want or that speaks to our time”
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"What’s the role of the theater? In some ways, the whole project of editing a book of plays is contrary to the fluidity that those texts would have in the theater."
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Shakespeare's Reception
The best books on Shakespeare's reception or after-life, recommended by Shakespeare scholar Emma Smith of the University of Oxford
fivebooks.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:00 AM
"What’s the role of the theater? In some ways, the whole project of editing a book of plays is contrary to the fluidity that those texts would have in the theater."
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fivebooks.com/best-books/s...
“Data doesn’t speak for itself. We need to speak for the data”
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fivebooks.com/best-books/b...
The Best Math Books of 2019
The best math and mathematics books of 2019, recommended by leading expert Kit Yates, Senior Lecturer in mathematical biology at the University of Bath.
fivebooks.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:00 AM
“Data doesn’t speak for itself. We need to speak for the data”
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fivebooks.com/best-books/b...
“Lawrence’s writings are very intimately bound up with his life”
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The Best D.H. Lawrence Books
Although less flamboyantly experimental than his contemporaries Joyce and Woolf, D H Lawrence too was a modernist, says literary scholar Catherine Brown.
fivebooks.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:00 PM
“Lawrence’s writings are very intimately bound up with his life”
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"We’ve abandoned the model whereby everyone is aspiring to make a copy of grand red Bordeaux or white Burgundy. We can choose from all sorts of weird and wonderful wines and different provenances."
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fivebooks.com/best-books/w...
Wine
The best wine books, as recommended by the Financial Times wine critic, Jancis Robinson. Wine is nothing if not geography in a bottle, she says.
fivebooks.com
November 23, 2025 at 7:00 PM
"We’ve abandoned the model whereby everyone is aspiring to make a copy of grand red Bordeaux or white Burgundy. We can choose from all sorts of weird and wonderful wines and different provenances."
fivebooks.com/best-books/w...
fivebooks.com/best-books/w...
“Unlike in Aristotle’s time, now, science can help to improve our character”
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fivebooks.com/best-books/c...
Character Development
The best books on character development, recommended by Angela Duckworth – author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverence
fivebooks.com
November 23, 2025 at 4:00 PM
“Unlike in Aristotle’s time, now, science can help to improve our character”
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