Books

The Permanent Problem: The Uncertain Transition from Mass Plenty to Mass Flourishing Brink Lindsey Keynes thought abundance would set us free. Lindsey asks why it has left so many people miserable. 1 recommender The Persians Sanam Mahloudji Five women of one rich Iranian family, from revolutionary Tehran to Aspen, played mostly as comedy. 1 recommender The Person and the Situation Lee Ross Character explains less of human behaviour than we assume; the room people stand in explains far more. 1 recommender The Philosopher’s Toolkit Julian Baggini, Peter S. Fosl The concepts and methods of philosophical argument, laid out as a toolbox for clear thinking. The Phoenix Pencil Company Allison King A granddaughter inherits her family's Shanghai pencil company, and pencils that can be made to give back what they wrote. 1 recommender The Physics of Sorrow Georgi Gospodinov Gospodinov's second novel, translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel for Open Letter. The Pilgrim’s Progress John Bunyan John Bunyan's allegory of Christian's journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, by way of the Slough of Despond and Vanity Fair. 1 recommender The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett Ken Follett's epic of the building of a cathedral in twelfth-century England, following the masons, monks, and nobles whose fates it shapes. 1 recommender The Pilot’s Wife Anita Shreve Anita Shreve's novel follows a woman who, after her pilot husband dies in a crash, uncovers the double life he kept hidden. 1 recommender The Planet Remade Oliver Morton 1 recommender The Player of Games Iain M. Banks A bored master of games from a post-scarcity utopia is sent to an empire where the game decides who rules. 1 recommender The Plot Against America Philip Roth What if America had elected an isolationist hero in 1940? A Jewish family in Newark finds out. 1 recommender The Plotters Un-su Kim Un-su Kim's crime thriller narrated by a professional assassin who tries to understand his own motives, translated by Sora Kim-Russell. 1 recommender The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver A Baptist missionary drags his wife and four daughters to the Belgian Congo in 1959, where the family and the country are changed forever. 1 recommender The Pole J.M. Coetzee A Polish pianist falls for a married Catalan woman, and neither of them handles it well. 1 recommender The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation Deb Dana Dana takes polyvagal theory out of the laboratory, mapping how the nervous system moves between safety, mobilisation and shutdown, and what returns a person to steadiness. 1 recommender The Portable Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker The stories, verse and reviews of the Algonquin Round Table's sharpest member, collected in the edition Parker helped choose. 1 recommender The Post-American World Fareed Zakaria Not about the decline of America, Zakaria argues, but "the rise of the rest": a world where power and growth spread to many nations, and how the US can lead within it. The Postman Always Rings Twice James M. Cain A drifter, a roadside diner, a wife, and a plan that was never going to hold. 1 recommender The Power Naomi Alderman Teenage girls worldwide develop the power to deliver electric shocks, and the global order inverts. 1 recommender The Power Broker Robert A. Caro How one unelected man rebuilt New York around his own will, and who he drove out to do it. 1 recommender The Power of Broke Daymond John Having no money forces the creativity and hustle that funded rivals never develop. John's case that broke is an edge The Power of Charm Brian Tracy, Ron Arden Charm reframed as a skill of attention: the charming person is the one making you feel listened to, not the one talking well. The Power of Habit Charles Duhigg Duhigg reveals the loop of cue, routine, and reward behind our habits, and how understanding it lets us change them. 1 recommender The Power of Now Eckhart Tolle Most suffering comes from being trapped in thoughts about past and future, and presence is the way out. 2 recommenders The Power of Regret Daniel Pink No regrets is bad advice. Pink argues regret is a useful signal, and the things people regret most reveal what they value. The Power of Self-Confidence Brian Tracy Tracy treats self-confidence as a foundation you build on purpose, through clear values, real competence, and acting in spite of fear. The Power of the Powerless Vaclav Havel The 1978 essay on the greengrocer who puts a slogan in his window, and what would happen if he simply stopped. 1 recommender The Practice Seth Godin Creative work reframed as a practice rather than a talent you're born with. The path to good work is committing to the process and shipping. 1 recommender The Premonition Michael Lewis Lewis follows the misfit scientists who saw the pandemic coming and could not get anyone to listen. 1 recommender The Presocratic Philosophers G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven & M. Schofield 1 recommender The Price of Privilege Madeline Levine Why children of wealthy, high-achieving families are often so unhappy, and what their parents can change. 1 recommender The Prince and the Pauper Mark Twain A prince and a look-alike pauper swap places in Tudor England, letting Twain skewer the arbitrariness of rank and the cruelty of the law. The Private Lives of Trees Alejandro Zambra Alejandro Zambra's Chilean novel, translated by Megan McDowell and published by Fitzcarraldo Editions. 1 recommender The Progress Principle Teresa Amabile, Steven Kramer Drawing on thousands of workday diaries, Amabile and Kramer show that nothing motivates people more than making steady progress on meaningful work. 1 recommender The Prohibition of Riba in the Qur’an and Sunnah Imran N. Hosein The scriptural case against riba, and what it implies for money and banking today.