Books

Orientalism Edward Said Western scholarship on the East read as a system for managing it rather than knowing it. Origins Neil deGrasse Tyson The whole story of everything, from the first second after the Big Bang to the chemistry that made life Orlando Furioso Ludovico Ariosto Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem of knights, ladies, war and love, in Guido Waldman's translation for Oxford World's Classics. 1 recommender Ornamentalism David Cannadine 1 recommender Orwell’s Revenge Peter W. Huber A rewrite of 1984 arguing Orwell had the technology backwards, and that networks scatter power rather than concentrate it. 1 recommender Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood A man who may be the last human alive pieces together how corporate bioengineering and one friend's genius ended the world Other People’s Money John Kay An economist asks why finance grew so large and complicated, and whose interests it really serves. Our Crumbling Foundation: How We Solve Canada’s Housing Crisis Gregor Craigie Canada's housing shortage explained by a broadcaster who went and looked at what other countries do. 1 recommender Our Dollar, Your Problem Kenneth Rogoff The dollar's unquestioned run may be ending, and the person arguing it watched the last crises from inside. 1 recommender Our Final Invention Our Final Invention James Barrat A documentary filmmaker investigates whether artificial intelligence could outstrip human intelligence and why that outcome may not end well for us. Our Missing Hearts Celeste Ng In a near-future America that removes children from disloyal parents, a boy goes looking for his exiled poet mother. 1 recommender Our Own Worst Enemy Tom Nichols Nichols argues the threat to democracy comes less from tyrants than from bored, resentful citizens. 1 recommender Out of Eden Paul W Kahn 1 recommender Out of Many, One George W. Bush Forty-three portraits painted by the former president, each with the story of the immigrant who sat for it. 1 recommender Out of Place Edward Said A childhood between Jerusalem, Cairo and Beirut, and never being wholly at home in any language. Out of Sri Lanka: Tamil, Sinhala & English Poetry from Sri Lanka and its Diasporas Vidyan Ravinthiran Sri Lankan poetry in Tamil, Sinhala and English, gathered across the divisions of a civil war. 1 recommender Outlawed Anna North In an 1894 where barren women are hanged as witches, a midwife's daughter flees and joins a gang of outlaws. 1 recommender Outliers Malcolm Gladwell Nobody succeeds alone. Behind every outlier sits a birth date, a culture and an accident of timing. Outlive Peter Attia Longevity reframed around healthspan, the years you live in good health, not merely how long you last. 1 recommender Owl Lake Keizaburo Tejima A father owl hunts through one northern night in Japanese woodblock prints: dark water, pale wings, and the long patience of a bird that must feed its young by dawn. 1 recommender Own or Be Owned Codie Sanchez Sanchez's argument that the goal is not a job you love but an asset that runs without you, drawn from the small businesses she buys and the operators she has watched hand over the keys. Pachinko Min Jin Lee Four generations of a Korean family in Japan, enduring an adopted country that never quite accepts them. 2 recommenders Packaging Boyhood Lyn Mikel Brown, Sharon Lamb, Mark Tappan Superheroes and slackers: three psychologists examine the narrow ideas of masculinity marketed to boys. 1 recommender Packaging Girlhood Sharon Lamb, Lyn Mikel Brown Two psychologists decode what marketers sell to girls, and how parents can help their daughters see through it. 1 recommender Paddle Your Own Canoe Nick Offerman Offerman's ribald memoir-manifesto on delicious living, self-reliance, craftsmanship, and red meat, in the deadpan voice that made Ron Swanson a hero. Pakistan: A Personal History Imran Khan Part memoir, part history: Pakistan's story from its founding through the decades Imran Khan lived and played through. Paleoeconomics: Climate Change and Economic Development in Prehistory Ola Olsson Climate and geography in prehistory, and the long course of economic development that followed from both. 1 recommender Palestine Karl Sabbagh 1 recommender Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict Oren Kessler Partition was first proposed during the 1936 revolt, the Palestinian leadership was broken, and the Haganah learned to fight. The shape was set before 1948. 1 recommender Palestine Inside Out Saree Makdisi The occupation documented through permits and checkpoints rather than through episodes of violence. Palestinian Identity Rashid Khalidi How Palestinian national identity formed before 1948, answered from the documentary record. Palestinian Refugees in International Law Francesca Albanese The standard legal reference on why Palestinian refugees sit outside the framework covering everyone else. Paper Boats Dee Lestari Dee Lestari's novel Perahu Kertas in English, published by Amazon Publishing in 2017 and adapted into two Indonesian romance films in 2012. Paper Girl Beth Macy The Dopesick reporter turns her attention homeward, and finds the national story running straight through her own family. 1 recommender Paradise Toni Morrison Toni Morrison's novel opens with a massacre at a rural women's shelter, then unfolds the history of an all-Black Oklahoma town. 1 recommender Paradise Bronx: The Life and Times of New York’s Greatest Borough Ian Frazier Frazier walked the borough end to end over several years, taking in the Grand Concourse, the burning of the seventies, hip hop, and the expressway that split it. 1 recommender