I read every day without fail - the best 10 books I've read in the last five years

Reading is a simple and inexpensive joy. But if you're anything like me you sometimes struggle to find the time. There is so much competition for our attention these days, from multiple streaming services and new series dropping virtually every day to mobile gaming and several social media platforms.

Books are now competing with things we'd barely even imagined a decade or two ago so it's understandable if you don't always have the time or the inclination to spend another half an hour or so absorbing yet more information.

But there are lots of reasons to pick up a book instead of a phone, from learning something new to exploring a topic in depth or just enjoying an exciting story for the entertainment and escapism it provides. On top of that, there are all the benefits you're getting without even realising. There is research to suggest you are actively improving your health by reading, activating more parts of your brain, strengthening it and allowing you to process information better in future.

Other research has shown reading significantly reduces your stress levels, with blood pressure and heart rate falling after a few minutes of reading. A 2021 online study conducted over social media asked 496 participants to read a book in bed before sleeping and 496 participants to not read a book before sleeping. After a week, 42% of the readers felt their sleep improved. Only 28% of the non-readers reported better sleep. And another 2021 study suggested that reading for a short time before bed may help you stay asleep longer.

Of course, if you can really enjoy something while you're subconsciously making all these improvements then that's even better. And with that in mind, here are my recommendations for the best books I have read in the last five years, a mixture of fiction and non-fiction. If you enjoy the recommendations, please feel free to let me know and to share your favourites in the comments too.

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1. The Five by Hallie Rubenhold, 2019

Chances are you know all about Jack the Ripper but nothing of the women he murdered. This book sets out to change that. The level of research involved to piece together the lives of these five women, who lived and died in the 19th century, is staggering. In doing so, it gives them the identities, the histories and the personalities that they deserve but have never had. They lived, loved and were loved. They had been wives and mothers. They weren't just "Jack the Ripper's victims". As one critic described it, it is "urgent, eloquent, angry and beautifully put together". Buy it here on Amazon or from Waterstones here.

2. Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken, 2023

I can say with confidence that this book has been literally life-changing for me and, from what I can tell from the social media communities that have sprung up around it, thousands of others too. In the book, the NHS doctor and BBC science presenter looks in-depth at how much of the "food" we eat today is barely worthy of the name.

The book asks the important question: "Why do we all eat stuff that isn't food... and why can't we stop?" It is a staggering look at how a huge proportion of what we now eat (as much as 60% by some estimates) in developed western countries is ultra-processed and a long way from what our families were eating just a few decades ago. Dr van Tulleken looks at the chemical processes and indsutrial ingredients that go into our food, and how the obesity epidemic has exploded at the same time. It's jaw-dropping stuff. Buy it here on Amazon or here from Waterstones.

3. Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe, 2021

Another book that has taken almost superhuman levels of research. It tells the story of oxycontin, the legally-available drug that sparked an unprecedented epidemic of opioid abuse in the United States, and the family behind its creation, the Sackler family, one of the wealthiest and most secretive in America. Through their pharmaceutical firm, the Sacklers made billions as people became devastatingly addicted to, or killed by, oxycontin. Keefe received "several dozen letters and emails" from lawyers representing the family as he researched the book, which also goes to show it took extraordinary bravery as well as research. Buy it here on Amazon or from Waterstones here.

4. In Memoriam by Alice Winn, 2023

Alice Winn's beautiful writing brings even more emotion to this heartbreaking novel about the love between two young men (boys, really) during World War One. She tells the story from the perspectives both of the main characters but also the reports printed in their school newspaper. It was, in fact, reading an old school newspaper and finding real tributes from pupils to their brothers and friends who were dying on battlefields in Europe that gave Winn the idea for the story, which she tells in vivid, haunting language. Buy it here on Amazon or from Waterstones here.

5. Brooklyn and Long Island by Colm Toibin, 2009 and 2024

These two novels follow Eilis Lacey as she leaves her small town in Ireland alone in the 1950s to make a new life in Brooklyn. It was the real-life experience of millions of people who emigrated from Europe to the USA in the 20th century and never saw their families again. In Brooklyn, Eilis leaves behind the sister she adores, and the man she may have loved, and begins to build a new life in New York City.

The second novel starts 20 years later. Eilis' life, now in Long Island, is shattered by the actions of her husband and she returns to Ireland and the people she last saw two decades ago. It begins as a temporary visit but as she is reacquainted with those she once spent all her time with, she needs to decide if she will ever go back to the USA. Buy Brooklyn here on Amazon or from Waterstones here and Long Island here on Amazon or from Waterstones here.

6. How To Win The Premier League by Ian Graham, 2024

A football insider story like no other, this book shows in fascinating detail just how much goes into achieving success at one of the world's biggest and best-known sports teams.

Between 2012 and 2023, Ian Graham worked as Liverpool Football Club's director of research, during which time the club won its first domestic league title in 30 years (it won it again in 2025). He and his team used astonishing levels of data to better understand almost every aspect of the game you can think of and led to the signings of both Jurgen Klopp and Mohammed Salah.

One especially intriguing segment shows just how many things need to go right to make the purchase of a player a successful one - and therefore how much it matters to choose based on evidence. Buy it here on Amazon or from Waterstones here.

7. The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall, 2021

This book is a fascinating look at how geography has shaped the fortunes of nations, how much they need to think about as a result, and how all that feeds into the global rivalries that shape our world, our headlines and all our fortunes as a result. For example, most of us probably never think of the Sahel in sub-Sarahan Africa. But its unique circumstances may be what causes the next refugee crisis in Europe. Similarly, we may all assume that Australia cares far more about its relationship with the USA than China - but it's twice as far away. The best thing about this book is how it tells complicated issues in a very accessible way. Buy it here from Amazon or from Waterstones here.

8. The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell, 2019

This brilliant book centres on an abandoned mansion in Chelsea, London, where the bodies of three adults were discovered alongside a healthy baby in a cot, alive and seemingly well looked after. When that baby inherits the house 25 years later, she sets about uncovering its dark past. The book jumps between the present and past, with a great twist. This book turned me on to Lisa Jewell, who I'd never heard of before a colleague recommended her work to me a few weeks ago. I've since read four of her books and am on my fifth (the sequel to this book, as it happens).

You can buy it on Amazon here or at Waterstones here. You can see my other recommendations for Lisa Jewell's books here and the one I couldn't put down here.

9. Putin's People by Catherine Belton, 2020

Like Empire of Pain and The Five (above), a truly outstanding level of research has gone into this book looking at the rise of Vladimir Putin through the KGB and into the role of one of the most influential people on the planet. That rise includes roles as an agent in Dresden and as the deputy mayor of St Petersburg. At every step, Putin and his network learned the skills that we see in their toolkit (and in the headlines) today, from money-washing and disinformation to blackmail and the relationships forged with other notorious organisations. It is a fearless piece of work. Buy it here from Amazon or from Waterstones here.

10. The Second Stranger by Martin Griffin, 2023

This is such a great concept and it had me gripped from the start. A lone hotel worker has one shift left at a remote hotel in the Scottish Highlands before it shuts for the winter and she leaves for good. Then Storm Ezra hits. Phone lines go down, and an injured man appears at the door. PC Don Gaines was in a terrible accident on the mountain road. The only other survivor: the prisoner his team was transporting. She lets him in. Then a second stranger arrives. He also says is name is PC Don Gaines. They can't both be telling the truth. Buy it here from Amazon or from Waterstones here.