Paperback

"Humans are animals. That’s the first thing to know about us. This book will change your views of all apes, including Homo sapiens."

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"In this fascinating and deeply disturbing book O’Neil explains how authority is shifting from humans to Big Data algorithms, which decide whether to give you a loan, offer you a job, or even lock you in jail."

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"Frans de Waal’s Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves transported me to a looking-glass animal world, which is at once very alien and embarrassingly familiar. There is plenty of comedy, tragedy, politics and ethics – but chimpanzee-style."

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"Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem starts with China’s Cultural Revolution and the Sino-American arms race, but quickly leaves such mundane affairs behind to explore what happens to the universe when you weaponize the laws of physics. If you think atom bombs are scary, wait till you read what a two-dimensional bomb does to our solar system."

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"A book of big questions, and big answers. It turned me from a historian of medieval warfare into a student of humankind."

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Hardback

"A gripping narrative of Latin America’s new crime wars. It challenges our basic concepts of politics, economics and even religion, recounting how criminality mutates into warfare, how drug cartels mutate into multinational corporations, and how gangsters mutate into politicians and even into religious prophets."

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"I picked it up with a heavy heart, dreading it would be a sensationalist lightweight playing up to Western fears and biases. It turned out to be a deep, well-balanced and thought provoking account with a genuine feel for Middle Eastern realities."

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"Humans have different pasts, and perhaps different futures too. Originally, we are all Africans. To understand the world of 21st century, Africa is perhaps still the best place to start. Whenever we talk about algorithms, climate change or globalization, a good question to bear in mind is “what does this mean for Congo?”."

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"Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics (Allen Lane) changed my mind, or at least some of the ideas held in my mind. Pollan takes a fresh look at the controversial history of psychedelic drugs, highlighting their positive potential without hiding their dangerous side. It is all too easy for a spiritual quest for truth to mutate into a consumerist pursuit of excitement. Whatever one may think of psychedelics, the book reminds us that the mind is the greatest mystery in the universe, that this mystery is always right here, and that we usually dedicate far too little time and energy to exploring it."

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"In Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress (Penguin), Steven Pinker extols the amazing achievements of modernity, and demonstrates that humankind has never been so peaceful, healthy and prosperous. It is the most optimistic book I’ve read in a long time. There is, of course, much to disagree with and to argue about, but that’s what makes this book so interesting."

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"Do you want to understand how humans think? Read this book. It is one of the best starting points for exploring the tangled web of the human mind."

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"China is the new economic giant of the world. Officially China is still a communist country. But do communist ideals really explain the behavior of either the Chinese government or the ordinary Chinese citizen? Unlike many other books about contemporary China that focus on the economic story alone, Evan Osnos tries to uncover the soul of the new China. One of the most hilarious parts of the book tells how Osnos – an American – joins a Chinese group tour of classical Europe. Looking at Rome and Paris through the eyes of a Chinese tourist may be one of the best introductions to the new global order of the 21st century."

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"I think Brave New World is the best science fiction book ever, definitely the most prescient. Huxley was writing in the early 1930’s with Stalin and Hitler around, but what he was envisioning our present. He did not envisage a totalitarian regime with concentration camps and all that. He envisaged a consumerist society whose supreme value is happiness, and one that tries to achieve this by constant biological intervention and monitoring."

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