Books

An American Marriage Tayari Jones A newlywed couple’s life is torn apart when the husband is wrongfully imprisoned, in Tayari Jones’s novel of love and injustice. 1 recommender An American Martyr in Persia Reza Aslan The forgotten American who died fighting for Iranian democracy in 1909, and remains a hero there while his own country never learned his name. An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser A poor preacher's son wants a better life so badly that he talks himself into murder. 1 recommender An Autobiography Mahatma Gandhi Not a great man looking back, but a restless one auditing his own conduct and mostly finding it wanting An Untamed State Roxane Gay Kidnapped in Port-au-Prince while her father refuses to pay, and the aftermath nobody wants described. Anatomy Dana Schwartz In 1817 Edinburgh a young woman studies surgery in secret, and buys her anatomy lessons from a body snatcher. 1 recommender Anbruch der Neuen Zeit: Das Dramatische 16. Jahrhundert Marina Munkler Reformation, printing, the price revolution and the Ottoman frontier, analysed from a Central European vantage point rather than the usual Atlantic one. 1 recommender Angels in Your Presence Omar Suleiman On the role of angels in a believer's life according to Islamic teaching. Animal Farm George Orwell Orwell's satirical fable in which farm animals overthrow their owner, only to watch the pigs rebuild the tyranny they rose against. Anita de Monte Laughs Last Xochitl Gonzalez A Cuban American artist falls from a window in 1985, and a student in 1998 has never been taught she existed. 1 recommender Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy Tolstoy's tragic epic of a married aristocrat's affair, set against a panorama of Russian society and one man's search for meaning. 2 recommenders Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook Anthony Bourdain The recipes from the New York brasserie where Bourdain was chef, taught in his voice: bossy, funny, and dead serious about technique. Antifragile Nassim Nicholas Taleb Beyond robust: things that improve under stress, and how suppressing small shocks guarantees larger ones. 2 recommenders Anton Rupert: The Life of a Business Icon Ebbe Dommisse A very favourable life of the tobacco magnate who became the richest man in South Africa. 1 recommender Anything You Want Derek Sivers Forty short chapters of lessons from building and selling CD Baby, the music company Derek Sivers started almost by accident. 1 recommender Appetites Anthony Bourdain, Laurie Woolever Bourdain's home cookbook, the food he actually cooked for family and friends, aimed at feeding people you love rather than a dining room. Arabian Sands Wilfred Thesiger Five years crossing the Empty Quarter with Bedu companions, written by a man who preferred it to England. 1 recommender Arabs Tim Mackintosh-Smith Three thousand years of Arab history told through the thing that kept binding it together: the language. 1 recommender Arcanum Unbounded Brandon Sanderson The Cosmere short fiction gathered in one volume, with essays and star charts mapping how the worlds actually connect. Archive Sofia Coppola Collages, annotated scripts and set photographs, assembled like the films themselves. 1 recommender Are Prisons Obsolete? Angela Davis Prisons feel permanent only because the alternative is unimagined. A short book against that. Arise, England: Six Kings and the Making of the English State Caroline Burt Six medieval kings, and the machinery of the English state that was assembled underneath them. 1 recommender Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, Douglas Kent Hall Schwarzenegger's first book, part memoir and part training manual, written as his bodybuilding career ended and Hollywood began. Arnold’s Bodybuilding for Men Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Dobbins A practical, approachable programme for ordinary readers rather than competitors, from the man who wrote the sport's definitive reference. Arnold’s Bodyshaping for Women Arnold Schwarzenegger, Douglas Kent Hall An argument, made when almost no women lifted, that resistance training shapes and strengthens a body rather than bulking it. Arnold’s Fitness for Kids, Age 11-14 Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charles Gaines Health, exercise and nutrition through the pre-teen and early-teen years, the stretch where kids most often drop the habit for good. Arnold’s Fitness for Kids, Age 6-10 Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charles Gaines The middle volume of Schwarzenegger's fitness series for parents, written while he chaired the President's Council on Physical Fitness. Arnold’s Fitness for Kids, Ages Birth to Five Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charles Gaines The first of three parent guides from Schwarzenegger's years chairing the President's Council on Physical Fitness, covering the earliest childhood years. Art and the Creative Unconscious Erich Neumann Jung most original follower on where art comes from, taking in Leonardo, Chagall and the Great Mother, written at the end of a life cut short at fifty-five. 1 recommender Artemis Fowl Eoin Colfer A twelve-year-old criminal mastermind kidnaps a fairy to ransom her people's gold, and finds out the fairies are high-tech and armed. 1 recommender As I Lay Dying William Faulkner William Faulkner's novel follows a poor Mississippi family's grueling journey to bury their mother, told in fractured inner voices. 1 recommender Astor Anderson Cooper, Katherine Howe The follow-up to Vanderbilt, tracing the Astors from a fur trader's fortune through Gilded Age society to feuds, folly and decline. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry Neil deGrasse Tyson The universe, from the Big Bang to dark matter, explained in short chapters for readers with no time and no physics At Home Bill Bryson A history of domestic life told room by room, from why the dining room exists to what made spice worth dying for. Atomic Habits James Clear A practical framework for building good habits and breaking bad ones. 3 recommenders Atonement Ian McEwan A thirteen-year-old misreads what she sees between her sister and the housekeeper's son, and spends the rest of her life trying to undo it. 1 recommender