Interviewer
Sophie Roell, Editor
Sophie Roell is co-founder and editor of Five Books. Previously she worked as a journalist in London, Beijing, Shanghai and New York. As a financial reporter, she covered the early years of the Chinese stock markets and the transition of its economy after Deng Xiaoping’s 1992 tour of the south. She wrote about the North Korean economy from Pyongyang in 2001.
She studied modern history as an undergraduate at Oxford and, after travelling the world as a reporter for five years, took the Master’s in Regional Studies-East Asia at Harvard University. This wonderfully flexible program insists on at least one East Asian language and some courses on East Asia, but leaves plenty of room to roam about the university taking courses on random subjects. Five Books, set up in 2009, is an attempt to continue that experience.
Below, you’ll find Sophie’s Five Books interviews with experts. Her own recommendations, normally nonfiction, are here. She also reads a lot of mysteries.
Interviews by Sophie Roell
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1
The Corporation in the Twenty-First Century: Why (Almost) Everything We Are Told About Business Is Wrongfnew ec
by John Kay -
2
Tribal: How the Cultural Instincts That Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together
by Michael Morris -
3
Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World
by Parmy Olson -
4
The Longevity Imperative: Building a Better Society for Healthier, Longer Lives
by Andrew Scott -
5
Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War
by Christopher Kirchhoff & Raj Shah -
6
Growth: A History and a Reckoning
by Daniel Susskind
The Best Business Books of 2024: the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, recommended by Andrew Hill
The Best Business Books of 2024: the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, recommended by Andrew Hill
From how to channel the tribal instincts innate to Homo sapiens to the role of Silicon Valley in the future of warfare, the Financial Times book award—now in its 20th year—has a broad definition of what makes a good business book. FT journalist Andrew Hill, the prize’s organizer, talks us through the six excellent books that made the 2024 shortlist.
The best books on Algeria, recommended by Xavier Le Clerc
In his book, A Man With No Title, Xavier Le Clerc tells the story of his father, who was born in extreme poverty in the mountains of Algeria and emigrated to France to give his children a better life. Here he recommends books by some of Algeria’s greatest writers—and explains how they shed light on his father’s life and Algeria’s experience of French colonialism.
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1
Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization
by Ed Conway -
2
Smoke and Ashes: Opium's Hidden Histories
by Amitav Ghosh -
3
The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Global History of Mathematics & its Unsung Trailblazers
by Kate Kitagawa & Timothy Revell -
4
Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise Healthcare
by Annabel Sowemimo -
5
Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues
by Ross Perlin -
6
The Tame and the Wild: People and Animals after 1492
by Marcy Norton
The 2024 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, recommended by Charles Tripp
The 2024 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, recommended by Charles Tripp
The British Academy Book Prize is awarded annually for a nonfiction book that combines rigorous research with engaging writing—and promotes global cultural understanding. Charles Tripp, chair of this year's judging panel, explains what that means and introduces the six books that made the 2024 shortlist.
The Best Adventure Novels: The 2024 Wilbur Smith Prize, recommended by Emma Styles
If you love adventure stories, you’ll be delighted to hear that there’s a book prize fully focused on them. Novelist Emma Styles, one of the judges for the 2024 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, talks us through the shortlist for best published novel, from pirates in the Caribbean to World War II Italy, from Victorian London to a dystopian future Britain—by way of Nigeria and Tbilisi, Georgia.
The best books on The Lessons of History, recommended by Roman Krznaric
History is too complex to be an easy guide for navigating the present, but that doesn't mean the experience of those who came before can't shed valuable insights into our current dilemmas. In his latest book, History for Tomorrow, social philosopher Roman Krznaric looks at ten crises currently facing the world and how lessons from the past might be able to help.
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1
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
by Siddhartha Mukherjee -
2
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
by Atul Gawande -
3
When Breath Becomes Air
by Paul Kalanithi -
4
Rebel Cell: Cancer, Evolution and the New Science of Life
by Kat Arney -
5
Stories of Cancer and Hope
by Kevin Donaghy
The best books on Cancer, recommended by Jarle Breivik
The best books on Cancer, recommended by Jarle Breivik
Many of us view cancer as an enemy that we have to fight and look forward to the day it is eliminated by modern medicine. But that’s not going to happen, says Jarle Breivik, a professor of medicine at the University of Oslo. He argues for a more realistic approach to cancer as a fundamental part of life and what it means to be human.
Five Biographies of Artists, recommended by Sue Prideaux
From the Baroque painter who killed a man in Rome during the Counter-Reformation to the surrealist artist who left Britain and died in Mexico City in 2011, award-winning biographer Sue Prideaux talks to us about her favorite biographies of artists. Her new biography of Paul Gauguin, Wild Thing, is out this week and has been longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize.
Historical Novels Set in Italy, recommended by Tracy Chevalier
Historical novels are at their most compelling when they get the details of daily life in the past right, argues bestselling author Tracy Chevalier. She picks five of her favorite historical novels set in Italy, from 16th-century Florence to 1950s Naples, with a couple of stops in Venice, where her own latest novel, The Glassmaker, is set.
Five Classic European Spy Novels, recommended by Patrick Worrall
From a noir novel by Eric Ambler set in 1930s Europe to some of the great spy thrillers of the post-World War II era, British novelist Patrick Worrall, author of The Exile, talks us through five of his favourite espionage novels.
The Best Ian Fleming Books, recommended by Charlie Higson
Ian Fleming wrote the James Bond novels late in his life, before dying of a heart attack at the age of just 56. Charlie Higson, author of the Young Bond series and a novella, On His Majesty’s Secret Service, introduces us to the man and his life and talks us through his five favourite Bond books.