EditorIf-Then by Jill Lepore
The Simulmatics Corporation, founded in 1959, mined data, targeted voters, accelerated news, manipulated consumers, destabilized politics, and disordered knowledge–decades before Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Cambridge Analytica. Silicon Valley likes to imagine it has no past but the scientists of Simulmatics are the long-dead grandfathers of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.
Borrowing from psychological warfare, they used computers to predict and direct human behavior, deploying their “People Machine” from New York, Cambridge, and Saigon for clients that included John Kennedy’s presidential campaign, the New York Times, Young & Rubicam, and, during the Vietnam War, the Department of Defence.
In If Then, distinguished Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer, Jill Lepore, unearths from the archives the almost unbelievable story of this long-vanished corporation, and of the women hidden behind it. In the 1950s and 1960s, Lepore argues, Simulmatics invented the future by building the machine in which the world now finds itself trapped and tormented, algorithm by algorithm.
The Invention of Surgery by Dr. David Schneider
A fascinating history of the practice of surgery from one of the leading figures in the field, chronicling centuries of scientific breakthroughs by the discipline’s most dynamic, pioneering doctors.
Written by an author with plenty of experience holding a scalpel, Dr. David Schneider’s The Invention of Surgery is an in-depth biography of the practice that has leaped forward over the centuries from the dangerous guesswork of ancient Greek physicians through the world-changing “implant revolution” of the twentieth century.
The Invention of Surgery explains this dramatic progress and highlights the personalities of the discipline’s most dynamic historical figures. It links together the lives of the pioneering scientists who first understood what causes disease, how organs become infected or cancerous, and how surgery could powerfully intercede in people’s lives, and then shows how the rise of surgery intersected with many of the greatest medical breakthroughs of the last century, including the evolution of medical education, the transformation of the hospital from a place of dying to the habitation of healing, the development of antibiotics, and the rise of transistors and polymer science.
And as Schneider argues, surgery has not finished transforming; new technologies are constantly reinventing both the practice of surgery and the nature of the objects we are permanently implanting in our bodies. Schneider considers these latest developments, asking “What’s next?” and analyzing how our conception of surgery has changed alongside our evolving ideas of medicine, technology, and our bodies.
Dare To Be You by Matthew Syed
From the bestselling, award-winning author of You Are Awesome comes the much-anticipated follow-up, Dare to Be You.
What would you dare to try if you stopped worrying about fitting in?
If you’re the kind of person who thinks: I don’t like standing out from the crowd … I wish I could be more like the cool kids … There’s no point trying to change things … then this book is for you.
Because guess what? There’s no such thing as normal.
Drawing examples from sport, science, and even business, Dare to Be You empowers young readers to follow their own path, love what makes them different, and question the world around them. With You Are Awesome’s trademark mix of hilarious text, stylish illustration, personal insights, and inspiring real-life examples, including Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai, Matthew Syed introduces children to the power of diverse thinking.
When you stop doubting yourself, embrace change, and let your kindness loose, you become your own action hero. This ground-breaking, practical, and the positive book will help kids develop the inner confidence to grow into happy adults who know – and, more importantly, LIKE – themselves.
Truth to Power by Jess Phillips
At a time when many of us feel the world isn’t listening, Jess Phillips offers inspiration to those of us who want to speak out and make a difference.
No stranger to speaking truth to power herself, she will help you dig deep and get organized, finding the courage and the tools you need to take action.
As well as bringing us to hope through her own experiences Jess talks to the accidental heroes who have been brave enough to risk everything, become whistle-blowers and successfully fight back.
Zelda Perkins, the personal assistant who first called-out Harvey Weinstein;
Paul Caruana Galizia, son of murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia;
Tom Watson the British MP who successfully took on the Murdoch press empire and won;
Sara Rowbotham, the sexual health worker who uncovered the abuse of young girls by gangs of Asian men in Rochdale – and the subsequent cover-up by the authorities;
Natasha Elcock, resident of Grenfell Tower and chair of Grenfell United, the pressure group set up by families after the disaster; Cara Sanquest from the campaign to legalize women’s right to choose abortion in Ireland. Entertaining, empowering, and uncompromising, TRUTH TO POWER is the book we all need to help us call time on the seemingly unstoppable tide of bullshit in our lives.
Stranger Planet by Nathan W Pyle
The sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling phenomenon Strange Planet, featuring more hilarious and poignant adventures from the fascinating inhabitants of Nathan W. Pyle’s colorful world. In this eagerly awaited sequel, Nathan takes us back to his charming and instantly recognizable planet colored in bright pinks, blues, greens, and purples, providing more escapades, jokes, and p h r a s e s.
Nathan mixes his most popular Instagram comics with more than thirty original works created exclusively for this second volume to explore four major topics: traditions, nature, emotions, and knowledge. He inducts new and longtime fans into a strangely familiar world and its culture, from “cohesion” (marriage) to “mild poison” (alcohol) to the full lyrics to “The Small Eight-Legged Creature” (sung to the tune of The Itsy Bitsy Spider).
Bright, colorful, and whimsical – yet charmingly familiar – Stranger Planet is out-of-this-world fun.
United We Are Unstoppable edited by Akshat Rathi
From Asia to Africa, Oceania to Europe, the Americas, and Antarctica, see the world through the eyes of 60 young people who are fighting for their homes and their futures in the face of climate change.
The stories in this book are devastating, defiant, inspiring, and moving – but, above all, they are full of hope. The climate crisis can feel overwhelming but, as this book shows, for every problem, there are young voices raising awareness, creating solutions, and demanding that things change. It’s not too late to save the world. United we really are unstoppable.
Aditya Mukarji (16) stopped 26 million straws from polluting the oceans.
Cecilia La Rose (15) filed a lawsuit against the Canadian federal government for contributing to global warming.
Delphin Kaze (19) founded a company that produces eco-charcoal from organic waste in Burundi.
And more inspiring stories from . . . Htet Myet Min Tun; Tatyana Sin; Iman Dorri; Howey Ou; Theresa Rose Sebastian; Nasreen Sayed; Liyana Yamin; Albrecht Arthur N. Arevalo; Akari Tomita; Karel Lisbeth Miranda Mendoza; Emma-Jane Burian; Anya Sastry; Ricardo Andres Pineda Guzman; Cricket Guest; Lia Harel; Shannon Lisa; Khadija Usher; Brandon Nguyen; Vivianne Roc; Octavia Shay Muñoz-Barton; Payton Mitchell; Ashley Torres; Eyal Weintraub; Daniela Torres Perez; Catarina Lorenzo; Juan José Martín-Bravo; João Henrique Alves Cerqueira; Gilberto Cyril Morishaw; Holly Gillibrand; Stamatis Psaroudakis; Lilith Electra Platt; Anna Taylor; Raina Ivanova; Federica Gasbarro; Laura Lock; Agim Mazreku; Adrian Toth; Kaluki Paul Mutuku; Nche Tala; Sebenele Rodney Carval; Jeremy Raguain; Lesein Mathenge Mutunkei; Toiwiya Hassane; Koku Klutse; Tsiry Nantenaina Randrianavelo; Ruby Sampson; Tafadzwa Chando; Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti; Ndèye Marie Aida Ndieguene; Zoe Buckley Lennox; Lourdes Faith Auhura Parehuia; Alexander Whitebrook; Komal Narayan; Kailash Cook; Madeleine Keitilani Elceste Lavemai; Freya May Mimosa Brown; and Carlon Zackhras.
Meghana Harikumar
Editor
