Aeham Ahmad, born in Damascus in 1988, grew up in Yarmouk, a suburb of Damascus. From the age of four onwards his father encouraged his musical talent and at seven he received piano lessons at the Arab Institute in Damascus. He later studied music education in Homs and worked as a music teacher. 
 
In 2015 he was forced to flee to Germany because of the war in Syria. Today he lives with his family in Wiesbaden and gives concerts all over Europe. In December 2015, Ahmad was awarded the International Beethoven Prize for Human Rights. 
 
This is his first book.

Aeham Ahmad

Aemilia Lanyer

Aeneas Gunn

Aerosmith

Aeschylus

Aesop lived in the early sixth century BC on the island of Samos, which lies off the coast of modern Turkey. He originally came from Thrace which was a separate country in those days, though it now forms part of Greece and Bulgaria. Very little is known about his life except that he worked as a slave on Samos for a master called Iadmon, and that he became a very famous storyteller. He was so famous that almost any fable which could have been told by him became attributed to him.

Aesop

Afsaneh Knight

Afsaneh Moqadam

Afua Hirsch is a writer, filmmaker, and journalist. She is the author of Brit(ish), the Sunday Times bestseller that explores Britishness, identity and belonging, for which she was awarded the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Prize for Non-Fiction. She co-presented Enslaved, a 6-part series about the transatlantic slave trade with Samuel L Jackson. She is the presenter of the Audible podcast series We Need To Talk About the British Empire, and Africa Rising, an ongoing flagship series about art and culture for the BBC, through her production company Born in Me Productions. She is a longtime columnist for the Guardian and is a professor of journalism at the University of Southern California.

Afua Hirsch

AGAPI STASSINOPOULOS is an author, blogger and international speaker who inspires audiences around the world. She has spoken at many corporations and conferences, such as Nike Women, Starbucks,Time Inc., Virgin, Johnson &amp; Johnson and the American Heart Foundation. She was born in Athens and trained in London at RADA before gaining a Master’s in psychology at the University of Santa Monica. She has collaborated with her sister, Arianna Huffington, to develop talks and seminars, and has worked with the Oprah Winfrey network. She is currently hosting a new podcast series in collaboration with The Huffington Post, entitled ‘Sundays with Agapi’, which includes guided meditations and interviews with prominent guests. She lives in Los Angeles.

Agapi Stassinopoulos

Agatha Christie

Aggie MacKenzie

Aghnia Mardiyah is a London-based Illustrator and Character Designer with a passion for children's books and animation. She is drawn to fun, bright and vibrant colours. When she isn't disappearing under piles of work, she loves to travel! Exploring foreign places, exciting new sights and sensations is what inspires her the most!

Aghnia Mardiyah

Agnes Callard is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. Her primary areas of specialization are ancient philosophy and ethics. She has written for The New York Times, New Yorker, Atlantic, Harper’s, Boston Review, and penned a monthly column for the Point. From 2019 to 2020, she held a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for the research that contributes to this book.

Agnes Callard

Agnes Jekyll

Agnes Bertha Marshall (24 August 1855-29 July 1905) was an English culinary entrepreneur who became a leading cookery writer, dubbed the 'Queen of Ices'. Her 1888 cookery book included a recipe for 'cornets with cream', possibly the earliest publication of the edible ice cream cone. Marshall was born in Walthamstow. She wrote four books: Ices Plain and Fancy: The Book of Ices (1885), Mrs A B Marshall's Book of Cookery (1888), Mrs A B Marshall's Larger Cookery Book of Extra Recipes (1891) and Fancy Ices (1894).

Agnes Marshall

Agnes Prus

Agri Ismaïl is a Kurdish author based in Sweden who has worked as a corporate lawyer in London, Dubai, and Iraqi Kurdistan. His work has been published in The White Review, The Rumpus, Litro, 3:AM Magazine, and Asymptote amongst other places. His piece 'Haunted Home' won the 2016 Stack award for best non-fiction for The Outpost, runner-up in the Lifted Brow &amp; RMIT non/fictionLab Prize for Experimental Non-Fiction, and he was longlisted for the 2017/2018 Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize. Hyper is his first novel.

Agri Ismaïl

Aharon Appelfeld authored more than 45 acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction and received many international awards including the MLA Commonwealth Award, the Independent Foreign Fiction prize, the prix Médicis étranger, the Israel prize, and the Nelly Sachs prize. Born in Czernowitz, Bukovina (now part of Ukraine) in 1932, he survived the Holocaust and passed away in Israel in 2018.

Aharon Appelfeld

Ahmadou Kourouma

Ahmed Alnaouq is a Palestinian journalist and human rights activist based in London. He is the co-founder and director of We Are Not Numbers and a journalist with Palestine Deep Dive. Ahmed holds a degree in English Literature from Al-Azhar university in Gaza, and an MA in International Journalism from Leeds University, where he was a Chevening Scholar. 
 
Pam Bailey is a social-justice activist and journalist based in Washington DC. She lived and worked in the Gaza Strip following the 2008/9 Israeli assault, and co-founded We Are Not Numbers. Today, in addition to her ongoing dedication to the Palestinian cause, she dedicates herself to two nonprofits that advocate for people detained in American prisons -- including one she co-founded in 2020, called More Than Our Crimes.

Ahmed Alnaouq

Ahmed Errachidi

Ahmed Rashid

Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar

Ahron Bregman is the author of four books about Israel and the Arabs: The Fifty Years War (with Jihan el Tahri), Israel's Wars, A History of Israel and Elusive Peace. He teaches at the Department of War Studies, King's College London.

Ahron Bregman

Ai Qing is regarded as one of the finest modern Chinese poets, whose free verse was influential in the development of new poetry in China.

Ai Qing

Ai Weiwei

Aidan Chambers was born in County Durham in 1934. After national service in the Royal Navy he became a teacher and then, for seven years, a monk. His young adult novels have been widely acclaimed, with POSTCARDS FROM NO-MAN'S LAND winning the prestigious Carnegie Medal and the US Michael L Printz Award. With his wife Nancy he ran Signal magazine and he has served as the president of the School Library Association. His devoted services to children's literature were recognised by his receipt of the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2002.

Aidan Chambers

Aidan Higgins was born in 1927. Langrishe Go Down, his first novel, won the James Tait Black memorial Prize and the Irish Academy of Letters Award, and was later filmed for television with a screenplay by Harold Pinter. His second novel, Balcony of Europe, was shortlisted for the 1972 Booker Prize. The novel Lions of the Grunewald appeared in 1993 and a collection of shorter fiction, Flotsam and jetsam, in 1996. Donkey's Years and Dog Days were the first two volumes of the Higgins Bestiary which concludes with this volume.

Aidan Higgins

Aidan Mathews

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Raynor Winn

Raynor knows that her husband Moth's health is declining, getting worse by the day. She knows of only one cure. It worked once before. But will he - can he? - set out with her on another healing walk? 
 
Being one with nature saved them in their darkest hour and their hope is that it can work its magic again. As they set out on their incredible thousand-mile journey back to the familiar shores of the South West Coast Path, Raynor and Moth map the landscape of an island nation facing an uncertain path ahead.

Landlines

Philip Parker

Discover the 12 crucial moments in Britain's past that will answer the greatest questions for our future in this richly insightful and fascinating history 
 
'A richly entertaining canter through the country's past. Engrossing' INDEPENDENT 
___________ 
 
What is Britain? 
Where lie its boundaries? 
Why are they always changing? 
Are we a small island or a big idea? 
What will we look like next? 
 
In Small Island: 12 Maps that Explain the History of Britain, Philip Parker answers these and other crucial questions about this country and its peoples. 
 
By pondering our intertwined geography and history, he shows how the past has made Britain and how we might yet shape its future.

Small Island

12 Maps That Explain The History of Britain

Morten H. Christiansen

Nick Chater

'Marvellously clear... playfully persuasive' Richard Dawkins 
'Full of Fascinating details. A delight to read.' Tim Harford 
'Highly original and convincing ... a delight to read!' - Daniel Everett 
 
What is language? 
Why do we have it? 
Why does that matter? 
 
Language is perhaps humanity's most astonishing accomplishment and one that remains poorly understood. 
 
Upending centuries of scholarship (including, most recently, Chomsky and Pinker) The Language Game shows how people learn to talk not by acquiring fixed meanings and rules, but by picking up, reusing, and recombining countless linguistic fragments in novel ways. 
 
Drawing on entertaining and persuasive examples from across the world the book explains: 
 
· How our short-lived memory copes with the on-rushing deluge of sound that is everyday speech. 
· Why it is that language is such a challenge for language scientists but learnt effortlessly by toddlers. 
· Why the languages of the world are so spectacularly varied---and why no two people speak quite the same language. 
· Why humans have language, but chimps don't. 
· How language gave us a big brain and changed the course of evolution. 
· How language doesn't limit, but does shape, how we think. 
·And ultimately, why all we know about language should give us hope. 
 
Christiansen and Chater's The Language Game draws on a fascinating range of examples to show the way language works, has shaped our evolution and is critical to our future.

The Language Game

How improvisation created language and changed the world

Angela Findlay

'Fascinating ... an extremely courageous work.' The Lady 
'Absolutely extraordinary ... Findlay reveals a vast, hidden European story that few nations have ever been brave enough to confront' Keith Lowe' 
'Beautifully written, poignant and acutely perceptive' Sinclair McKay 
'Moving and powerful' Julia Samuel 
 
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 
In My Grandfather's Shadow is an unflinching, thought-provoking fusion of memoir and history, and an exploration of the hidden scars left across generations by the conflict and horrors of the Second World War. 
 
In a quest to discover the truth about her German grandfather, first a proud Wehrmacht General serving on the Eastern front, then a broken POW on trial for Nazi war crimes, Angela Findlay travels across Europe and Russia to uncover the untold story of millions of Germans long buried not only in guilt and shame but also trauma. 
 
Carefully breaking the silence surrounding so many of World War Two's perpetrators, she challenges widespread binary narratives and offers a way forward that allows the intergenerational wounds to heal and us all to grasp the urgent lessons of the darkest episode in modern history. 
 
Brave, profoundly insightful and moving, In My Grandfather's Shadow is a courageous look at a taboo subject and raises important questions about how and why we should remember the past.

In My Grandfather’s Shadow

A story of war, trauma and the legacy of silence

John Lewis-Stempel

Everybody thinks they know what sheep are like: they're stupid, noisy, cowardly ('lambs to the slaughter'), and they're 'sheepwrecking' the environment. 
 
Or maybe not. Contrary to popular prejudice, sheep are among the smartest animals in the farmyard, fiercely loyal, forming long and lasting friendships. Sheep, farmed properly, are boons to biodiversity. They also happen to taste good and their fleeces warm us through the winter - indeed, John Lewis-Stempel's family supplied the wool for Queen Elizabeth's 'hose'. 
 
Observing the traditional shepherd's calendar, The Sheep's Tale is a loving biography of ewes, lambs, and rams through the seasons. Lewis-Stempel tends to his flock with deep-rooted wisdom, ethical consideration, affection, and humour. This book is a tribute to all the sheep he has reared and sheared - from gregarious Action Ram to sweet Maid Marion. In his inimitable style, he shares the tales that only a shepherd can tell.

The Sheep’s Tale

The story of our most misunderstood farmyard animal

Andrew Scull

For more than two hundred years, disturbances of reason, cognition and emotion - the sort of things that were once called 'madness' - have been described and treated by the medical profession. Mental illness, it is said, is an illness like any other - a disorder that can be treated by doctors, whose suffering can be eased, and from which patients can return. And yet serious mental illness remains a profound mystery that is in some ways no closer to being solved than it was at the start of the twentieth century. 
 
In this clear-sighted and provocative exploration of psychiatry, acclaimed sociologist Andrew Scull traces the history of its attempts to understand and mitigate mental illness: from the age of the asylum and unimaginable surgical and chemical interventions, through the rise and fall of Freud and the talking cure, and on to our own time of drug companies and antidepressants. Through it all, Scull argues, the often vain and rash attempts to come to terms with the enigma of mental disorder have frequently resulted in dire consequences for the patient. 
 
Deeply researched and lucidly conveyed, Desperate Remedies masterfully illustrates the assumptions and theory behind the therapy, providing a definitive new account of psychiatry's and society's battle with mental illness.

Desperate Remedies

Psychiatry and the Mysteries of Mental Illness

Eugene Linden

The definitive history of the modern climate change era, from an award-winning writer who has been at the centre of the fight for more than thirty years 
 
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter was presented with the findings of scientists who had been investigating whether human activities might change the climate in harmful ways. "A wait-and-see policy may mean waiting until it is too late," their report said. They were right -- but no one was listening. Four decades later, we are haunted by the consequences of this inattention, and the years of complacency, obfuscation and denialism that followed. Today, the staggering scale and scope of what we have done to the planet is impossible to ignore: the seasons of fire and flood have crossed into plain view. 
 
Fire and Flood is a comprehensive, compulsively readable history of climate change from veteran environmental journalist Eugene Linden. Linden retells the story of the modern climate change era decade by decade, tracking the progress of four ticking clocks: first, the reality of climate change itself; second, advances in scientific understanding; third, the spread of public awareness; and fourth, the business and finance response. Like no previous writer, Linden has drawn together the elements of the biggest story in the world, in a book that it is gripping as history, as economic investigation, and as scientific thriller.

Fire and Flood

A People's History of Climate Change, from 1979 to the Present

Dr Gillian O'Brien

The Irish Times Top 10 Bestseller! 
 
From war to revolution, famine to emigration, The Darkness Echoing travels around Ireland bringing its dark past to life 
 
It's no secret that the Irish are obsessed with misery, suffering and death. And no wonder, for there is darkness everywhere you look: in cemeteries and castles, monuments and museums, stories and songs. 
 
 In The Darkness Echoing, Gillian O'Brien tours Ireland's most deliciously dark heritage sites, delving into the stories behind them and asking what they reveal about the Irish. 
 
Energetic, illuminating and surprisingly funny, The Darkness Echoing challenges old, accepted narratives about Ireland, and asks intriguing questions about Ireland's past, present and future. 
 
'My history book of the year' Ryan Tubridy 
 
'As thought-provoking as it is informative and entertaining' Irish Times 
 
'Hugely enjoyable, thought-provoking and informative ... An essential read' History Ireland

The Darkness Echoing

Exploring Ireland’s Places of Famine, Death and Rebellion

Sam Lee

'Wondering and wonderful. The nature book of the year.' JOHN LEWIS-STEMPEL 
 
'This lovely book is almost as thrilling as the bird's immortal song - balm for a troubled soul and a glimpse of paradise.' JOANNA LUMLEY 
______________________________ 
Come to the forest, sit by the fireside and listen to intoxicating song, as Sam Lee tells the story of the nightingale. 
 
Every year, as darkness falls upon woodlands, the nightingale heralds the arrival of Spring. Throughout history, its sweet song has inspired musicians, writers and artists around the world, from Germany, France and Italy to Greece, Ukraine and Korea. 
 
Here, passionate conservationist, renowned musician and folk expert Sam Lee tells the story of the nightingale. This book reveals in beautiful detail the bird's song, habitat, characteristics and migration patterns, as well as the environmental issues that threaten its livelihood. 
 
From Greek mythology to John Keats, to Persian poetry and 'A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square', Lee delves into the various ways we have celebrated the nightingale through traditions, folklore, music, literature, from ancient history to the present day. The Nightingale is a unique and lyrical portrait of a famed yet elusive songbird. 
______________________________ 
'Sam Lee has brought the poetic magic that has long enchanted so many of his musical fans into the written word. Allow yourself to glimpse the world Sam sees, to be part of his love affair with the nightingale, and you will no doubt be delighted.' LILY COLE 
 
'A wonderful book.' STEPHEN MOSS 
 
'A magical marriage of the lyrical and practical: a book that makes us want to seek out the nightingale and then reveals how we can.' TRISTAN GOOLEY

The Nightingale

‘The nature book of the year’

Darrell Huff

In 1954, Darrell Huff decided enough was enough. Fed up with politicians, advertisers and journalists using statistics to sensationalise, inflate, confuse, oversimplify and - on occasion - downright lie, he decided to shed light on their ill-informed and sneaky ways. How to Lie with Statistics is the result - the definitive and hilarious primer in the ways statistics are used to deceive. 
 
With over one and half million copies sold around the world, it has delighted generations of readers with its cheeky takes on the ins and outs of samples, averages, errors, graphs and indexes. And in the modern world of big data and misinformation, Huff remains the perfect guide through the maze of facts and figures that are designed to make us believe anything.

How to Lie with Statistics

James Bridle

What does it mean to be intelligent? Is it something unique to humans - or do we share it with other beings? 
 
Recent years have seen rapid advances in 'artificial' intelligence, which increasingly appears to be something stranger than we ever imagined. At the same time, we are becoming more aware of the other intelligences which have been with us all along, unrecognized. These other beings are the animals, plants, and natural systems that surround us, and are slowly revealing their complexity and knowledge - just as the new technologies we've built are threatening to cause their extinction, and ours. 
 
In Ways of Being, writer and artist James Bridle considers the fascinating, uncanny and multiple ways of existing on earth. What can we learn from these other forms of intelligence and personhood, and how can we change our societies to live more equitably with one another and the non-human world? From Greek oracles to octopuses, forests to satellites, Bridle tells a radical new story about ecology, technology and intelligence. We must, they argue, expand our definition of these terms to build a meaningful and free relationship with the non-human, one based on solidarity and cognitive diversity. We have so much to learn, and many worlds to gain.

Ways of Being

Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence

Malachy Tallack

Shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies Award 2022 
 
Growing up in Shetland with its myriad lochs and burns, Malachy Tallack and his brother would roam the island in search of trout, and in so doing discovered a sense of freedom, of wonder - and an abiding passion. 
 
But why is it that fishing - or the mere contemplation of catching a fish - can be so thrilling and so captivating? 
 
Why is it that time spent beside water can be imprinted so sharply in memory? 
 
Why is it that what seems a simple act - of casting a line, waiting and hoping - can leave so much room for mystery? 
 
Here award-winning author and singer-songwriter Malachy Tallack tells the story of his own infatuation with fishing, a pastime that has brought him joy (and frustration) since early childhood. And in bringing together memoir, nature writing and reflections on culture and history, he explores why angling means so much to so many. 
 
Beautifully written and hugely engaging, it is a book about attention, about nature, and that sense of wonder; it is about a way of engaging with the world, of reaching out - and feeling it reach back.

Illuminated By Water

Nature, Memory and the Delights of a Fishing Life

Tim Birkhead

In Birds and Us, award-winning writer and ornithologist Tim Birkhead takes us on an epic and dazzling journey through this mutual history with birds, from the ibises mummified and deified by Ancient Egyptians to Renaissance experiments on woodpecker anatomy, from Victorian obsessions with egg collecting to the present fight to save endangered species and restore their habitats. 
 
Weaving in stories from his own life as a scientist, including far-flung expeditions to wondrous Neolithic caves in Spain and the bustling guillemot colonies of the Faroe Islands, this rich and fascinating book is the culmination of a lifetime's research and unforgettably shows how birds shaped us, and how we have shaped them.

Birds and Us

A 12,000 Year History, from Cave Art to Conservation

Lee Schofield

It was a tragic day for the nation's wildlife when England's last and loneliest golden eagle died in an unmarked spot among the remote eastern fells of the Lake District., but the fight to restore the landscape had already begun. 
 
Lee Schofield, ecologist and site manager for RSPB Haweswater, is leading efforts to breathe life back into two hill farms and their thirty square kilometres of sprawling upland habitat. 
 
Informed by the land, its turbulent history and the people who have shaped it, Lee and his team are repairing damaged wetlands, meadows and woods. Each year, the landscape is becoming richer, wilder and better able to withstand the shocks of a changing climate. 
 
But in the contested landscape of the Lake District, change is not always welcomed, and success relies on finding a balance between rewilding and respecting cherished farming traditions. This is not only a story of an ecosystem in recovery, it is also the story of Lee's personal connection to place, and the highs and lows of working for nature amid fierce opposition.

Wild Fell

Fighting for nature on a Lake District hill farm

Karina Antram

Combining coaching-based methodologies, useful reflections, tips and lifestyle changes to support increasing overall energy, this will be a nutritional science book that takes the scientific research and the author's nutritional education and converts them into easy, practical, everyday strategies for readers to implement to get to the bottom of why they feel tired and ways to combat it effectively.

Fix Your Fatigue

5 Steps to Regaining Your Energy

Florence Schechter

Nadia Akingbule

Florence Schechter, creator of the world's first Vagina Museum, is here to take you on a journey towards celebrating, understanding and appreciating your vagina. And once you set off, you'll never look back. 
 
By the end of this empowering and inclusive book, you will be ready to talk about the vulva shame-free. You will discover art that admires the vulva. You will learn how our ancestors believed in the power of periods. And you will bust myths, feel confident in your body and find your Big V Energy! 
 
Because, if the word is taboo, how can you talk about your vagina's health? If you can't label the vulva, how can you fight for its rights? And if you don't know how extraordinary the vulva and vagina really are, you'll never realise the incredible power between your legs. 
 
With fascinating contributions from leading activists and experts. 
 
Suitable for ages 14+

An empowering celebration of the vulva and vagina

James Poskett

In this major retelling of the history of science from 1450 to the present day, James Poskett explodes the myth that science began in Europe. 
 
The blinkered Western gaze focusing on individual 'genius' - Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, Einstein - was only one part of the story. The reality was an utterly global, non-linear pattern of cross-fertilization, competition, cooperation and outright conflict. Each rupture in history carved fresh channels for global exchange. 
 
Here, for the first time, Poskett celebrates how scientists from Africa, America, Asia and the Pacific were integral to this very human story. We meet Graman Kwasi, the African botanist who discovered a new cure for malaria; Hantaro Nagaoka, the Japanese scientist who first described the structure of the atom; and Zhao Zhongyao, the Chinese physicist who discovered antimatter.

Horizons

A Global History of Science

Lucy Cooke

What does it mean to be female? Mother, carer, the weaker sex? Think again. 
 
Whether it's the female lemurs of Madagascar, dominating the males of their species both physically and politically, the female albatross couples, hooking up together to raise their chicks in Hawaii, or the murderous meerkat mothers of the Kalahari Desert, the bitches in BITCH overturn outdated binary expectations of bodies, brains, biology and behaviour. 
 
In her trailblazing new book, Lucy Cooke offers a timely look at how sexist bias polluted evolutionary biology and through her riotous cast of bad-ass female animals shows the scientific patriarchy what's what.

Bitch

What does it mean to be female?

A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal

Simon Clark

Will Louch

AS FEATURED IN BBC TWO'S BILLION DOLLAR DOWNFALL: THE DEALMAKER DOCUMENTARY 
 
Two Wall Street reporters investigate the man entrusted with millions to make profits and end poverty but now stands accused of masterminding one of the biggest, most brazen frauds in history. 
 
'Gripping' Guardian 
 
*** 
 
Arif Naqvi was a man with an immeasurable dream: to end world suffering, poverty and disease. His vision? Capitalism used for good, progress and profit. 
 
He persuaded politicians he could help stabilize the Middle East after 9/11 by providing jobs. He got Bill Gates to help him start a billion-dollar fund to improve health care in poor countries. He won the support of Obama's administration and was even appointed to boards by the UN and Interpol. 
 
The only problem? In 2019 Arif Naqvi was arrested on charges of money laundering and misappropriating hundreds of millions of dollars. He now faces up to 291 years in jail. This is the true, jaw-dropping investigation into the smoke and mirrors world of The Key Man. 
 
*** 
 
'Impeccably researched and sumptuous in its detail . . . It's a page-turner' The Economist 
 
'This book tells the story brilliantly. . . Well-paced and cleverly organised. It also draws some devastating conclusions' The Sunday Times 
 
'A pacy and deeply-reported tale' Financial Times 
 
LONGLISTED FOR THE FT MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021 
AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR

The Key Man

How the Global Elite Was Duped by a Capitalist Fairy Tale

David J. Chalmers

In the coming decades, the technology that enables virtual and augmented reality will improve beyond recognition. Within a century, world-renowned philosopher David J. Chalmers predicts, we will have virtual worlds that are impossible to distinguish from non-virtual worlds. But is virtual reality just escapism? In a highly original work of 'technophilosophy', Chalmers argues categorically, no: virtual reality is genuine reality. Virtual worlds are not second-class worlds. We can live a meaningful life in virtual reality - and increasingly, we will. 
 
What is reality, anyway? How can we lead a good life? Is there a god? How do we know there's an external world - and how do we know we're not living in a computer simulation? In Reality+, Chalmers conducts a grand tour of philosophy, using cutting-edge technology to provide invigorating new answers to age-old questions. 
 
Drawing on examples from pop culture, literature and film that help bring philosophical issues to life, Reality+ is a mind-bending journey through virtual worlds, illuminating the nature of reality and our place within it.

Reality+

Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy

Thomas Halliday

This is the past as we've never seen it before. 
 
Otherlands is an epic, exhilarating journey into deep time, showing us the Earth as it used to exist, and the worlds that were here before ours. Travelling back in time to the dawn of complex life, and across all seven continents, award-winning young palaeobiologist Thomas Halliday gives us a mesmerizing up close encounter with eras that are normally unimaginably distant. 
 
Halliday immerses us in a series of ancient landscapes, from the mammoth steppe in Ice Age Alaska to the lush rainforests of Eocene Antarctica, with its colonies of giant penguins, to Ediacaran Australia, where the moon is far brighter than ours today. We visit the birthplace of humanity; we hear the crashing of the highest waterfall the Earth has ever known; and we watch as life emerges again after the asteroid hits, and the age of the mammal dawns. These lost worlds seem fantastical and yet every description - whether the colour of a beetle's shell, the rhythm of pterosaurs in flight or the lingering smell of sulphur in the air - is grounded in the fossil record. 
 
Otherlands is a staggering imaginative feat: an emotional narrative that underscores the tenacity of life - yet also the fragility of seemingly permanent ecosystems, including our own. To read it is to see the last 500 million years not as an endless expanse of unfathomable time, but as a series of worlds, simultaneously fabulous and familiar.

Otherlands

A World in the Making

Michael Dine

This Way to the Universe is a celebration of the astounding, ongoing scientific investigations that have revealed the nature of reality at its smallest, at its largest, and at the scale of our daily lives. The enigmas Professor Michael Dine discusses are like landmarks on a fantastic journey to the edge of the universe. 
 
Dine is widely recognized as one of the greatest living physicists, having made profound contributions to our understanding of matter, time, the Big Bang and even what might have come before it. Asked where to find out about the Big Bang, Dark Matter and Energy, the Higgs boson - the cutting edge of physics now - Dine had no single book he could recommend. This is his accessible, authoritative and up-to-date answer. Written in language anyone can follow, if you are looking for one book to help you understand physics, this is it.

This Way to the Universe

A Journey into Physics

Sarah Crosby

_____________________________ 
This book is your pocket therapist 
 
Five Minute Therapy makes being the best version of yourself quick and easy. 
 
Who am I? What does that dreaded phrase 'Just be yourself' even mean? What does it mean to be 'authentic'? These big questions can feel overwhelming; in Five-Minute Therapy, psychotherapist Sarah Crosby will help you to find the answers with psychological explorations, exercises and guidance to apply to your own life, one step at a time. 
 
Including chapters on attachment, boundaries, self talk, triggers, reparenting and more, this book will help you to find long-lasting happiness, confidence and calm in yourself and your relationships. 
 
From psychotherapist Sarah Crosby, aka Instagram sensation @themindgeek

5 Minute Therapy

A Therapist’s Guide to Navigating Life’s Highs and Lows

John Gribbin

The revolution is here. In breakthrough after breakthrough, pioneering physicists are unlocking a new quantum universe which provides a better representation of reality than our everyday experiences and common sense ever could. The birth of quantum computers - which, like Schrödinger's famous dead-and-alive cat, rely on entities like electrons existing in a mixture of states - is starting to turn the computing world on its head. 
 
In his fascinating study of this cutting-edge technology, John Gribbin updates his previous views on the nature of quantum reality, arguing for a universe of many parallel worlds where 'everything is real'. Looking back to Alan Turing's work on the Enigma machine and the first electronic computer, Gribbin explains how quantum theory developed to make quantum computers work in practice as well as in principle. He takes us beyond the arena of theoretical physics to explore their practical applications - from machines which learn through 'intuition' and trial and error to unhackable laptops and smartphones. And he investigates the potential for this extraordinary science to allow communication faster than light and even teleportation, as we step into a world of infinite possibility.

Quantum Computing from Colossus to Qubits

The History, Theory, and Application of a Revolutionary Science

Catherine Price

When did you last feel exhilarated and light-hearted? 
When did you last feel fully alive? 
When did you last have fun? 
 
In our always-on, tech-addicted lifestyles, the pursuit of fun has become an indulgence. We have forgotten how to relax. 
 
Award-winning science journalist Catherine Price argues that fun is the key to living a more meaningful, fulfilling and happier life. If you prioritize fun, you will: 
 
* Be healthier, less stressed and have more energy. 
* Find community and a sense of purpose. 
* Stop languishing and start flourishing. 
 
And best of all? You'll enjoy yourself! 
 
Ground-breaking, eye-opening and packed with useful advice, The Power of Fun won't just change the way you think, it will bring you back to life.

The Power of Fun

Why fun is the key to a happy and healthy life

Clover Stroud

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
'With brutal, beautiful honesty, Clover articulates how bereavement shocks and dislocates - and in all the pain, there's SO much life.' MARIAN KEYES 
 
'MUST READ ... A remarkable acount of love and grief.' - DAILY MAIL 
 
'She is a vigorous and fearless writer, grabbing us by the throat to describe life's horrors and her responses to them, filling her pages with the magnetic force of her own life as wife, lover and mother of five which somehow has to go on.' SPECTATOR 
............................................... 
 
'Can death bring something good to my life?' 
 
A few weeks before Christmas, Clover's sister died of breast cancer, aged forty-six. Just days before, she had been given years to live. Her sudden death split Clover's life apart. The Red of My Blood charts Clover's fearless passage through the first year after her sister's death. 
 
It is a book about what life feels like when death interrupts it, and about bearing the unbearable and describing an experience that seems beyond words. Lyrical, hopeful, it is also about the magical way in which death and life exist so vividly beside one another, and the wonder of being human. 
 
'A beautiful addition to the literature of loss. It will serve as a lit match, to be passed from one person to the next in the darkest moments.' THE SUNDAY TIMES

The Red of my Blood

A Death and Life Story

Cate Sevilla

How to Work Without Losing Your Mind is a painfully honest, hilarious and relatable guide to surviving the hell of the nine to five. It will help you navigate the real, messy, stressful and sometimes bizarre side of work that everyone experiences but no one talks about, whether at home or in the office. 
 
Whether you're drowning in a toxic working environment, battling burnout, recovering from redundancy or furlough, or just struggling to figure out what you actually want from your career, Cate Sevilla is here to help coach you through the shittiness of your working day, and help you shift your relationship with your career. 
 
Packed full of hilarious, relatable stories as well as practical tools to help you move forward, Cate Sevilla is the fabulous career guide you never knew you needed!

How to Work Without Losing Your Mind

Mala Kacenberg

Growing up in a Polish village on the fringes of a deep forest, Mala has a wonderful childhood. But when the German invasion reduces her loved ones to starvation, Mala takes matters into her own hands and sneaks out to find food. On her way back, she is handed a smuggled letter that reveals her family and friends have been rounded up for deportation. With only her cat, Malach for company, she must flee. 
 
Malach becomes her family, her only respite from loneliness, and a guide through unfathomable darkness. Together, they navigate forests, outwit soldiers, and, against all odds, survive.

Mala's Cat

The moving and unforgettable true story of one girl's survival during the Holocaust

Nathaniel Zinsser

You don't have to be born confident. You can learn to be confident. Here's how. 
 
Dr Nate Zinsser works with the cream of the US military to prepare them mentally for leadership and for action. He also trains top sportsmen and women to develop the self-belief essential for world-class performance. Now he shares the tried and tested techniques he has perfected over many years to help anyone who wants to acquire the confidence that will enable them to perform at their very best, whatever the environment, however stressful the situation. In the process he shows how to make positive use of nervousness, what acquiring a 'success cycle' involves, and why self-assurance, like all skills, requires constant practice. 
 
Drawing on the latest research, and packed with real-life examples, this is a supremely practical - and inspirational - guide to achieving bullet-proof confidence. 
__________________________________________ 
 
'The new definitive guide to building and mastering confidence.' Forbes 
 
'Gamechanging advice on how to dispel those pesky naysaying voices.' Guardian

The Confident Mind

A Battle-Tested Guide to Unshakable Performance

Lawrence Wright

The story of The Plague Year starts with the initial moments of Covid's appearance in Wuhan and ends with Joseph Biden's inauguration in an America ravaged by well over 400,000 deaths - a mortality already some ten times worse than US combat deaths in the entire Vietnam War. 
 
This is an anguished, furious memorial to a year in which all of America's great strengths - its scientific knowledge, its great civic and intellectual institutions, its spirit of voluntarism and community - were brought low, not by a terrifying new illness alone, but by political incompetence and cynicism on a scale for which there has been no precedent. 
 
With insight, sympathy, clarity and rage, The Plague Year allows the reader to see the unfolding of this great tragedy, talking with individuals on the front line, bringing together many moving and surprising stories and painting a devastating picture of a country literally and fatally misled.

The Plague Year

America in the Time of Covid

DI Helen Grace Novellas

Crumpled, slapdash and foul-mouthed as ever, Detective Inspector Jack Frost struggles to cope with inadequate back-up and never enough time; the unsolved crimes pile up and the vicious killings go on. Frost must cut corners and take risks as he staggers from crisis to crisis, rapists to murderers, missing bodies to discovered body parts; will he be able to keep Denton safe?

DI Jack Frost

Prepare to be gripped by this prequel series to R.D. Wingfield's A Touch of Frost. 
 
Back in Denton, Detective Sergeant Jack Frost returns to investigating murders, finding missing children, and discovering dead bodies in woodland areas. With Detective Inspector Williams missing, and a new policeman, DS Waters, to mentor, DS Jack Frost has to put the stresses and straings of his personal life on hold in order to keep Denton safe.

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