On Writers And Writing

Ezra Klein / Derek Thompson

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND SCHRODERS BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2025**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND OBAMA BOOK OF THE YEAR'A must-read for progressives' BARACK OBAMA 'Downing Street's current hot read' ANDREW MARR 'Forceful, quick-moving, important' FINANCIAL TIMESThe threat to liberal democracy isn't just autocrats - it's a lack of effective act...

Manuel Varela

On the relationship between "things" and "ideas" — with a special emphasis on medical practice. Dualism has a long track in philosophy. Although often overlooked, it supports much of our worldview, and lies at the center of many frontline scientific issues. This dialectic has specific phrasings in different scientific areas, but it is arguably the expression of the same conflic...

Michael Pollan

When it comes to consciousness, there is one point scientists, philosophers and artists all agree on- that it feels like something to be ourselves. And yet, the fact that each and every one of us has a subjective experience of the world continues to be one of the greatest mysteries in nature. How is it that our mental operations are accompanied by feelings, thoughts and a sense...

Carl Zimmer

'An extraordinary history of the perils and promise of every breath we take' James Nestor, New York Times bestselling author of Breath 'Another brilliant work from one of the very best science writers, Air-Borne will leave you agog at the incredible world that floats unseen around us' Ed Yong, New York Times bestselling author of An Immense World -----------------------------...

Gareth Russell

A BBC History magazine, Esquire, Historia magazine and Waterstones History Book of the Year 'James comes alive in full flamboyance ... Russell expertly weaves the bedchamber gossip into the tapestry of a tumultuous reign' SUNDAY TIMES 'Brings the backbiting and power struggles of the Jacobean court to life with wit and vigour' OBSERVER 'A warts and all story told with compass...

Raja. Johnson Shehadeh (Penny.) / Penny Johnson

"Shehadeh's books are like beacons held up against the darkness" Observer"A heartbreaking, hopeful look at how Palestinian culture endures" Irish Times Forgotten is a search for hidden or neglected memorials and places in historic Palestine - now Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories - and what they might tell us about the land and the people who live on our small sli...

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood is celebrated as one of the most gifted storytellers in the world. This new collection showcases her many talents -- and the return of her beloved characters Nell & Tig They explore the full warp and weft of experience, from two best friends disagreeing about their shared past, to the right way to stop someone from choking; from a daughter determining if her mo...

Margaret Atwood

Homer's Odyssey is not the only version of the story. Mythic material was originally oral, and also local -- a myth would be told one way in one place and quite differently in another. I have drawn on material other than the Odyssey, especially for the details of Penelope's parentage, her early life and marriage, and the scandalous rumors circulating about her. I've chosen to g...

Margaret Atwood

Toby, a survivor of the man-made plague that has swept the earth, is telling stories. Stories left over from the old world, and stories that will determine a new one. Listening hard is young Blackbeard, one of the innocent Crakers, the species designed to replace humanity. Their reluctant prophet, Jimmy-the-Snowman, is in a coma, so they've chosen a new hero - Zeb, the street...

Margaret Atwood

The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed . If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's n ...

Margaret Atwood

Pigs might not fly but they are strangely altered. So, for that matter, are wolves and racoons. A man, once named Jimmy, lives in a tree, wrapped in old bedsheets, now calls himself Snowman. The voice of Oryx, the woman he loved, teasingly haunts him. And the green-eyed Children of Crake are, for some reason, his responsibility. ...

Margaret Atwood