Globalization benefits mankind and we are learning how better to deal with the disruption it causes. But one thing is for sure, the laws of economics are no more escapable than the laws of physics. Harvard professor and former US Treasury secretary, Larry Summers, recommends the best books on globalization.

Here you have a person studying the organisms that most obviously represent a history of evolution, and yet, amazingly, the idea of microbes appeals to him as a creationist.

It’s a novel about a teenager who becomes obsessed with surfing. What’s interesting are the descriptions of the surfing. It’s the most wonderful description of coming to the edge, searching for ever new extremes, coming to the point of death, and then at the last second avoiding it. I chose it because it picks apart our search for enjoyment in today’s society, and shows how that is often linked to near-death experiences.

Economic orthodoxy in no way equips for the challenges of the 21st century, the ‘renegade economist’ Kate Raworth tells Five Books. It’s time to rethink basic concepts and paradigms, and redraw the boundaries.

The Middle East scholar tells us what to read if we’re to understand where upheaval in the Arab world came from, and where it’s going.

The perception that disasters are isolated events beyond our control is simply not true, says the disaster research expert Dr Ilan Kelman. We – governments and others – have a greater role in creating them than we wish to acknowledge.

Tere Romo is one of the foundational Chicano artists who were active in bringing Day of the Dead celebrations to the United States

The former British foreign secretary, Douglas Hurd, recommends five highly readable political biographies, looking at the lives of some of Britain’s best-known prime ministers of the last 150 years.

The former union boss shares his reading list for American progressives, and tells us what makes a good leader and how it takes only a few committed people to bring change

Contrary to the common view in Britain and Europe that this term comprises prima facie evidence of yet another American bastardisation of a European cultural icon, the term “soccer” is not an American invention at all but British slang.

David Cortright, Notre Dame peace studies expert, identifies and rejects one of the myths about non-violent action: that it only works in liberal democracies. He outlines that non-violent protests can achieve their aims, that terrorism can only cease through negotiation, and that wars rarely have winners.

Wilkie Collins, the sensationalist author and inventor of the detective novel, knew precisely how to “make ’em laugh, make ’em cry, make ’em wait”. Jason Hall, Victorian literature expert and editor of a new edition of Jezebel’s Daughter, chooses the five best books from Collins’s extensive oeuvre – and considers the voracious appetites and unorthodox lifestyle of this intriguing Englishman.

The journalist and Labour peer, formerly adviser to British Prime Minister James Callaghan, explains his selection of five books about British Politics. Touches on subjects from climate change to the British constitution

It’s about an imaginary urban wasteland filled with strange creatures. It’s less like a linear narrative than a strange chain reaction

The bestselling author of Cod and Salt tells us about five science books he loves—from whales and snails to evolution and string theory—all of which make difficult subjects accessible

Utopia is out of fashion because efforts to set one up normally end disastrously, says author Ellen Wayland-Smith. And yet, they offer a critique of society that, even today, can’t be ignored. She picks the best books on utopia.

The Professor of Postcolonial Studies at City University, London, talks to us about Islamic travel books. Explains how travel should be both a physical and a mental exercise focussed on immersing oneself in local culture

Existentialist philosophy isn’t about bringing despair and angst into our lives, it’s about discovering our inner freedom, explains Sarah Bakewell, the author of At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails. She recommends the best books on Existentialism.

Quantum computing: it sounds more complicated than quantum mechanics, but it isn’t. Mathematician Chris Bernhardt, author of Quantum Computing for Everyone, explains why you need to know about it and which books will help you understand what it’s all about.

What’s at stake when we call a building beautiful or denounce it as ugly? MIT professor Timothy Hyde, author of Ugliness and Judgment, explores five books about the social, political and economic dimensions behind debates that often masquerade as arguments about style, but which deal with matters at the very heart of civil society.

Roy wanted to look at the bond between fathers and sons in hockey. He had observed that players in moments of triumph often referred to their fathers

Sands interviewed the authors of the “torture memos”, written during the Bush administration, to try to get to the bottom of their motivation

The bestselling author of the Shopaholic series, Sophie Kinsella, chooses her own favourite books from the Chick Lit genre. Have a romp with these angst-ridden women searching for the perfect man (and the perfect pair of high-heels).

The inner life is a mystery but the best biographies expose the hidden kernel of a person, says literary biographer and academic, Lyndall Gordon. She picks five books that push the boundaries of the genre.

For all the attention this work has received, I’m surprised we haven’t
 taken to heart what Lincoln tried to accomplish during a crisis

Books like Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls popularise the many different ways women and girls can be strong, and as strong as they need to be. Award-winning children’s author, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, talks us through some of her favourite strong female characters in children’s fiction.

He's the one who woke everyone up and created the term BARF.

The professor of quantum information theory at Oxford tells us about books that successfully popularise quantum physics and the science of complex systems. Look, no equations!

Blaming “the quants” for the 2008 financial crisis is simplistic and short-sighted, says the author of The Physics of Wall Street. He picks five books showing the contribution physics has made to understanding financial markets.

Development in Disaster-prone Places is another must-read in terms of how to understand vulnerability and disasters. The book focuses on the political and social processes which lead to disasters – the long-term processes.

Historian Eric Foner chooses five books illustrating how concepts of American liberalism have changed over the past 50 years, and about the tension that lies at the heart of liberalism today.

He was a psychiatrist in Vienna in the 1930s and then got carted off to Auschwitz with all his family. He was the only one that survived and he wrote this book.

Dibs was having trouble in school and his parents thought he was autistic. It’s a small book, but very moving and very powerfully written

This is a quirky book, organised as a series of walks. So you could start at the Drum Tower and walk south, passing the homes of China’s great writers and the little house in which Mao lived as a young library assistant.

This was the first work that I ever read on Roman and post-Roman Britain: exciting and yet sensible. A spin-off from a particularly successful television series that remains both a curse and inspiration for every new programme on the Celts and the early medieval island.

This is the best study of the role that memory plays in medieval culture. We reserve the term genius for people who are creative, who are innovators, who think in ways that are entirely new. In the middle ages, the term genius was reserved for people with the best memories.

The professor of religious history says that though the world may seem to be increasingly secular, the growth of Christianity and Islam in some places disproves it. He chooses five books that fuel the debate

From Bach to Stravinsky, British composer Giles Swayne discusses the most insightful books for getting to know the real lives of classical composers. “You can have people who are really extremely mediocre with huge careers, and people who are wonderfully good but don’t have wonderful careers. Bach was one of those.”

Former BusinessWeek writer recommends five books that deepen our understanding of the science and psychology behind Jeopardy!’s computer champion, Watson

2010 Man Booker Judge selects Tom Connolly’s The Spider Truces and Amy Sackville’s The Still Point among her five choices; she says they are “old-fashioned books” about the way in which our families define us

This book is about a subject for which the technical term is cointegration. It was an important step forward

“It’s not surprising that he died at forty-two, because he burned himself out restlessly, relentlessly pursuing this question of how to be a human being.” Søren Kierkegaard’s latest biographer Clare Carlisle recommends five books for understanding the Danish philosopher’s life and work—and shows how his work often bears witness to the complex, fraught experience of being alive.

What is so strong about the book is that it shows Muslims as a human community, struggling not just to make sense of their faith and coming to terms with Western values, but also with family problems, break-ups, unemployment and so on. The way that travel features in the book is very sophisticated; Robin Yassin-Kassab depicts the internal travel of the characters from one variety of Islam to another, the physical travel of literally going to Damascus, and also spiritual travel as certain characters find themselves spiritually enriched by their experiences.

The history professor and author of Too Much to Know tells us what researchers have been discovering about how earlier human societies collected, organised and used information

The feminist author chooses liberating literature for women, from Virginia Woolf to Erica Jong. She says that men still don’t share equal responsibility in the home, and that life after divorce can be easier.