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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 3h

“I don’t know how these people got any sleep. This is a court that revolved around sex, there’s no question about it.”
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Memoirs of Dauntless Daughters

In her book The Rival Queens, historian Nancy Goldstone explored the destructive relationship between Marguerite de Valois and her mother Catherine de' Medici. Here she chooses five different memoirs…

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 7h

"Being an ethical carnivore means trying only to eat meat that you understand comes from a good source."
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Eating Meat

What does it mean to be an ethical meat-eater? Author and journalist Louise Gray chooses five books that examine the impact of our omnivorous lifestyle

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 10h

"This year we have four female and two male authors on the shortlist, which is the first time that’s ever happened in the 30-plus years history of the award."
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The Best Science Fiction of 2020

The best science fiction of 2020: Tom Hunter, director of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction, discusses their 2020 shortlist.

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 13h

“The developer wanted to evoke that sense of awe, and wonder, and smallness of the people who first landed on the moon.”
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Video Games

The best books on video games, as recommended by Katherine Isbister, professor of computational media at the University of California.

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 13h

Books by @willdalrymple.bsky.social, @profsophieharman.bsky.social

Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 13h

NEW: "We want something that’s written in sparkling and engaging prose that will be a pleasure to read" Rebecca Earle, chair of the judges, talks us through the brilliant books that made the shortlist of the 2025 @britishacademy.bsky.social Book Prize:
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The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 British Academy Book Prize

To be shortlisted for the annual British Academy Book Prize, books have to be both rigorously researched and highly readable. Historian Rebecca Earle, chair of the 2025 judging panel, talks us…

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 15h

"He was important in his own time and I think he is important for our time. He was the most radical and independent thinker of the 17th century."
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Spinoza

The best books to learn more about the 17th Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza, recommended by Spinoza expert Steven Nadler.

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 17h

"For me, as a reader, I think novellas are about being able to get into a story that is intense and engrossing—more so than a short story—but one that you can hold in your head all in one go, unlike a longer novel."
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The Best Novellas

The best novellas—short and intense works of fiction of 100–150 pages in length—as recommended by the acclaimed writer Claire Fuller.

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 20h

"He [Herodotus] is the first person who does this business of saying, ‘Well this is what the Persians say about it and this is what the Greeks say about it, so let’s try and work out what’s the truth in between.’"
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The History of the Present

Historian and journalist Timothy Garton Ash describes the "mongrel genre" between reportage and scholarship and says using the historian’s tools to analyse the present is a vital undertaking

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 23h

"Volcanic eruption is like a gigantic waterfall or a huge storm and it’s very attractive, a visible manifestation of the power of the earth."
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Volcanoes

The respected author and veteran journalist, Simon Winchester, gives illuminating interview with Five Books on volcanoes and volcanic eruptions.

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 1d

"As Germany has come to accept that it is a country that many people immigrate to, we’re getting a lot of exciting writing out of that."
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The Best 21st-Century German Novels

There's always been a fondness in the English-speaking world for novels about German history, but recently the books being translated into English have become much more diverse and interesting, says…

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 1d

"Ayn Rand was born Alyssa Rosenburg in St Petersburg, Russia, and was 12 when the Russian Revolution took place and all her family’s property was snatched."
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Libertarianism

The magazine editor, journalist and biographer of Ayn Rand selects five books that define the essence of libertarianism. Atlas Shrugged is first on her list

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 1d

"Atheism, on the face of it, seems straightforward: it’s not theism. It’s a belief that there is no God or gods. But it’s slightly more complicated than that...."
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Atheism

Which are the best books on atheism? The philosopher and author of Atheism: A Very Short Introduction chooses his top five.

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 1d

"Book sales soared during the lockdown months because people turned to books for joy and comfort during an incredibly difficult year."
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The Best Romance Books of 2021

The best romance books of 2021, as chosen by romantic fiction junkie and popular romance blogger, Natasha Tomic

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 1d

"Following the Second World War and in the early phase of the Cold War, it was assumed that there was an unbreakable alliance between the Soviet Union and China."
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Uyghur Nationalism

It's hard to understand what's going on in the Xinjiang region of China and the nationalism of the Uyghurs who live there without reading some history. Here Professor Michael Dillon, a historian at…

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 1d

"For a long time no one ever talked about politics. It was a boring thing to be endured every general election. Suddenly it was everywhere."
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Brexit

The best Brexit books, as recommended by Boris Starling, journalist and Bluffer's Guide to Brexit author. Find your Brexit book.

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 1d

"Economies and businesses are organic entities that evolve over time and operate within a social context. You can’t look at them independently of that."
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Economics in the Real World

Most people completing degrees in economics won't have read these books, but they should, says British economist John Kay.

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 1d

"You hear almost nothing about the sexual act. The pleasure is instantly pain, because it’s about loss. And this is what adultery is about, particularly for women. It always ends in loss, in devastation."
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Adultery

The poet, novelist and author of memoirs explores parallels between faith in the divine and commitment to a worldly erotic passion, and books that show you can have purity within licentiousness.

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 2d

“About 80 percent of children’s book authors, editors, illustrators, marketers and reviewers are white worldwide”
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Books on Black Icons for Children

Jamia Wilson and Andrea Pippins discuss books that that tell the life stories of some of the greatest black icons in history – and why reading books that celebrate these extraordinary lives can be…

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 2d

"Everywhere you look, you see either problems with potentially trusted institutions being untrustworthy, or gaps in trust which lead to all sorts of inefficiencies."
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Blockchain

The best blockchain books, as recommended by Kevin Werbach, professor at Wharton business school and author of Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 2d

"For the prize, the criteria the judges are looking for are pretty clear. It’s about the originality of the book: quite simply, we’re looking for something that we don’t feel that we’ve read before."
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The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist

Every year the judges of the Baillie Gifford Prize pick out the best nonfiction books published in the United Kingdom over the previous 12 months. Author and books journalist Caroline Sanderson,…

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 2d

"People have always been interested in seeing things – seeing things in the clouds, in tea leaves, in blots of ink. It stimulates their imagination, and in some cases they feel they’ve learned something."
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Inkblots

The author of a modern, inkblot-based character test, Will Hobson, discusses the history and cultural resonances of the inkblot, from Hugo to Warhol

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 2d

Mary Berry’s favourite cookbooks
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Favourite Cookbooks

Mary Berry has written over 70 books, but what are her own favourite cookbooks? Here she shares her top five with us.

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 2d

“Reading history is like experiencing another life.”
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The Best History Books for 8-10 year olds

Are you trying to get your son or daughter into reading more history? Here Alex, a 10-year old boy living in Oxfordshire in the UK, shares some of his favourite history books.

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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 2d

"He used to be holding the thing that he was describing in his hands. It could be a flower, leaf or fruit, and he would be describing it just as he saw it, rather than looking it up anywhere else."
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Gardening

Gardening expert Helen Dillon recommends five books that have influenced her, from 300-year old gardening tips to the difficulty of describing flowers

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