Sophie Roell, Editor

There’s nothing in modern works of fiction that wasn’t already there in the great novels of the 18th century, argues Sophie Gee, a professor of English at Princeton University and co-host of the Secret Life of Books podcast. She talks us through five of her favourites, from the irrepressible Moll Flanders to the melancholic beauty of Sense and Sensibility.

James Bond novels may be a lot of fun to read, but as a depiction of life as a spy, they are pure fantasy. Novelist and ex-spy Charles Beaumont recommends five brilliant novels based on true events—and the manipulation and dishonesty that lie at the heart of espionage work.

British author Kate Summerscale has mastered the art of writing historical nonfiction books that are real page-turners. Here, she shares some of her own favorites, from the murder of a family in 1959 Kansas to the tragedy of Japan after the 2011 tsunami.

Whether it’s a tragic novel set in post-indepedence Sudan or picaresque stories about a Palestinian living in Israel after 1948, many of the key Arab novels of the 20th century are available in English. Raphael Cormack, a professor of Arabic studies at Durham University, talks us through five novels from a variety of countries that explore different themes and trends in the evolution of the novel in the Arabic-speaking world.

In the West, Daoism (also spelled ‘Taoism’ in English) has sometimes been reduced to a ‘go with the flow’ approach to life, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Simon Cox, a scholar and martial arts teacher, recommends five books that demonstrate Daoism’s “robust intellectual and aesthetic traditions” since the movement first appeared in China two-and-a-half millennia ago.

Biographies of musicians are a good way to learn more about music without getting too technical, argues musicologist and composer Andrew Ford, author of the brilliant Shortest History of Music. He chooses five of his favorite music biographies, books that set “a life in the context of the times and a musical life in the context of the music.”

Chile is a country of extremes says travel writer and translator Natascha Scott-Stokes, who has lived there for nearly two decades. She chooses five books that give a good sense of the country, from a novel by one of Chile’s great writers, to the biography of the folk singer who was brutally murdered after the 1973 military coup.

The history of Brazil is closely connected with the history of the slave trade, with nearly half the 12.5 million enslaved Africans transported to the Americas ending up there. Ana Lucia Araujo, a historian at Howard University and author of Humans in Shackles, talks us through the books that shed light on that history and how Brazil’s past cannot be understood without also studying its connections with Africa.

An exploration of the history of the United States may require novels that are challenging to read but offer the reward of really making you think about a complex subject. Literary scholar Bernard T. Joy talks us through five novels that explore U.S. history, from colonial times to the end of the 20th century.

It’s January and time for our annual interview with an AI chatbot. We asked ChatGPT for its latest recommendations for books on artificial intelligence.