Books

A Dance with Dragons George R. R. Martin Ruling turns out to be harder than winning, as a queen, a dwarf and a lord commander each meet the limits of power. A Day with Picasso Billy Klüver A detective story in which two dozen undated snapshots are pinned to a single Montparnasse afternoon in 1916. 1 recommender A Dictionary of Symbols Juan Eduardo Cirlot Cirlot's classic decoder of the images that recur across art, myth and dream, from the labyrinth to the moon. 1 recommender A Different Person James Merrill The poet's mid-twenties in 1950s Europe: analysis, love affairs, and a fortune he did not earn. 1 recommender A Disappearing Number Complicite The Complicite play, devised by Simon McBurney, on Ramanujan and Hardy and the mathematics between them. 1 recommender A Dream of Ice Gillian Anderson, Jeff Rovin Caitlin O'Hara discovers new powers while a field agent finds an ancient city under Antarctic ice, in book two of the EarthEnd Saga. Daisy Jones & The Six Taylor Jenkins Reid A 1970s rock band's rise and sudden breakup, told as an oral history where no two people remember it the same way. 1 recommender Dajjal, the Qur’an and Awwal al-Zaman Imran N. Hosein Dajjal read from the beginning of time rather than the end, and what that changes. Dalva Jim Harrison A woman goes home to Nebraska and the family history that stretches back to the destruction of the Plains Indians. 1 recommender Damned Lies and Statistics Joel Best A sociologist on where public statistics come from and why they should be questioned rather than quoted. 1 recommender Dana Gioia: Poet & Critic John Zheng Essays in honour of a poet who spent his career arguing that poetry had lost its public. 1 recommender Dangerous Visions Harlan Ellison The anthology of stories the magazines of the day would not print, and the start of the New Wave. 1 recommender Daring: The Life and Art of Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun Jordana Pomeroy Marie Antoinette painter fled the Revolution and spent twelve years working through Rome, Vienna, St Petersburg and London, painting her way across the exile. 1 recommender Dark One, Book 1 Brandon Sanderson, Jackson Lanzing A graphic novel about a troubled young man told he is prophesied to destroy another world, cast as its villain rather than its hero. Daughter of Fortune Isabel Allende Isabel Allende's novel follows a young Chilean woman who stows away to Gold Rush California in search of her lover. 1 recommender Daughters of the Dust Julie Dash The script, the sixteen-year struggle to make it, and a conversation with Bell Hooks. 1 recommender David and Goliath Malcolm Gladwell The giant's advantages may be his weaknesses. A case for what disadvantage quietly builds. David Copperfield’s History of Magic David Copperfield, Richard Wiseman, David Britland A tour through magic's past drawn from Copperfield's own museum collection, profiling the conjurers whose inventions still shape the illusions we see today. Dawnshard Brandon Sanderson A Stormlight novella. Rysn, a merchant who cannot walk, sails to an island no expedition has ever returned from. Deacon King Kong James McBride James McBride's novel spins out from a drunken church deacon shooting a drug dealer in a 1969 Brooklyn housing project. 2 recommenders Dead and Alive Zadie Smith Smith's essays at their most characteristic: thinking against herself in public, and arriving somewhere unplanned. 1 recommender Dead Man Walking Helen Prejean A nun becomes spiritual adviser to a condemned man, and refuses to look away from either him or his victims. 1 recommender Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Gogol's 1842 satire of Chichikov's travels among the Russian provincial gentry, in the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. 1 recommender Dealing with China Henry M. Paulson Jr. The former Treasury Secretary draws on decades of dealings to explain how China's economy really works. 1 recommender Dealing with the Dead Alain Mabanckou A Congolese cemetery memoir, narrated from a vantage that makes the phrase less strange than it sounds. 1 recommender Dear Edward Ann Napolitano The only survivor of a crash that killed 183 others, handed a life he never asked to keep. 1 recommender Death by Black Hole Neil deGrasse Tyson Forty-two essays on the strangeness of the cosmos, including exactly what would happen to you falling into a black hole Death by Meeting Patrick Lencioni Bad meetings aren't too long, they're too boring, and a leadership fable shows what to do about it. 1 recommender Death in a Shallow Pond: A Philosopher, A Drowning Child, and Strangers in Need David Edmonds Singer published a drowning-child argument in 1972, and it grew into effective altruism. Edmonds takes the philosophy seriously and follows what money did to it. 1 recommender Death of a Gossip M. C. Beaton A Highland village policeman investigates the murder of a gossip on a fishing holiday. Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller An ageing salesman, his two sons and the American dream of success, in Miller's great tragedy. 1 recommender December Breeze Marvel Moreno Marvel Moreno's long novel about women in 1950s and 1960s Barranquilla, published by Europa Editions in English in 2022. 1 recommender Deciphering Sun Tzu: How to Read The Art of War Derek M. C. Yuen 1 recommender Decoded Jay-Z Jay-Z annotates three dozen of his own songs, unpacking the wordplay most listeners miss, and makes the case for hip-hop as serious poetry. Deep Secrets Niobe Way Boys want close friends as much as girls do. A psychologist asks what happens to those friendships. 1 recommender Deep Simplicity John Gribbin John Gribbin explains chaos and complexity theory, showing how simple rules give rise to the intricate order seen across nature. 1 recommender