Latest Book Recommendations

The Best Memoirs: The 2021 NBCC Autobiography Shortlist, recommended by Marion Winik

From fleeing the Liberian civil war to selling pot brownies in San Francisco, the finalists for the 2021 National Book Critics Circle award for the best autobiography offer five vivid life stories, told expertly. Critic, broadcaster and author Marion Winik talks us through the brilliant memoirs that made the 2021 shortlist.

Recent Recommendations

The Best Narrative Nonfiction Books, recommended by Samira Shackle

The best books on African American Women’s History recommended by Keisha N. Blain
"Today's Black activists are building upon the rich and dynamic legacy of all of the women in these books"

The best Kafka books, recommended by Stanley Corngold of Princeton University
"With few exceptions, there is zero correlation between persons who employ the trope ‘Kafkaesque’ and those who have actually read Kafka"

Most Popular Expert Interviews

The Best Nonfiction Books of 2020,
recommended by Sophie Roell, Editor of Five Books
"Tastes in reading are so personal that it’s with considerable trepidation that I recommend any books"

Comfort Reads, recommended by Neil Gaiman
"Escapism, for me, is worth its weight in gold. What I’ve been reading for pleasure lets me travel."

The Best History Books: the 2020 Wolfson Prize, recommended by Sir Richard Evans
"Global history has made great strides in the last 15 years or so and The Boundless Sea is a very good example of how history on a global scale is being written in Britain at the moment.”

The Best Fiction of 2020, recommended by Margaret Busby, chair of this year's Booker Prize judges
"We didn’t check passports or work permits or birth certificates. We read the books"

The best sci fi of 2020, recommended by Tom Hunter, director of the Arthur C. Clarke Award
"An alien world gives you the opportunity to explore both this strange new planet and, also, humanity”

The Best Philosophy Books of 2020, recommended by Nigel Warburton
"I’m always drawn to biography, because I think that’s a very good way into ideas as well as contextualizing them”

The best critical thinking books, recommended by British philosopher Nigel Warburton
"Pessimists tend not to notice changes for the better"

“Everybody should have the skill of thinking computationally” Dr Ana Bell of MIT on books for learning Computer Science

"In Nietzsche’s view, consciousness and reasoning are fairly superficial aspects of human beings." Brian Leiter updates his reading recommendations of the best Nietzsche books

Most Recommended Books

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright
wealth of nations
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Plato's Republic
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

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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.

Best Books About Artists in 2020 – A Pick List by Hauser & Wirth Publishers, recommended by Romas Viesulas

Richard Jackson
by John Welchman, Dagny Corcoran & Richard Jackson

Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Cont
by Antwaun Sargent, Thomas Lax, Jamillah James, Jessica Brown, Graham Boettcher, Connie H. Choi, Anthon

Maria Lassnig: Letters to Hans Ulrich Obrist: Living with Art Stops One Wilting!
by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Peter Pakesch, Hans Werner Poschauko & Maria Lassnig

Luchita Hurtado
by Karen Marta, Hans Ulrich Obrist & Luchita Hurtado

Philip Guston Now (D.A.P./NATIONAL)
by Harry Cooper, Mark Godfrey, Alison de Lima Greene, Kate Nesin, Philip Guston, Peter Fischli, Trenton

The Best Books on Walking, recommended by Elan Kluger

Walking
by Henry David Thoreau

A Philosophy of Walking
by Frederic Gros, Clifford Harper & John Howe

Werner Herzog – A Guide for the Perplexed
by Paul Cronin

In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration
by Shane O'Mara

Twilight of the Idols: or How to Philosophize with a Hammer (Oxford World's Classics)
by Friedrich Nietzsche

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