Books

Patriot Alexei Navalny Written partly in prison by a man who went back to Russia knowing what waited. 1 recommender Patsy Nicole Dennis-Benn She leaves her daughter in Jamaica for New York, and the promised life is not there. 1 recommender Permission Marketing Seth Godin The 1999 book that saw it coming: attention would become the scarce resource, and the answer was to ask, not steal Personal History Katharine Graham Cast as the supportive wife, she ended up running the Washington Post through Watergate. 1 recommender Personal Pleasures: Essays on Enjoying Life Rose Macaulay Macaulay catalogues bed, hot baths, disbelieving and taking umbrage as pleasures worth defending, in 1930s essays by a novelist far better known for her ironies. 1 recommender Persuasion Jane Austen Anne Elliot was talked out of marrying the man she loved at nineteen, and meets him again eight years later with everything changed. 2 recommenders Pet Sematary Stephen King A doctor moves his family next to a burial ground that gives back what you bury there, changed. 1 recommender Phineas Finn Anthony Trollope A young Irishman with no money enters Parliament and finds out what keeping a seat actually costs. 1 recommender Picasso: Creator and Destroyer Arianna Huffington Huffington's controversial biography paints Picasso as a genius whose creativity ran in tandem with cruelty toward the women and friends around him. Picture Lillian Ross A reporter watches John Huston make a film and the studio quietly take it apart. 1 recommender Pierre Boulez: Organised Delirium Caroline Potter Boulez the composer read through French surrealism rather than through his reputation as an enforcer. 1 recommender Pigs at the Trough Arianna Huffington Written in the wake of Enron, a blistering account of executive excess and the cozy ties between corporate boardrooms and Washington. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard A giant water bug dissolving a frog, a mockingbird in freefall, and the question of why there is so much of everything. Dillard was twenty-nine and won the Pulitzer. 1 recommender Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas, and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends John Leguizamo The comedian's raucous, profane memoir of clawing from Queens to Broadway, told in a voice that's pure stand-up on the page. Piranesi Susanna Clarke A man lives alone in an endless labyrinth of halls and tides, keeping careful notes, until the truth of his world starts to surface. 1 recommender Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces that Shape Your Life Alex Mayyasi The economics podcast's guide to the forces behind prices, jobs and money, for people who skipped the course. 1 recommender Play Nice But Win Michael Dell Dell's candid account of the fights that defined his later career, going private, the Icahn proxy war, and the $67 billion EMC deal. Playful Parenting Lawrence Cohen Play as the language children process fear in, and the one adults keep trying to replace with talking. 1 recommender Poke the Box Seth Godin A short, sharp shove toward starting: the scarce skill now is initiative, the willingness to begin before you are ready Polis: A New History of the Ancient Greek City-State from the Early Iron Age to the End of Antiquity John Ma Two thousand years of the Greek city-state, treated as a working institution rather than a backdrop to philosophy. 1 recommender Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites Tucker Carlson Tucker Carlson's memoir of his early years in cable news. Politics and the English Language George Orwell Orwell's classic essay on how vague, stale language corrupts thought and shields bad politics, with rules for writing clearly. Poor Charlie’s Almanack Charlie Munger A collection of Charlie Munger's talks and wit, built around his idea of using mental models from many disciplines to think better. 2 recommenders Portfolios of the Poor Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, Orlanda Ruthven Year-long financial diaries of poor households show that living on two dollars a day demands constant, sophisticated money management. 1 recommender Possession A.S. Byatt Two academics chase a Victorian love affair through the archives and fall into the same trap. 1 recommender Poverty, by America Matthew Desmond The argument that American poverty persists because it is profitable to the people voting on it. 1 recommender Powershift Daymond John John's three-part system, drawn from his own deals, for building influence, negotiating hard, and getting the outcome you want Pox Romana: The Plague that Shook the Roman World Colin Elliott The Antonine plague hit Rome at its height, and the empire never quite recovered its confidence. 1 recommender Practical Mysticism Evelyn Underhill A 1914 handbook arguing that contemplative experience needs no doctrine, monastery or belief, written for readers who assumed mysticism was for other people. 1 recommender Prague: The Heart of Europe Cynthia Paces A city that has been Habsburg, Nazi, Soviet and European, read through the buildings still standing. 1 recommender Prayers of the Pious Omar Suleiman Short daily reflections and supplications drawn from the lives of the pious. Pre-Suasion Robert B. Cialdini Cialdini's follow-up to Influence, on how the moment before a message is delivered decides whether it lands. 1 recommender Predictable Revenue Aaron Ross, Marylou Tyler The outbound prospecting system built at Salesforce, and how to make new sales arrive predictably. 1 recommender Predilections Marianne Moore Marianne Moore on Pound, Stevens, Eliot and Anna Pavlova, written in the compressed magpie style of her poems. Criticism by an enthusiast rather than a judge. 1 recommender Preparing for War: The Making of the Geneva Conventions Boyd van Dijk The 1949 negotiations reconstructed from the archives, showing colonial powers drafting the rules of war to preserve their own freedom to put down uprisings. 1 recommender Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen A comedy of manners with an economic argument underneath: marriage as the only career on offer. 1 recommender