• The Best Novels of 2023: The Booker Prize Shortlist - Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
  • The Best Novels of 2023: The Booker Prize Shortlist - The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
  • The Best Novels of 2023: The Booker Prize Shortlist - If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
  • The Best Novels of 2023: The Booker Prize Shortlist - Western Lane by Chetna Maroo
  • The Best Novels of 2023: The Booker Prize Shortlist - This Other Eden by Paul Harding
  • The Best Novels of 2023: The Booker Prize Shortlist - Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein

The Best Novels of 2023: The Booker Prize Shortlist, recommended by Cal Flyn

Every year, the judges for the Booker Prize read more than a hundred books that have been submitted by their publishers in the hope of being recognised by one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards. The 2023 shortlist features a novel-in-stories, an Irish dystopia, and plenty of family drama. Read more fiction recommendations on Five Books

  • The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist - Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant
  • The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist - Mr. B: George Balanchine’s Twentieth Century by Jennifer Homans
  • The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist - Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance by Jeremy Eichler
  • The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist - Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849 by Christopher Clark
  • The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist - Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution by Tania Branigan
  • The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist - Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children by Hannah Barnes

The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist, recommended by Frederick Studemann

If you’re looking for compelling stories that also happen to be true, the UK’s Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction is a great place to start. Frederick Studemann, Literary Editor of the Financial Times, talks us through the six brilliant books that made the 2023 shortlist, from a gripping account of a 2016 firestorm in Alberta to the shadow the Cultural Revolution continues to cast over today’s China. Read more nonfiction book recommendations on Five Books

  • The Best Historical Fiction: The 2023 Walter Scott Prize Shortlist - These Days by Lucy Caldwell
  • The Best Historical Fiction: The 2023 Walter Scott Prize Shortlist - I Am Not Your Eve by Devika Ponnambalam
  • The Best Historical Fiction: The 2023 Walter Scott Prize Shortlist - The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane
  • The Best Historical Fiction: The 2023 Walter Scott Prize Shortlist - Ancestry: A Novel by Simon Mawer
  • The Best Historical Fiction: The 2023 Walter Scott Prize Shortlist - The Chosen by Elizabeth Lowry
  • The Best Historical Fiction: The 2023 Walter Scott Prize Shortlist - The Geometer Lobachevsky by Adrian Duncan

The Best Historical Fiction: The 2023 Walter Scott Prize Shortlist, recommended by Cal Flyn

Every year, the judges for the Walter Scott Prize highlight the best new historical fiction. In 2023, the shortlisted books include a slow-burn mystery set in colonial Australia and a thrilling new novel from the author of Fatherland. Cal Flyn, our deputy editor, takes us through the seven books that are set 60+ years in the past and yet speak to the present.

  • The 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist - Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris
  • The 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist - Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
  • The 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist - The Marriage Portrait: A Novel by Maggie O'Farrell & narrated by Genevieve Gaunt
  • The 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist - Pod by Laline Paull
  • The 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist - Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks
  • The 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist - Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

The 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist, recommended by Cal Flyn

Every year, the Women’s Prize for Fiction highlights the best novels written by women over the previous twelve months. In 2023, the six-strong Women’s Prize shortlist features the latest books by beloved bestsellers Barbara Kingsolver and Maggie O’Farrell, plus a debut novel set during the siege of Sarajevo and a book told primarily from the point of view of a dolphin.

  • The Best History Books of 2023: The Wolfson History Prize - The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe by James Belich
  • The Best History Books of 2023: The Wolfson History Prize - Resistance: The Underground War in Europe, 1939-1945 by Halik Kochanski
  • The Best History Books of 2023: The Wolfson History Prize - Portable Magic: A History of Books and Their Readers by Emma Smith
  • The Best History Books of 2023: The Wolfson History Prize - The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire by Henrietta Harrison
  • The Best History Books of 2023: The Wolfson History Prize - African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History by Hakim Adi
  • The Best History Books of 2023: The Wolfson History Prize - Vagabonds by Oskar Jensen

The Best History Books of 2023: The Wolfson History Prize, recommended by Sudhir Hazareesingh

The Wolfson History Prize is the UK’s most prestigious history book prize. The judges, all professional historians, pick out books that combine excellence in research with readability. Oxford University historian Sudhir Hazareesingh, one of the Wolfson judges and author of Black Spartacus, talks us through the six terrific books that made the 2023 shortlist, from the Black Death and its critical impact on economic development to the magic of our relationship with books. Read more history book recommendations on Five Books

  • Notable Psychology and Self-Help Books of 2023 - Psych: The Story of the Human Mind by Paul Bloom
  • Notable Psychology and Self-Help Books of 2023 - The Success Myth: Letting Go of Having It All by Emma Gannon
  • Notable Psychology and Self-Help Books of 2023 - Drama Free: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships by Nedra Glover Tawwab
  • Notable Psychology and Self-Help Books of 2023 - Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life by Dacher Keltner
  • Notable Psychology and Self-Help Books of 2023 - Data Baby: My Life in a Psychological Experiment by Susannah Breslin

Notable Psychology and Self-Help Books of 2023, recommended by Cal Flyn

It’s that time of year again: January is the month to batten down the hatches, work off all those rich festive meals, and get to work on your new year’s resolutions. Understanding the workings of your own brain—theoretically or even in purely practical terms—can be an important tool for achieving your goals. Here our deputy editor spotlights some of the most notable psychology and self-help books published in 2023 to help you on your way.

  • The Best Audiobooks of 2023 - The Late Americans: A Novel by Brandon Taylor & Kevin R. Free (narrator)
  • The Best Audiobooks of 2023 - Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel
  • The Best Audiobooks of 2023 - Making It So: A Memoir by Patrick Stewart
  • The Best Audiobooks of 2023 - Poverty, by America by Dion Graham (narrator) & Matthew Desmond
  • The Best Audiobooks of 2023 - 10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall & Will Watt (narrator)

The Best Audiobooks of 2023, recommended by Laura Sackton

AudioFile magazine is one of the best places on the web for audiobook reviews. At the end of every year, its editors compile lists that highlight the best audiobooks across a range of genres, including fiction, nonfiction, biography and mystery. Laura Sackton, a contributor at AudioFile, talks us through some of her favourites from their best of 2023 lists—and explains how she got the bug for listening to books as well as reading them.

  • UPDATED: The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2023: The Hugo Awards - Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
  • UPDATED: The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2023: The Hugo Awards - The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
  • UPDATED: The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2023: The Hugo Awards - The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • UPDATED: The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2023: The Hugo Awards - Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
  • UPDATED: The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2023: The Hugo Awards - The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
  • UPDATED: The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2023: The Hugo Awards - Babel: An Arcane History by R. F. Kuang

UPDATED: The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2023: The Hugo Awards, recommended by Sylvia Bishop

The Hugo Awards, first presented in 1953, were originally known as the ‘Science Fiction Achievement Awards.’ But, in practice, their shortlists encompass speculative fiction as a whole, including fantasy—and is considered one of that genre’s most prestigious prizes. Here, Sylvia Bishop offers an overview of this year’s nominees in the ‘Best Novel’ category, which represent the most popular sci-fi and fantasy books of 2023. Note: We have updated this list to include a book that was excluded for political reasons.