New Book Recommendations
NONFICTION BOOKS
NEWS: Question 7 by Richard Flanagan wins the Baillie Gifford Prize
“There’s a connection with The Narrow Road to the Deep North because that book was also concerned with his father’s experience of being a slave laborer in the Second World War: he was an Australian captured by the Japanese”
FICTION
NEWS: Orbital wins the 2024 Booker Prize
Orbital by Samantha Harvey, the first book set in space to win the Booker Prize, follows a team of astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
CRITICAL THINKING BOOKS
Third Millennium Thinking by Saul Perlmutter, Robert MacCoun and John Campbell
“This is a brilliant book by eminent thinkers in their fields who are also superb communicators”
HISTORICAL NOVELS
My Father’s House by Joseph O’Connor
“Joseph O’Connor gives a masterclass in the different voices of the people gathered around the priest Hugh O’Flaherty to help him organise and run the Escape Line—the escape routes out of Italy for POWs and others being pursued by the Nazis”
Most Popular Expert Interviews
NONFICTION BOOKS
The Best Nonfiction Books of 2024: The Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist, recommended by Isabel Hilton
“There’s a Zeitgeist feel to them. They’re very much about today, but each…is drawing threads from the past”
HISTORICAL FICTION
The Best Historical Fiction Set in the American South, recommended by Xan Brooks
“There is the sense of it being a haunted land, still screaming, with no clarity or resolution”
SCIENCE FICTION BOOKS
The Best Sci-Fi Series, recommended by novelist and historian Ada Palmer
“I often think about it, especially if I’m structuring my own series, like composing a symphony”
NONFICTION BOOKS
Notable Nonfiction of Fall 2024, recommended by Sophie Roell
“It’s been a great few months for new nonfiction”
HISTORICAL FICTION
The Best Historical Fiction of 2024: the Walter Scott Prize with judging chair Katharine Grant
“It’s been a wonderful year for historical fiction”
FICTION BOOKS
Notable Novels of Fall 2024, recommended by deputy editor Cal Flyn
“What are the novels everyone is talking about in Fall 2024?”
NONFICTION BOOKS
The 2024 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding
Charles Tripp, chair of the judging panel, talks us through this year’s shortlist
MILITARY HISTORY
British military historian Sir Antony Beevor on the best books on World War II
“Goebbels was a diabolical genius. He saw that hatred was not enough and you had to combine hatred with fear if you were going to get the maximum killing potential out of your followers”
Recent Reader Lists
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