Caliban and the Witch
Silvia Federici

Silvia Federici, one of the creators of the wages for housework movement, digs in to the transition to capitalism and locates a critical and under-investigated element: the witch hunts.
The Experience Machine
Andy Clark

Here, Andy Clark builds off of his previous theory of mind to posit that the mind predicts what it will perceive and corrects its predictions if (or when) its experience fails to comport to expectations.
The Mountain in the Sea
Ray Nayler

Dr. Ha Nguyen has been summoned to the remote archipelago of Con Dao, where there are rumors of an octopus that walks upright on land and may have taken to murdering local poachers.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Olga Tokarczuk

When her neighbor Bigfoot turns up dead, Janina Duszejko immediately has a theory as to what happened—if only people will listen to her.
Premature closure
On Working Identity
Working Identity
Herminia Ibarra

Ibarra argues that successful career transitions emerge from a process of exploration and experimentation, a messy and non-linear experience in which new identities are tried on and adjusted while the old ones are alternately clung to and rejected.
A Different Trek
David K. Seitz

The only Star Trek not set on a ship, Deep Space Nine is in many ways a radical departure from both its antecedents and its successors.
The Water Knife
Paolo Bacigalupi

In what reads like a plausible present (rather than the near future), the enforcer for the Southern Nevada Water Authority cuts a bloody fight over the little water that remains in the Colorado river.
Fifteen, or one-third
Happy birthday, A Working Library.
Babel
R. F. Kuang

In the nineteenth century, the British empire has achieved exceptional power through its dominance of silver-working: an art that locates and exploits the magic in the gaps of meaning between languages.
The other side of egoism
Thinking about altruism with Le Guin.
To build power
On When to Talk and When to Fight
When to Talk and When to Fight
Rebecca Subar

This short and impactful book outlines a concise and clear strategic framework for choosing whether to negotiate, to build power, or to vanquish your opponents.
Mutual Aid
Peter Kropotkin

Kropotkin’s thesis is that it is mutual aid, cooperation, and solidarity—rather than competition—that permit evolution and survival among the species, both humans and more-than-humans.
Space Crone
Ursula K. Le Guin

I was unfamiliar with the titular essay in this collection, but as soon as I heard it, I realized with a start that my one great longing in life is to become a space crone.
Smoke screen
Interrogating the story behind “artificial intelligence.”
Saving Time
Jenny Odell

“This book is my panoramic assault on nihilism.”
My Trade Is Mystery
Carl Phillips

An invitation to get lost, and to make oneself at ease in that place of mystery.
Starfish
Peter Watts

A group of people “preadapted” to danger and stress have been recruited to run a power station at the bottom of the Pacific.