Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations

The Best of Fantasy | Five Books recommends Immerse yourself in another world with our fantasy book recommendations.

A book of fantasy, at its simplest, is any book that has magic in it.
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The Best Cozy Mystery Books If you're looking for a murder set in a pleasant environment—often an English village—with a charming sleuth and minimal bloodshed, cozy mysteries could be the genre for you. Sophie Roell, editor of…

"Any list of cozy mysteries has to start with Agatha Christie and, in particular, the books featuring Jane Marple, an elderly lady living in the fictional English village of St. Mary Mead."
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Five Books: The best books on Schoolmasters in Fiction, recommended by David Hargreaves Novelist and former schoolmaster David Hargreaves discusses five classic works of fiction that portray teachers and the complex relationships they maintain with their pupils.

"Teachers are very conscious of ageing in the sense of energy and your ability."
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Five Books: Best Music Books for Kids, recommended by Meurig and Rachel Bowen The best music books for kids, as recommended by husband-and-wife musician team Rachel and Meurig Bowen.

"Essentially, music has benefits for maths, language and development as well as general well-being. It’s also great for concentration, coordination and confidence. My experience as a music teacher in schools absolutely confirms this."
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China Travelling to China? What books should you read for a more in-depth understanding? The best books on China, recommended by the New Yorker's Evan Osnos.

"Property developers have become the face of the gap between the rich and the poor and issues about justice and equity which are so dominant in the Chinese conversation."
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High Performance Psychology To reach your full potential you must put as much effort into building mental resilience as you do into work or training, advises high-performance psychologist Dr Michael Gervais. Here, he selects…

"There isn’t one golden thread that binds together the best in the world, but there are some common ones."
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Italian Food The best books on Italian Food, as recommended by Ruth Rogers co-founder of the acclaimed River Cafe restaurant.

"As an American, I had always thought Italian cuisine was the kind of Italian food I had growing up in New York, which is very heavy and more based on southern Italian cooking. Lots of meatballs, thick sauces and melted cheese."
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Books Awards - Interviews with the judges, winners and shortlisted authors Book awards and literary prizes are a great way to find the best new books. We have interviews with judges, winners and shorlisted authors.

Here's our collection of interviews with the judges of various book awards that we think are worth paying attention to, about their shortlists, year in and year out.
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Making Movies Darren Aronofsky, the director of "Mother!" and "Black Swan", recommends the books that inspired him with making movies.

"By the time I became a working filmmaker, Vogler had become larger than life to me."
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Manifest Destiny The best books on Manifest Destiny and American expansionism, as recommended by Prof Andrew Isenberg of the University of Kansas

“People of the time would have seen it the same way that we see politicians today invoking the Almighty to justify a political position”
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The Best Native American Literature The best native American literature and novels, recommended by Megan Tusler of UChicago and the 'Better Read than Dead' podcast

"Native American novels don’t necessarily have to be about the past or about pastness. Native American novels are not just about experiences that are unique to indigenous people."
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The Best Hiking Memoirs The best memoirs about hiking and other journeys on foot, as recommended by Gail Simmons, author and modern-day pilgrim

"Seeing the landscape on foot is very different to seeing it while traveling by any other means, even on a bike."
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Personal Branding Cynthia Johnson, the author of Platform: The Art and Science of Personal Branding, selects the best books on building a better personal brand.

"Personal branding, from my perspective, is essentially just the evolution of our resumes. It’s everything people can find out about us online."
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The 1970s Andy Beckett’s choices point to a welcome reassessment of the 1970s, that much-maligned 'gothic' decade, and sweep from London to Los Angeles by way of Malcolm Bradbury and John le Carré.

"Unless you had fairly esoteric interests in the 40s, you probably wouldn’t have spotted the free-marketeers getting their thing together in Switzerland. They were bow-tied figures of derision."
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American History - Five Books Expert Recommendations American History books recommended by eminent historians

“American history,” President John Kennedy said, “is always alive, always growing, always unfinished.” So is our section on American history books, as we explore themes from U.S. presidents and the country's institutional structures to different periods.
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Five Books: The best books on The Glorious Revolution, recommended by Steven Pincus Historian Steven Pincus recommends the best books on the Glorious Revolution

"Macaulay’s work was extremely important in a number of ways. It was incredibly well researched: He had an army of research assistants and used archival material that had hitherto been unutilised."
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Being Kinder to Yourself and Others Cut yourself some slack, says the clinical psychologist Ross White as he recommends books about being kinder to ourselves and others.

"In my clinical work and my personal life, I am acutely aware that we can all be harsh to ourselves; we all have an ‘inner critic’ to contend with."
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The Best Kids’ Books in Translation The best kids' books in translation, books that open up new worlds, recommended by Adam Freudenheim, managing director of Pushkin Press.

“One of the things I had noticed with my own kids was just how few books were translated for children”
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Five Books: The best books on Shakespeare’s Reception, recommended by Emma Smith The best books on Shakespeare's reception or after-life, recommended by Shakespeare scholar Emma Smith of the University of Oxford

"Shakespeare in particular has now started to be seen through the lens of reception. That includes aspects of the history of Shakespeare studies, of reading, theatre, editing, adaptation and so on."
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Simple Cooking The Michelin-starred chef Bruno Loubet chooses the book that taught him the shortcomings of everything he had learned in catering school, and four other favourites. Two are by Australian chef…

“My food has always been described as something very gutsy with a lot of direct and strong flavour and I think that’s the terroir.”
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Khaled Hosseini Khaled Hosseini is a novelist and former doctor best known for his historical novels set in Afghanistan. He was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and later moved to the United States.

#OTD in 1965, doctor-turned-writer Khaled Hosseini was born. His novels bring modern Afghanistan to life. “This is one of the most beautifully written books. It’s one of my favourites. It is so poignant."—Shazia Khan
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Happiness Through Negative Thinking The best books on Negative Thinking, as recommended by Guardian journalist and psychology columnist Oliver Burkeman.

"Sometimes it is the very pursuit of happiness that stops us from achieving it."
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The best biographies—as selected by the experts "Great biographies are more than a chronicle of a life; rather, they resonate deeply with and evoke the drama of the time."

Whether you're looking for new biographies, best biographies of 2024, or outstanding works written decades or even centuries ago, we have some recommendations.
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The Ethics of Technology The best books on the ethics of technology, as selected by Tom Chatfield, author of Wise Animals: How Technology Has Made Us What We Are

“Our ability to be good and do good is bound up with the systems through which we’re connected and interconnected”
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Historical Novels Based on True Stories Five of the best historical novels based on true stories, as recommended by Emily Howes—author of Mrs. Dickens and The Painter's Daughters

NEW

The best historical fiction should transport the reader directly into the past, yet offer insight into the present, argues novelist Emily Howes. Here, she recommends five of her favourite historical novels inspired by true stories.

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Friendship The writer recommends the best books on friendship.

“We prize romance or romantic love more highly than friendship: morally, financially, in every way.”
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The Most Beautifully Illustrated Children's Books The most beautifully illustrated books for kids, recommended by children's book illustrator and teacher Ella Beech

"I found something appealing in the strangeness as a child, and I still like books that have a touch of whimsy and oddness to them."
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Time The best books on time. Our experience of time is only weakly related to the fundamental realities of physics, says physicist Carlo Rovelli.

“Our common understanding, where the future is fundamentally different from the past is inadequate for understanding the nature at large”
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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

"Life is too short and there’s a lot to cram in before you die, so I want to read the very best books ever written."
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Friedrich Hayek Friedrich Hayek was not a great formal economist, but he has been hugely influential politically and in the evolution of modern microeconomics, perhaps in spite of himself, argues Philip Mirowski, a…

"Even though Hayek is not super well known among modern economists, he has turned out to be very important for the evolution of modern microeconomics."
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