Books
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Books
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(M)otherhood: On the choices of being a woman (Pre-order - published June 2021)
Pragya Agarwal
£18.99 | Buy
In a world where women have more choices than ever, society nevertheless continues to exert the stigma and pressures of less enlightened times when it comes to having children. We define women by whether they embrace or reject motherhood; whether they can give birth or not. Behavioural Scientist Pragya Agarwal uses her own varied experiences and choices as a woman of South Asian heritage to examine the broader societal, historical and scientific factors that drive how we think and talk about motherhood. She looks at how women's bodies have been monitored and controlled through history, and how this shapes the political constructs of motherhood and womanhood now.
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A Thousand Ships
Natalie Haynes
£10.99 | Buy
In A Thousand Ships, broadcaster and classicist Natalie Haynes retells the story of the Trojan War from an all-female perspective, for fans of Madeline Miller and Pat Barker.
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After the Storm: Postnatal Depression and the Utter Weirdness of New Motherhood
Emma Jane Unsworth
£14.99 | Buy
"How did it come to this? I am tough, I am smart, I have lived alone. Now I am cracking, right down the middle..."
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Beautiful News: Positive Trends, Uplifting Stats, Creative Solution
David McCandless
£27 | Buy
In this fascinating follow-up to the bestselling Information is Beautiful and Knowledge is Beautiful, the king of infographics David McCandless uses spectacular visuals to give us all a bit of good news.We are living in the Information Age, in which we are constantly bombarded with data – on television, in print and online. How can we relate to this mind-numbing overload? Enter David McCandless and his amazing infographics: simple, elegant ways to understand information too complex or abstract to grasp any way but visually. In his unique signature style, he creates dazzling displays that blend facts with their connections, contexts and relationships, making information meaningful, entertaining – and beautiful.
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Blinded by Corona : How the Pandemic Ruined Britain's Health and Wealth and What to Do about It
Prof. John Ashton
£14.99 | Buy
Professor Ashton has lifelong hands-on experience and a deep scholarly understanding of the science of public health, a discipline invented in Britain. In this scathing critique he notes that nothing that the UK government has done to deal with COVID-19 is recognisable against two centuries of knowledge. Instead, it is designing untested methods at exceptional expense that have created a public-health and economic crisis never seen before.
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Clear Bright Future: A Radical Defence of the Human Being
Paul Mason
£11.99 | Buy
'Thrilling, brilliant, radical ... an admirable defence of humans against machines' GuardianA passionate defence of humanity and a work of radical optimism from the international bestselling author of PostcapitalismHow do we preserve what makes us human in an age of uncertainty? Are we now just consumers shaped by market forces? A sequence of DNA? A collection of base instincts? Or will we soon be supplanted by algorithms and A.I. anyway?In Clear Bright Future, Paul Mason calls for a radical, impassioned defence of the human being, our universal rights and freedoms and our power to change the world around us.
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Conflicted: How Productive Disagreements Lead to Better Outcomes
Ian Leslie
£16.99 | Buy
What is the secret of happy relationships?
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Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends and Colleagues
David L Bradford and Carole Robin
£16.99 | Buy
The ability to create strong relationships with others is crucial to living a full life and becoming more effective at work. Yet many of us find ourselves struggling to build solid personal and professional connections, or unable to handle challenges that inevitably arise when we grow closer to others. When we find ourselves in an exceptional relationship--the kind of relationship where we feel fully understood and supported for who we are--it can seem like magic. But the truth is that the process of building and sustaining these relationships can be described, learned, and applied.
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F**k Work let's Play: Do what you love & get paid for it
John Williams
£16.99 | Buy
Stuck in a job that’s boring you to tears? Slogging away at a business that’s never quite taken off? Still can’t decide what you’d rather do? It’s time to say ‘enough’.
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Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive (Pre-order - published July 2021)
Kristin Neff
£16.99 | Buy
A follow up from the bestselling Self-Compassion, this book shows why it is more urgent than ever that women acknowledge their areas of suffering, celebrate their inner voice and challenge the male-orientated status quo.
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Framers: Human Advantage in an Age of Technology and Turmoil (Pre-order - published May 2021)
Kenneth Cukier, Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger and Francis de Vericourt
£22 | Buy
Don't just think deep, think wide. From pandemics to populism, AI to ISIS, wealth inequity to climate change, humanity faces unprecedented challenges that threaten our very existence. But how we see them affects how we respond and lets us uncover hidden options that expand our thinking. In this bold, optimistic book, the authors of the bestselling Big Data show how humans have a unique cognitive ability to frame - to create mental models that allow us to spot patterns, make predictions and grasp new situations. While computers may now excel at reasoning and judgement, framing is unique to humans. This book is the first guide to mastering an essential skill for the 21st century.
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Good Grief: Embracing life at a time of death
Catherine Mayer
£18.99 | Buy
‘Grief is more than the price of love. It is love. We must learn not just to live with it, but to make it welcome.’
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How Confidence Works: The new science of self-belief (paperback, pre-order)
Professor Ian Robertson
£16.99 | Buy
Imagine we could discover something that could make us richer, healthier, longer-living, smarter, kinder, happier, more motivated and more innovative. Ridiculous, you might say... What is this elixir? Confidence. If you have it, it can empower you to reach heights you never thought possible. But if you don't, it can have a devastating effect on your future. Confidence lies at the core of what makes things happen.
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How To Save Our Planet: The Facts
Mark Maslin
£9.99 | Buy
How can we save our planet and survive the 21st century? How can you argue with deniers? How can we create positive change in the midst of the climate crisis?
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Identically Different: Why You Can Change Your Genes
Professor Tim Spector
£11.99 | Buy
Since the discovery of DNA, scientists have believed that genes are fixed entities that cannot be changed by environment - we inherit them, pass them on to our children and take them with us when we die. Professor Tim Spector reveals how the latest genetic research and his own pioneering studies on epigenetics are rewriting everything we thought we knew about genes, identity and evolution. Conceptually, he explains, our genes are not fixed entities but more like plastic, able to change shape and evolve, and these changes can be passed on to future generations.
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Live More Think Less: Overcoming Depression and Sadness with Metacognitive
Pia Callesen
£14.99 | Buy
Dr Pia Callesen presents the first practical book on metacognitive therapy, a groundbreaking new treatment proven to stop depression in its tracks.
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Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres
Kelefa Sanneh
£22 | Buy
From his own adolescence, when his allegiance was to punk rock, to his work as one of the essential voices of our time on music and culture at the New York Times and the New Yorker, Kelefa Sanneh has made a deep study of how our popular music unites and divides us, the tribes it forms, and how its genres, shape-shifting across the years, give us a way to track larger forces and concerns.
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Making Your Voice Heard: How to own your space, access your inner power and become influential.
Prof. Connson Chou Locke
£14.99 | Buy
A fresh take on how to influence others regardless of your gender or background.Making Your Voice Heard is based on the hugely popular sell-out Guardian Masterclass and Connson’s experience teaching leadership and
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Money and Power : The World Leaders Who Changed Economics
Sir Vince Cable
£22 | Buy
Through economics, our politicians have the power to transform people's lives for better or worse. Think Deng Xiaoping who lifted millions out of poverty by opening up China; Franklin D Roosevelt whose 'New Deal' helped the USA break free of the Great Depression. Or Peron and his successors in Argentina who brought the country to the brink of ruin.
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Of Women: In the 21st Century
Baroness Shami Chakrabarti
£11.99 | Buy
This book starts from the position that gender injustice is the greatest human rights abuse on the planet. It blights First and developing worlds; rich and poor women. Gender injustice impacts health, wealth, education, representation, opportunity and security everywhere.
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Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths (paperback)
Natalie Haynes
£11.99 | Buy
'Funny, sharp explications of what these sometimes not-very-nice women were up to, and how they sometimes made idiots of . . . but read on!' – Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale
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Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics
Tim Marshall
£11.99 | Buy
Geography shapes not only our history, but where we're headed... All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Yes, to follow world events you need to understand people, ideas and movements - but if you don't know geography, you'll never have the full picture.
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Radical Uncertainty : Decision-making for an unknowable future
Mervyn King
£27 | Buy
LONGLISTED FOR THE FT/MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2020'A brilliant new book' Daily Telegraph 'Well written . . . and often entertaining 'The Times'
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Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World
Carolyn Steel
£11.99 | Buy
We live in a world shaped by food, a Sitopia (sitos - food; topos - place). Food, and how we search for and consume it, has defined our human journey.
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Spoon-Fed: Why Almost Everything We’ve Been Told about Food is Wrong
Professor Tim Spector
£11.99 | Buy
We are all bombarded with advice about what we should and shouldn't eat, and new scientific discoveries are announced every day. Yet the more we are told about nutrition, the less we seem to understand.
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Stone Blind: Medusa's Story (pre-order, published 15.9.22)
Natalie Haynes
£22 | Buy
Natalie Haynes – the Women’s Prize-shortlisted author of A Thousand Ships – brings the infamous Medusa to life as you have never seen her before . . .
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Sylvia Pankhurst : Natural Born Rebel
Rachel Holmes
£35 | Buy
'It's impossible to summarise adequately a book so magnificent' Gerard DeGroot, The Times The definitive biography of Sylvia Pankhurst, a woman ahead of her times - political rebel, human rights champion and radical feminist. Born into one of Britain's most famous activist families, Sylvia Pankhurst was a natural rebel; a talented artist, prolific writer and newspaper editor. A free spirit and radical visionary, history placed her in the shadow of her famous mother, Emmeline, and elder sister, Christabel.
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The Amber Fury
Natalie Haynes
£10.99 | Buy
When you open up, who will you let in? When Alex Morris loses her fiance in dreadful circumstances, she moves from London to Edinburgh to make a break with the past. Alex takes a job at a Pupil Referral Unit, which accepts the students excluded from other schools in the city. These are troubled, difficult kids and Alex is terrified of what she's taken on. There is one class - a group of five teenagers - who intimidate Alex and every other teacher on The Unit. But with the help of the Greek tragedies she teaches, Alex gradually develops a rapport with them. Finding them enthralled by tales of cruel fate and bloody revenge, Alex even begins to worry that they are taking her lessons to heart, and that a whole new tragedy is being performed, right in front of her. The Amber Fury is a beautifully constructed psychological page-turner. It is a dark mystery of a novel about loss, obsession, and the deep, abiding human need to connect.
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The Ancient Guide to Modern Life
Natalie Haynes
£11.99 | Buy
It's time for us to re-examine the past. Our lives are infinitely richer if we take the time to look at what the Greeks and Romans have given us in politics and law, religion and philosophy and education, and to learn how people really lived in Athens, Rome, Sparta and Alexandria. This is a book with a serious point to make but the author isn't simply a classicist but a comedian and broadcaster who has made television and radio documentaries about humour, education and Dorothy Parker. This is a book for us all.
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The Art of Rest: How to Find Respite in the Modern Age
Claudia Hammond
£12.5 | Buy
Much of value has been written about sleep, but rest is different; it is how we unwind, calm our minds and recharge our bodies. The Art of Rest draws on ground-breaking research Claudia Hammond collaborated on: 'The Rest Test', the largest global survey into rest ever undertaken, completed by 18,000 people across 135 different countries. The survey revealed how people get rest and how it is directly linked to your sense of wellbeing.
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The Authority Gap: Why Women Are Still Taken Less Seriously than Men, and What We Can Do About It
Mary Ann Sieghart
£18.99 | Buy
Imagine living in a world in which you were routinely patronised by women.
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The Changing Mind: A Neuroscientist’s Guide To Ageing Well
Daniel Levitin
£11.99 | Buy
We have long been encouraged to think of old age as synonymous with deterioration. Yet, recent studies show that our decision-making skills improve as we age and our happiness levels peak in our eighties. What really happens to our brains as we get older? More of us are living into our eighties than ever before.
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The Children of Jocasta
Natalie Haynes
£10.99 | Buy
In The Children of Jocasta, Natalie Haynes takes a fresh perspective on an ancient story, reimagining in gripping prose how the Oedipus and Antigone stories would look if the oft-overlooked female characters took centre stage. Retelling the myth to reveal a new side of an ancient story . . .
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The Dialogues Conversations about the Nature of the Universe
Clifford V Johnson
£17.99 | Buy
A series of conversations about science in graphic form, on subjects that range from the science of cooking to the multiverse. Physicist Clifford Johnson thinks that we should have more conversations about science. Science should be on our daily conversation menu, along with topics like politics, books, sports, or the latest prestige cable drama.
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The Diet Myth: The Real Science Behind What We Eat
Professor Tim Spector
£10.99 | Buy
Why do most diets fail? Why does one person eat a certain meal and gain weight, while another eating the same meal loses pounds? Why, despite all the advice about what to eat, are we all still getting fatter?
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The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life
David Robson
£20.99 | Buy
You’ve probably heard of the placebo effect and how sugar pills can accelerate healing. But did you know that your overall expectations of your fitness can influence your risk of an actual heart attack? That labels for diet foods can make you hungrier than if you had eaten nothing at all? Or that people who associate ageing with personal growth live for seven years longer than those who associate it with frailty and disability? Drawing on a pioneering new theory of the brain, David Robson will explain the power of your mindset to influence on your health, fitness, happiness, and longevity.
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The Five: The Untold Stories of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
Hallie Rubenhold
£11.99 | Buy
Five devastating human stories and a dark and moving portrait of Victorian London - the untold lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper.
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The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World
Roman Krznaric
£12.99 | Buy
'This is the book our children's children will thank us for reading' - The Edge, U2How can we be good ancestors?From the first seeds sown thousands of years ago, to the construction of the cities we still inhabit, to the scientific discoveries that have ensured our survival, we are the inheritors of countless gifts from the past. Today, in an age driven by the tyranny of the now, with 24/7 news, the latest tweet, and the buy-now button commanding our attention, we rarely stop to consider how our actions will affect future generations. With such frenetic short-termism at the root of contemporary crises, the call for long-term thinking grows every day - but what is it, has it ever worked, and can we even do it? In The Good Ancestor, leading public philosopher Roman Krznaric argues that there is still hope.
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The Handshake: A Gripping History (pre-order)
Ella Al-Shamahi
£9.99 | Buy
Friends do it, strangers do it and so do chimpanzees - and it's not just deeply embedded in our history and culture, it may even be written in our DNA. The humble handshake, it turns out, has a rich and surprising history.
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The Human Planet : How We Created the Anthropocene
Simon L Lewis and Mark A Maslin
£11.99 | Buy
'Brilliantly written and genuinely one of the most important books I have ever read' - Ellie Mae O'Hagan An engrossing exploration of the science, history and politics of the Anthropocene, one of the most important scientific ideas of our time, from two world-renowned expertsMeteorites, methane, mega-volcanoes and now human beings; the old forces of nature that transformed Earth many millions of years ago are joined by another: us. Our actions have driven Earth into a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. For the first time in our home planet's 4.5-billion year history a single species is dictating Earth's future.
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The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth
Michael Spitzer
£32 | Buy
165 million years ago saw the birth of rhythm. 66 million years ago came the first melody. 40 thousand years ago Homo sapiens created the first musical instrument. Today music fills our lives. How we have created, performed and listened to this music throughout history has defined what our species is and how we understand who we are. Yet music is an overlooked part of our origin story. The Musical Human takes us on an exhilarating journey across the ages - from Bach to BTS and back - to explore the vibrant relationship between music and the human species. With insights from a wealth of disciplines, world-leading musicologist Michael Spitzer renders a global history of music on the widest possible canvas, looking at music in our everyday lives; music in world history; and music in evolution, from insects to apes, humans to AI.
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The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveals the Future of Our World
Tim Marshall
£18.99 | Buy
Ten maps that reveal the future of global power and politics: the much-anticipated sequel to the million-copy bestseller Prisoners of Geography.
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The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread - and Why They Stop
Adam Kucharski
£11.99 | Buy
We live in a world that's more interconnected than ever before. Our lives are shaped by outbreaks - of disease, of misinformation, even of violence - that appear, spread and fade away with bewildering speed. To understand them, we need to learn the hidden laws that govern them. From 'superspreaders' who might spark a pandemic or bring down a financial system to the social dynamics that make loneliness catch on, The Rules of Contagion offers compelling insights into human behaviour and explains how we can get better at predicting what happens next.
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The Turning Point: A Year that Changed Dickens and the World (pre-order)
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
£27 | Buy
A major new biography of Charles Dickens, tracing the year that would transform his life and times
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The Windrush Betrayal : Exposing the Hostile Environment
Amelia Gentleman
£12.99 | Buy
"LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2019**SHORTISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2020*'[Gentleman's] reporting proves why an independent press is so vital.' Reni Eddo-Lodge'A timely reminder of what truly great journalists can achieve.' David Olusoga'It is impossible to overstate the importance of this heartbreaking book.' James O'BrienAmelia Gentleman's expose of the Windrush scandal shocked the nation, and led to the resignation of Amber Rudd as Home Secretary. Her tenacious reporting revealed how the government's 'hostile environment' immigration policy had led to thousands of law-abiding people being wrongly classified as illegal immigrants, with many being removed from the country, and many more losing their homes and their jobs. In The Windrush Betrayal, Gentleman tells the full story of her investigation for the first time.
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War: How Conflict Shaped Us
Margaret MacMillan
£22 | Buy
New York Times 10 Best Book of 2020 Sunday Times best book for Autumn 2020 Guardian critics' pick for Autumn 2020 Wall Street Journal notable book of 2020 The time since the Second World War has been seen by some as the longest uninterrupted period of harmony in human history: the 'long peace', as Stephen Pinker called it. But despite this, there has been a military conflict ongoing every year since 1945. The same can be said for every century of recorded history.
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White privilege: The myth of a post-racial society
Professor Kalwant Bhopal
£15.99 | Buy
Why and how do those from black and minority ethnic communities continue to be marginalised? Despite claims that we now live in a post-racial society, race continues to disadvantage those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. Kalwant Bhopal explores how neoliberal policy making has increased rather than decreased discrimination faced by those from non-white backgrounds. She also shows how certain types of whiteness are not privileged; Gypsies and Travellers, for example, remain marginalised and disadvantaged in society.
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Why the F*ck Can’t I Change?: Insights from a neuroscientist to show that you can
Dr. Gabija Toleikyte
£15.99 | Buy
Most of us want to change something about ourselves. It might be our response to stress, our weight, patterns in our relationships or our performance at work. Change is hard, it’s emotional, but it’s not as impossible as you think…
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Why We Eat Too Much
Dr Andrew Jenkinson
£11.99 | Buy
Join us on 21st May for the next in our Salon Lockdown series as we explore ‘Why We Eat (Too Much)’.
