Books

Brave New Words Salman Khan Khan Academy's founder argues AI tutoring can finally deliver one-to-one attention at a price schools can afford, and is candid about cheating, bias and teachers. 1 recommender Brave New World Aldous Huxley A society engineered for contentment, and the question of what it costs to have nothing left to want. 2 recommenders Braving the Wilderness Brené Brown Belonging, Brown argues, never asks you to change who you are, but it does require the courage to stand alone. 1 recommender Bread of Angels Patti Smith Illness in childhood, Mapplethorpe lost to AIDS, a husband dead, a brother gone weeks later. Patti Smith sets it down in her plain devotional register. 1 recommender Breaking the Spell Daniel C. Dennett A philosopher asks why religion exists and how science might explain it, without contempt for believers. 1 recommender Breakneck Dan Wang China is run by engineers, America by lawyers, and almost everything else follows from that. 1 recommender Breath Tim Winton Two boys, an older surfer and a search for bigger waves that brings them close to death. 1 recommender Breath, Eyes, Memory Edwidge Danticat Edwidge Danticat's debut follows a Haitian girl sent to join her mother in New York, and the inherited wounds she must confront. 1 recommender Bridge of Sighs Richard Russo Richard Russo's novel follows lifelong residents of a declining upstate New York mill town and the friend who got away. 1 recommender Bright Dead Things Ada Limón Poems from Limón's 2015 book on the chaos of life and the thrill of living in a world you must leave. Bright Star John Keats The letters and poems behind Jane Campion's film, with her introduction. 1 recommender Britain on the Couch Oliver James Why Britain grew richer and unhappier after 1950, and what keeping up with the Joneses has to do with it. Britain’s Gulag Caroline Elkins 1 recommender Britt-Marie Was Here Fredrik Backman Leaving her marriage at 63, a fussy, lonely woman takes a job in a struggling town and ends up coaching its children's soccer team. Broken Country Clare Leslie Hall A trial, a shooting, and a first love returning to a Dorset village where a woman had settled for a quieter life. 1 recommender Broken Open Elizabeth Lesser The co-founder of the Omega Institute on how loss, illness and other hard times can open a person up rather than break them. 1 recommender Brooklyn Colm Tóibín 1 recommender Buckeye Patrick Ryan One unrecorded moment in the celebration after the war, still shaping two Ohio families generations later. 1 recommender Build the Life You Want Arthur C. Brooks, Oprah Winfrey Oprah and social scientist Arthur Brooks lay out research-based habits for building greater happiness and emotional control. Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation Bryan Caplan Housing regulation as the largest self-inflicted wound in the rich world, argued in pictures, on the economics first and then squarely on the ethics. Building a Second Brain Tiago Forte A method for capturing and organising the flood of information we consume, so ideas compound instead of getting lost. 1 recommender Built to Last Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras A study of what separates enduring, visionary companies from their rivals over the long run. 1 recommender Built to Sell John Warrillow A business fable about turning a service firm that depends on its founder into a company a buyer would actually want to own. Bull’s-Eye Brian Tracy A short book on the one habit Tracy returns to most: aiming at a clear target and refusing to be pulled off it. Burmese Days George Orwell Drawing on his years as a colonial policeman, Orwell's first novel exposes the racism and rot of British rule in Burma. Burn-In P.W. Singer, August Cole A techno-thriller following an FBI agent partnered with an advanced robot, built on real near-future AI and automation research. 1 recommender Business Adventures John Brooks John Brooks's twelve New Yorker tales of corporate triumph and disaster, from the Ford Edsel to a famous Wall Street panic. 2 recommenders Business Stripped Bare Richard Branson Virgin's real wins and costly flops, mined for lessons on brand, people, and finance by a founder who treats failure as tuition. Busy Betty Reese Witherspoon Witherspoon's first picture book, about a small girl with enormous plans and a dog badly in need of a bath. Busy Betty & the Circus Surprise Reese Witherspoon Betty takes her outsized ambitions to the circus, in the second outing for Witherspoon's irrepressible young problem-solver. Busy Betty & the Perfect Christmas Present Reese Witherspoon The Christmas instalment, in which Betty sets out to find a present equal to the size of her own enthusiasm. Butterfly Yusra Mardini The Syrian swimmer who pushed a sinking dinghy through the Aegean, then swam at the Olympics. 1 recommender By Way of Deception Victor Ostrovsky, Claire Hoy A former Mossad case officer's account of how Israel's spy agency recruits, trains and runs its operations, and the book Israel went to court to stop. 1 recommender Bye Bye Baby Caroline Sullivan An American teenager's obsessive fandom, followed further than most, and written up years later without flinching. 1 recommender Cadillac Jack Larry McMurtry An antiques scout lives out of his Cadillac, collecting objects and women with equal futility. 1 recommender Café Unfiltered Jean-Philippe Blondel Blondel's novel of nine characters crossing paths in a French café, translated by Alison Anderson.