Books

Isola Allegra Goodman A French noblewoman is marooned on an island off Quebec in the 1540s, in a novel drawn from a real survival. 1 recommender Istanbul Orhan Pamuk A childhood spent in a city that cannot stop mourning the empire it used to be. 1 recommender It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson The Basecamp founders make the case for the calm company, rejecting hustle and long hours as badges of honour. 1 recommender It Is Dangerous to Be Right When the Government Is Wrong Andrew Napolitano Rights come before governments rather than from them, and a state that claims to grant your freedoms can take them back. It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful Jack Lowery The artists of Gran Fury turned ACT UP's rage into posters a city could not ignore. 1 recommender Italy Reborn: From Fascism to Democracy Mark Gilbert Between 1943 and 1958 a defeated fascist state with no democratic tradition built a working democracy. De Gasperi did much of it, and is barely remembered. 1 recommender Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook Gary Vaynerchuk A playbook for social media that treats most posts as "jabs" of value and the occasional "right hook" as the ask, with platform-by-platform examples of what works. Jack Marilynne Robinson Marilynne Robinson returns to Gilead to tell the love story of the prodigal Jack Boughton and a Black schoolteacher in segregated St. Louis. 1 recommender Jagannath Karin Tidbeck Karin Tidbeck's debut story collection, with tales of a child born in a tin can and a switchboard operator in hell, from Vintage. James Percival Everett Huckleberry Finn retold by Jim, who has been performing his own ignorance the entire time. 1 recommender James Joyce: A Political Life Frank Callanan A historian of Parnell argues that Joyce was politically engaged all along, and that Parnellism structures the fiction rather than merely decorating its background. 1 recommender Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë The orphan, the governess, the locked room at Thornfield, and the chestnut tree split in half the night after the proposal. 1 recommender Janis Holly George-Warren A Texas outsider who heard the blues and became rock's most exposed voice. 1 recommender Jannah Omar Suleiman Reflections on Paradise as described in Islamic scripture. Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination Edogawa Rampo Feverish, grotesque tales from the founding master of Japanese mystery and horror fiction. 1 recommender Jerusalem Jez Butterworth A man in a caravan versus the council on St George's Day, carrying an argument about England. 1 recommender Jerusalem Simon Sebag Montefiore Three thousand years of one city, told through the families, zealots and conquerors who fought over it. 1 recommender Jerusalem in the Qur’an: An Islamic View of the Destiny of Jerusalem Imran N. Hosein An Islamic reading of Jerusalem's place in the Qur'an and in the end of history. Jesse James T.J. Stiles Not a Robin Hood but a Confederate insurgent who never accepted the war had ended. 1 recommender Jesus Wept: Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church Philip Shenon From John XXIII to Francis: Vatican II, the long reaction against it, the abuse crisis, and the internal politics of an institution of a billion people. 1 recommender Jewel Bret Lott Bret Lott's novel follows a Mississippi mother whose life is remade by the birth of a daughter with Down syndrome. 1 recommender John Lewis David Greenberg From the Edmund Pettus Bridge to thirty years in Congress, without the sainthood. 1 recommender John of John Douglas Stuart A novel by Douglas Stuart, Booker-winning author of Shuggie Bain, and an Oprah's Book Club selection. A verified summary will follow. 1 recommender Join the Club Tina Rosenberg 1 recommender Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Susanna Clarke Two magicians revive English magic during the Napoleonic wars, and the fairies who answer are not friendly. 1 recommender Jony Ive Leander Kahney A biography of the British industrial designer who shaped the iMac, iPod and iPhone during his years at Apple. Journals Kurt Cobain Notebook pages reproduced as written: lyrics in progress, unsent letters, and long self-argument. Juan Carlos Paul Preston The king Franco chose, and how he led Spain from dictatorship to democracy. Judgement Day Omar Suleiman Reflections on the deeds Islamic tradition says will matter most on the Day of Judgement. Judgment Under Uncertainty Daniel Kahneman, Paul Slovic, Amos Tversky Heuristics and biases in the papers that first named them, the technical source behind every popular book since. 1 recommender Jump Steve Harvey Harvey's short motivational push to jump off the cliff of safety and build your wings on the way down, betting on faith over fear. Jung on Alchemy C. G. Jung Selected writings on alchemy as a map of the psyche, edited with an introduction by Nathan Schwartz-Salant. 1 recommender Jung on Death and Immortality C. G. Jung Jung treated death not as a medical event but as the task the second half of life is organised around, in writing gathered here across five decades. 1 recommender Just Because Matthew McConaughey McConaughey's rhyming picture book teaches kids that opposites coexist, you can be brave and scared, strong and gentle, in warm read-aloud couplets. Just Kids Patti Smith Patti Smith's memoir of her friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe and their young lives in New York. 1 recommender Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson A young lawyer takes on a death-row case in Alabama that everyone else has already closed. 1 recommender