She Has Her Mother’s Laugh by Carl Zimmer review – the latest thinking on...
What do we pass on from generation to generation? This deeply researched book explores the murky past of genetic research as well as its fast-moving presentGenealogy is apparently the second most...
View ArticleThe Library of Ice by Nancy Campbell review – an Arctic obsession
After travelling to Greenland and Iceland, the writer and poet offers reflections on ice and snow that draw on art, science and historyAs a child, Nancy Campbell had a snow globe; in it was a diorama...
View ArticleHow does our DNA shape who we are? Robert Plomin and Ivy Pochoda – books podcast
On this week’s show, Sian sits down with behavioural geneticist professor Robert Plomin, whose book Blueprint explores the idea of nature versus nurture. Plomin, who has conducted several defining...
View ArticleThe Secret Network of Nature by Peter Wohlleben review – patchy on patterning
This study of mankind’s disruption of the natural world is narrow in focus and awkward in tonePeter Wohlleben’s bestselling Mysteries of Nature trilogy – The Hidden Life of Trees, The Inner Life of...
View ArticleBrief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking – review
Stephen Hawking’s thoughts on God and AI pale in comparison to his scientific insightBrief Answers… collects the thoughts and writings of Stephen Hawking on 10 “big questions”. These range from matters...
View Article‘Philosophically speaking, we can never fully trust our memory’
Sisters Hilde and Ylva Østby, a neuropsychologist and a novelist, have written a book exploring the true nature of memory. What can their findings tell us?Of all the mysteries of the mind, perhaps none...
View ArticleRoald Dahl’s nature journal My Year republished after decades out of print
The author’s final book records his observations of the Buckinghamshire countryside alongside memories of childhood hijinksFrom the badgers lining their “deep winter quarters” with dry leaves to the...
View ArticleGuardian best books of 2018: across fiction, politics, food and more
From Brexit satires to time-travelling murder mysteries and a former first lady’s wry observations on life in the White House, our critics pick the best novels, poetry, sports and children’s books of...
View ArticleBest books of 2018: Hilary Mantel, Yuval Noah Harari and more pick their...
Our favourite authors on the most outstanding books they read this yearContinue reading...
View ArticleTop 10 books about the seasons
A writer who has swapped city life for sheep farming chooses reading attuned to the year’s cycles, from Rachel Cusk to Marcel ProustMy book On Sheep: Diary of a Swedish Shepherd is a memoir about my...
View ArticleFuture Politics by Jamie Susskind review – when life-changing decisions are...
Bossy fridges are just the start. This is an ambitious study of how all aspects of human life are being transformed by techIs it possible to have mild tyranny? It sounds like an oxymoron, and certainly...
View ArticleGhost Trees by Bob Gilbert review – an urban botanical sleuth
After the environmentalist and writer moved to Poplar, east London, he set out to discover both the area’s natural diversity and where modern life goes wrongIn his essay The Parish and the Universe the...
View ArticleCan a sleepless night awaken creativity?
Famous insomniacs include William Wordsworth, Emily Brontë, Vladimir Nabokov and Marcel Proust so could there be a positive side to sleeplessness, asks Marina Benjamin“A bad night is not always a bad...
View ArticleLove, hate and hypocrisy: the best books about animals and humans
Author Aminatta Forna recommends a canine history by Konrad Lorenz, and Karen Joy Fowler’s novel about a family that raises a chimp, We Are All Completely Beside OurselvesA pack of wolves follows a...
View ArticleAge against the machine: the secret to enjoying a long life
The writer Carl Honoré used to think of ageing as a ‘chamber of horrors’. Now he argues we are in a ‘golden age’ for older peopleRead inspiring stories of four of Carl Honoré’s ‘ageing heroes’Three...
View ArticleThe Invention of the Modern Dog review – our long obsession with canine design
From dastardly dachshunds to car-friendly cavapoos … Michael Worboys, Julia-Marie Strange and Neil Pemberton explore the history of hounds“Why are mongrels a dying breed?” Jilly Cooper wondered out...
View ArticleSurveillance Valley by Yasha Levine – review
A righteous polemic depicting the likes of Amazon as part of a military conspiracy just doesn’t hold waterYasha Levine, an American investigative reporter of Russian extraction, was born in the Soviet...
View ArticleThe Orchid and the Dandelion by W Thomas Boyce review – which are you?
Are you sensitive or resilient? This study by a paediatric health expert considers why children with the greatest potential are also the ones most likely to falterSome people seem to have terrible...
View ArticleChasing the Sun by Linda Geddes review – why we don't get enough natural light
The latest thinking on how natural light is vital to health, our daily rhythm and getting a good night’s sleepHumans have long understood that sunlight can be good for us. Almost 4,000 years ago, the...
View ArticleDisasters, drudgery and dreams of jam: the best books to explore the Antarctic
Ernest Shackleton’s account of his mission and Jenny Diski’s acidic travelogue are among author Jean McNeil’s favouritesAntarctica is the fifth largest continent, but it is home to almost nothing. Only...
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