What do you think of my “prehistory” reading list?

I’m starting a 5 year (hobbyist?) journey where I try to study and read from prehistory all the way to contemporary times. I have no formal humanities training, just a medical student who loves history and wants to finally have a coherent narrative!

2026 will be dedicated solely to prehistory all the way to late antiquity ( 700 AD). After spending a couple of hours reading tables of content, blurbs and reviews, I’ve concluded the following 5 books ( in order from top to bottom ) as the basis for “prehistory” before I transition to the first urban civilizations.

I want to learn how Homo sapiens became a highly adaptable, socially dependent species, how cumulative culture took shape, how small foraging groups spread across the planet, how their mobile and flexible societies worked, why agriculture emerged, how surplus and settlement created inequality, and how these changes produced the first conditions for authority and early states.

1.  The Origin of Our Species (Chris Stringer)
2.  The Evolved Apprentice (Kim Sterelny)
3.  Settling the Earth (Clive Gamble)
4.  First Farmers (Peter Bellwood)
5.  Against the Grain (James C. Scott)

I’d appreciate any recommendations or opinions 🙂