Books

Put Out More Flags Evelyn Waugh Waugh's comedy of the phoney war, following Basil Seal through the first months of the conflict. 1 recommender Queen Charlotte Julia Quinn, Shonda Rhimes Julia Quinn and Shonda Rhimes turn the Bridgerton prequel into a novel: young Queen Charlotte's arranged marriage and the love that defined a reign. Queen of Coin and Whispers Helen Corcoran A young queen inherits an emptied treasury and hires a spymaster who came to court for revenge. 1 recommender Queer Street James McCourt McCourt's dense, allusive history of gay New York from the postwar years to AIDS — his only work of non-fiction. 1 recommender Quiet Susan Cain Institutions built around an extrovert ideal, and what gets systematically lost when the loudest contribution wins. 1 recommender Qur’an 30 for 30 Omar Suleiman, Ismail Kamdar Thirty short reflections pairing each part of the Qur'an with a life theme. R.L.S. and His Sine Qua Non, Flashlights from Skerryvore Adelaide A. Boodle A young neighbour became Stevenson pupil and friend, and wrote down the Bournemouth household nearly four decades after he died. 1 recommender Rachel’s Holiday Marian Keyes She is sure she is not an addict, because surely addicts are thinner. Rehab disagrees. 1 recommender Radical Uncertainty John Kay, Mervyn King Two economists argue that much of life cannot be reduced to probabilities, and explain how to decide anyway. Rain of Gold Victor Villaseñor Two Mexican families flee the Revolution and remake their lives in California, told by the son they produced. 1 recommender Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima, and the Surrender of Japan Richard Overy The firebombing of Tokyo killed more people than Hiroshima, and Overy treats both as one campaign. 1 recommender Rain or Shine Cyra McFadden The daughter of a rodeo announcer, raised between arenas and the wreckage of her parents' marriage. 1 recommender Raising Hare Chloe Dalton Stranded in the countryside by the pandemic, a foreign-policy adviser finds a newborn leveret and raises it without taming it. It comes and goes freely for two years. 1 recommender Random Acts of Medicine: The Hidden Forces That Sway Doctors, Impact Patients, and Shape Our Health Anupam B. Jena What happens to you in hospital depends partly on the day you arrive, and the data proves it. 1 recommender Range David Epstein Epstein argues that in most fields it's the generalists, not early specialists, who become creative and durable high performers. 1 recommender Rational Ritual Michael Suk-Young Chwe Why do public ceremonies exist? Because coordinated action needs everyone to know that everyone else knows. 1 recommender Ready, Fire, Aim Michael Masterson Masterson maps the four stages of business growth and what the founder must actually do in each one. 1 recommender Real Americans Rachel Khong Three generations of one family, and the difference between what parents pass on and what gets inherited anyway. 1 recommender Real Money Ahamed Kameel Mydin Meera A collection edited by Ahamed Kameel Mydin Meera making the case for money tied to real value, and for payment systems built on Islamic principles. Reality Is Broken Jane McGonigal Games as evidence of what reality lacks: clear goals, visible progress, difficulty worth the effort. Reasoning with God Khaled Abou El Fadl Shari'ah as a tradition of moral reasoning rather than a fixed code, and what literalism replaced. Rebecca Daphne du Maurier A young bride is haunted by the memory of her husband's glamorous first wife in du Maurier's timeless gothic novel. 2 recommenders Rebel Without a Crew Robert Rodriguez The diary of a seven-thousand-dollar film, including how it was paid for and what got faked. Reclaim Your Heart Yasmin Mogahed Reflections on attachment, loss and the life of the heart, and why placing our hopes in things that cannot hold them breaks us. Recognizing the Stranger Isabella Hammad A novelist asks what fiction's moment of recognition means when the recognition never arrives. 1 recommender Recollections of Things to Come Elena Garro Elena Garro's 1963 novel narrated by the town of Ixtepec during the Cristero War, in Ruth L.C. Simms's English translation. 1 recommender Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions Russell Brand The twelve steps rewritten for people who would never walk into a church hall. Red Blood, Black Sand Chuck Tatum A teenage Marine lands on Iwo Jima beside the war most decorated enlisted man, and watches him die 1 recommender Red Dust Ma Jian Ma Jian's fictionalised account of his journey through China in the 1980s, translated by Flora Drew. Red Famine Anne Applebaum Anne Applebaum’s account of the Holodomor, Stalin’s engineered famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the early 1930s, and its long political aftermath. 1 recommender Red Notice Bill Browder Bill Browder’s memoir of investing in post-Soviet Russia, the murder of his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, and his fight for justice. 1 recommender Red Rising Pierce Brown In a future divided by colour-coded castes, a lowly Red labouring beneath the surface of Mars discovers his people are being lied to. 1 recommender Redwood Court DéLana R. A. Dameron A Black family in 1990s South Carolina, seen through its youngest daughter and the neighbours on their street. 1 recommender Reeds in the Wind Grazia Deledda Grazia Deledda's 1913 novel Canne al vento, translated by Martha King, in which unmarried sisters welcome a young nephew into their home. 1 recommender Reflections on the Russian Soul Dmitry S. Likhachev 1 recommender Regeneration Pat Barker A war novel set in a hospital, where the doctor's job is to make men well enough to return. 1 recommender