Bestsellers

13 Things That Don’t Make Sense: The Most Intriguing Scientific Mysteries of Our Time
Michael Brooks
Will we ever find the ninety-six percent of the universe that is missing? Will tomorrow bring an answer to the scientific mysteries of today? While taking readers on an entertaining tour d’horizon of today’s strangest scientific findings, Michael Brooks argues that the things we don’t understand are the key to what we are about to discover.
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Born to Run: The hidden tribe, the ultra-runners, and the greatest race the world has never seen
Christopher McDougall
'A fascinating and inspiring true adventure story ... destined to become a classic.' Ranulph Fiennes
New York Times bestseller and word of mouth sensation
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The Concise 33 Strategies of War
Robert Greene
From bestselling author Robert Greene comes a new guide to the strategies of war that can help us gain mastery in the modern world. Spanning world civilisations, and synthesising dozens of political, philosophical, and religious texts, The Concise 33 Strategies of War is a guide to the subtle social game of everyday life. Based on profound and timeless lessons, it is abundantly illustrated with examples of the genius and folly of everyone from Napoleon to Margaret Thatcher and Hannibal to Ulysses S. Grant, as well as diplomats, captains of industry and Samurai swordsmen.
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The Concise 48 Laws of Power
Robert Greene and Joost Elffers
The perfect gift book for the power hungry (and who doesn’t want power?) at an excellent price.
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The Concise Art of Seduction
Robert Greene
The companion book to the bestselling Concise 48 Laws of Power, which has now sold over 125,000 copies in the UK.
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Do Polar Bears Get Lonely?: And 101 Other Intriguing Science Questions
New Scientist
Edited by Mick O’Hare
Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? is the third compilation of readers’ answers to the questions in the ‘Last Word’ column of New Scientist, the world’s best-selling science weekly. Following the phenomenal success of Does Anything Eat Wasps? (2005) and the even more spectacularly successful Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze? (2006), this latest collection includes a bumper crop of wise and wonderful answers never before seen in book form.
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Does Anything Eat Wasps?: And 101 Other Questions
New Scientist
Edited by Mick O’Hare
How long can I live on beer alone? Why do people have eyebrows? Has nature invented any wheels? Plus 99 other questions answered.
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How to Fossilise Your Hamster: And other amazing experiments for the armchair scientist
New Scientist
Edited by Mick O’Hare
How can you measure the speed of light with chocolate and a microwave? Why do yo-yos yo-yo? Why does urine smell so peculiar after eating asparagus (includes helpful recipe)? How long does it take to digest different types of food? What is going on when you drop mentos in to cola? 100 wonderful, intriguing and entertaining scientific experiments which show scientific principles first hand – this is science at its most popular.
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How to Make a Tornado: The strange and wonderful things that happen when scientists break free
New Scientist
Science tells us grand things about the universe: how fast light travels, and why stones fall to earth. But scientific endeavour goes far beyond these obvious foundations. There are some fields we don't often hear about because they are so specialised, or turn out to be dead ends. Yet researchers have given hallucinogenic drugs to blind people (seriously), tried to weigh the soul as it departs the body and planned to blast a new Panama Canal with atomic weapons.
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Nella Last’s Peace: The Post-War Diaries Of Housewife 49
Edited by Robert Malcolmson and Patricia Malcolmson
Outwardly Nella’s life was probably seen as ordinary; but behind this mask were a lively mind and a persistent pen – a pen that never gave up over almost three decades, reporting, describing, pondering, and disclosing.
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Nella Last’s War: The Second World War Diaries of ‘Housewife, 49’
Edited by Richard Broad and Suzie Fleming
In September 1939, housewife and mother Nella Last began a diary whose entries, in their regularity, length and quality, have created a record of the Second World War which is powerful, fascinating and unique.
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Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town
Mary Beard
‘Much of what you think you know about Pompeii may turn out, on reading this eye-opening book, to be wrong...'
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Professor Stewart’s Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities
Ian Stewart
A book of mathematical oddities: games, puzzles, facts, numbers and delightful mathematical nibbles for the curious and adventurous mind.
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Professor Stewart’s Hoard of Mathematical Treasures
Ian Stewart
Ian Stewart, author of the bestselling Professor Stewart’s Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities, presents a new and magical mix of games, puzzles, paradoxes, brainteasers, and riddles. He mingles these with forays into ancient and modern mathematical thought, appallingly hilarious mathematical jokes, and enquiries into the great mathematical challenges of the present and past. Amongst a host of arcane and astonishing facts about every kind of number from irrational or imaginary to complex or cuneiform, we find out:
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The Uncommon Reader
Alan Bennett
The Uncommon Reader is none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely ( JR Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett and the classics) and intelligently.
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What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How successful people become even more successful
Marshall Goldsmith
Perhaps one small flaw – a behaviour you barely even recognise – is the only thing that's keeping you from where you want to be. It may be that the very characteristic that you believe got you where you are – like the drive to win at all costs – is what’s holding you back. As this book explains, people often do well in spite of certain habits rather than because of them – and need a "to stop" list rather than one listing what “to do”.
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Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze: And 114 Other Questions
New Scientist
Edited by Mick O’Hare
What time is it at the North Pole? Should you pickle your conkers? Why does my aubergine look like Elvis? Plus 111 other questions answered.
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Yes: 50 Secrets From the Science of Persuasion
Professor Noah J. Goldstein, Steve Martin and Professor Robert B. Cialdini
Most of us are only too aware that, whatever roles we have in today’s fast-moving world, much of our success lies in getting others to say ‘Yes’ to our requests. What many people might not be aware of, though, is the vast amount of research that has been conducted on the influence process. What factors cause one person to say ‘Yes’ to the request of another?
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