KES Recommends ... A Cross Curricular World Book Day Reading List

In anticipation of World Book Day, the English department asked colleagues for their favourite, subject related reading recommendations, and so we bring you the 2020 World Book Day 'KES Recommends Reading List.'

Many thanks to Ms Kayacan who compiled the list, which has been shared and discussed with Senior School pupils.

Acaster, J Classic Scrapes
A 2017 autobiography by English comedian James Acaster, the book describes amusing incidents in which Acaster ended up in embarrassing situations.

Adams, Douglas Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
An iconic comedy science fiction series created by Douglas Adams which was originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978.

Allende, Isabel The House of the Spirit
The debut novel of Allende, which became an instant best seller, was critically acclaimed, and catapulted her to global literary stardom.

Angelou, Maya I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The 1969 autobiography of one of America’s most important Civil Rights voices.

Anon. The Gospel of John
The fourth of the canonical gospels, it went through two to three stages, or "editions", before reaching its current form, at the latest, around AD 80–100. It is written anonymously, although it identifies an unnamed "disciple whom Jesus loved" as the source of its traditions.

Barker, Pat The Silence of the Girls
This retelling of the Illiad gives voice to the voiceless told in the words of Briseis, Trojan queen and captive of Achilles.

Beard, Mary Women & Power
Mary Beard addresses in one brave book the misogynists and trolls who mercilessly attack and demean women the world over, including, very often, Mary herself. In Women & Power, she traces the origins of this misogyny to its ancient roots, examining the pitfalls of gender and the ways that history has mistreated strong women since time immemorial.

Bellos, Alex Alex's Adventures in Numberland Paperback
Packed with fascinating, eye-opening anecdotes, it is an ‘exhilarating cocktail of history, reportage and mathematical proofs that will leave you awestruck.’

Bettelheim, Bruno The Uses of Enchantment
A 1976 book in which the author analyses fairy tales in terms of Freudian psychoanalysis.

Blakeslee, Sandra & Ramachandran Phantoms in the Brain
The book takes a revolutionary new approach to theories of the brain, from one of the world's leading experimental neurologists. 

Boese, Alex Elephants on Acid
Have you ever wondered if a severed head retains consciousness long enough to see what happened to it? Or whether your dog would run to fetch help, if you fell down a disused mineshaft? And what would happen if you were to give an elephant the largest ever single dose of LSD? The chances are that someone, somewhere has conducted a scientific experiment to find out...

Burnett, Dean The Idiot Brain: A Neuroscientist Explains What Your Head is Really Up To
Written by a neuroscientist with a sideline in comedy, The Idiot Brain is a witty and informative look at our brains.

Burns, Jimmy La Roja:  A Journey Through Spanish Football
By the author of a best-selling biography of Diego Maradona, and similarly widely acclaimed books on FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, La Roja digs deep into the roots of the most popular sport, to look at how football played in Spain became the most admired in the world.

Camus, Albert Exile and the Kingdom
A 1957 collection of six short stories by French writer Albert Camus exploring underlying themes of human loneliness and feeling foreign and isolated in one's own society.

Camus, Albert The Outsider
In this classic existentialist novel, Camus explores the alienation of an individual who refuses to conform to social norms.

Carey, Nessa The Epigenetics Revolution
It "is the first book to set out the epigenetics stall for the general reader, and anyone seriously interested in who we are and how we function should read this book" (Peter Forbes in The Guardian)

Carr, E H What is History
What Is History? is a 1961 non-fiction book by historian Edward Hallett Carr on historiography. It discusses history, facts, the bias of historians, science, morality, individuals and society, and moral judgements in history. The book originated in a series of lectures given by Carr in 1961 at the University of Cambridge.

Christian, Brian Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions
A fascinating exploration of how computer algorithms can be applied to our everyday lives.

Clark Scott, J But How Do It Know? – The Basic Principles of Computers for Everyone
A book written by a 40-year computer veteran who wants to take the mystery out of computers and allow everyone to gain a true understanding of exactly what computers are, and also what they are not.

Coates, Ta-Nehisi Between the World and Me
Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the single best writer on the subject of race in the United States” (The New York Observer).

Corrigan, Gordon Mud, Blood and Poppycock
Mud, Blood and Poppycock re-examines the old myths of incompetence and unnecessary slaughter that have coloured the popular view of the First World War. In so doing, Gordon Corrigan may well shatter precious libertarian illusions, but in explaining what war is really about, how an army does its work, and by examining the facts he overturns myths and legends and gets to the truth.

Cox, Brian, Ince, Robin & Feachem, Alexandra Infinite Monkey Cage: How to Build a Universe
Covering billions of concepts and conundrums, the writers tackle everything from the Big Bang to parallel universes, fierce creatures to extraterrestrial life, brain science to artificial intelligence.

Czerski, Helen Bubbles
Written by the celebrated physicist and oceanographer Helen Czerski, Bubbles explores how everything from the way drinks taste to the Earth's temperature are influenced by bubbles. This book has a message: never underestimate a bubble!

Dawkins, Richard The Selfish Gene
From the moment of its publication 40 years ago, it has been a sparkling best-seller and a scientific game-changer.

Dawkins, Richard The God Delusion
In The God Delusion, Dawkins controversially contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that belief in a personal god qualifies as a delusion.

de Cervantes, Miguel Don Quixote
Miguel de Cervantes's mock-epic masterwork, Don Quixote was voted the greatest book of all time by the Nobel Institute.

Du Sautoy, Marcus The Music of the Primes: Why an Unsolved Problem in Mathematics Matters
Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy tells the story of the eccentric and brilliant men who have struggled to solve one of the biggest mysteries in science. It is a story of strange journeys, last-minute escapes from death and the unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Above all, it is a moving and awe-inspiring evocation of the mathematician's world and the beauties and mysteries it contains.

Du Sautoy, Marcus The Number Mysteries: A Mathematical Odyssey through Everyday Life
Every time we download music, take a flight across the Atlantic or talk on our cell phones, we are relying on great mathematical inventions. In The Number Mysteries, one of our generation's foremost mathematicians Marcus du Sautoy offers a playful and accessible examination of numbers and how, despite efforts of the greatest minds, the most fundamental puzzles of nature remain unsolved.

Duggan, C Fascist Voices
In Fascist Voices, Christopher Duggan draws on thousands of letters sent to Mussolini, as well as private diaries and other primary documents, to show how Italian citizens lived and experienced the fascist regime under Mussolini from 1922-1943.

Enders, Giulia Gut
Enders breaks this taboo, revealing the latest science on how much our digestive system has to offer. From our miraculous gut bacteria — which can play a part in obesity, allergies, depression and even Alzheimer’s — to the best position to poo, this entertaining and informative health handbook shows that we can all benefit from getting to know the wondrous world of excrement!

Ferguson, Niall Civilisation
British historian Niall Ferguson argues that, beginning in the fifteenth century, the West developed six powerful new concepts that the rest of the world lacked: competition, science, the rule of law, modern medicine, consumerism, and the work ethic.

Feynman, Richard Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman
An edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman.

Freeland, J Bring the Revolution Home
Part travel book, part political and sociological examination of American society it is also a challenging argument for the introduction of Republicanism in Britain.

Fry, Hannah Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine
Hello World is a gem of accessible science writing. With eloquence and charm, Hannah Fry outlines the maths of computer algorithms and explains how they are transforming fields such as health, justice, transport and the arts.

Gaddis, J The Cold War
Here is the truth behind every spy thriller you've read: why America and the Soviet Union became locked in a deadly stalemate; how close we came to nuclear catastrophe; what was really going on in the minds of leaders from Stalin to Mao Zedong, Ronald Reagan to Mikhail Gorbachev, how secret agents plotted and East German holidaymakers helped the Berlin Wall fall. It is a story of crisis talks and subterfuge, tyrants and power struggles - and of ordinary people changing the course of history.

Garcia Lorca, Federico Selected Poems
Lorca is admired the world over for the lyricism, immediacy and clarity of his poetry, as well as for his ability to encompass techniques of the symbolist movement with deeper psychological shadings. Most of all, Lorca's poems are admired for their beauty. Undercurrents of his major influences -- Spanish folk traditions of his native Andalusia and Granada, gypsy ballads, and surrealists Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel -- stream throughout Lorca's work.

Garcia Marquez, Gabriel One Hundred Years of Solitude
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, blends the natural with the supernatural in one of this classic of magic realist fiction.

GCHQ, The GCHQ Puzzle Book
Pit your wits against the people who cracked Enigma in the official puzzle book from Britain's secretive intelligence organisation, GCHQ.

Gibson, Ian Aventuras Ibéricas
The prestigious Spanish scholar Ian Gibson sums up his 50 year relationship with Spain in this unique book that combines the distinct yet complementary genres of travelogue, memoir, and inspirational quixotic essay.

Gladwell, Malcolm Outliers
Outliers overturns conventional wisdom about genius to show us what makes an ordinary person an extreme overachiever.

Goldacre, Ben Bad Science:  Hacks, Quacks and Uncomfortable Facts
Ben Goldacre is a doctor, writer, broadcaster and academic who specialises in unpicking dodgy scientific claims from drug companies, newspapers, government reports, PR people and quacks and presents many of his finding here.

Goodwin, D K Team of Rivals
Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Abraham Lincoln's political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president.

Gribbin, John Six Impossible Things: The ‘Quanta of Solace’ and the Mysteries of the Subatomic World
This short guide presents us with the six theories that try to explain the wild wonders of quantum. All of them are crazy, and some are crazier than others, but in this world crazy does not necessarily mean wrong, and being crazier does not necessarily mean more wrong.

Haddon, Mark The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
A murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone who is fifteen and has Asperger's Syndrome and so sees the world from a unique perspective.

Harari, Yuval Noah Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Sapiens is a (relatively!) short telling of the entire human history, from pre-anatomically modern humans through the agricultural and scientific revolutions and to the present.

Hawes, J The Shortest History of Germany
Covering everything from Charlemagne, Martin Luther, Otto von Bismarck and Adolf Hitler, to the Reformation, Prussia, First World War and the Berlin Wall, The Shortest History of Germany is a breezy visit through German events, monarchies, politics and geography.

Hawking, Stephen A Brief History of Time
To this day A Brief History of Time remains a staple of the scientific canon, and its succinct and clear language continues to introduce millions to the universe and its wonders.

Hemingway, Ernest The Sun also Rises
The Sun Also Rises follows a group of young American and British expatriates as they wander through Europe in the mid-1920s. They are all members of the cynical and disillusioned Lost Generation, who came of age during World War I.

Hemingway, Ernest For Whom the Bell Tolls
A novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War.

Joffo, Joseph A Bag of Marbles
A truly amazing story of how the author himself and his brother, Maurice, travel throughout France and other parts of Europe in 1941 to escape Nazi capture.

Jones, Steve Language of Genes
‘Superb and stimulating…an exhilarating trip around the double spiral of DNA, a rush of gravity-defying concepts and wild swerves of the scientific imagination.’ (J.G. Ballard)

Jopson, Marty The Science of Everyday Life
In this highly entertaining scientific tour of the world around us, The One Show science and technology presenter and all-round science bloke Marty Jopson addresses conundrums such as: why do your fingers wrinkle in the bath? Why does thunder rumble? And have you ever wondered why sheep don’t shrink in the rain or why chillies and mustard are both hot but in different ways?

Kahnemann, Daniel Thinking Fast and Slow
Kahneman, a winner of the Nobel Prize for economics, distils a lifetime of research into an encyclopaedic coverage of both the surprising miracles and the equally surprising mistakes of our conscious and unconscious thinking.

Kaku, Michio Physics of the Impossible
A fascinating exploration of the science of the impossible—from death rays and force fields to invisibility cloaks—revealing to what extent such technologies might be achievable decades or millennia into the future.

Kanigel, R The Man Who Knew Infinity
A biography of the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, the book gives a detailed account of his upbringing in India, his mathematical achievements, and his mathematical collaboration with English mathematician G. H. Hardy.

Kesey, Ken One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Set in an Oregon psychiatric hospital, the narrative serves as a study of institutional processes and the human mind as well as a critique of behaviorism and a tribute to individualistic principles.

Kierkegaard, Soren Fear and Trembling
Written when the author was only thirty years old, it is Søren Kierkegaard’s most-read book. This would not have surprised Kierkegaard, who wrote prophetically in his journal that ‘‘once I am dead, Fear and Trembling alone will be enough for an imperishable name as an author.”

King, Stephen On Writing
A memoir by American author Stephen King that describes his experiences as a writer and his advice for aspiring writers.

Klein, Naomi No Logo
Since its publication in 1999 it has become one of the most influential books about the alter-globalization movement and an international bestseller.

Kubica, Jeremy Computational Fairy Tales
Computational Fairy Tales introduces principles of computational thinking, illustrating high-level computer science concepts, the motivation behind them, and their application in a non-computer—fairy tale—domain.

Kubica, Jeremy The CS Detective
“In this novel-meets-computer-science-textbook, private eye Frank Runtime hunts for the thieves who stole a trove of documents from the capital’s police station. He’ll use search algorithms to solve the mystery—and explain high-level computational concepts along the way.”(The Wall Street Journal)

Laforet, Carmen Nada
Carmen Laforet’s Nada ranks among the most important literary works of post-Civil War Spain. Loosely based on the author’s own life, it is the story of an orphaned young woman who leaves her small town to attend university in war-ravaged Barcelona.

Law, Stephen Philosophy Gym
From Descartes to designer babies, The Philosophy Gym poses questions about some of history's most important philosophical issues, ranging in difficulty from pretty easy to very challenging.

Law, Stephen Philosophy Rocks
Law grapples with the provocative questions and the arguments that philosophers throughout history have been concerned with, from Plato to the twentieth century, including such issues as reality, ethics, and the existence of God.

le Carre, John The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
British spy, Alec Leamas, seeks vengeance on the East German Intelligence Service during the height of the Cold War.

Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird
Translated into some 40 languages and selling over 30 million copies worldwide, in 1961 it won a Pulitzer Prize. Quite simply, a must-read twentieth century classic.

Lee, Laurie  As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning
Sequel to the memoir Cider with Rosie which detailed Lee’s life in post First World War Gloucestershire. The author leaves the security of his Cotswold village of Slad in Gloucestershire to start a new life, at the same time embarking on an epic journey by foot.

Lee, S How I Escaped my Certain Fate
The bestselling book by acclaimed stand-up comedian, revealing the inside workings of his award-winning act.

Levi, Primo The Periodic Table
Primo Levi's The Periodic Table is a collection of short stories that elegantly interlace the author's experiences in Fascist Italy, and later in Auschwitz, with his passion for scientific knowledge and discovery.

MacFarlane, Robert Mountains of the Mind
MacFarlane probes the push/pull of peaks, the odd but real pleasure of fear—its centrality to the experience—and the exhilaration of a moment reduced to the neat binaries of danger and safety, right move and wrong move, living and dying, the “human paradox of altitude: that it both exalts the human mind and erases it.”

MacFarlane, Robert Underland
Global in its geography, gripping in its voice and haunting in its implications, Underland is a work of huge range and power, and a remarkable new chapter in Macfarlane's long-term exploration of landscape and the human heart.

Macmillian, M The Uses and Abuses of History
This compact book is one of the best summaries of the ways that history can be put into illicit ideological service or manipulated for purposes of propaganda.

McKay, Sinclair Bletchley Park Brainteasers
It's never to late to join the code breakers of Bletchley Park in their enjoyment of a devilish challenge!

Miodownik, Mark Stuff Matters: The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape Our Man-Made World
A unique and inspiring exploration of human creativity. 'Enthralling. A mission to re-acquaint us with the wonders of the fabric that sustains our lives' (The Guardian)

Moore, Tim Spanish Steps: Travels with my Donkey
Ludicrous, heart-warming and improbably inspirational, Spanish Steps is the story of what happens when a rather silly man tries to walk all the way across a very large country, with a very large animal who doesn't really want to.

Mukhurjee, Siddartha The Emperor of All Maladies
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer is a book written by Siddhartha Mukherjee, an Indian-born American physician and oncologist. It won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction: the jury called it "an elegant inquiry, at once clinical and personal".

Munroe, Randall Thing Explainer
A 2015 illustrated non-fiction book in which the author attempts to explain various complex subjects using only the 1,000 most common English words.

Munroe, Randall What If?
A non-fiction book in which the author answers hypothetical science questions sent to him by readers of his webcomic, xkcd.

Neruda, Pablo Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
This book immediately established the author’s reputation and went on to become his most popular, becoming one of the most widely read collections of poetry written in Spanish.

Nietzsche, Friedrich Beyond Good and Evil
Beyond Good and Evil is a book by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, first published in 1886. It draws on and expands the ideas of his previous work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but with a more critical and polemical approach.

Obama, B The Audacity of Hope
In the book, Obama expounds on many of the subjects that became part of his 2008 campaign for the US presidency.

Orwell, G 1984
A dystopian work as relevant today as it was when first published in the middle of last century.

Orwell, George Homage to Catalonia
Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations in the Spanish Civil War.

Parker, Matt Humble Pi : A Comedy of Maths Errors
Humble Pi is a collection of stories about things that have gone wrong in the real world because of a mistake in the maths.

Petzold, Charles Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
A unique exploration into bits, bytes, and the inner workings of computers.

Pinker, Stephen The Language Instinct
In this seminal work, Pinker argues that humans are born with an innate capacity for language.

Ronson, Jon The Psychopath Test
The book explores the concept of psychopathy, along with the broader mental health "industry" including mental health professionals and the mass media. It spent the whole of 2012 on United Kingdom bestseller lists and ten weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Rovelli, Carlo Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
‘Rovelli has achieved something unheard of in books about theoretical physics: most of the people who have started his book have also probably finished it’ (Tom Whipple, The Times)

Rymer, R Genie: A Scientific Tragedy
Genie is a wondrous feat of storytelling and investigative journalism, compulsively readable while forcing us to think hard about our own humanity.” (Amy Tan)

Sacks, Oliver The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it. Dr. Oliver Sacks recounts the stories of patients struggling to adapt to often bizarre worlds of neurological disorder.

Sands, Philippe East West Street
“A monumental achievement . . . a profoundly personal account of the origins of crimes against humanity and genocide, told with love, anger and precision.” (John le Carré)

Sansom, CJ Winter in Madrid
A gripping spy novel written by C. J. Sansom set just after the Spanish Civil War
in 1940.

Sartre, Jean-Paul The Age of Reason
Set in the volatile Paris summer of 1938, "The Age of Reason" follows two days in the life of Mathieu Delarue, a philosophy teacher, and his circle in the cafes and bars of Montparnasse. Mathieu has so far managed to contain sex and personal freedom in conveniently separate compartments. But now he is in trouble, urgently trying to raise 4,000 francs to procure a safe abortion for his mistress, Marcelle. Beyond all this, filtering an uneasy light on his predicament, rises the distant threat of the coming of the Second World War.

Sartre, Jean-Paul The Reprieve
It is September 1938 and during a heatwave Europe tensely awaits the outcome of the Munich conference, where they will learn if there is to be a war. In Paris people are waiting too, among them Mathieu, Jacques and Philippe, each wrestling with their own love affairs, doubts and angsts – and none of them ready to fight.

Sartre, Jean-Paul The Iron in the Soul
June 1940 was the summer of defeat for the French soldiers, deserted by their officers, utterly demoralized, awaiting the Armistice. Day by day, hour by hour, Iron in the Soul unfolds what men thought and felt and did as France fell. Iron in the Soul, the third volume of Sartre's Roads to Freedom Trilogy, is a harrowing depiction of war and what it means to lose.

Seiffert, Rachel A Boy in Winter
Early on a grey November morning, only weeks after the German invasion, a small Ukrainian town is overrun by the SS. Deft, spare and devastating, A Boy in Winter tells of the three days that follow and the lives that are overturned in the process.

Shetterly, Margot Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race
Set amid the civil rights movement, is the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program.

Simmonds, Posy Gemma Bovery
A graphic novel adaptation of Flaubert's Madame Bovary that reimagines some key elements of the source text (marital infidelity, women's ennui, thwarted ambition, complex desire, voyeurism…) and transposes them onto the story of an English middle-class heroine.

Singh, Simon Fermat's Last Theorem: The Story Of A Riddle That Confounded The World's Greatest Minds For 358 Years
It tells the story of the search for a proof of Fermat's last theorem, first conjectured by Pierre de Fermat in 1637, and explores how many mathematicians such as Évariste Galois had tried and failed to provide a proof for the theorem.

Singh, Simon The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and Code-Breaking
In addition to stories of intrigue and warfare, Simon Singh also investigates other codes, the unravelling of genes and the rediscovery of ancient languages and most tantalisingly, the Beale ciphers, an unbroken code that could hold the key to a USD 20 million treasure.

Skloot, Rebecca The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Balancing the beauty and drama of scientific discovery with dark questions about who owns the stuff our bodies are made of, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is an extraordinary journey in search of the soul and story of a real woman, whose cells live on today in all four corners of the world.

Slater, Lauren Opening Skinner’s Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century
In Opening Skinner's Box, Lauren Slater sets out to investigate the twentieth century through a series of ten fascinating, witty and sometimes shocking accounts of its key psychological experiments.

Smedley, Tim Clearing the Air: The beginning and End of Air Pollution
Clearing the Air tells the full story of air pollution for the first time: what it is, which pollutants are harmful, where they come from and - most importantly - what we can do about them. Air pollution is a problem that can be solved. The stories uncovered on this journey show us how.

Smith, Zadie White Teeth
White Teeth is a 2000 novel by the British author Zadie Smith. It focuses on the later lives of two wartime friends—the Bangladeshi Samad Iqbal and the Englishman Archie Jones—and their families in London. The book won multiple honours, including the 2000 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, the 2000 Whitbread Book Award in category best first novel and The Guardian First Book Award.

Solnitt, Rebecca Men Explain Things to Me and Other Essays
Rebecca Solnit's essay 'Men Explain Things to Me' has become a touchstone of the feminist movement, inspired the term 'mansplaining', and established Solnit as one of the leading feminist thinkers of our time - one who has inspired everyone from radical activists to Beyonce Knowles.

Stewart, Chris Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Spain
A bestseller in England, this warm, funny account of a British family's attempt to make a home in southern Spain follows the first drummer for the rock band Genesis as he heads for Andalucia with his wife and kids.

Stewart, Ian Does God Play Dice?: The New Mathematics of Chaos
A non-fiction book about chaos theory written by British mathematician Ian Stewart.

Tharoor, Shashi Inglorious Empire
India’s share of the world economy at the start of the 18th century was 23%. When Britain left it was around 3%. This is a timely book, for in the era of Brexit, when bold claims are being made about Britain’s global aspirations, “the need to temper British imperial nostalgia with postcolonial responsibility has never been greater”.

Thoreau, Henry David Walden
The text, composed by Thoreau, a transcendentalist, is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and—to some degree—a manual for self-reliance.

Toole, J K A Confederacy of Dunces
A Confederacy of Dunces is a picaresque novel by American novelist John Kennedy Toole which reached publication in 1980, eleven years after Toole's suicide. Published through the efforts of writer Walker Percy and Toole's mother, Thelma, the book became first a cult classic, then a mainstream success; it earned Toole a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981, and is now considered a canonical work of modern literature of the Southern United States.

Tremlett, Giles Ghosts of Spain
The Guardian journalist, Giles Tremlett’s journey through contemporary Spain examines the darker sides of its history.

Varoufakis, Yannis Talking to My Daughter
Taking to My Daughter explains through vivid stories and easily graspable concepts what economics actually is and why it is so dangerous, presented in the form of a letter to his teenage daughter.

Von Mytting, Lars The Sixteen Trees of the Somme
The Sixteen Trees of the Somme details young Edvard Hirifjell’s search for clues about his parents’ mystical death in 1971, when Edvard was only three years old.

Walker, Matthew Why We Sleep
International bestseller, Why We Sleep, is a work of popular science about sleep by the neuroscientist and sleep researcher, Matthew Walker.

Weir, Andy Artemis
Artemis is a 2017 science fiction novel written by Andy Weir. The novel takes place in the late 2080s and is set in Artemis, the first and so far only city on the Moon. It follows the life of porter and smuggler Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara as she gets caught up in a conspiracy for control of the city.

Weir, Andy The Martian
The story follows an American astronaut, Mark Watney, as he becomes stranded alone on Mars in the year 2035 and must improvise in order to survive. It was adapted for the screen in 2015 in a film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon.

Whitehead, Colson The Underground Railway
In Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Underground Railroad, he takes a figurative term and gives it a literal application. This Underground Railroad posits a literal brick, steel, and steam system that transports fleeing slaves from southern captivity to what is hoped to be a form of freedom.

Wilkinson, Richard & Pickett, Kate The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone
'A big idea, big enough to change political thinking' - Guardian

Winterson, Jeanette Frankissstein
‘Frankissstein is a book that seeks to shift our perspective on humanity and the purpose of being human in the most darkly entertaining way’ (The Guardian)

Wollestonecraft, Mary A Vindication of the Rights if Woman
Written by the 18th-century British proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. Instead of viewing women as ornaments to society or property to be traded in marriage, Wollstonecraft maintains that they are human beings deserving of the same fundamental rights as men.

X, Malcolm & Haley, A The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965, the result of a collaboration between human rights activist Malcolm X and journalist Alex Haley. Haley co-authored the autobiography based on a series of in-depth interviews he conducted between 1963 and Malcolm X's 1965 assassination.

Yousafzai, Malala I am Malala
A MEMOIR BY THE YOUNGEST RECIPIENT OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 
"I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday." When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price.

Zafon, Carlos Ruiz The Shadow of the Wind
A page-turning exploration of obsession in literature and love, and the places that obsession can lead.

Zimbardo, Philip The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil
Renowned social psychologist and creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment, Philip Zimbardo explores the mechanisms that make good people do bad things, how moral people can be seduced into acting immorally, and what this says about the line separating good from evil.

Zinn, H A People’s History of the United States
Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History of the United States is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of--and in the words of--America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers.

Zuboff, Soshana The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Shoshana Zuboff shows that we are at a crossroads. We still have the power to decide what kind of world we want to live in, and what we decide now will shape the rest of the century. Our choices: allow technology to enrich the few and impoverish the many, or harness it and distribute its benefits.