Books

The Elephant in the Brain Kevin Simler, Robin Hanson Much of human behaviour is driven by hidden, self-serving motives we would rather not admit, even to ourselves. 1 recommender The Emperor of Gladness Ocean Vuong Ocean Vuong's novel follows a lost young man in a Connecticut town who becomes caretaker to an elderly widow with dementia. 1 recommender The Emperor’s Soul Brandon Sanderson A condemned art forger has a hundred days to counterfeit a murdered emperor's soul, convincingly enough to fool the men who hired her. The Empress Matilda Marjorie Chibnall The life of Henry I's daughter, who fought her cousin Stephen for the English throne and was never crowned. 1 recommender The End of Enlightenment: Empire, Commerce, Crisis Richard Whatmore It was supposed to end in progress and ended in pessimism, with its own best minds watching empire and war eat the liberty they had spent their lives theorising. 1 recommender The End of History and the Last Man Francis Fukuyama Fukuyama's landmark argument that liberal democracy may be the final form of human government. 1 recommender The End of Poverty Jeffrey Sachs The case that extreme poverty can be ended within a generation, and the plan behind the Millennium Development Goals. The End of Power Moisés Naím Power today is easier to get, harder to use and easier to lose, and Naim traces that shift across armies, parties, churches and firms. 1 recommender The End of Reform Alan Brinkley How New Deal liberalism narrowed from restructuring the economy to managing it, and what that cost later. 1 recommender The End of the Free Market Ian Bremmer State capitalism as a rival system: where the state owns the commanding heights and sets the terms. 1 recommender The End of the Long Summer Dianne Dumanoski Civilization grew up in an unusually calm climate. That era is ending, and we must adapt. 1 recommender The End of the Past Aldo Schiavone Why ancient Rome, rich and inventive, never had an industrial revolution. An Italian historian blames slavery. 1 recommender The English Patient Michael Ondaatje Four strangers in a bombed Italian villa, one of them burned beyond recognition and unwilling to say who he is. 1 recommender The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster Darren Hardy Written for the emotional reality of founding a company rather than its mechanics, and as preparation not encouragement. 1 recommender The Essays of Warren Buffett Warren Buffett Warren Buffett's shareholder-letter writings, arranged by theme into a readable guide to his thinking on business and investing. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Ilan Pappé An Israeli historian arguing from Israel's own archives that 1948 followed a plan. The Evening of the Holiday Shirley Hazzard A summer affair in Tuscany, doomed from the first conversation, written in prose other novelists study. 1 recommender The Everyday Hero Manifesto Robin Sharma Part memoir, part method: Sharma's framework for ordinary people to do heroic, generous work with their lives The Evolution of Everything Matt Ridley The case that morality, money and technology were never designed by anyone, and are better for it. 1 recommender The Evolution of Physics Albert Einstein, Leopold Infeld Einstein co-wrote a history of his own field with a refugee physicist who needed the money, and it explains his objection to quantum theory. 1 recommender The Executioner’s Song Norman Mailer Gary Gilmore demanded his own execution, and Mailer simply gets out of the way. 1 recommender The Explosion Chronicles Yan Lianke Yan Lianke's satirical novel offering a fictional history of a village transformed overnight into a megalopolis, translated by Carlos Rojas. The Extended Phenotype Richard Dawkins Dawkins's own favourite of his books: genes express themselves beyond the body, in dams, nests and the behaviour of others. 1 recommender The Eye of the World Robert Jordan An ancient evil stirs and three young villagers are swept into a struggle far larger than their village. The Wheel of Time begins. 1 recommender The Fabric of the Cosmos Brian Greene What space and time actually are, from Newton's spinning bucket to string theory, for readers who want the physics without the equations. 1 recommender The Face of War Martha Gellhorn Sixty years of war reporting by a woman who stowed away in a hospital ship to reach D-Day. 1 recommender The Fall Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan Book two: the vampiric infection has spread and civilization is buckling, as a ragged band of survivors takes the fight to the ancient master behind the plague. The Fall of Republics Thomas F. Madden What actually happens when a republic falls, traced from Carthage and Rome through Venice to the framers who studied them. 1 recommender The Far Side of Paradise Arthur Mizener The first full biography of Fitzgerald, which helped restore his reputation after his death. 1 recommender The Fat Years Chan Koonchung Chan Koonchung's 2009 novel set in China in 2013, where citizens seem euphoric, translated by Michael S. Duke. The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne Chris Sweeney Roxie Laybourne built forensic ornithology at the Smithsonian out of the fragments left when birds hit aircraft, reshaping aviation safety and solving crimes along the way. 1 recommender The Feeling of What Happens Antonio Damasio A neuroscientist's case that feeling, not pure thought, is where consciousness begins. 1 recommender The Fellowship of the Ring J.R.R. Tolkien The hobbit Frodo Baggins inherits a ring of terrible power and must keep it from the Dark Lord who made it. 1 recommender The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams Philip Zaleski Four writers met in an Oxford pub for thirty years, and two of them invented modern fantasy. 1 recommender The Female Eunuch Germaine Greer The 1970 polemic that argued women had been cut off from their own desire, and made Greer famous. 2 recommenders The Feminist Promise Christine Stansell Two centuries of feminism, and how it pushed liberalism toward rights in the most private areas of life. 1 recommender