• The Best Jimmy Carter Books - Stayin Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class by Jefferson Cowie
  • The Best Jimmy Carter Books - Panic at the Pump: The Energy Crisis and the Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s by Meg Jacobs
  • The Best Jimmy Carter Books - Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President by Jimmy Carter
  • The Best Jimmy Carter Books - His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life by Jonathan Alter
  • The Best Jimmy Carter Books - Thirteen Days in September: The Dramatic Story of the Struggle for Peace by Lawrence Wright

The Best Jimmy Carter Books, recommended by Robert Lieberman

For good books to understand Jimmy Carter and his presidency, it’s important to understand the context in which he was elected and served as president, argues political scientist Robert Lieberman. Here, he recommends five books on Jimmy Carter, winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize: “Carter was who he seemed to be, which is not something you often say about successful politicians.”

  • The best books on The History of Angola (pre-20th century) - Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen by Linda Heywood
  • The best books on The History of Angola (pre-20th century) - Cross-Cultural Exchange in the Atlantic World: Angola and Brazil during the Era of the Slave Trade by Roquinaldo Ferreira
  • The best books on The History of Angola (pre-20th century) - Slave Trade and Abolition: Gender, Commerce, and Economic Transition in Luanda by Vanessa Oliveira
  • The best books on The History of Angola (pre-20th century) - Lourenço da Silva Mendonça and the Black Atlantic Abolitionist Movement in the 17th Century by José Lingna Nafafé
  • The best books on The History of Angola (pre-20th century) - A History of West Central Africa to 1850 by John Thornton

The best books on The History of Angola (pre-20th century), recommended by Mariana Candido

West Central Africa was involved in the transatlantic slave trade from its inception in the fifteenth century until it ended in the late nineteenth century. It’s the region that lost the largest number of enslaved people to the transatlantic slave trade, with over 5.6 million people taken away. And yet Angola, where three of the five main slaving ports were located, is little studied in English. Here, Mariana Candido, a professor at Emory University, introduces us to some of the best books (available in English) on this era of Angolan history, from the biography of one ruler, Njinga Mbandi, to a survey of the entire period.

  • The Best Colombian Novels - One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
  • The Best Colombian Novels - Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
  • The Best Colombian Novels - Una holandesa en América by Soledad Acosta de Samper
  • The Best Colombian Novels - The Vortex by José Eustasio Rivera
  • The Best Colombian Novels - December Breeze by Marvel Moreno

The Best Colombian Novels, recommended by Pilar Quintana

Colombian novels shot to international prominence after the publication of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, which told the story of his small, Colombian hometown by mixing in fantastical elements. The novel spoke to readers around the globe and García Márquez would go on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Here, contemporary Colombian novelist Pilar Quintana introduces us to the works of this ‘genius’ as well as some of the other great novels of Colombian literature.

  • The best books on Using Data to Understand the World - Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World — And Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling
  • The best books on Using Data to Understand the World - The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver
  • The best books on Using Data to Understand the World - Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction by Dan Gardner & Philip E Tetlock
  • The best books on Using Data to Understand the World - Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts by Annie Duke
  • The best books on Using Data to Understand the World - Hello World: How to Be Human in the Age of the Machine by Hannah Fry

The best books on Using Data to Understand the World, recommended by Edouard Mathieu

Even as more and more data becomes available, many of us have a view of the world that doesn’t correspond to reality. On probabilities in particular, people tend to be completely clueless. Here Edouard Mathieu, Head of Data at Oxford-based research group Our World in Data, recommends books to help readers not only use data to better understand the world, but also make better decisions in daily life.

  • The best books on New York History - The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell Shorto
  • The best books on New York History - New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan by Jill Lepore
  • The best books on New York History - Slavery in New York by Ira Berlin & Leslie Harris (editors)
  • The best books on New York History - Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 by George Chauncey
  • The best books on New York History - New York and Los Angeles by David Halle (editor)

The best books on New York History, recommended by Louise Mirrer

Like several of the great cities of the world, New York’s openness to people born elsewhere and relative tolerance lay at the foundation of its success, though darker episodes in the city’s 400-year history also need attention. Historian Louise Mirrer, President of the New-York Historical Society, recommends books that are essential to understanding the essence of the Big Apple.

  • The best books on Digital Africa - Invisible Users: Youth in the Internet Cafés of Urban Ghana by Jenna Burrell
  • The best books on Digital Africa - Digital Entrepreneurship in Africa: How a Continent Is Escaping Silicon Valley's Long Shadow by Mark Graham, Michel Wahome & Nicholas Friederici
  • The best books on Digital Africa - China Africa and the Future of the Internet by Iginio Gagliardone
  • The best books on Digital Africa - Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics: How the Internet Era is Transforming Politics in Kenya by Nanjala Nyabola
  • The best books on Digital Africa - Africa's Information Revolution by James Murphy & Padraig Carmody

The best books on Digital Africa, recommended by Mohammad Amir Anwar

The internet and digital technology are transforming not only the way African countries trade and conduct business but also how they cohere socially and politically. Mohammad Amir Anwar, Lecturer in African Studies and International Development at the University of Edinburgh, recommends books that investigate the opportunities for Africa from the growth of technology—but focus on specifics and avoid the hype.

  • The best books on Bosnia - Postcards from the Grave by Emir Suljagic
  • The best books on Bosnia - The Quick and the Dead: Under Siege in Sarajevo by Janine di Giovanni
  • The best books on Bosnia - Genocide on the Drina River by Edina Becirevic
  • The best books on Bosnia - When Neighbors Were Real Human Beings by Eli Tauber
  • The best books on Bosnia - A Balkan Journey by Chris Leslie

The best books on Bosnia, recommended by Velma Šarić

As a teenager, Velma Šarić’s hometown of Kladanj welcomed refugees from eastern Bosnia as it was bombed and shelled, her primary school eventually becoming a shelter for people fleeing the massacre at Srebenica. Now she runs Sarajevo’s Post-Conflict Research Centre, trying to prevent anything like it from ever happening again. She recommends books to read on the Bosnian War and explains that it was not a war between different communities, but rather an assault on the country’s multiethnic, multicultural identity.

  • The best books on The Mughal Empire - Negotiating Mughal Law: A Family of Landlords across Three Indian Empires by Nandini Chatterjee
  • The best books on The Mughal Empire - The Princes of the Mughal Empire, 1504–1719 by Munis Faruqui
  • The best books on The Mughal Empire - Millennial Sovereign: Sacred Kingship & Sainthood in Islam by A. Azfar Moin
  • The best books on The Mughal Empire - Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court  by Audrey Truschke
  • The best books on The Mughal Empire - Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary by Rajeev Kinra

The best books on The Mughal Empire, recommended by Richard M. Eaton

The Mughals ruled the Indian subcontinent for three centuries, a multicultural empire that brought together an extraordinary mix of Mongol, Islamic, Persian and Indian practices, religious beliefs and philosophies. Here, historian Richard M. Eaton, a professor at the University of Arizona, chooses some of the best scholarly works on the Mughals that shed new light on how the empire functioned.

  • Essential Norwegian Fiction - Gisli Sursson’s Saga by Various
  • Essential Norwegian Fiction - Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun and Sverre Lyngstad (translator)
  • Essential Norwegian Fiction - Shyness and Dignity by Dag Solstad and Sverre Lyngstad (translator)
  • Essential Norwegian Fiction - Beatles by Don Bartlett (translator) & Lars Saabye Christensen
  • Essential Norwegian Fiction - My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgård and Don Bartlett (translator)

Essential Norwegian Fiction, recommended by Roy Jacobsen

Sagas old and new, from Gisli Sursson’s trials to Knausgård’s struggle, form the backbone of Roy Jacobsen’s selection of essential fiction from Norway, a country that is like ‘a black and not very polished diamond’, and where writers and readers seek out the human, ‘no matter how awkward, grandiose, sentimental, nostalgic, embarrassing, hyperbolic, stupid, hilarious or dangerous it may be’

  • The best books on Venice - The Stones of Venice by John Ruskin
  • The best books on Venice - Italian Venice: A History by R.J.B. Bosworth
  • The best books on Venice - The Girl from Venice by Martin Cruz Smith
  • The best books on Venice - The Architectural History of Venice by Deborah Howard
  • The best books on Venice - Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon

The best books on Venice, recommended by Matthew Rice

Venice once ruled an empire that stretched across the eastern Mediterranean, but by the early modern period was already evolving into a city whose greatest claim to fame was as a tourist destination. Here Matthew Rice, author and illustrator of Venice: A Sketchbook Guide, recommends books to read about Venice and its history and architecture, as well as a couple of crime thrillers to read while you’re there.

  • The Best South Asian Novels in Translation - Phoolsunghi by Pandey Kapil, translated by Gautam Choubey
  • The Best South Asian Novels in Translation - The Bronze Sword of Tengphakhri Tehsildar by Indira Goswami, translated by Aruni Kashyap
  • The Best South Asian Novels in Translation - The Upheaval by Pundalik Naik, translated by Vidya Pai
  • The Best South Asian Novels in Translation - Battles of Our Own by Jagadish Mohanty, translated by Himansu S. Mohapatra and Paul St-Pierre
  • The Best South Asian Novels in Translation - Sarasvatichandra by Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi, translated by Tridip Suhrud

The Best South Asian Novels in Translation, recommended by Jenny Bhatt

The writer and translator Jenny Bhatt selects five key works of South Asian literature, all historical novels available in English translation, that showcase the richness and diversity of the region’s lesser known languages: from a modernist classic decrying the depradations of the coal mining industry to a ‘loose, baggy monster’ of a Victorian novel exploring utopian ideals.

  • The Best African Novels - The Famished Road by Ben Okri
  • The Best African Novels - The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
  • The Best African Novels - Burma Boy by Biyi Bandele
  • The Best African Novels - Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • The Best African Novels - Opening Spaces: An Anthology of Contemporary African Women's Writing by Yvonne Vera (editor)

The Best African Novels, recommended by Blessing Musariri

“We are connected to the spirit and it’s an active connection. It’s not somewhere that’s only in the afterlife, it’s here in the present as well. That, I think, is endemic across all African cultures and traditions,” says Zimbabwean novelist and poet Blessing Musariri. Here she recommends some of the best African novels, books that had a big personal impact and have stayed with her.

  • The best books on The Venetian Empire - Venice: A Documentary History 1450-1630 by Brian Pullan & David Chambers
  • The best books on The Venetian Empire - The Military Organization of a Renaissance State: Venice 1400-1617 by John Rigby Hale & Michael E. Mallett
  • The best books on The Venetian Empire - Venice: A Maritime Republic by Frederic Chapin Lane
  • The best books on The Venetian Empire - Venice: the Hinge of Europe by William McNeill
  • The best books on The Venetian Empire - The Venetian Empire: A Sea Voyage by Jan Morris

The best books on The Venetian Empire, recommended by Georg Christ

The Venetian Republic was one of the mightiest empires of early modern Europe, with its Terraferma dominions on land and a maritime empire, the Stato da Màr,  that stretched across the Mediterranean. Its unique strength lay in long-distance trade and, as historian Georg Christ explains, in some ways, it resembled a company more than a state. Here, he recommends books to better understand the Venetian empire, what it was and how it grew.

  • The Best China Books of 2021 - The Shortest History of China: From the Ancient Dynasties to a Modern Superpower by Linda Jaivin
  • The Best China Books of 2021 - Monkey King: Journey to the West Wu Cheng'en and Julia Lovell (translator)
  • The Best China Books of 2021 - The Chinese Communist Party: A Century in Ten Lives Edited by Timothy Cheek, Klaus Mühlhahn and Hans van de Ven
  • The Best China Books of 2021 - Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen
  • The Best China Books of 2021 - In the Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony by Darren Byler

The Best China Books of 2021, recommended by Jeffrey Wasserstrom

Whether you want to read the entire history of China in 250 pages or find out what’s going on right now in Xinjiang, enjoy a new translation of a 16th-century fantasy novel or delve into contemporary short stories, 2021 has been another good year for books about China. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chancellor’s Professor of History at UC Irvine, recommends his favourite China books of 2021.

  • Five of the Best Works of Belarusian Literature - Voices From Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich
  • Five of the Best Works of Belarusian Literature - Alindarka's Children by Alhierd Bacharevič, translated by Jim Dingley and Petra Reid
  • Five of the Best Works of Belarusian Literature - Music for the Dead and Resurrected by Valzhyna Mort
  • Five of the Best Works of Belarusian Literature - King Stakh's Wild Hunt by Uładzimir Karatkievič
  • Five of the Best Works of Belarusian Literature - The Colours of the Parallel World by Mikola Dziadok

Five of the Best Works of Belarusian Literature, recommended by Hanna Komar

Writers have been subject to persecution and repression in Belarus, and increasingly so in the aftermath of the protests that swept the nation in 2020 and 2021. Owning or distributing books deemed ‘extremist’ by the Lukashenko government can be enough to land you in jail. Here, the poet and activist Hanna Komar selects five of the best works of Belarusian literature that offer a glimpse of the culture and mindset of this post-Soviet nation, and the bravery of those who continue to fight for political freedom.

  • The best books on Sri Lanka - The Sri Lanka Reader: History, Culture, Politics by John Clifford Holt
  • The best books on Sri Lanka - An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon by Robert Knox
  • The best books on Sri Lanka - The Road to Peradeniya: An Autobiography by Ivor Jennings
  • The best books on Sri Lanka - When Memory Dies by A. Sivanandan
  • The best books on Sri Lanka - Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje

The best books on Sri Lanka, recommended by Razeen Sally

Many visitors to Sri Lanka have been beguiled by its charms, from its hill towns to its beaches, its ancient temples to its friendly people. And yet, for a quarter of a century until 2009, it was torn apart by a brutal civil war. Here, Sri Lanka-born political economist Razeen Sally, author of Return to Sri Lanka: Travels in a Paradoxical Land, recommends the best books to get a better understanding of Sri Lanka and the complexities that make the country so fascinating to visit and read about.

  • The best books on Ukraine and Russia - Ukraine and Russia: From Civilied Divorce to Uncivil War by Paul D'Anieri
  • The best books on Ukraine and Russia - Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know by Serhy Yekelchyk
  • The best books on Ukraine and Russia - Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament: A History by Yuri Kostenko
  • The best books on Ukraine and Russia - Ukraine in Histories and Stories: Essays by Ukrainian Intellectuals
  • The best books on Ukraine and Russia - The Orphanage: A Novel by Serhiy Zhadan

The best books on Ukraine and Russia, recommended by Serhii Plokhy

Thousands of people have been killed since 2014 in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, in a war that has been rife with disinformation, misleading narratives and false flag operations. Here Serhii Plokhy, Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University, recommends books to better understand the conflict, from an introductory work by an eminent historian to the latest work of some of Ukraine’s leading novelists.

  • The Best Books for Learning French - Assimil French by Anthony Bulger
  • The Best Books for Learning French - Short Stories in French for Beginners by Olly Richards & Richard Simcott
  • The Best Books for Learning French - Tintin au Tibet by Hergé
  • The Best Books for Learning French - Le Tour de Gaule d'Astérix by Albert Uderzo & Rene Goscinny
  • The Best Books for Learning French - Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Best Books for Learning French, recommended by Vincent Serrano-Guerra

In spite of all the online ads promising to teach you a new language in a matter of minutes, learning a language takes time and commitment—and motivation is critical. Here Vincent Serrano-Guerra, author of a book for learning French that focuses on the 20,000 words that are the same in French and English, explains how best to set about it and recommends some books that’ll also get you familiar with French culture.

  • Best West African Fantasy Books for Teenagers - Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
  • Best West African Fantasy Books for Teenagers - The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna
  • Best West African Fantasy Books for Teenagers - Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Best West African Fantasy Books for Teenagers - Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
  • Best West African Fantasy Books for Teenagers - Daughters of Nri by Reni K Amayo

Best West African Fantasy Books for Teenagers, recommended by Efua Traoré

Fantasy inspired by West Africa is taking the literary scene for teens and young adults by storm. These books have strong world-building and all the usual fantasy ingredients. At the same time, drawing on rich seams of mythology and magical traditions such as juju, they bring something entirely fresh to the genre. Author Efua Traoré talks us through her pick of West African fantasy novels for teenagers.

  • The Best Vietnamese Novels - The Lover by Marguerite Duras
  • The Best Vietnamese Novels - The Zenith: A Novel by Duong Thu Huong
  • The Best Vietnamese Novels - The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh
  • The Best Vietnamese Novels - The Crystal Messenger by Pham Thi Hoai
  • The Best Vietnamese Novels - The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Best Vietnamese Novels, recommended by Sherry Buchanan

Vietnam has had a tumultuous history and its literature is one powerful way of trying to understand it better. Journalist, author and publisher Sherry Buchanan—who has spent two decades introducing Vietnam’s culture to English-speaking audiences—talks us through the best Vietnamese novels available in English, spanning the years from French colonialism to the 2016 Pulitzer Prize.

  • The best books on The US Cabinet - The Process of Government under Jefferson by Noble Cunningham
  • The best books on The US Cabinet - The Politics of the US Cabinet by Jeffrey E. Cohen
  • The best books on The US Cabinet - Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • The best books on The US Cabinet - Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris
  • The best books on The US Cabinet - The Man Who Ran Washington by Peter Baker & Susan Glasser

The best books on The US Cabinet, recommended by Lindsay Chervinsky

In contrast to many other countries, the secretaries who serve in the United States cabinet aren’t chosen from among the country’s elected officials but entirely reflect the president’s personal choices. Here, presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky, author of The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, talks us through the role of the cabinet and recommends which books to read to understand more about it.

  • The best books on The Harlem Renaissance - Harlem Shadows by Claude McKay
  • The best books on The Harlem Renaissance - Passing by Nella Larsen
  • The best books on The Harlem Renaissance - Cane by Jean Toomer
  • The best books on The Harlem Renaissance - When Harlem Was in Vogue by David Levering Lewis
  • The best books on The Harlem Renaissance - Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals by Saidiya Hartman

The best books on The Harlem Renaissance, recommended by William J. Maxwell

It was a golden age for American culture, a flourishing of Black literature, music and the arts that exploded in the 1910s and lasted through to the Great Depression. It was focused on Harlem, the area of New York City above Central Park, but its origins and its impact were much, much broader. William J. Maxwell, Professor of English and African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, recommends some of the best books on the Harlem Renaissance.

  • The best books on Islam and the State - Islam and the Foundations of Political Power by Ali Abdel Razek
  • The best books on Islam and the State - The Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldun
  • The best books on Islam and the State - The Venture of Islam, Volume 3: The Gunpowder Empires and Modern Times by Marshall Hodgson
  • The best books on Islam and the State - Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia by Robert W. Hefner
  • The best books on Islam and the State - Muslims and the State in Britain, France, and Germany by J. Christopher Soper & Joel S. Fetzer

The best books on Islam and the State, recommended by Ahmet T. Kuru

It’s widely assumed that in the ideal Muslim society there is no separation between religion and the state, but even in some of the earliest caliphates, the secular and the religious were rarely as closely aligned as religious conservatives would have us believe. Here Ahmet T. Kuru, Professor of Political Science at San Diego State University, recommends books that help trace the historical relationship between Islam and the state—and points to strands of secularism that may hold the key to a happier relationship between Islam and liberal democracy.

  • The best books on Contemporary India - An Area of Darkness: A Discovery of India by V.S. Naipaul
  • The best books on Contemporary India - Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India by Sujatha Gidla
  • The best books on Contemporary India - English, August by Upamanyu Chatterjee
  • The best books on Contemporary India - Countdown by Amitav Ghosh
  • The best books on Contemporary India - Spring, Heat, Rains: A South Indian Diary by David Shulman

The best books on Contemporary India, recommended by Kapil Komireddi

As the world’s biggest democracy, India could be an inspiring example of how a multiethnic, multilingual country with many different religions can come together to form a vibrant state with equality enshrined in its constitution. But all that is in danger of going down the drain, as the country transforms into a brutally exclusionary Hindu-supremacist state under the leadership of Narendra Modi, says Kapil Komireddi, essayist and author of Malevolent Republic: A Short History of the New India. Here, he talks us through how the country got to where it is now and recommends five books that present a “comprehensive picture” of contemporary India.

  • The best books on Immigration and Race - Travelling While Black: Essays Inspired by a Life on the Move by Nanjala Nyabola
  • The best books on Immigration and Race - The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move by Sonia Shah
  • The best books on Immigration and Race - Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America by Mae M. Ngai
  • The best books on Immigration and Race - Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism by Harsha Walia
  • The best books on Immigration and Race - Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda by Jean Guerrero

The best books on Immigration and Race, recommended by Reece Jones

In a series of books, Reece Jones, Professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawaii, has explored the impact of borders on our lives. In his latest book, White Borders, he delves into the history of immigration and race in the United States, and explains the connection between the two. Here, he recommends the best books he’s read on the topic and explains why he’s not optimistic about the future.