"We’re living in a golden age now where actors want to be in TV dramas, and you sense that Steven Spielberg would actually rather be making Band of Brothers than Saving Private Ryan"
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/best-books-hollywood-marina-hyde/
Hollywood
The best books on Hollywood. Five books to understand the Hollywood vision, culture and history.
NEW: "I think Taiwan’s fate is more likely to be decided through a crisis than a war. So our strategy should be to deter the crisis, not just deter the war, and also prepare for both." Eyck Freeman talks us through the best books on Taiwan and its impact on US-China relations
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/taiwan-and-us-china-relations-eyck-freymann/
Taiwan and US-China relations
Taiwan is a crucial lynchpin of the high-tech global economy, but its international political position is far from stable. China has explicit ambitions to incorporate it into the Chinese state and seems intent on building the military capacity to do this by force. The US is committed to preserving its de facto independence. For the moment, there is a stand-off, but a crisis over Taiwan would be a crisis for the world, politically and economically. Eyck Freymann, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, recommends five books to help understand the dynamics of the situation and the possible outcomes.
"A table isn’t inherently feminine, but it’s feminine in French, so French people will be more likely, if asked to describe a table, to use feminine-like adjectives."
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/language-and-the-mind-lane-greene/
Language and the Mind
Does the world look different in other languages? Are there words that cannot be translated? Is it OK to say disinterested when you mean uninterested? Lane Greene, who writes the Economist's "Johnson" column on language, dispels some of the popular but misguided ideas many of us have about language.
How should we behave in private and in public, what are our duties to others? How do these things change in a world where we run up against people with very different answers to our own?
https://fivebooks.com/category/philosophy/ethics-moral-philosophy/
The Best Books on Ethics and Moral Philosophy
Some of the world's most eminent philosophers discuss books on the knotty problems of contemporary morality, and more perennial ethical questions.
"The Left Bank is a small geographical quadrant and when an outstanding director like Godard explores the ins and outs of Maoism, it has a tremendous ripple effect."
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/france-1960s-richard-wolin/
France in the 1960s
The author and historian Richard Wolin explains that French people in the late 1960s were desperate for a utopian political alternative.
“Effective altruism is about using your time and money as effectively as possible, to do as much good as possible, and working out how to have the biggest possible impact.”
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/effective-altruism-will-macaskill/
Effective Altruism
The best books on effective altruism (and a breakdown of what it is), recommended by one of the leading figures of the movement, Will MacAskill.
There is a surprisingly large number of books out there about the origin of words in the English language. We’ve compiled a brief list of etymology books flagged up by our expert interviewees.
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/best-books-on-etymology/
The Best Books on Etymology
A selection of recommended books on etymology, as recommended over the years by our expert interviewees here at Five Books
“Humanist beliefs are almost like the common sense of large parts of the Western world today”
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/humanism/
Humanism
Humanist ideas are not a recent phenomenon, but have been around for millennia, says Andrew Copson, chief executive of Humanists UK. He explains why it's worth making a positive choice to be a humanist and recommends a great humanist reading list.
"Defined benefit pension schemes are pretty much dying, so people have to provide for their own retirement in one way or another."
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/investing-beginners-john-kay/
Best Investing Books for Beginners
The best investing books for beginners, as recommended by British economist John Kay, starting with the classic Random Walk Down Wall Street.
The best books on China, as recommended by historians and political scientists, journalists and novelists.
https://fivebooks.com/category/world/asia/best-books-china/
The Best Books to Understand China
The best books to read about China, as recommended by some of the most eminent academics and journalists in the Sinology field
