Latest Book Recommendations

The Best of Trans Literature, recommended by Susan Stryker

Many of the current controversies over transgender rights and identities derive from false beliefs, explains the author and academic Susan Stryker. Here she selects five excellent contemporary trans titles with depth, complexity and heart, to help us reframe what has all too often become a toxic debate

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Recent Recommendations

Angela Saini on Scientific Differences between Women and Men Books

Emily Wilson on The Odyssey

Michael Morpurgo on His Novels

Most Recommended Books

On Liberty by John Stuart Mill

Recommended 9 times

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Recommended 8 times

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

Recommended 8 times

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Recommended 7 times

Confessions of St Augustine by St Augustine

Recommended 7 times

The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright

Recommended 7 times

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

Recommended 7 times

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Recommended 6 times

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Recommended 6 times

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Recommended 6 times

Most Popular Book Recommendation Interviews

The best books on Data Science, recommended by Roger D. Peng

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Holiday Gift Ideas for Book Lovers

Presents for Shakespeare Scholars

Tchaikovsky: Fantasias after Shakespeare
$

Orchestral treatments of Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest and Hamlet, from the great Romantic.

The First Folio: the Norton Facsimile
$$$$

First published in 1968, this remarkable work of scholarship is an ideal gift for the serious Shakespeare reader.

Great historical Shakespeare recordings
$

A notable audio anthology preserving the performances of Gielgud, Olivier, Irving, Terry and more.

Thames Shakespeare Collection DVD
$

More classic productions, this time for the screen: Kenneth Branagh, Ian McKellan and Judi Dench star.

Bards Dispense Profanity
$

A Shakespearean twist on the popular Cards Against Humanity game; all the smutty answers are direct quotes.

Small Fashionable Gifts for Culture Vultures

Jane Austen Socks
$

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a good pair of socks."

Salvador Dalí Analog Watch
$$

Dalí's moving moustache serves as the watch's hands, while an ant marches around the rim of the watch, ticking off the seconds.

I Read Dead People Tote Bag
$

Are you a bibliophile with baggage? Look no further.

Edgar Allen Poe-ka Dot Scarf
$

Do you get chilly when walking home from the library? "Nevermore."

The Scream Tie
$

One of the most recognised images in all of western art, 'The Scream' seems a suitable reaction to contemporary events.

Recent Reader Lists

Our aim is to make Five Books the place to go to on the web for book recommendations, arranged by topic. Help us achieve our goal by making a reading list on a subject you know a lot about. These lists have been created by our readers using our new interactive tool. Browse them all, or make your own.

Five of the books that helped me understand 2018, recommended by Phil Darby

Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government (Princeton Studies in Pol
by Christopher H. Achen & Larry M. Bartels

Forgetfulness: Making the Modern Culture of Amnesia
by Francis O'Gorman

The Tribe: The Liberal-Left and the System of Diversity (Societas)
by Ben Cobley

National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy
by Roger Eatwell & Matthew Goodwin

Demons: A Novel in Three Parts (Vintage Classics)
by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Five books that have inspired me this year, recommended by danielccandedu

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
by Yuval Noah Harari

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
by Yuval Noah Harari

Thicker Than Water: History, Secrets and Guilt: a Memoir
by Cal Flyn

I'll Be Gone in the Dark
by Michelle McNamara

His Bloody Project
by Graeme Macrae Burnet

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