Books

When Daniel Pink We obsess over how to do things and ignore when. Pink gathers the science of timing: the daily dip, fresh starts, and when to quit. When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi A neurosurgeon at the start of his career is diagnosed with terminal cancer, and turns his training on his own dying 1 recommender When I Sing, Mountains Dance Irene Sola A Pyrenean valley narrated in turn by women, ghosts, storm clouds and mushrooms. 1 recommender When the Body Says No Gabor Maté Maté's case that chronic stress and suppressed emotion can translate into physical illness, from autoimmune disease to cancer. When Things Fall Apart Pema Chödrön Heart advice for the point where your usual strategies stop working, and moving toward it is the counsel. 1 recommender Where Are the Customers’ Yachts? Fred Schwed Jr. Fred Schwed's witty 1940 takedown of Wall Street, whose title asks why the brokers have yachts but their customers do not. 1 recommender Where I’m Calling From Raymond Carver The stories that taught a generation of writers how much can be left out. 1 recommender Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens A girl raised alone in the North Carolina marshes becomes a murder suspect in this coming-of-age mystery. 2 recommenders Where the Deer and the Antelope Play Nick Offerman Offerman's reflective turn to the land, three journeys, from backpacking with George Saunders to a Scottish sheep farm, wrestling with nature and how to live. Where the Heart Is Billie Letts Billie Letts's novel follows a pregnant teenager abandoned at a Walmart who quietly builds a family among small-town strangers. 1 recommender Where the Music Had To Go: How Bob Dylan and the Beatles Changed Each Other Jim Windolf McCartney first called Dylan folk crap. Windolf traces what happened next, when each act kept pushing the other somewhere neither would have gone alone. 1 recommender While I Was Gone Sue Miller Sue Miller's novel unsettles a contented wife when a man from her secret past reappears, reviving an old, unsolved murder. 1 recommender Whiskey in a Teacup Reese Witherspoon Witherspoon's Southern scrapbook: the recipes, rituals and hospitality her grandmother taught her, told the way she would tell a friend. Whisper Network Chandler Baker Four colleagues have quietly warned each other for years; when their harasser is promoted, they decide whispering is not enough. 1 recommender White Ivy Susie Yang A thief since childhood, pursuing the life she decided at fourteen she was owed. 1 recommender White Oleander Janet Fitch After her poet mother is imprisoned for murder, a teenage girl is passed through a series of foster homes, hardening and adapting in each. 1 recommender Who Geoff Smart, Randy Street The most important problem in business is hiring, and the A Method is a structured way to stop getting it wrong. 1 recommender Who Is Government? Michael Lewis The unnamed civil servants running the machinery, profiled by the writer who has spent years insisting they matter. 1 recommender Who Is Rich? Matthew Klam A cartoonist teaches a week-long arts conference and conducts an affair he cannot afford. 1 recommender Who Needs College Anymore? Imagining a Future Where Degrees Don’t Matter Kathleen deLaski Employers are quietly dropping degree requirements, and this asks what could possibly replace the credential. 1 recommender Who Rules the World? Noam Chomsky Who sets the terms of the world order, and the duty to describe your own state accurately. Who Will Cry When You Die? Robin Sharma More than one hundred short lessons on living so that your death is mourned and your life was spent well Whose Story Is This? Rebecca Solnit Solnit on who gets to be believed, who gets to narrate, and how the stories a culture tells begin to shift. 1 recommender Why Aquinas Matters Now Oliver Keenan Why a thirteenth-century friar is still worth arguing with, from a Dominican who teaches him. 1 recommender Why I Write George Orwell A short collection gathering Orwell's reflections on the craft and politics of writing, including his famous title essay. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race Reni Eddo-Lodge Eddo-Lodge's essay-turned-book on structural racism in Britain and the exhaustion of explaining it. 1 recommender Why Immigration Policy is Hard and How to Make it Better Alan Manning A labour economist on why immigration debates go badly, and what evidence can and cannot settle. 1 recommender Why Leaders Lie John Mearsheimer Leaders lie to their own publics more than to each other, because the costs run the other way. Why Me? Omar Suleiman An Islamic reflection on suffering, tests, and destiny. Why Nations Fail Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson Two economists argue that the wealth of nations turns on whether their institutions are inclusive or extractive. 1 recommender Why Not Me? Mindy Kaling Kaling's second collection, on fame, impostor feelings, and the decade of work behind an overnight success, with the title as her thesis. Why the Ancient Greeks Matter: The Problematic Miracle that Was Greece Reviel Netz Greek science was a small corner of Greek culture, which is the puzzle this book is actually about. 1 recommender Why the Hindenburg Had a Smoking Lounge: Essays in Unintended Consequences Edward Tenner Collected essays from the writer who made unintended consequences his subject, with the airship as exhibit one. 1 recommender Why We Sleep Matthew Walker A sleep scientist explains why sleep is the single most effective thing we can do for our health, and what happens without it. 1 recommender Widow Basquiat Jennifer Clement 1980s New York given to the woman rather than the painter, in fragments rather than chronology. 2 recommenders Wild Cheryl Strayed Cheryl Strayed’s account of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail alone after loss, and what the walk gave back to her. 1 recommender