Book reviews
Find your local library to borrow or reserve a book.
Browse The Reading Agency booklists on bookshop.org to find a range of recommended titles for adults and children. Sales will support The Reading Agency’s work and independent bookshops.
Read on for our recommended reads. You can also search for any book you have read and leave a review, or search for a book to see what other readers thought.
Booker Prize 2023
The shortlist for the Booker Prize 2023 – the world’s most influential prize for a single work of fiction – was announced on Thursday, 21 September 2023 at the newly reopened National Portrait Gallery in London and livestreamed to readers around the world. Find out more about the books today.
Wolfson History Prize
The Wolfson History Prize celebrates the best historical non-fiction books from the past year. Bringing new stories from history to light, and challenging readers to rethink accepted historical narratives, the topical Wolfson History Prize shortlist explores themes that are pertinent to current world events. Find out more here.
The British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding
Now in its 11th year, the international book prize rewards and celebrates ground-breaking research-based works of non-fiction that have made an outstanding contribution to the public understanding of world cultures and the ways in which they interconnect. Find out more here
Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize
The Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize is an international prize that supports and celebrates the best adventure writing today. Submissions were open to writers of any nationality, writing in English. British, New Zealand, Australian and Chinese-American authors are represented on the shortlist, the six being selected from almost 100 entries. Find out more here.
Vintage Publisher Spotlight
Vintage Crime would like to introduce you to your next crime fiction obsession! We are giving away packs of six thrilling murder mysteries, from bestselling and award-winning crime authors including Jo Nesbo, Susan Hill, Denise Mina and Abir Mukherjee. Each book is the first in a detective series so there’s also plenty more to discover once you’ve found your favourite. Discover more, including extracts of each book, here
Sports & Games
The Summer Reading Challenge launches soon and this year we’re teaming up with children’s charity, the Youth Sport Trust, for Ready, Set, Read!, focused on reading, sport and play. To help adults join in with all of the fun, we have created a booklist of titles which have strong sports or games related themes or which show the importance of sport on people’s lives or stories.
Themed booklists
We’ve collected together some of our previous booklists on a variety of themes and topics. Take a look to find your next read.