"An utterly satisfying examination of the business of popular music." —Nathaniel Rich, The AtlanticThere’s a reason today’s ubiquitous pop hits are so hard to ignore—they’re designed that way. The Song Machine goes behind the scenes to offer an insider’s look at the global hit factories manufacturing the songs that have everyone hooked. Full of vivid, unexpected characters—alongside industry heavy-hitters like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Max Martin, and ...

**A New York Times Book Review Editor's ChoiceOne of The Christian Science Monitor's 10 best books of June 2025“Keen, sophisticated and appealing.” —Cree LeFavour, New York Times Book ReviewThe riveting saga of the Seabrook Family, by one of The New Yorker’s most acclaimed storytellers.“Having left this material for his writer son, my father must have wanted the story told, even if he couldn’t bear to tell it h...

The riveting saga of the Seabrook Family, by one of the New Yorker's most acclaimed storytellers.The patriarch, C. F. Seabrook, was hailed as the "Henry Ford of Agriculture." His son Jack, a keen businessman, was poised to take over what Life called "the biggest vegetable factory on earth." But the carefully cultivated facade—glamorous outings by horse-drawn carriage, hidden wine cellars, and movie star girlfriends—hid dark secrets that led to the...

New Yorker staff writer John Seabrook tells a fascinating story of creativity and commerce that explains how songs have become so addictive.Over the last two decades a new type of song has emerged. Today's hits bristle with "hooks," musical burrs designed to snag your ear every seven seconds. Painstakingly crafted to tweak the brain's delight in melody, rhythm, and repetition, these songs are industrial-strength products made for malls, casinos, the gym, and the Super Bowl halftime...

A brilliantly illuminating and darkly comic tale of the ongoing financial and political crisis in America.The financial crisis that exploded in 2008 isn’t past but prologue. The grifter class—made up of the largest players in the financial industry and the politicians who do their bidding—has been growing in power, and the crisis was only one terrifying manifestation of how they’ve hijacked America’s political and economic life.Matt Taibbi has combined deep...

“A lively tour through the impulses that cause many of us to cheat, the book offers especially keen insights into the ways in which we cut corners while still thinking of ourselves as moral people.” — TimeDan Ariely, behavioral economist and New York Times bestselling author of Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality, returns with a thought-provoking work that challenges our preconceptions about dishonesty and urges us to take an honest look at ourselves.Does...

The bestselling editor of This Explains Everything brings together 175 of the world’s most brilliant minds to tackle Edge.org’s 2014 question: What scientific idea has become a relic blocking human progress?Each year, John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org—”The world’s smartest website” (The Guardian)—challenges some of the world’s greatest scientists, artists, and philosophers to answer a provocative question crucial to our time. In 2014 he asked 175 brilliant mind...

**“If I could give each of you a graduation present, it would be this—the most inspiring book I've ever read."—Bill Gates (May, 2017)Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year**The author of Rationality and Enlightenment Now offers a provocative and surprising history of violence.Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in t...

New York Times BestsellerA New York Times Notable BookNamed one of the Best Books of the Year by the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Foreign Affairs, and Kirkus ReviewsFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award (Nonfiction)Shortlisted for the Cundill Prize in Historical LiteratureFinalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (History)A San Francisco Chronicle

International bestselling authors Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw's fascinating, entertaining, and clear introduction to quantum mechanicsIn The Quantum Universe, Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw approach the world of quantum mechanics in the same way they did in Why Does E=mc2? and make fundamental scientific principles accessible-and fascinating-to everyone.The subatomic realm has a reputation for weirdness, spawning any number of profound misunderstanding...

Edith Grossman's definitive English translation of the Spanish masterpiece, a landmark work of early modern literature, in an expanded P.S. editionWidely regarded as one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, this classic of Spanish literature, Don Quixote, chronicles the adventures of the self-created knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain in this brilliant ...

Slaughterhouse-Five is an American classic and one of the greatest antiwar novels ever written. Following Billy Pilgrim, unstuck in time from World War II to the firebombing of Dresden and beyond, it asks what it means to be human in a world that keeps ending. Kurt Vonnegut blends science fiction, satire, and autobiography with dark humor and the famous refrain: So it goes. This is not a story about heroes. It is a story about children.