Nonfiction

Clean Code

A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship

Robert C. Martin

Thinking in Java (4th Edition)

Bruce Eckel

The Pilates Body

The Ultimate At-Home Guide to Strengthening, Lengthening and Toning Your Body- Without Machines

Brooke Siler

The Sami People

Veli-Pekka Lehtola

Kaws

Monica Ramirez-Montagut

Green is the New Black

How to Change the World with Style

Tamsin Blanchard

QI: The Discreetly Plumper Second Book of General Ignorance

Now 13.51% more ignorant

John Lloyd, John Mitchinson

Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia

Christina Thompson

Interventions

A Life in War and Peace

Kofi Annan

Abundance

The Future Is Better Than You Think

Peter H. Diamandis

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

Ben Horowitz

Playing Big

A practical guide for brilliant women like you

Tara Mohr

Studio Anywhere

A Photographer's Guide to Shooting in Unconventional Locations

Nick Fancher

Superforecasting

The Art and Science of Prediction

Philip Tetlock, Dan Gardner

Doing Good Better

How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference

William MacAskill

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson

East West Street

Philippe Sands

Hair by Sam McKnight

Sam McKnight, Tim Blanks

Bigger Leaner Stronger

The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body (Second Edition)

Michael Matthews

Paris in Bloom

Georgianna Lane

How Food Works: The Facts Visually Explained

Wardrobe Crisis

How We Went from Sunday Best to Fast Fashion

Clare Press

A Good Time to be a Girl

Don’t Lean In, Change the System

Helena Morrissey

We Have No Idea

A Guide to the Unknown Universe

Daniel Whiteson

The Art Museum

Revised Edition

Phaidon Editors

The Artist Project

What Artists See When They Look At Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

What If It Does Work Out?

How a Side Hustle Can Change Your Life

Susie Moore

Reclaiming the State

A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World

William Mitchell, Thomas Fazi

Generation Impact: How Next Gen Donors Are Revolutionizing Giving

Sharna Goldseker

Quirky

The Remarkable Story of the Traits, Foibles, and Genius of Breakthrough Innovators Who Changed the World

Melissa A. Schilling

1,423 QI Facts to Bowl You Over

John Lloyd, James Harkin and Anne Miller

Zen Camera: Creative Awakening with a Daily Practice in Photography

David Ulrich

The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down

How to Be Calm in a Fast-Paced World

Haemin Sunim

Why We Sleep

The New Science of Sleep and Dreams

Matthew Walker

The Givers

Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age

David Callahan

Mad About the House: A Decorating Handbook

Kate Watson-Smyth

Cover Art for 9780730345466, How to Build an Online Business: Australia's Top Digital Disruptors Reveal Their Secrets for Launching and Growing an Online Business by Bernadette Schwerdt

How to Build an Online Business: Australia's Top Digital Disruptors Reveal Their Secrets for Launching and Growing an Online Business

Bernadette Schwerdt

The Creative Curve

How to Develop the Right Idea, at the Right Time

Allen Gannett

Mouthfeel: How Texture Makes Taste

Ole Mouritsen

Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

Paul Jarvis

My Own Words

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

What It Takes

How I Built a $100 Million Business Against the Odds

Raegan Moya-Jones

Timelines of Everything

The Infinite Game

Simon Sinek

The 1 Minute Commute

Turn Your Skills Into A Business You’ll Love, Be Your Own Boss, Work From Home

Robert Gerrish

Photographers on Photography

How the Masters See, Think and Shoot

Henry Carroll

The Big Ideas Box

The Psychology Book / the Sociology Book / the Philosophy Book

On This Day in History

Dan Snow

The Multi-Hyphen Method

Work less, create more: How to make your side hustle work for you

Emma Gannon

Dare to LeadBold Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.

Brené Brown

2020: The Year That Changed Us

by The Conversation

In January 2020, Australia went from battling one of its worst-ever bushfire seasons to preparing for COVID-19 to hit its shores. What ensued was crisis: a pandemic, political upheaval, an international human rights movement, global recession and localised emergencies dwarfed by a world spinning on an axis of turmoil. These essays from leading thinkers and contributors to The Conversation examine what will be one of the most significant and punishing years in the 21st century. 2020: The Year That Changed Us explores the lessons that cannot be overlooked from this remarkable year, and the most intelligent way forward. Contributors include: Michelle Grattan Peter Martin Raina MacIntyre Joëlle Gergis Peter Greste Thalia Anthony Shino Konishi Fiona Stanley

Body Count

How Climate Change Is Killing Us

by Paddy Manning

‘Our house is on fire,' 16-year-old Swedish school strike activist Greta Thunberg told world leaders in 2019. Across an angry year of weather, Australians watched it in real-time: record heatwaves and worsening drought, unprecedented fish kills in the Murray-Darling Basin and devastating wildfires across Queensland and NSW - this is climate change, a terrifying portent for the most arid continent on earth. But most shocking of all is the untold human toll - escalating human deaths in Australia and beyond. The climate crisis is now a health emergency, with extreme weather events, disease, mental illness and infrastructure collapse killing what the WHO predicts will be millions around the world over the next decade. Shocking and undeniable, Manning reveals what climate change really looks like, telling the moving stories of victims, their families and doctors - putting names and faces to the people who have already paid the ultimate price for inaction on the biggest moral challenge of our century.

Guinness World Records 2021

by Guinness World Records

All aboard Guinness World Records 2021 for a life-changing journey of discovery! This year, we're devoting a chapter to the history of exploration, starting with the story of the very first circumnavigation, along with our "History of Adventure" timeline, featuring a host of remarkable achievements. The fully revised and updated best-seller is packed with thousands of incredible new feats across the widest spectrum of topics, providing a whistle-stop tour of our superlative universe. Our ever-expanding pool of international consultants and experts help us make sense of the world around us and the cosmos beyond. So join us as we embark on a voyage through the vast panorama of record-breaking in 12 fact-packed chapters: - Travel through the Solar System and see the planets come to life with a free augmented-reality feature - Encounter the cutest, weirdest, most dangerous and exotic creatures on our home planet - Meet the world's tallest, shortest, hairiest and heaviest humans - Marvel at the latest high scores, speed runs and players at the top of their game in eSports and beyond - Get the lowdown on the world's most successful and prolific actors, musicians, TV stars and influencers - Review the greatest sports achievements from the past year and celebrate today's top athletes We've also selected the best of the newly approved claims from the 50,000 applications received from the public over the past 12 months. But don't just be a tourist: try some of our specially created try-at-home challenges that could see YOU listed in the world-famous book of records. If you want to be one of those lucky few, check out our Against the Clock chapter - we might even see you in next year's edition!

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster

The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need

by Bill Gates

Bill Gates shares what he's learned in more than a decade of studying climate change and investing in innovations to address the problems, and sets out a vision for how the world can build the tools it needs to get to zero greenhouse gas emissions. Bill Gates explains why he cares so deeply about climate change and what makes him optimistic that the world can prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Gates says, "we can work on a local, national, and global level to build the technologies, businesses, and industries to avoid the worst impacts of climate change." His interest in climate change is a natural outgrowth of the efforts by his foundation to reduce poverty and disease. Climate change, according to Gates, will have the biggest impact on the people who have done the least to cause it. As a technologist, he has seen first-hand how innovation can change the world. By investing in research, inventing new technologies, and by deploying them quickly at large scale, Gates believes climate change can be addressed in meaningful ways. According to Gates, "to prevent the worst effects of climate change, we have to get to net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases. This problem is urgent, and the debate is complex, but I believe we can come together to invent new carbon-zero technologies, deploy the ones we have, and ultimately avoid a climate catastrophe."

How to Survive the End of the World (When it's in Your Own Head)

An Anxiety Survival Guide

by Aaron Gillies

There are plenty of books out there on how to survive a zombie apocalypse, all-out nuclear war, or Armageddon. But what happens when it feels like the world is ending every single time you wake up? That's what having anxiety is like - and How to Survive the End of the World is here to help. Or at least make you feel like you're not so alone. From helping readers identify the enemy, to safeguarding the vulnerable areas of their lives, Aaron Gillies will examine the impact of anxiety, and give readers some tools to fight back - whether with medication, therapy, CBT, coping techniques, or simply with a dark sense of humour.

Jacinda Ardern: A New Kind of Leader

by Madeleine Chapman

Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern is a leader for a new generation, one tired of inertia in the face of pressing issues such as climate change, immigration and the rise of far-right terrorism. Ardern was catapulted onto the international stage with her grace and compassion following the Christchurch mosque shooting. Oprah Winfrey invited us to 'channel our inner Jacindas' as praise for Ardern flooded headlines and social media. The world's youngest female head of government, and only the second elected world leader to give birth while in office, Ardern describes herself as a progressive and a social democrat. In this revealing biography, journalist Madeleine Chapman discovers the woman behind the headlines. Politically engaged from an early age, Ardern has encountered her fair share of sexism, but rather than let that harden her she advocates 'rising above' critics. In her first press conference, she announced an election campaign of 'relentless positivity'. The tactic was a resounding success- donations poured in and Labour rebounded in the polls. But can Ardern live up to her promise? What does her new style of leadership look like in practice? And what can we learn from the world's reaction to this inspiring leader?

No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality

by Michael J. Fox

A moving account of resilience, hope, fear and mortality, and how these things resonate in our lives, by actor and advocate Michael J. Fox. The entire world knows Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, the teenage sidekick of Doc Brown in Back to the Future; as Alex P. Keaton in Family Ties; as Mike Flaherty in Spin City; and through numerous other movie roles and guest appearances on shows such as The Good Wife and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Diagnosed at age 29, Michael is equally engaged in Parkinson’s advocacy work, raising global awareness of the disease and helping find a cure through The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the world’s leading non-profit funder of PD science. His two previous bestselling memoirs, Lucky Man and Always Looking Up, dealt with how he came to terms with the illness, all the while exhibiting his iconic optimism. His new memoir reassesses this outlook, as events in the past decade presented additional challenges. In No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality, Michael shares personal stories and observations about illness and health, aging, the strength of family and friends, and how our perceptions about time affect the way we approach mortality. Thoughtful and moving, but with Fox’s trademark sense of humor, his book provides a vehicle for reflection about our lives, our loves, and our losses. Running through the narrative is the drama of the medical madness Fox recently experienced, that included his daily negotiations with the Parkinson’s disease he’s had since 1991, and a spinal cord issue that necessitated immediate surgery. His challenge to learn how to walk again, only to suffer a devastating fall, nearly caused him to ditch his trademark optimism and “get out of the lemonade business altogether.”

Settle For More

by Megyn Kelly

Anchor of the number one news show on cable, The Kelly File, Fox News Channel's Megyn Kelly writes her much anticipated book, a revealing and surprising memoir detailing her rise as one of the most respected journalists working today. From the values and lessons that have shaped her career, to her time at the center of the chaotic 2016 Republican presidential primary, this book offers an inside look at an uncompromising woman's journey to the top of the news business.In the two and half years since her show The Kelly File premiered on the Fox News Channel, Megyn Kelly has cemented her reputation as one of the most respected and hardest hitting journalists in America. Tackling issues from both sides of the aisle, live in prime time five nights a week, Kelly has embraced difficult questions—fearlessly pressing for answers as she redefines the face of news for her more than two million nightly viewers.Now in her debut book, Kelly goes behind the scenes of the stories and the storms that have made her one of the most talked about public figures in America. From growing up in a tough love family where she had to earn her praise, to her father's sudden, tragic death while she was still in high school, to the news stories that launched her journalism career, Kelly traces the values and experiences—both good and bad—that landed her in the anchor chair. With the same bold and brave voice that has won her fans across the political divide, she opens up about the controversy that made her a household name, telling her side of Donald Trump's feud with her, while sharing never-before-heard details about the infamous first Republican debate, its challenging aftermath, and how she persevered through it all, winning widespread admiration while maintaining her professionalism. Speaking candidly about the career-changing decision that led her to "settle for more"—a motto she credits with leading her to a better life at home and at work—Kelly also discusses how she approaches gender in the workplace, demonstrating how her success is rooted in Steve Martin's old adage: "Be so good they can't ignore you."Throughout her meteoric career, Megyn Kelly has been a source of fascination and speculation. Men and women, Republicans and Democrats, viewers of Fox News and the network's most diehard detractors have all sought to understand what she stands for and what matters to her. With this deeply personal account of her life, she answers critics and fans alike. At once humorous, uplifting, and revealing, Settle for More offers unparalleled insight into one of the most charismatic and intriguing television personalities in a generation, and will be one of the most talked about books from an influential voice unlike any other.

Stevie Wonder

by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara

In this book from the critically acclaimed, multimillion-copy best-selling Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the life of Stevie Wonder, the genius behind some of the world’s best-loved songs. At just 8 years old, it was clear that Steveland Judkins was going to be a star. Renamed Stevie Wonder for his astonishing talent on the piano and other instruments, he wrote and performed some of the biggest hits of the 1970s. Stevie became known for his inventiveness, his soulful voice, and the social commentary in his lyrics. He is a UN Messenger of Peace and remains one of the music world’s most iconic figures. This inspiring book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the great musician’s life. Little People, BIG DREAMS is a best-selling series of books and educational games that explore the lives of outstanding people, from designers and artists to scientists and activists. All of them achieved incredible things, yet each began life as a child with a dream. This empowering series offers inspiring messages to children of all ages, in a range of formats. The board books are told in simple sentences, perfect for reading aloud to babies and toddlers. The hardcover versions present expanded stories for beginning readers.

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race

by Walter Isaacson

The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a gripping account of how the pioneering scientist Jennifer Doudna, along with her colleagues and rivals, launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and enhance our children. In the spring of 2012, the Berkeley biochemist Jennifer Doudna and her collaborators turned a curiosity of nature into an invention that will transform the future of the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions. It has already been deployed to cure deadly diseases, fight the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, and make inheritable changes in the genes of babies. The development of CRISPR and the war against coronavirus will hasten our transition to the next great innovation revolution. The past half-century has been an information-technology era, based on the microchip, the computer, and the internet. Now we are entering an even more momentous era, a life-science revolution. Children who study digital coding will be surpassed by those who study the code of life. Should we use our new evolution-hacking powers to make us less susceptible to viruses and eliminate dreaded disorders? What a wonderful boon that would be! Right? And what about preventing congenital deafness or blindness? Or being very short? Or being depressed? Hmmm…How should we think about that? Should we allow parents, if they can afford it, to enhance the IQ or height or memory or muscles of their kids? After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader in wrestling with these moral and policy issues. Her life story illustrates that the key to innovation is connecting basic science to our everyday lives-moving discoveries from our labs to our bedsides-in ways that respect our moral values. It's a thrilling detective tale that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life to the future of our species.

The Palace Letters: the Queen, the governor-general, and the plot to dismiss Gough Whitlam

by Professor Jenny Hocking

What role did the queen play in the governor-general Sir John Kerr's plans to dismiss prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1975, which unleashed one of the most divisive episodes in Australia's political history? And why weren't we told? Under the cover of being designated as private correspondence, the letters between the queen and the governor-general about the dismissal have been locked away for decades in the National Archives of Australia, and embargoed by the queen potentially forever. This ruse has furthered the fiction that the queen and the Palace had no warning of or role in Kerr's actions. In the face of this, Professor Jenny Hocking embarked on a four-year legal battle to force the Archives to release the letters. In 2015, she mounted a crowd-funded campaign, securing a stellar pro bono team that took her case all the way to the High Court of Australia. Now, drawing on never-before-published material from Kerr's archives and her submissions to the court, Hocking traces the collusion and deception behind the dismissal, and charts the private role of High Court judges, the queen's private secretary, and the leader of the opposition, Malcolm Fraser, in Kerr's actions, and the prior knowledge of the queen and Prince Charles. Hocking also reveals the obstruction, intrigue, and duplicity she faced, raising disturbing questions about the role of the National Archives in preventing access to its own historical material and in enforcing royal secrecy over its documents.

The Secret Life of Stars: Astrophysics for Everyone

by Lisa Harvey-Smith

'Astrophysics made fun!' Pam Melroy, former astronaut and space shuttle commander 'The most enjoyable stroll through the cosmos' Gerry Griffin, former flight director, Apollo Mission Control We all know the Sun, the powerhouse of our solar system, but what about Luyten's Flare, the Rosino-Zwicky Object or Chanal's variable star? For those whose curiosity takes them far beyond Earth's atmosphere, The Secret Life of Stars offers a personal and readily understood introduction to some of the Galaxy's most remarkable stars. Each chapter connects us to the various different and unusual stars and their amazing characteristics and attributes, from pulsars, blue stragglers and white dwarfs to cannibal stars and explosive supernovae. With chapter illustrations by Eirian Chapman, this book brings to life the remarkable personalities of these stars, reminding readers what a diverse and unpredictable universe we live in and how fortunate we are to live around a stable star, our Sun.

The Shift: How I (lost and) found myself after 40 - and you can too

by Sam Baker

'I NEED this book. We ALL need this book! If menopause happened to men, there would be CELEBRATIONS and parties every time one of them completed their change.' MARIAN KEYES 'This gem is a guide to navigating your 40s and 50s and just generally being yourself. ... joyful, positive, and goes to ALL the places. Highly recommended.' JOJO MOYES 'I loved it.. All of it, the whole thing, it's blazingly hopeful and beautifully written. This book is meant to be mainlined.' LISA TADDEO 'I am so glad The Shift exists. Sam's writing is a wonderful generous mixture of no-bullsh*t and a comforting hug. I'll be passing this book on to many women I know and love.' EMMA GANNON 'brilliant - powerful, brimming with integrity, inspiring, the politics of anger and what it means when we refuse to be invisible. Every woman (whatever her age) should buy, borrow, lend a copy' KATE MOSSE 'This is such a painfully beautiful look at the menopause in all its complexity. As honest as it is insightful, this is the first book I've read about later womanhood that exchanges shame and fear for truth and celebration... does for 40-something women what the honest parenting movement did for mothers.' ANNA WHITEHOUSE, founder, Mother Pukka 'great pace and feisty content. It will be a great help to women to see their lives mirrored and not feel like they are going mad... bold and funny.' CARYN FRANKLIN The essential manifesto for any woman staring the second half of their lives in the face and wondering, WTF is going on? * Invisible to society now you're past child-bearing age? * Tired of being disregarded, overlooked and underestimated? * Wondering what the hell is happening to your body, mind and internal thermostat? Women over forty are the most ignored demographic in society. And yet this is the time when you are likely to have the most freedom, power, confidence and self knowledge than ever before. Some serious life has been lived: there have been great loves, heartbreaks, births, marriages, careers, betrayals, bereavements and survival. So what now? What happens when the narrative given to you by society - husband, babies, house - runs out and you become storyless? Including chapters on menopause, sex, culture, work, rage and freedom, writer and journalist Sam Baker shares her experiences of life post 40 and shows how women to create their own story. This needn't herald the era of loose clothing and hair dye; or hot flashes and bad sleep (though there is that too). It's time women north of 40 took a leaf out of the millennial handbook and reinvented thin

The Women's History of the Modern World

How Radicals, Rebels, and Everywomen Revolutionized the Last 200 Years

by Rosalind Miles

The internationally bestselling author of Who Cooked the Last Supper? presents a wickedly witty and very current history of the extraordinary female rebels, reactionaries, and trailblazers who left their mark on history from the French Revolution up to the present day. Now is the time for a new women’s history — for the famous, infamous, and unsung women to get their due — from the Enlightenment to the #MeToo movement. Recording the important milestones in the birth of the modern feminist movement and the rise of women into greater social, economic, and political power, Miles takes us through through a colorful pageant of astonishing women, from heads of state like Empress Cixi, Eugenia Charles, Indira Gandhi, Jacinda Ardern, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to political rainmakers Kate Sheppard, Carrie Chapman Catt, Anna Stout, Dorothy Height, Shirley Chisholm, Winnie Mandela, STEM powerhouses Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Rosalind Franklin, Sophia Kovalevskaya, Marie Curie, and Ada Lovelace, revolutionaries Olympe de Gouges, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Patyegarang, and writer/intellectuals Mary Wollstonecraft, Simon de Beauvoir, Elaine Morgan, and Germaine Greer. Women in the arts, women in sports, women in business, women in religion, women in politics—this is a one-stop roundup of the tremendous progress women have made in the modern era. A testimony to how women have persisted — and excelled — this is a smart and stylish popular history for all readers.

Think Again

The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

by Adam Grant

We need to spend as much time rethinking as we do thinking. Why do we refresh our wardrobes every year, renovate our kitchens every decade, but never update our beliefs and our views? Why do we laugh at people using computers that are ten years old, but yet still cling to opinions we formed ten years ago? For too many of us, our ways of thinking become habits that we don't bother to question, and mental laziness leads us to prefer the ease of old routines to the difficulty of new ones. We fail to update the beliefs we formed in the past for the challenges we face in the present. But in a rapidly changing world, we need to spend as much time rethinking as we do thinking. Think Again is a book about the benefit of doubt, and about how we can get better at embracing the unknown and the joy of being wrong. Evidence has shown that creative geniuses are not attached to one identity, but constantly willing to rethink their stances and that leaders who admit they don't know something and seek critical feedback lead more productive and innovative teams. New evidence shows us that as a mindset and a skilllset, rethinking can be taught and Grant explains how to develop the necessary qualities to do it. Section 1 explores why we struggle to think again and how we can learn to do it as individuals, arguing that 'grit' alone can actually be counterproductive. Section 2 discusses how we can help others think again through learning about 'argument literacy'. And the final section 3 looks at how schools, businesses and governments fall short in building cultures that encourage rethinking. In the end, learning to rethink may be the secret skill to give you the edge in a world changing faster than ever.

Three Mothers

How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation

by Anna Malaika Tubbs

In her groundbreaking and essential debut The Three Mothers, scholar Anna Malaika Tubbs celebrates Black motherhood by telling the story of the three women who raised and shaped some of America's most pivotal heroes: Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin. Much has been written about Berdis Baldwin's son James, about Alberta King's son Martin Luther, and Louise Little's son Malcolm. But virtually nothing has been said about the extraordinary women who raised them, who were all born at the beginning of the 20th century and forced to contend with the prejudices of Jim Crow as Black women. Berdis, Alberta, and Louise passed their knowledge to their children with the hope of helping them to survive in a society that would deny their humanity from the very beginning--from Louise teaching her children about their activist roots, to Berdis encouraging James to express himself through writing, to Alberta basing all of her lessons in faith and social justice. These women used their strength and motherhood to push their children toward greatness, all with a conviction that every human being deserves dignity and respect despite the rampant discrimination they faced. These three mothers taught resistance and a fundamental belief in the worth of Black people to their sons, even when these beliefs flew in the face of America's racist practices and led to ramifications for all three families' safety. The fight for equal justice and dignity came above all else for the three mothers. These women, their similarities and differences, as individuals and as mothers, represent a piece of history left untold and a celebration of Black motherhood long overdue.

Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future

by Elizabeth Kolbert

In Under a White Sky, Elizabeth Kolbert takes a hard look at the new world we are creating. Along the way, she meets biologists who are trying to preserve the world's rarest fish, which lives in a single tiny pool in the middle of the Mojave; engineers who are turning carbon emissions to stone in Iceland; Australian researchers who are trying to develop a super coral that can survive on a hotter globe; and physicists who are contemplating shooting tiny diamonds into the stratosphere to cool the earth. One way to look at human civilization, says Kolbert, is as a ten-thousand-year exercise in defying nature. In The Sixth Extinction, she explored the ways in which our capacity for destruction has reshaped the natural world. Now she examines how the very sorts of interventions that have imperiled our planet are increasingly seen as the only hope for its salvation.

Useful Delusions

The Power and Paradox of the Self–Deceiving Brain

by Shankar Vedantam, Bill Mesler

Everyone agrees that lies and self-deception can do terrible harm to our lives, to our communities and to the planet. But in Useful Delusions, host of Hidden Brain Shankar Vedantam argues that, paradoxically, deceiving ourselves and others can also play a vital role in human success and well-being. The lies we tell each other and the lies that we tell ourselves sustain our daily interactions with friends, lovers and co-workers. They explain why some people live longer than others, why some couples remain in love and others don't, why some nations and tribes hold together while others splinter. Filled with powerful personal stories and drawing on new insights in psychology, neuroscience and philosophy, Useful Delusions offers a fascinating tour of an upside-down world.