Books

A History of Boston Daniel Dain Seven hundred pages on the city that keeps exporting radical ideas, from Puritan settlement through abolition and busing to biotech. Long, and consistently readable. 1 recommender A History of Modern Palestine Ilan Pappé A survey from the Ottoman period onward, keeping ordinary people in view rather than leaderships. A History of the Muslim World: From its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity Michael Cook Twelve centuries to 1800, treating the Muslim world as many connected homes rather than one civilisation moving through a single continuous story. 1 recommender H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars Kunal Purohit India's Hindu nationalist pop stars have millions of listeners and almost no press attention. 1 recommender Hag-Seed Margaret Atwood The Tempest restaged inside a prison by a theatre director whose own bitter exile makes the revenge plot uncomfortably personal. Hagakure Tsunetomo Yamamoto A retired samurai dictating a warrior code to a generation that had no more use for it, fragmentary and severe throughout. 1 recommender Hal Moore on Leadership Harold G. Moore The commander from Ia Drang on what he actually did when the position looked hopeless 1 recommender Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The brief life of Biafra, told through a household rather than a battlefield. 1 recommender Half the Sky Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn Two Pulitzer winners report on the oppression of women across the developing world, and on what actually works against it. 1 recommender Hamas: A Beginner’s Guide Khaled Hroub Hamas described from its own documents, for readers who want to understand rather than be told. Hamilton: The Revolution Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeremy McCarter The annotated Hamilton libretto plus the behind-the-scenes story of its making, Miranda's footnotes and McCarter's history of a Broadway phenomenon. Hannah Hoch Dawn Ades She cut Weimar magazines apart to attack the politics and gender roles printed inside them. The fullest survey yet of a founder long treated as peripheral. 1 recommender Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth Catherine Pakaluk About five percent of American women have five or more children, and Pakaluk went and asked them why. 1 recommender Happy Derren Brown An illusionist dismantling the happiness industry, then rebuilding something older and considerably less flattering. 1 recommender Happy Like Murderers Gordon Burn Fred and Rosemary West, written without a single concession to the true-crime appetite. 1 recommender Happy Sexy Millionaire Steven Bartlett Part memoir, part manifesto, challenging the cultural obsession with wealth, status and validation as the route to happiness. 1 recommender Happy Wife Meredith Lavender and Kendall Shores The marriage everyone envied was a performance, and the audience missed every rehearsal. 1 recommender Hark! A Vagrant Kate Beaton Kate Beaton's wickedly funny comics skewering history, literature and the people who take both too seriously. 1 recommender Harley Loco Rayya Elias A Syrian immigrant, a punk hairdresser, a heroin addict and a survivor, in roughly that order and all at once. 1 recommender Harriet Tubman Catherine Clinton The woman behind the icon: escapee, Underground Railroad conductor, and Union Army scout. 1 recommender Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets J.K. Rowling Harry's second year at Hogwarts turns sinister when students are found petrified. 1 recommender Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J.K. Rowling Harry abandons Hogwarts to hunt Horcruxes in the series' final battle. 1 recommender Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire J.K. Rowling Harry is forced into a deadly tournament between three wizarding schools. 1 recommender Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince J.K. Rowling Dumbledore tutors Harry in Voldemort's hidden history as war gathers. 1 recommender Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix J.K. Rowling The Ministry denies Voldemort's return while Harry organizes a secret student resistance. 1 recommender Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban J.K. Rowling An escaped prisoner with ties to Harry's past closes in on Hogwarts. 1 recommender Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone J.K. Rowling An orphaned boy discovers he is a wizard and enters a hidden world of magic. 1 recommender Have Mercy on Us Lisa Cupolo Stories of women at the moment the wrong decision has already been made. 1 recommender Having Spent Life Seeking Kae Tempest A poet who performs writing for the page, with rhythm doing the work punctuation usually does. 1 recommender Healing the Emptiness Yasmin Mogahed Where the hollow feeling comes from, and why it persists even when a life looks full from the outside. Heart Berries Terese Marie Mailhot A slim, ferocious memoir of growing up on the Seabird Island Band reservation, written partly from a psychiatric ward. 1 recommender Heartburn Nora Ephron A food writer discovers her husband's affair while seven months pregnant, and includes the recipes. 1 recommender Heartwood Amity Gaige A hiker disappears 200 miles from the end of the trail, and the search asks why she walked into the woods at all. 1 recommender Hegemony or Survival Noam Chomsky American strategy read as a standing choice of dominance over security, with the risk exported. Heidi Johanna Spyri An orphan sent to her grandfather in the Alps, and the homesickness that nearly kills her in the city. 1 recommender Hell Yeah or No Derek Sivers Short, sharp essays on what's worth doing, built on one rule: if it isn't a hell yeah, it's a no. 1 recommender