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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Resisting AI

Dan McQuillan

“AI presents a technological shift in the framework of society that will amplify austerity while enabling authoritarian politics.”