Support Us
Five Books
 
Search
MENU MENU
  • Nonfiction
        • NONFICTION BOOKS
        • BEST NONFICTION 2023
        • BEST NONFICTION 2024
        • BEST BIOGRAPHIES
          • Historical Biographies
          • The Best Memoirs and Autobiographies
          • Philosophical Biographies
        • True Crime
        • History Books
          • World War 2
          • World History
          • American History
          • British History
          • Chinese History
          • Russian History
          • Ancient History (up to c. 500 AD)
          • Medieval History
          • Military History
        • Art
          • Art History
        • Travel Books
        • Essays
        • Philosophy Books
          • Ancient Philosophy
          • Contemporary Philosophy
          • Ethics & Moral Philosophy
          • Great Philosophers
          • Social & Political Philosophy
        • Classical Studies
        • Science
          • New Science Books
          • Astronomy
          • Biology
          • Chemistry
          • Maths & Statistics
          • Popular Science
          • Physics Books
        • Nature
        • Environmental Books
          • Climate Change Books
        • Language
          • How to Write
          • English Grammar & Usage
          • Books for Learning Languages
          • Linguistics
        • Politics & Society
          • Political Ideologies
          • Migration
          • War
          • Foreign Policy & International Relations
          • American Politics
          • British Politics
        • Religion
          • Theology
          • Buddhism
          • Christian
          • Islamic
          • Jewish
          • Religious History Books
        • Law
        • Psychology
          • Mental Health
          • Neuroscience
          • Self Help
          • Child Psychology
        • Music & Drama
          • Film & Cinema
          • Opera & Classical Music
        • Economics Books
          • Behavioural Economics
          • Development Economics
          • Economic History
          • Finance
          • Financial Crisis
          • World Economies
        • Business Books
          • Investing Books
        • Technology
          • Artificial Intelligence/AI Books
          • Data Science Books
          • Computing
        • Health & Lifestyle
          • Happiness
          • Sex & Sexuality
          • Death & Dying
          • Education
        • Food & Cooking
        • Sports, Games & Hobbies
  • Fiction & Literature
        • FICTION BOOKS
        • BEST NOVELS 2024
        • BEST FICTION 2023
        • Contemporary Fiction
          • New Literary Fiction
        • World Literature
        • Literary Criticism
        • Literary Figures
        • Classic English Literature
        • American Literature
        • Poetry
        • The Best Memoirs and Autobiographies
        • Comics & Graphic Novels
        • Fairy Tales & Mythology
        • Historical Fiction
        • Horror
        • Humour
        • Crime Novels
        • Science Fiction
        • Short Stories
        • Romance
        • Thrillers
        • Mystery
        • Fantasy
  • World
        • Africa
          • Egypt
          • Ghana
          • Nigeria
          • Rwanda
          • South Africa
          • Zimbabwe
        • Americas
          • Latin America
            • Argentina
            • Brazil
            • Caribbean
            • Chile
            • Cuba
            • Mexico
          • United States
          • Canada
        • Arctic & Antarctica
        • Asia
          • Afghanistan
          • Bangladesh
          • Myanmar (Formerly Burma)
          • China
          • India
          • Japan
          • Kazakhstan
          • Korea
          • Pakistan
          • Sri Lanka
          • Singapore
          • Vietnam
        • Australia
        • Europe
          • Azerbaijan
          • Belgium
          • Britain
          • France
          • Georgia
          • Germany
          • Greece
          • Ireland
          • Italy
          • Netherlands
          • Norway
          • Russia
          • Spain
          • Ukraine
        • Middle East
          • Iran
          • Iraq
          • Israel
          • Palestine
          • Syria
          • Turkey
          • Yemen
  • Kids
        • Kids Recommend Books for Kids
        • High School Teachers Recommendations
        • Prizewinning Kids' Books
        • Popular Series Books for Kids
        • BEST BOOKS FOR KIDS (ALL AGES)
        • Books for Toddlers and Babies
        • Books for Preschoolers
        • Books for 6-8 Year Olds
        • Books for 9-12 Year Olds
        • Books for Teens and Young Adults
        • THE BEST SCIENCE BOOKS FOR KIDS
        • BEST KIDS' BOOKS OF 2024
        • BEST BOOKS FOR TEENS OF 2024
        • Best Audiobooks for Kids
        • History
        • Economics
        • Environment
        • Mental Health
  • Best Books of 2024
        • Best Books for Teens of 2024
        • Best Kids' Books of 2024
        • Best Novels of 2024
          • Historical Fiction
          • Science Fiction
          • Fantasy
          • Mystery & Crime
          • Romance
        • Best Nonfiction of 2024
          • Travel Writing
  • New Books
    • NEW BOOKS
    • New History Books
    • New Literary Fiction
    • New Historical Fiction
    • New Biography
    • New Memoirs
    • New World Literature
    • New Economics Books
    • New Climate Books
    • New Math Books
    • New Science Books
    • New Philosophy Books
    • New Psychology Books
    • New Physics Books
  • Audiobooks
    • THE BEST AUDIOBOOKS
    • Actors Read Great Books
    • Best Audiobooks for Kids
    • Books Narrated by Their Authors
    • Best Audiobook Thrillers
    • Best History Audiobooks
  • Book Awards
    • Nobel Literature Prize
    • Booker Prize (fiction)
    • Baillie Gifford Prize (nonfiction)
    • Financial Times (nonfiction)
    • Wolfson Prize (history)
    • Royal Society (science)
    • NBCC Awards (biography & memoir)
    • Pushkin House Prize (Russia)
    • Walter Scott Prize (historical fiction)
    • Arthur C Clarke Prize (sci fi)
    • The Hugos (sci fi & fantasy)
    • Audie Awards (audiobooks)
    • Wilbur Smith Prize (adventure)
  • Experts

Reader lists

     

    Favourite Series to Read with Kids, recommended by sophiemaynard

  • Read

    1

    Little House in the Big Woods
    by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • Read

    2

    The Thieves of Ostia (The Roman Mysteries)
    by Caroline Lawrence
  • Read

    3

    Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-7)
    by J. K. Rowling
  • Read

    4

    His Dark Materials Yearling 3-book Boxed Set (His Dark Materials (Paperback))
    by Philip Pullman
  • Read

    5

    The Wool-Pack (Puffin Story Books)
    by Cynthia Harnett

Favourite Series to Read with Kids

by sophiemaynard

     

    Five brilliant books about islands, recommended by Cal Flyn

  • Read

    1

    The Swiss Family Robinson
    by Johann D. Wyss
  • Read

    2

    The Tempest
    by William Shakespeare
  • Read

    3

    The Outrun
    by Amy Liptrot
  • Read

    4

    The Summer Book
    by Tove Jansson
  • Read

    5

    Wide Sargasso Sea
    by Jean Rhys

Five brilliant books about islands

by Cal Flyn

     

    Five of the best books for pony mad girls, recommended by calflyn

  • Read

    1

    Saddle Club #1: Horse Crazy
    by

  • Read

    2

    Midnight Dancer
    by Elizabeth Lindsay
  • Read

    3

    For the Love of a Horse (Jinnny of Finmory)
    by Patricia Leitch
  • Read

    4

    The Manual of Horsemanship.
    by Pony Club
  • Read

    5

    Black Beauty
    by Anna Sewell

Five of the best books for pony mad girls

by calflyn

     

    Water, recommended by BeaWilford

  • Read

    1

    The Water-Babies
    by Charles Kingsley
  • Read

    2

    The Wind in the Willows (Sterling Illustrated Classics)
    by Kenneth Grahame
  • Read

    3

    Three Men in a Boat
    by Jerome K. Jerome
  • Read

    4

    Moby Dick (Wordsworth Classics)
    by Herman Melville
  • Read

    5

    The Sea, the Sea (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
    by Iris Murdoch

Water

by BeaWilford

     

    Five of the best books that have been subject to bans, recommended by Cal Flyn

  • Read

    1

    The Grapes of Wrath
    by John Steinbeck
  • Read

    2

    Lolita
    by Vladimir Nabokov
  • Read

    3

    Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
    by Jung Chang
  • Read

    4

    Lady Chatterley's Lover
    by D. H. Lawrence
  • Read

    5

    One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
    by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Five of the best books that have been subject to bans

by Cal Flyn

     

    The Best Books about Denmark, recommended by Eva Hoier Greene

  • Read

    1

    Lucky Per: Translated from the Danish with an Afterword by Naomi Lebowitz
    by Henrik Pontoppidan
  • Read

    2

    The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life
    by Anu Partanen
  • Read

    3

    Countrymen: How Denmark's Jews Escaped the Nazis
    by Bo Lidegaard
  • Read

    4

    The Nordic Family Kitchen
    by Claus Meyer
  • Read

    5

    Hans Christian Andersen: Fairy Tales
    by Hans Christian Andersen

The Best Books about Denmark

by Eva Hoier Greene

     

    The best books (and one song) about Uruguay, recommended by Ailsa Roell

  • Read

    1

    The Purple Land
    by William Henry Hudson
  • Read

    2

    Jungle Tales
    by Horacio Quiroga
  • Read

    3

    Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
    by Eduardo Galeano
  • Read

    4

    The Voyage of the Beagle
    by Charles Darwin
  • Read

    5

    Orientales, la Patria o la Tumba
    by

The best books (and one song) about Uruguay

by Ailsa Roell

     

    The Best Books on Senegal, recommended by Carla De Gregorio

  • Read

    1

    Anthologie de la nouvelle poesie nègre et malgache de langue française
    by

  • Read

    2

    Tales of Amadou Koumba (Longman African Classics)
    by Birago Diop
  • Read

    3

    Senegal: Modern Senegalese Recipes from the Source to the Bowl
    by Pierre Thiam
  • Read

    4

    Fisherman's Blues: A West African Community at Sea
    by Anna Badkhen
  • Read

    5

    Une Si Longue Lettre
    by Mariama Ba

The Best Books on Senegal

by Carla De Gregorio

     

    Best Croatia Books, recommended by Sasha King

  • Read

    1

    The Bridge Over The Drina
    by Ivo Andric
  • Read

    2

    Osmi Povjerenik (The Eighth Commissioner)
    by Renato Baretic
  • Read

    3

    Hrvatska Kuharica
    by Nikica Gamulin (known as Gama)
  • Read

    4

    What's a Man without a Moustache? (Sto je Muskarac Bez Brkova)
    by Ante Tomic
  • Read

    5

    You with Hands More Innocent: Selected Poems of Vesna Parun
    by Vesna Parun

Best Croatia Books

by Sasha King

     

    The Spirit of Portugal, recommended by Romas

  • Read

    1

    The Book of Disquiet (Serpent's Tail Classics)
    by Fernando Pessoa
  • Read

    2

    Magellan
    by Stefan Zweig
  • Read

    3

    Alchemist
    by Paulo Coelho
  • Read

    4

    Blindness (Panther)
    by Jose Saramago
  • Read

    5

    A Sibila (Portuguese Edition)
    by Agustina Bessa-Luís

The Spirit of Portugal

by Romas

← Page 40

About

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

Five Books participates in the Amazon Associate program and earns money from qualifying purchases.

Newsletter Contact us Privacy Policy Terms of Service Mastodon Social

© Five Books 2025

Get our newsletter