Cal Flyn, Deputy Editor

During Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, Muslims fast during daylight hours and refrain from sinful behaviours. We asked Tharik Hussain, author of acclaimed travelogue Minarets in the Mountains and the new companion guide Ramadan Mubarak, to choose five texts that offer readers insight into the true meaning of Ramadan.

The Scottish Highlands are known for the stark splendour of the landscape and the bellowing of the stags. They have inspired many classic works of poetry and nature writing, says Annie Worsley—the author of a memoir set on Scotland’s rugged north west coast. Here, she recommends five books on the Scottish Highlands that portray the people and their place.

It's been a “phenomenal” year for autobiographical writing, says May-lee Chai—the award-winning author and chair of the judges for this year's National Book Critics Circle prize for autobiography. Here she offers us a tour of the five memoirs that made their 2024 shortlist.

A war correspondent’s job is to be as close to the front line as possible and to provide as unbiased an account of a conflict as they can, explains the veteran journalist James MacManus. Here he selects five of the best books by war correspondents and explains why memories of that lifestyle now offer him literary inspiration.

J. G. Ballard, the British science fiction writer and surrealist, is often credited as some kind of modern-day prophet. But what he was really doing was taking contemporary trends and extending them to their logical extremes, argues Mark Blacklock, the literary scholar and editor of a new collection of Ballard’s nonfiction writing. Here he selects five of Ballard’s best books.

The beloved British author Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) sold millions of copies of his 41-book Discworld series. But he also wrote standalone novels, children’s stories, and shorter fantasy series—all works of comic genius that drew from his polymathic knowledge and omnivorous reading habits. Here, Pratchett biographer Marc Burrows highlights five of Terry Pratchett’s best books. Read more fantasy book recommendations on Five Books

The genre of philosophical biography is flourishing, as we pay attention not only to what philosophers said and wrote but also to how they lived and the intellectual context in which they developed their ideas. Nigel Warburton, our philosophy editor, picks out some of the best philosophy books of the year, from the man who lived in a storage jar in 5th century Athens to the latest contributions of cognitive science to our understanding of how we experience the world. Read more philosophy book recommendations on Five Books

Comedy comes in many flavours, explains Peter Florence—chair of the judges for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. Here, he talks us through the varied shortlist for this year’s prize: the six funniest books of 2023.

Metaphysical literature calls into question the very nature of reality, says the acclaimed US novelist Greg Jackson: it dramatises “the liquid mysteries of thought, pattern, and form.” Here, he highlights five ‘metaphysical thrillers’—artfully written novels powered by intrigue, which explore or embody philosophical dilemmas.

Sound encodes incredible amounts of information—not only words, music, and other audible forms of communication, but complex spatial data too. Caspar Henderson, author of the ‘auraculous’ new essay collection The Book of Noises, selects five of the best books on sound, from the buzzing of bees to the ghostly whisper of the aurora.