10 of the best books for men

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  Frank Sinatra Has A Cold And Other Essays, by Gay Talese

  It’s 1966, and a fading legend stands in the foggy gloom of a Beverly Hills bar, clouded by cigarette smoke and ego, nursing a drink and a common cold. From its beginning, Gay Talese’s profile of Old Blue Eyes is precise, elegant and endearing, without a whiff of press release plagiarism. This collection from the godfather of New Journalism is a bedside table fixture, to be returned to again and again. (Holly Bruce)

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  Persuader, by Lee Child

  If you haven’t read a Lee Child novel, you might claim it’s because you would never waste your time on what is the worst kind of best-selling, mass-market thriller-by-numbers tosh ever written. In response, Jack Reacher would say nothing. And if you stuck with your high-brow pre-conceptions and liked to add that you had no interest in an ex-military police loner who frequently finds himself embroiled in highly-dangerous situations. Reacher would still say nothing. And if someone told you the best book in the series was probably “Persuader”, a tale of revenge, violence, abduction, violence, undercover intrigue… and violence. Well, Reacher would still say nothing (then he’d twist your neck and snap it like a dry twig). But we would say: it’s brilliant. (Paul Henderson)

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  The Correspondence, by J.D. Daniels

  When it comes to essays, John Jeremiah Sullivan is, in the opinion of GQ, the greatest living master. Here’s what he had to say about J.D. Daniels’ The Correspondence, a brilliant collection of non-fiction “letters” written during dark nights of the soul: “It gives off the unmistakable crackle of an original writer who has found a new form. It’s hard to say who or what is meant to be on the receiving end of these ‘letters’, but if you care about modern life you need to read them.” On that basis, we did. And Sullivan was, as ever, absolutely correct. (Charlie Burton)

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  Dynasty, by Tom Holland

  This history of the first five emperors of Rome – Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero, the descendants of Julius Caesar – will be familiar to anyone who knows Robert Graves’s masterpiece I, Claudius. What is striking about Holland’s masterful narrative, however, is how like the modern day the Roman world was around the beginning of the First Century AD. The teeming metropolis, the cynical manipulation of the masses by power-hungry politicians, the vast wealth put to work to fulfil personal agendas – it is all so familiar. (Robert Johnston)

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  Darling Baby Mine, by John De St Jorre

  John de St Jorre has had the life most little boys would dream of – recruited as a spy at Oxford, then a war correspondent and author. But unlike most little boys, his mother mysteriously disappeared when he was four years old, a fact that was never spoken about by his family. This memoir recounts his search for his missing parent as well the story of his own life. The truth behind the mystery is shocking and hard to imagine in this day and age but the story is never depressing and St Jorre is extraordinarily forgiving. The result is powerfully life-affirming and gripping. (Robert Johnston)

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  Go Tell It On The Mountain, by James Baldwin

  A day in the life of John Grimes, a preacher’s stepson coming of age in Thirties Harlem, runs dark and deep. The story – an embroidery of James Baldwin’s own experience as an adolescent minister – sees the protagonist struggle with his city, church and sexuality. It’s a work that continues to surprise for its passion and prescience, as vital now as its publication in 1953. (Holly Bruce)

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  Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller

  Death of a Salesman was originally a play written in 1949 by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller. The story is centred around aging salesman Willy Loman and his struggle to attain "the American Dream." Miller gives a rich account of an everyman losing his grip on reality and the tragic consequences (the clue is in the title) he must face as a result. The depth of character Miller creates in just over 100 pages from what is, for the most part, people talking around the kitchen table is incredible. Through clean lines and crisp exchanges Miller simply masters the art of written conversation. Before Elmore Leonard, Aaron Sorkin, and Quentin Tarantino (all pioneers of dialogue) there was Arthur Miller - little else needs to be said. (Alfie Baldwin)

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  The Fight, by Norman Mailer

  First published in 1975, The Fight is double Pulitzer Prize-winning author Norman Mailer's eye-witness account of the Rumble in the Jungle – the historic bout between heavyweight champion George Foreman and challenger Muhammad Ali. Mailer offers an incredible insight into the two fighters (Mailer's relationship with Ali is particularly fascinating) as well as a blow-by-blow account of the contest itself, in what remains one of the most exhilarating pieces of sports writing you’re ever likely to read. Whether you’re a rabid boxing fan, or just like reading finely-crafted sentence after finely-crafted sentence this is 250 pages you will never forget. Norman Mailer at his inimitable best. (Alfie Baldwin)

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  All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr

  Anthony Doerr’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner is a coming-of-age story set in occupied France during the second world war. Through alternating chapters, we meet Werner, an 8-year old German orphan with a gift for engineering and Marie-Laure, a six-year-old blind French girl, who lives with her doting father. Over 500 glorious pages, Doerr meticulously charts the course of their lives as their paths inevitably cross. The result is a literary page-turner (though hard to find, they do exist) that will leave you almost certainly pretending to have something in your eye while reading on the tube. (Alfie Baldwin)

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  More Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience, by Shaun Usher

  More Letters of Note is a follow-up to the hugely successful first book of famous correspondence compiled by the Manchester-based blogger. From the genuinely funny: Marge Simpson duelling with First Lady Barbara Bush to the truly heart-breaking: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's last goodbye to their children before execution. Usher's book is unlike anything else you have read. After all, where else can you find out why Norman Mailer refused money to his father, or how Janis Joplin felt before breaking America? Exactly. (Alfie Baldwin)