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
The best books on Satanism, recommended by La Carmina
Over the centuries, horrible crimes have been committed by Christians accusing others of being followers of the Devil. The label of Satanism was one of the worst imaginable in a religious society. However, from the 17th century onwards, some of the greatest writers began to find in Satan, the fallen angel, a sympathetic character whose opposition to the tyranny of heaven was not entirely unreasonable. Today, modern Satanists embrace the label, pursuing a nontheistic religion that celebrates individualism as well as critical thinking, explains blogger and journalist La Carmina, author of The Little Book of Satanism.
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1
The Invention of Miracles: Language, Power, and Alexander Graham Bell's Quest to End Deafness
by Katie Booth -
2
Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955
by Harald Jähner & Shaun Whiteside (translator) -
3
Osebol: Voices from a Swedish Village
by Marit Kapla & Peter Graves (translator) -
4
Horizons: The Global Origins of Modern Science
by James Poskett -
5
When Women Kill: Four Crimes Retold
by Alia Trabucco Zerán & Sophie Hughes (translator) -
6
Kingdom of Characters: A Tale of Language, Obsession, and Genius in Modern China
by Jing Tsu
The British Academy Book Prize: 2022 Shortlist, recommended by Philippe Sands
The British Academy Book Prize: 2022 Shortlist, recommended by Philippe Sands
The annual British Academy book prize rewards “works of nonfiction that have contributed to public understanding of world cultures and their interaction.” Human rights lawyer Philippe Sands, one of the prize’s judges, talks us through the books that made the 2022 shortlist and explains what makes them so compelling.
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1
The Detective Stories of Edgar Allan Poe: Three Tales Featuring C. Auguste Dupin
by Edgar Allan Poe -
2
The Mystery of the Yellow Room
by Gaston Leroux -
3
The Third Bullet and Other Stories
by John Dickson Carr -
4
Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938)
by Agatha Christie -
5
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders
by Ross and Shika Mackenzie (translators) & Soji Shimada
The Best Golden Age Mysteries, recommended by Martin Edwards
The Best Golden Age Mysteries, recommended by Martin Edwards
Partly as a response to the horrors of World War I, the 1920s and 30s saw a surge in the writing of whodunnits, a period often referred to as the ‘golden age’ of mystery writing. Here, Martin Edwards, one of the leading experts on the genre, picks out some key works, with a special focus on ‘locked room’ mysteries.
The Best Russian Novels, recommended by Orlando Figes
They’re among the finest novels ever written, often vast in their scope and ambitious in their subject matter. Some are long, others can be read in an afternoon. They’re also one of the best ways of understanding Russian history. Historian Orlando Figes, author of The Story of Russia and Natasha’s Dance, recommends his favourite Russian novels, from the 19th century to today.
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.
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1
The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia
by E L Jones -
2
The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy
by Kenneth Pomeranz -
3
The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress
by Joel Mokyr -
4
Guns, Germs and Steel
by Jared Diamond -
5
How the World Became Rich: The Historical Origins of Economic Growth
by Jared Rubin & Mark Koyama
The best books on The Great Divergence, recommended by Davis Kedrosky
The best books on The Great Divergence, recommended by Davis Kedrosky
After a slow start, why did northwest Europe move ahead of the rest of the world in the early modern period and establish an economic dominance whose effects are felt to this day? Davis Kedrosky, a student at Berkeley and publisher of the economic history newsletter, Great Transformations, introduces ‘the Great Divergence’ and suggests some books that get to the heart of the question.
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1
Moral Capital
by Christopher Leslie Brown -
2
The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't
by Julia Galef -
3
The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity
by Toby Ord -
4
Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction
by Dan Gardner & Philip E Tetlock -
5
The Life You Can Save
by Peter Singer
The best books on Longtermism, recommended by Will MacAskill
The best books on Longtermism, recommended by Will MacAskill
There is so much suffering in today’s world it’s hard to focus attention on future generations, but that’s exactly what we should be doing, says Will MacAskill, a leader of the effective altruism movement. Here, he introduces books that contributed to his thinking about the long-term future and the “silent billions” who are not yet able to speak for themselves.
The Best Puzzle Books, recommended by A. J. Jacobs
In a quest to solve every puzzle imaginable, bestselling author A.J. Jacobs came across a lot of books. Here, he recommends some of his favourites, from logic puzzles to treasure hunts, from codebreaking to the biggest puzzle of them all—why we’re here.
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1
Language, Thought, and Reality
by Benjamin Lee Whorf -
2
The Myth of the Framework: In Defence of Science and Rationality
by Karl Popper -
3
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World
by David Deutsch -
4
Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe
by Hugo Mercier -
5
The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't
by Julia Galef
The best books on Language and Post-Truth, recommended by Nick Enfield
The best books on Language and Post-Truth, recommended by Nick Enfield
The word ‘post-truth’ may only have entered the Oxford English Dictionary in the last decade, but the phenomenon it describes is much older and deeper, connected not so much to the latest internet trend as the fundamentals of human cognition and communication. Here, linguistic anthropologist Nick Enfield, a professor at the University of Sydney and a member of its fighting truth decay research node, introduces the best books to get thinking about the complex relationship between language and reality.
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1
The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism
by Susan Berfield -
2
The Curse of Bigness: Anti-Trust in the New Gilded Age
by Tim Wu -
3
Antitrust: Taking on Monopoly Power from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age
by Amy Klobuchar -
4
The Great Reversal: How America Gave up on Free Markets
by Thomas Philippon -
5
The Profit Paradox: How Thriving Firms Threaten the Future of Work
by Jan Eeckhout
The best books on Market Concentration, recommended by Jan Loeys
The best books on Market Concentration, recommended by Jan Loeys
Power corrupts and corporate power is no exception: its effects are bad for consumers, bad for workers and bad for the economy. Here, Belgian American economist Jan Loeys recommends books that look at the economic and political implications of ‘market concentration,’ and explains why we don’t need governments that are pro-business but ones that are pro-market.