Heidi Perks is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Now You See Her, which was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick, Come Back for Me, Three Perfect Liars, The Whispers and The Other Guest. The Last Resort is her sixth novel. Heidi is a voracious reader of crime and thrillers and is fascinated by the darker side of our closest relationships. Heidi lives in Bournemouth with her husband and two children.

Heidi Perks

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Sheryl Sandberg

"Because the world needs you to change it" 
 
Expanded and updated exclusively for graduates just entering the workforce, this extraordinary new edition of Lean In includes a letter to graduates from Sheryl Sandberg and six additional chapters from experts offering advice on finding and getting the most out of a first job; CV writing; best interviewing practices; negotiating your salary; listening to your inner voice; owning who you are; and leaning in for millennial men. 
 
In 2013, Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In became a massive cultural phenomenon and its title became an instant catchphrase for empowering women. The book soared to the top of bestseller lists internationally, igniting global conversations about women and ambition. Sandberg packed theatres, dominated op-ed pages, appeared on every major television show and on the cover of Time magazine, and sparked ferocious debate about women and leadership. Now, this enhanced edition provides the entire text of the original book updated with more recent statistics and features a passionate letter from Sandberg encouraging graduates to find and commit to work they love. A combination of inspiration and practical advice, this new edition will speak directly to graduates and, like the original, will change lives. 
 
New Material for the Graduate Edition: 
· A Letter to Graduates from Sheryl Sandberg 
· Find Your First Job, by Mindy Levy (Levy has more than twenty years of experience in all phases of organisational management and holds degrees from Wharton and Penn) 
· Negotiate Your Salary, by Kim Keating (Keating is the founder and managing director of Keating Advisors) 
· Man Up: Millennial Men and Equality, by Kunal Modi (Modi is a consultant at McKinsey &amp; Company and a recent graduate of Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School) 
· Leaning In Together, by Rachel Thomas (Thomas is the president of Lean In) 
· Own Who You Are, by Mellody Hobson (Hobson is the president of Ariel Investments) 
· Listen to Your Inner Voice, by Rachel Simmons (Simmons is cofounder of the Girls Leadership Institute) 
· 14 Lean In stories (500-word essays), by readers around the world who have been inspired by Sandberg

Lean In

For Graduates

Arianna Huffington

In Thrive, Arianna Huffington, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post and one of the most influential women in the world, has written a passionate call to arms, looking to redefine what it means to be successful in today’s world. 
 
She likens our drive for money and power to two legs of a three-legged stool. It may hold us up temporarily, but sooner or later we’re going to topple over. We need a third leg – a Third Metric for defining success – in order to live a healthy, productive, and meaningful life. 
 
In this deeply personal book, Arianna talks candidly about her own challenges with managing time and prioritising the demands of a career and two daughters. Drawing on the latest groundbreaking research and scientific findings in the fields of psychology, sports, sleep and physiology that show the profound and transformative effects of meditation, mindfulness, unplugging and giving, Arianna shows us the way to a revolution in our culture, our thinking, our workplaces, and our lives.

Thrive

The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Happier Life

Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In is a massive cultural phenomenon and its title has become an instant catchphrase for empowering women. The book soared to the top of bestseller lists internationally, igniting global conversations about women and ambition. Sandberg packed theatres, dominated opinion pages, appeared on every major television show and on the cover of Time magazine, and sparked ferocious debate about women and leadership. 
 
Ask most women whether they have the right to equality at work and the answer will be a resounding yes, but ask the same women whether they'd feel confident asking for a raise, a promotion, or equal pay, and some reticence creeps in. 
 
The statistics, although an improvement on previous decades, are certainly not in women's favour – of 197 heads of state, only twenty-two are women. Women hold just 20 percent of seats in parliaments globally, and in the world of big business, a meagre eighteen of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women. 
 
In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg – Facebook COO and one of Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women in Business – draws on her own experience of working in some of the world's most successful businesses and looks at what women can do to help themselves, and make the small changes in their life that can effect change on a more universal scale.

Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

Adam Grant

In 2015 Sheryl Sandberg’s husband, Dave Goldberg, died suddenly at the age of forty-eight. Sandberg and her two young children were devastated, and she was certain that their lives would never have real joy or meaning again. 
 
Just weeks later, Sandberg was talking with a friend about the first father-child activity without a father. They came up with a plan for someone to fill in. “But I want Dave,” she cried. Her friend put his arm around her and said, “Option A is not available. So let’s just kick the shit out of Option B.” 
 
Everyone experiences some form of Option B. We all deal with loss: jobs lost, loves lost, lives lost. The question is not whether these things will happen but how we face them when they do. 
 
Thoughtful, honest, revealing and warm, OPTION B weaves Sandberg’s experiences coping with adversity with new findings from Adam Grant and other social scientists. The book features stories of people who recovered from personal and professional hardship, including illness, injury, divorce, job loss, sexual assault and imprisonment. These people did more than recover—many of them became stronger. 
 
OPTION B offers compelling insights for dealing with hardships in our own lives and helping others in crisis. It turns out that post-traumatic growth is common—even after the most devastating experiences many people don’t just bounce back but actually bounce forward. And pre-traumatic growth is also possible: people can build resilience even if they have not experienced tragedy. Sandberg and Grant explore how we can raise strong children, create resilient communities and workplaces, and find meaning, love and joy in our lives. 
 
“Dave’s death changed me in very profound ways,” Sandberg writes. “I learned about the depths of sadness and the brutality of loss. But I also learned that when life sucks you under, you can kick against the bottom, break the surface and breathe again.”

Option B

Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy

Eliza Filby

The Sunday Times Bestseller! 
 
Many of us grew up believing in a meritocracy, where hard work and a good education brings rewards. Go to university, get a job, put in the hours and things will be OK. That’s what we were told – but the reality is that life chances and opportunities are no longer shaped by what we learn or earn but by whether we have access to the Bank of Mum and Dad. We’re living in an inheritocracy, where parental support is what matters most – whether that’s covering the cost of university, stumping up for a house deposit or helping with childcare. And let’s be honest, this isn’t something we like to talk about with our friends, families or as a society. It’s a modern taboo. 
 
In this timely and revealing book, generational expert Eliza Filby explores the emergence of this inheritocracy through her own life story, revealing how her family’s financial circumstances shaped everything from her education to her dating life, from her career to her class identity. Inheritocracy is a thought-provoking and candid blend of memoir and cultural commentary, told through Eliza’s humorous and insightful voice. 
 
With trillions of pounds set to be passed down the generations over the next two decades, a significant divide is emerging between those who can rely on family wealth and those who can’t. Inheritocracy offers a fresh, captivating and honest look at our recent past and a future that will be shaped – for better or worse – by family fortunes.

Inheritocracy

It’s Time to Talk About the Bank of Mum and Dad

#1 New York Times bestseller 
 
&quot;This brilliant book will shatter your assumptions about what it takes to improve and succeed. I wish I could go back in time and gift it to my younger self. It would've helped me find a more joyful path to progress.&quot; 
-Serena Williams, 23-time Grand Slam singles tennis champion 
 
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again illuminates how we can elevate ourselves and others to unexpected heights. 
 
We live in a world that&rsquo;s obsessed with talent. We celebrate gifted students in school, natural athletes in sports, and child prodigies in music. But admiring people who start out with innate advantages leads us to overlook the distances we ourselves can travel. We can all improve at improving. And when opportunity doesn&rsquo;t knock, there are ways to build a door. 
 
Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Adam Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid story&shy;telling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space. He shows that progress depends less on how hard you work than how well you learn. Growth is not about the genius you possess &ndash; it&rsquo;s about the character you develop. Grant explores how to build the charac&shy;ter skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked. 
 
This book reveals how anyone can rise to achieve greater things. The true measure of your potential is not the height of the peak you&rsquo;ve reached, but how far you&rsquo;ve climbed to get there.

Hidden Potential

The Science of Achieving Greater Things

Emma Holten

*AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER* 
WINNER OF THE POLITIKEN LITERATURE PRIZE 2024 
 
'Brilliantly rewrites the history of economic thought to place 'her story' at its heart. A must-read' - Kate Raworth, author of DOUGHNUT ECONOMICS 
 
How can we create a better future – one that truly prioritises health and happiness? 
 
For too long, economic thinkers have left out ‘women’s work’ and acts of care from their calculations, resulting in terrible real-world consequences today: crumbling public services, struggling schools 
and care systems on the brink of collapse. 
 
In Deficit, prominent Danish thinker Emma Holten reveals how and why this happened, and argues that the things that matter – doing homework with your child, checking in on loved ones, talking to a 
colleague who doesn’t seem well – might seem inconsequential, but are in fact the building blocks of the economy. Urgent and incisive, this is a manifesto for rethinking the economic value of care. 
 
'One of the most important feminist voices of the 21st century' - Sofie Hagen

Deficit

How Feminist Economics Can Change Our World

Neil deGrasse Tyson

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! 
 
Join the galactic conversation on the biggest issues in the universe, from the 'most popular scientist in the world' 
 
‘Don't fear change. Don't fear failure. The only thing to fear is loss of ambition. But if you've got plenty of that, then you have nothing to fear at all’ – Neil deGrasse Tyson 
 
Neil deGrasse Tyson is arguably the most influential, acclaimed scientist on the planet. As director of the Hayden Planetarium, and host of Cosmos and StarTalk, he has dedicated his life to exploring and explaining the mysteries of the universe. 
 
Every year, he receives thousands of letters – from students to prisoners, scientists to priests. Some seek advice, others yearn for inspiration; some are full of despair, others burst with wonder. But they are all searching for understanding, meaning and truth. 
 
His replies are by turns wise, funny, and mind-blowing. In this, his most personal book by far, he covers everything from God to the history of science, from aliens to death. He bares his soul – his passions, his doubts, his hopes. The big theme is everywhere in these pages: what is our place in the universe? 
 
The result is an awe-inspiring read and an intimate portal into an incredible mind, which reveals the power of the universe to start conversations and inspire curiosity in all of us.

Letters from an Astrophysicist

Naomi Shragai

'Is 2023 the year you want to change your working life? Perhaps you want to stop catastrophising about small mistakes, instil a better job/life balance or find new mechanisms to cope with a nightmare boss. Solutions to these problems, as well as an array of other office issues, are what Naomi Shragai offers in Work Therapy. If you're searching for a new way to handle office politics, you could well find the answers in this book.' - Sunday Times 
 
There's no place like home...or work? 
 
You probably don't realise this, but every working day you replay and re-enact conflicts, dynamics and relationships from your past. Whether it's confusing an authority figure with a parent; avoiding conflict because of past squabbles with siblings; or suffering from imposter syndrome because of the way your family responded to success, when it comes to work we are all trapped in our own upbringings and the patterns of behaviour we learned while growing up. 
 
Many of us spend eighteen formative years or more living with family and building our personality; but most of us also spend fifty years - or 90,000 hours - in the workplace. With the pull of the familial so strong, we unconsciously re-enact our personal past in our professional present - even when it holds us back. 
 
Through intimate stories, fascinating insights and provocative questions, business psychotherapist Naomi Shragai will transform how you think about yourself and your working life. Based on thirty years of expertise and practice, Shragaiwill show you that what is holding you back is within your gift to change - and the first step is to realise how you, like the rest of the people you work with, habitually confuse your professional present with your personal past.

Work Therapy: Or The Man Who Mistook His Job for His Life

Michael Meyer

‘Makes the case for Annie Besant as a truly eminent Victorian, as brilliant and fearless as she was beautiful’ The Times 
_________ 
 
London, 1877. A petite young woman stands before an all-male jury, about to risk everything. She takes a breath, and opens her defence. 
 
Annie Besant and her confidant Charles Bradlaugh are on trial for the crime of publishing a birth control pamphlet. Remarkably, Annie is defending herself against obscenity charges 45 years before women can practice law in England. At a time when women were expected to be obedient, Annie’s fearless voice was a sensation and spotlighted issues of sex, censorship and morality. 
 
A Dirty, Filthy Book tells the gripping story of a little-known pioneer who refused to accept the role that the establishment assigned her, and chose instead to resist.

A Dirty, Filthy Book

Annie Besant’s Fight for Reproductive Rights

Sex, Scandal, and One Woman’s Fight in the Victorian Trial of the Century

Roman Krznaric

'This is the book our children's children will thank us for reading' – The Edge, U2 
 
How 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. From the pyramids to the NHS, humankind has always had the innate ability to plan for posterity and take action that will resonate for decades, centuries, even millennia to come. If we want to become good ancestors, now is the time to recover and enrich this imaginative skill. 
 
The Good Ancestor reveals six profound ways in which we can all learn to think long-term, exploring how we can reawaken oft-neglected but uniquely human talents like ‘cathedral thinking’ that expand our time horizons and sharpen our foresight. Drawing on radical solutions from around the world, Krznaric celebrates the innovators who are reinventing democracy, culture and economics so that we all have the chance to become good ancestors and create a better tomorrow.

The Good Ancestor

How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World

Fred Kofman

'One of the most extraordinary thinkers on leadership and management I have ever encountered' - Sheryl Sandberg 
 
 
Forget the standard practices of leadership taught in business school -- all about compensation, command and control. This is a new model for how to inspire -- through purpose, principle and people. The Meaning Revolution is Fred Kofman's call to arms for anyone who has ever felt unengaged at work and offers actionable advice for how we can all find more meaning and dignity whatever we do. 
 
Bringing together economics and conflict resolution, counselling and mindfulness, Kofman explains how our most deep-seated anxiety is that we are wasting our lives. The things that we think matter -- salaries and job titles -- actually only account for 15% of our motivation at work. The other 85% is about how we belong, feeling we make a difference, that we serve a purpose larger than ourselves. Transformative leadership is about helping employees feel connected to a great mission or purpose, and discovering the 'immortality project' at the core of your business.

The Meaning Revolution

Leading with the Power of Purpose

JP Morgan’s Best Summer Read 2018 
 
We are in the midst of a sleep deprivation crisis, and this has profound consequences – on our health, our job performance, our relationships and our happiness. In this book, Arianna Huffington boldly asserts that what is needed is nothing short of a sleep revolution. Only by renewing our relationship with sleep can we take back control of our lives. 
 
Through a sweeping, scientifically rigorous and deeply personal exploration of sleep from all angles, Arianna delves into the new golden age of sleep science that reveals the vital role sleep plays in our every waking moment and every aspect of our health – from weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease to cancer and Alzheimer’s. 
 
In The Sleep Revolution, Arianna shows how our cultural dismissal of sleep as time wasted not only compromises our health and our decision-making but also undermines our work lives, our personal lives and even our sex lives. She explores all the latest science on what exactly is going on while we sleep and dream. She takes on the dangerous sleeping pill industry and confronts all the ways our addiction to technology disrupts our sleep. She also offers a range of recommendations and tips from leading scientists on how we can achieve better and more restorative sleep, and harness its incredible power. 
 
In today's fast-paced, always-connected, perpetually harried and sleep-deprived world, our need for a good night’s sleep is more important – and elusive – than ever. The Sleep Revolution both sounds the alarm on our worldwide sleep crisis and provides a detailed road map to the great sleep awakening that can help transform our lives, our communities and our world.

The Sleep Revolution

Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time

THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER 
 
If you can change your mind you can do anything. 
 
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? 
 
There's a new skill for the modern world that matters more than raw intelligence - the ability to change your mind. To have the edge we all need to develop the flexibility to unlearn old beliefs and adapt when the evidence and the world changes before us. 
 
Told through fascinating stories, informed by cutting-edge research and illustratedwith amazing insights from Adam Grant's conversations with people such as Elon Musk, Hilary Clinton's campaign team, top CEOs and leading scientists, this is the ultimate guide to keeping your thinking fresh, learning when to question your ideas and update your own opinions, and how to inspire those around you to do the same.

Think Again

The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

Luke Dormehl

What if everything in life could be reduced to a simple formula? What if numbers were able to tell us which partners we were best matched with – not just in terms of attractiveness, but for a long-term committed marriage? Or if they could say which films would be the biggest hits at the box office, and what changes could be made to those films to make them even more successful? Or even who out of us is likely to commit certain crimes, and when? This may sound like the world of science-fiction, but in fact it is just the tip of the iceberg in a world that is increasingly ruled by complex algorithms and neural networks. 
 
In The Formula, Luke Dormehl takes you inside the world of numbers, asking how we came to believe in the all-conquering power of algorithms; introducing the mathematicians, artificial intelligence experts and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who are shaping this brave new world, and ultimately asking how we survive in an era where numbers can sometimes seem to create as many problems as they solve.

The Formula

How Algorithms Solve all our Problems … and Create More

Judith Heumann

Kristen Joiner

A story of fighting to belong in a world that wasn't built for all of us and of one woman's activism--from the streets of Brooklyn and San Francisco to inside the halls of Washington--Being Heumann recounts Judy Heumann's lifelong battle to achieve respect, acceptance, and inclusion in society. 
 
 Paralyzed from polio at eighteen months, Judy Heumann began her struggle for equality early in life. From fighting to attend grade school after being described as a "fire hazard" to later winning a lawsuit against the New York City school system for denying her a teacher's license, to leading the section 504 sit-in that led to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Judy's actions set a precedent that fundamentally improved rights for disabled people around the globe. 
 
Candid, intimate, and irreverent, Judy Heumann's memoir about resistance to exclusion invites readers to imagine and make real a world in which we all belong.

Being Heumann

The Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist

Rory Sutherland

‘A breakthrough book. Wonderfully applicable to everything in life, and funny as hell.’ Nassim Nicholas Taleb 
 
 
Why is Red Bull so popular – even though everyone hates the taste? Why do countdown boards on platforms take away the pain of train delays? And why do we prefer stripy toothpaste? 
 
Discover the alchemy behind original thinking, as TED Talk superstar and Ogilvy advertising legend Rory Sutherland reveals why abandoning logic and casting aside rationality is the best way to solve any problem. 
 
In his first book he blends cutting-edge behavioural science, jaw-dropping stories and a touch of branding magic on his mission to turn us all into idea alchemists. He shows how economists, businesses and governments have got it all wrong: we are not rational creatures who make logical decisions based on evidence. Instead, the big problems we face every day, whether as an individual or in society, could very well be solved by thinking less logically. To be brilliant, you have to be irrational.

Alchemy

The Magic of Original Thinking in a World of Mind-Numbing Conformity

The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense

Maria Ressa

**THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** 
 
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2021 
 
What will you sacrifice for the truth? 
 
Maria Ressa has spent decades speaking truth to power. But her work tracking disinformation networks seeded by her own government, spreading lies to its own citizens laced with anger and hate, has landed her in trouble with the most powerful man in the country: President Duterte. 
 
Now, hounded by the state, she has multiple arrest warrants against her name, and a potential 100+ years behind bars to prepare for - while she stands trial for speaking the truth. 
 
How to Stand Up to a Dictator is the story of how democracy dies by a thousand cuts, and how an invisible atom bomb has exploded online that is killing our freedoms. It maps a network of disinformation - a heinous web of cause and effect - that has netted the globe: from Duterte's drug wars, to America's Capitol Hill, to Britain's Brexit, to Russian and Chinese cyber-warfare, to Facebook and Silicon Valley, to our own clicks and our own votes. 
 
Told from the frontline of the digital war, this is Maria Ressa's urgent cry for us to wake up and hold the line, before it is too late. 
 
Praise for Maria Ressa: 
Winner of the UNESCO Press Freedom Award 2021 
'A personal hero of mine ... she's an important warning for the rest of us' 
Hillary Clinton 
'Maria Ressa is 5ft 2in, but she stands taller than most in her pursuit of the truth' 
Amal Clooney 
'Maria is a key voice ... she is so incredible in so many ways' 
Carole Cadwalladr

How to Stand Up to a Dictator

Radio 4 Book of the Week

Shawn Achor

MASTER THE BELIEFS THAT DRIVE SUCCESS. 
 
Each of us has a lens through which we see the world, one that has been crafted by every experience we’ve ever had and is made up of our conscious and unconscious beliefs. But even though this lens has remarkable predictive power on our outcomes in work and life, we are often unaware of how much it shapes our choices—and how much power we have to change it, and our lives, for the better. 
 
In The Power of Beliefs Shawn Achor draws from his groundbreaking work in fifty countries over twenty years to introduce a critical set of tools, the seven Core Power Beliefs: 
 
1. My Behavior Matters 
2. I Matter 
3. I Am Not Alone 
4. This Work is Meaningful 
5. I Have Things To Be Grateful for in the Present 
6. I Have Something to Give 
7. There Is Something Greater Than Me 
 
The extent to which we embrace these beliefs is the strongest indicator of positive outcomes across all aspects of our lives. Using fascinating examples from his own research and the cutting-edge work of others, Achor shows just how powerful our beliefs can be. He shows us how to undertake the often challenging work of changing our beliefs to transform our lens, opening up a world of possibilities previously unseen. And the benefits don’t stop there: Once we know that change is possible, the next step is helping to strengthen the beliefs and trajectories of our family, friends, coworkers, and the world around us.

The Power of Beliefs

How Strengthening Seven Core Beliefs Predicts Greater Success and a Better Life

Taylor Lorenz

'A terrific history of the online creator economy.' The New York Times 
 
'This book is about a revolution. It has radically upended how we've understood and interacted with our world. It has demolished traditional barriers and empowered millions who were previously marginalized. It has created vast new sectors of our economy, while devastating legacy institutions. It is often dismissed by traditionalists as a vacant fad, when in fact it is the greatest and most disruptive change in modern capitalism.' 
 
Acclaimed Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz presents a groundbreaking social history of the internet-revealing how online influence and the creators who amass it have reshaped our world, online and off. 
 
For over a decade, Taylor Lorenz has been the authority on internet culture, documenting its far-reaching effects on all corners of our lives. Her reporting is serious yet entertaining and illuminates deep truths about ourselves and the lives we create online. In her debut book, Extremely Online, she reveals how online influence came to upend the world, demolishing traditional barriers and creating whole new sectors of the economy. 
 
By tracing how the internet has changed what we want and how we go about getting it, Lorenz unearths how social platforms' power users radically altered our expectations of content, connection, purchasing, and power. Lorenz documents how moms who started blogging were among the first to monetize their personal brands online, how bored teens who began posting selfie videos reinvented fame as we know it, and how young creators on TikTok are leveraging opportunities to opt out of the traditional career pipeline. It's the real social history of the internet. 
 
Emerging seemingly out of nowhere, these shifts in how we use the internet seem easy to dismiss as fads. However, these social and economic transformations created a digital dynamic so unappreciated and insurgent that it ultimately created new approaches to work, entertainment, fame, and ambition in the 21st century. 
 
Extremely Online is the inside, untold story of what we have done to the internet, and what it has done to us.

Extremely Online

The Untold Story of Fame, Influence and Power on the Internet

Terry Stiastny

The true story of the the misfits and mavericks who waged psychological warfare against the Nazis 
 
September, 1939. While Britain hovered on the brink of the Second World War, a team of unlikely and ill-assorted characters assembled in their secret headquarters. They had left their civilian roles as politicians, journalists, novelists and spies, advertisers, artists and even forgers, to work for a covert government organisation. Their goals: to weaken enemy morale, sow confusion and encourage resistance. In the ‘hush-hush’ village of Aspley Guise near Woburn Abbey (8 miles from the codebreakers at Bletchley Park), they set to work. 
 
The once top-secret wartime efforts of the Political Warfare Executive were remarkable in their variety and inventiveness – from pornographic leaflet drops to rumour campaigns, underground publications and fake French and German radio shows. But to break Nazi morale, these men and women found themselves skirting the edges of their own morality. What do you lose when you deploy lies – even brilliant, believable lies – to achieve your ends?

Believable Lies

The Misfits Who Fought Churchill's Secret Propaganda War

Chris Anderson

**Picked by Bill Gates for his summer reading list** 
 
Recent years have been tough on optimists. Hopes that the Internet might bring people together have been crushed by the ills of social media. Is there a way back? 
 
Chris Anderson, the head of TED, believes that we can turn outrage back into optimism. It all comes down to reimagining one of the most fundamental human virtues: generosity. What if generosity could become infectious generosity? Consider: 
 
• how a London barber began offering haircuts to people experiencing homelessness - and catalysed a movement 
 
• how two anonymous donors gave $10,000 each to 200 strangers and discovered that most recipients wanted to 'pay it forward' with their own generous acts 
 
• how TED itself transformed from a niche annual summit into a global beacon of ideas by giving away talks online, allowing millions access to free learning 
 
In telling these inspiring stories, Anderson offers a playbook for how to embark on our own generous acts - whether gifts of money, time, talent, connection, or kindness - and to prime them, thanks to the Internet, to have self-replicating, world-changing impacts.

Infectious Generosity

The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading

Robert Kagan

'The transformation of the US into an autocracy has advanced...Nobody has outlined this danger more compellingly than Robert Kagan.' - Martin Wolf, Financial Times 
 
A chilling and clear-eyed warning about the threats to our democracy posed by the increasing radicalization of the Republican Party, from a leading historian and intellectual 
 
The 2024 election could be the last free election held in a unified America. So warns Robert Kagan in this brilliant and terrifying analysis of the perilous state of democracy in the United States today. If Donald Trump loses the upcoming election, as he did in 2020, but refuses to accept the result, as he also did in the last election, he is likely to call on his millions of followers to repudiate the election results. It will be a short step from there to Republican-dominated states rejecting the legitimacy of the federal government and effectively seceding. The United States at that point will cease to be united, with grave consequences for both Americans and the world. 
 
In Rebellion, Kagan dives deeper than the op-eds and think pieces to explore the historical forces that have brought us to this moment—in particular the long history of opposition to liberalism, and to government, that has shaped America’s character from the time of the Revolution to today. Trump’s unique capacity to tap into that tradition of dissent and circumvent the American system has brought us to the edge of dissolution—not for the first time in our history but possibly the last. This is an elegant and deeply informed synthesis of history, contemporary politics, and ideas that sheds light on this crucial moment.

Rebellion

How Antiliberalism Is Tearing America Apart Again

Reed Hastings

Erin Meyer

*** Shortlisted for the 2020 Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year *** 
 
It's time to do things differently. 
 
Trust your team. Be radically honest. And never, ever try to please your boss. 
 
These are some of the ground rules if you work at Netflix. They are part of a unique cultural experiment that explains how the company has transformed itself at lightning speed from a DVD mail order service into a streaming superpower - with 190 million fervent subscribers and a market capitalisation that rivals the likes of Disney. 
 
Finally Reed Hastings, Netflix Chairman and CEO, is sharing the secrets that have revolutionised the entertainment and tech industries. With INSEAD business school professor Erin Meyer, he will explore his leadership philosophy - which begins by rejecting the accepted beliefs under which most companies operate - and how it plays out in practice at Netflix. 
 
From unlimited holidays to abolishing approvals, Netflix offers a fundamentally different way to run any organisation, one far more in tune with an ever-changing fast-paced world. For anyone interested in creativity, productivity and innovation, the Netflix culture is something close to a holy grail. This book will make it, and its creator, fully accessible for the first time.

No Rules Rules

Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention

Annie Lowrey

Shortlisted for the 2018 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award! 
 
Surely just giving people money couldn't work. Or could it? 
 
Imagine if every month the government deposited £1000 in your bank account, with no strings attached and nothing expected in return. It sounds crazy, but Universal Basic Income (UBI) has become one of the most influential policy ideas of our time, backed by thinkers on both the left and the right. The founder of Facebook, Obama's chief economist, governments from Canada to Finland are all seriously debating some form of UBI. 
 
In this sparkling and provocative book, economics writer Annie Lowrey looks at the global UBI movement. She travels to Kenya to see how UBI is lifting the poorest people on earth out of destitution, and India to see how inefficient government programs are failing the poor. She visits South Korea to interrogate UBI’s intellectual pedigree, and Silicon Valley to meet the tech titans financing UBI pilots in the face of advanced artificial intelligence and little need for human labour. She also examines at the challenges the movement faces: contradictory aims, uncomfortable costs, and most powerfully, the entrenched belief that no one should get something for nothing. 
 
The UBI movement is not just an economic policy -- it also calls into question our deepest intuitions about what we owe each other and what activities we should reward and value as a society.

Give People Money

The simple idea to solve inequality and revolutionise our lives

Kimberley Wilson

We all know that as a nation our mental health is in crisis. But what most don't know is that a critical ingredient in this debate, and a crucial part of the solution - what we eat - is being ignored. 
 
Nutrition has more influence on what we feel, who we become and how we behave than we could ever have imagined. It affects everything from our decision-making to aggression and violence. Yet mental health disorders are overwhelmingly treated as 'mind' problems as if the physical brain - and how we feed it - is irrelevant. Someone suffering from depression is more likely to be asked about their relationship with their mother than their relationship with food. 
 
In this eye-opening and impassioned book, psychologist Kimberley Wilson draws on startling new research - as well as her own work in prisons, schools and hospitals around the country - to reveal the role of food and nutrients in brain development and mental health: from how the food a woman eats during pregnancy influences the size of her baby's brain, and hunger makes you mean; to how nutrient deficiencies change your personality. 
 
We must also recognise poor nutrition as a social injustice, with the poorest and most vulnerable being systematically ignored. We need to talk about what our food is doing to our brains. And we need decisive action, not over rehearsed soundbites and empty promises, from those in power - because if we don't, things can only get worse.

Unprocessed

What Your Diet Is Doing to Your Brain

How the Food We Eat Is Fuelling Our Mental Health Crisis

James Wallman

A Financial Times Book of the Year 
 
'Genius ... I couldn't put it down, I read it from cover to cover' 
CHRIS EVANS 
 
If the most precious thing we have is time, the most highly prized expertise should be knowing how to spend it well. Yet, busier than ever, do we really understand which experiences bring us joy and success, and which don’t? 
 
After all, we’ve learned how to spot the difference between junk foods and superfoods. When you discover the equivalent rules for time, it’ll change how you live your life. 
 
In his first book since the era-defining Stuffocation, cultural commentator and bestselling author James Wallman investigates the persistent problem of wasted, unfulfilling time, and finds a powerful answer — a revolutionary approach to life based on the latest scientific discoveries. At its heart is the inspiring revelation that, when you play by the new rules, you can actively choose better experiences. 
 
Bursting with original stories, fresh takes on tales you thought you knew, and insights from psychology, economics, and culture, Time and How to Spend It reveals a seven-point checklist that’ll help you avoid empty experiences, and fill your free hours with exciting and enriching ones instead. 
 
This life-enhancing book will show you how to be the hero or heroine of your own story. You’ll learn how to avoid WMDs (weapons of mass distraction), and discover the roads that lead to flow. You’ll get more out of every minute and every day; your weekends will fizz and your holidays will be deeply nourishing. You’ll not only be living the good life, but building a truly great life.

Time and How to Spend It

The 7 Rules for Richer, Happier Days

James O'Brien

There's no point having a mind if you're not willing to change it 
 
James O'Brien has built well over a million loyal listeners to his radio show by dissecting the opinions of callers live on air, every day. But winning the argument doesn't necessarily mean you're right. 
 
In this deeply personal book, James turns the mirror on himself to reveal what he has changed his mind about and why, and explore how examining and changing our own views is our new civic duty in a world of outrage, disagreement and echo chambers. He writes candidly about the stiff upper lip attitudes and toxic masculinity that coloured his childhood, and the therapy and personal growth that have led him question his assumptions and explore new perspectives. Laying open his personal views on everything from racial prejudice to emotional vulnerability, from fat-shaming to tattoos, he then delves into the real reasons - often irrational or unconscious - he holds them. 
 
Unflinchingly honest, revealing and funny, How Not to Be Wrong is a tonic for a world more divided than ever and a personal manifesto for a better way of thinking and living. 
 
Because after all, if we can't change our own minds we'll never really be able to change anyone else's.

How Not To Be Wrong

The Art of Changing Your Mind

Allen Gannett

A great idea isn't a sudden light-bulb moment. It's taking something familiar and making it feel new. 
 
We’ve been told a lie about the nature of creativity. 
 
We're told stories about creative geniuses – the young Mozart who effortlessly overshadows the hardworking Salieri; Paul McCartney coming up with the tune for Yesterday in a dream one morning; JK Rowling finding inspiration for Harry Potter sitting on a train to London. What we aren’t told is the actual story behind such hits. In fact there is a science and method for mainstream success, whether writing a popular novel, starting a company or creating an effective marketing campaign, and in this book Allen Gannett – data wizard and successful entrepreneur – reveals the four laws of creativity that are proven to work. 
 
New ideas are surprising at first, and slowly become familiar as we get used to them. Allan Gannett reveals there’s a sweet spot between what feels familiar and safe to us, and what is innovative and new: the point of optimal tension between safety and surprise, similarity and difference. The people we think of as creative geniuses are people who understand this sweet spot instinctively; they know what people find familiar and reassuring, and they find ways to reinvent it fresh. 
 
Packed with stories and insights ranging from the team behind Dear Evan Hansen to the founder of Reddit, from the Chief Content Officer of Netflix to Michelin starred chefs, The Creative Curve will help you spend less time on ideas destined to fail and more time on ideas that really break out. This book is for everyone, whether you’re a business leader, a creative artist or a budding entrepreneur – and will teach you the secret to conceiving great ideas that can achieve major success.

The Creative Curve

How to Develop the Right Idea, at the Right Time

Michael Ovitz

If you're going to read one book about Hollywood, this is the one. 
 
As co-founder of Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Michael Ovitz earned a reputation for ruthless negotiation, brilliant strategy and fierce loyalty to his clients. He reinvented the role of the agent and helped shape the careers of hundreds of A-list stars and directors, including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Sean Connery, Steven Seagal, Bill Murray, Robin Williams and David Letterman. 
 
But this personal history is much more than celebrity friendships and bare-knuckled deal-making. It's an underdog's story: How did a kid with no connections work his way into the William Morris mailroom, and become the most powerful person in Hollywood? How did a superagent also become a power in producing, advertising, mergers &amp; acquisitions and modern art? And what were the personal consequences of all those deals? 
 
After decades of near-silence in the face of intense controversy, Michael Ovitz is finally telling his whole story in this blistering, unforgettable memoir.

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