We are taught to value intelligence and academic ability, but raw mental firepower does not always translate into success at work or a life of contentment. Just as important are the skills that make up ’emotional intelligence,’ says Daniel Goleman, whose bestselling book popularised the concept. Here he chooses five books that explore its practical applications.

Old age. We all hope to reach it, but there are big differences between a ‘good’ old age and one beset by dementia or Alzheimer’s. Neuroscientist and science writer, Kathleen Taylor, talks us through the latest science on ageing and the literary works that can give us a clearer picture of what it’s all about.

Dr Genevieve Von Lob talks to Five Books about the pressures and strains on family life today, and how a mindful approach can help us all.

Love and marriage may go together like a horse and carriage, but what happens when the horses are spooked and the whole procession is run off the road? Katie Kitamura, whose new novel A Separation charts the disastrous—and tragic—failure of a marriage, considers some of literature’s most heartfelt accounts of relationship failure

Systems thinking is key to figuring out how relationships work, says Mira Kirshenbaum, psychotherapist and clinical director of the Chestnut Hill Institute. She chooses the best books to help us understand modern relationship therapy.

Is old age necessarily degrading? Should we leave home in our final years? Is there ever a good time to go? Novelist, biographer and critic Dame Margaret Drabble, now aged 77, discusses the difficult questions that arise as we age—and recommends five books that examine them in depth.

The award-winning writer recommends the best books on friendship, the theme of her latest novel Animals.

Aristotle tells us that all politics starts in the family, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the infamously fraught relationship between mother and daughter. Here, the novelist, playwright and poet Deborah Levy chooses five books – or rather, four books and one film – that explore motherhood.

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 that best explore the emotionally complex dynamics that characterise mother-daughter relationships.

Fathers and mothers play very different roles in a child’s development, says professor of child psychiatry, Kyle Pruett. He recommends essential reading on fatherhood—for both parents.

The novelist, whose forthcoming book lays bare a dysfunctional relationship with his brother, tells us about love and rivalry among siblings – and the dark, even murderous, impulses that can be engendered

Family dynamics are changing dramatically in our modern, workaholic age. The novelist – and sister of Steve Jobs, separated at birth – selects five works of fiction that illustrate some truths about families in all their variety

The author of the self-satirising memoir on ambitious “tiger mothers” talks us through the books about motherhood that have made the most impact on her.

Research shows that middle-aged sex is the best of people’s lives, says journalist and author Kate Figes. She picks the best books on sex and marriage.

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

As a young Dutch Jewish girl, Johanna Reiss survived World War II hidden in the attic of a farmer called Johan Oosterveld. Her memoir of that time, The Upstairs Room, is still read in schools today. But while she was researching that book in 1969, her American husband, Jim, killed himself. In this interview, she recommends books on the painful subject of suicide, as well as the music that helped heal the pain.

The National Journal columnist and author of Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America recounts his own marriage odyssey, starting with Mary Poppins.