Big issues abound in this month鈥檚 books, as we batten down the hatches against El Ni帽o and the known unknowns out there. Luckily, here in our snug bunker, we have plenty of other things to think about. There鈥檚 the source of the next big conflict (it鈥檚 probably not what you think), how to eat healthily (as close to definitive as you鈥檙e going to get), and fighting talk from inside the rush to develop AI. There鈥檚 also the real story of pregnancy loss, giving animals their rightful place, the nature of family, saving childhood, and why humans ask questions. Oh,聽and there are some silly sums and extraordinary fantasy botanicals for those who fancy a spot of fun. Lovely. 聽聽聽聽

by Kevin Roose

Just in case you鈥檝e been living in an off-the-grid shack next to a beautiful lake for the past few years, The AGI Chronicles looks like an essential re-entry book before returning to, er, civilisation. The clue鈥檚 all over the subtitle, 鈥淭he inside story of the race to create an artificial superintelligence鈥�, and author Kevin Roose is tech columnist for The New York Times, so he ought to know 鈥� a lot. New 女生小视频 will be reviewing it soon in depth, but meanwhile, this zeroes in on the past decade鈥檚 efforts by a few companies fighting to build the 鈥渕ost powerful technology in history鈥� artificial general intelligence (AGI) 鈥� a computer system capable of outdoing humans at almost anything鈥�. Expect a fat volume (an alarming 448 pages, says the book鈥檚 website), based on 鈥渕ore than 150 interviews with insiders at OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind, as well as unpublished company documents and research memos鈥�. It will be fascinating to see what our reviewer makes of the book. Just don鈥檛 drop it on your foot, OK?

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by Tom Crawford

There鈥檚 a small band of mathematicians (think Matt Parker, Alex Bellos, Hannah Fry and Eugenia Cheng) who somehow manage to make a tough subject engaging, exciting or, whisper it, even funny. Tom Crawford鈥檚 title is certainly enough to raise a guffaw in the hardest of hearts, let alone Pok茅mon fans. Now try asking, as the publisher does, how many daily calories you would need to feed a Charizard. Could the Death Star鈥檚 laser actually blow up a planet? What is the half-life of the Incredible Hulk? And is the meaning of life really 鈥�42鈥�? OK, we know the answer to the last question, but it does sound like Crawford is pulling out all the stops to use his Oxford fellow smarts on the fantasy maths of fictional, often wild, universes. Parting shot: just how would you work out Frodo Baggins鈥檚 life insurance premium for the journey to Mordor?

Primatologist Frans de Waal, who died in 2024, left a huge legacy for other scholars and campaigners fighting ideas of human exceptionalism and arguing that animals have complex inner lives. Minds I鈥檝e Met is one of two books by de Waal posthumously published this year; the other is , a selection of photographs taken during his work over 30 years, showing, say the publishers, 鈥渢he rich social life鈥� of the primates he studied. Both books sport the provocative and sometimes moving titles de Waal used to challenge the status quo (think , Mama鈥檚 Last Hug, or ). In Minds, the kicker is also in the subtitle: 鈥淔rom denying to embracing the inner lives of animals鈥�. The publishers say his 鈥減ioneering work鈥� contributed to a new image of animals as intentional agents with minds of their own, capable of remarkable cognitive feats, demonstrating empathy and self-awareness, showing emotions and conscious鈥�. He often wrote for and talked to New 女生小视频. If he鈥檚 new to you, you could do worse than starting here.

by Paris Marx

Forget, for a moment, grappling with AI conceptually and think about it as an environmental issue. All over the world, the data centres already built and those planned are crucial to the current AI successes and to the ambitions of the companies involved. What鈥檚 more, say the publishers of a polemical book called Hyperscale, the centres use up resources such as water and power at 鈥渄angerously unsustainable levels鈥�. This book鈥檚 author is Paris Marx, a tech critic, journalist and host of the Tech Won鈥檛 Save You podcast. It sounds like a wild ride, with the publishers saying the 鈥渢ech overlords are waging a resource war as they trade our future for their profit鈥�. It is nothing less than a 鈥渃ivilisational time bomb in the making鈥�, where tough reporting shows that 鈥渢he greatest threat is not the spectre of AI, but a global disaster that has already begun鈥�. The book is already longlisted for this year鈥檚 .

by Christopher Gardner

The sheer amount of advice on what to eat to be healthy is unnerving, especially since a lot of it is quite probably junk. But before you reach for a doughnut out of sheer despair, there are books out there that offer sane ways through the morass, with excellent science and tasty-sounding recipes. Food Sense is by Christopher Gardner, who鈥檚 been researching nutrition and health for decades, and is now the director of nutrition studies and a professor of medicine at Stanford University in California. His publishers promise that he 鈥渟hows you where there is genuine scientific consensus so you can discern fact from fads and ignore the health food marketing hype. From weight loss to protein, ultra-processed foods, seed oils, GMO鈥檚 and fermented foods, this definitive and myth-busting guide answers all your nutrition questions鈥�. Now there鈥檚 a big claim or two. Luckily, former New 女生小视频 staffer (and all-round nutrition, health and longevity specialist writer) Graham Lawton is on hand to review the book later this month so we鈥檒l find out how well they all stack up聽 鈥� that, and how good the recipes are.

by Tania Lombrozo

Why are the clouds white? What made that artwork so special? Where does the cat vanish to at night? Who am I? From the existential to the trivial, questioning 鈥� curiosity and the seemingly endless desire for answers 鈥� feels hardwired in us. So, is it? And does it connect evolutionarily to the human way of learning? Could it even be that elusive thing that makes humans, human? Certainly, the subtitle of Tania Lombrozo鈥檚 new book 鈥撀� 鈥淭he science of explanation and the human drive to understand鈥� 鈥� tells us where she thinks we are. She is a professor of psychology at Princeton University, and her research, say her publishers, is all about turning our explanation seeking back on itself by asking, 鈥漌hat does explanation do for us? And, most important, how can we do it better?鈥� The idea that some explanations are more satisfying than others also sounds intriguing.

by Cherry Casey

Have childcare and education in the UK been turned into a business 鈥� and if so, who is profiting? Certainly not the children, argues Cherry Casey, a journalist specialising in children鈥檚 rights. Her book comes billed as an 鈥渆xpos茅 of how chasing profits and league tables has come at the cost of developing well rounded, happy people鈥�. As ever, the book鈥檚 subtitle positions her quest: 鈥淗ow we turned children into data and why we need to stop鈥�. It鈥檚 an interesting argument, given the rise of mental illness even in young children and the overall datafication of our world, and the use (or overuse) of testing and 鈥渮ero-tolerance鈥� behaviour policies many schools advertise as a desirable end. So, who is profiting, and how do we turn the ship round?

by Kate Clancy

This looks to be a moving but probably also essential book, dealing with the realities of one of life鈥檚 most important but common events: the loss of a pregnancy. The author is Kate Clancy, a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she鈥檚 based in the Department of Gender and Women鈥檚 Studies and the Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology. This is likely to give her book the kind of heft it needs to challenge the myths surrounding pregnancy loss. According to its publisher, Clancy 鈥渕akes an impassioned, fact-based case for truthfulness and care at a time when inaccurate images of fetuses abound, electronic impulses continue to pass for a heartbeat, and reproductive autonomy is criminalized鈥�.

by Elisabeth Braw

Where the next war will come from is a question that keeps many of us awake at night 鈥� not to mention political analysts and defence chiefs fully occupied. One place you would be unlikely to guess is the bottom of the sea. But that is where an extraordinary-sounding book is set. A quick peek confirms that the book looks to deliver on its publisher鈥檚 description as a 鈥済ripping account of the hidden battles beneath the world鈥檚 oceans, where cables and pipelines 鈥� the lifelines of the modern world 鈥� are under constant threat from states, corporations, and hackers鈥�. And remember, the stakes could hardly be higher at a time when so much global traffic 鈥� internet, energy, telecoms 鈥� runs through cables that are out of sight. Braw is a force to reckon with: she鈥檚 a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, where she leads the Threats to the Global Maritime Order initiative. She was previously a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and is also a member of the UK National Preparedness Commission.

by Alison Flood, illustrated by Emma Tudor-Bloch

Here鈥檚 some fun 鈥� a chance to join New 女生小视频鈥檚 own Alison Flood (sidenote: this is included here without any pressure or suggestion from her鈥�) on a strange voyage into the fictional botanical worlds created by authors drawn from the ranks of science fiction and fantasy. Published in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, it comes with over 100 beautiful (if occasionally scary) illustrations by artist Emma Tudor-Bloch, vividly bringing to life all manner of unreal plants and fungi. And for those seeking a bit of heft, there鈥檚 expert text and historical images from Kew鈥檚 experts, exploring the real-life plants and fungi that inspired the fantasy. So, watch out for a host worlds including nightlock (The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins), weirwood trees (A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin), Ents (The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien), redweed (The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells), wheel trees (The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman) and the Cordyceps fungus (The Last of Us).

by Meredith Small

Mother. Father. Son. Daughter. Grandmother鈥� Most of us grow up in a family of some sort, no matter how dysfunctional. But Family: How the human need for belonging shapes our lives by Meredith Small is no self-help book. Small is a well-known anthropologist at Cornell University in New York state, and the author of聽Our Babies, Ourselves. Here, say her publishers, she sets out to examine the roots of the family and why this type of connection is the bedrock of human interaction in all cultures 鈥� and how getting to grips with its nature might help us 鈥渘avigate our rapidly changing world鈥�. Given the sometimes overemphasis on the family and 鈥渇amily values鈥� globally, some might argue we should join Small as she asks why we form families and place such importance on family relationships, and whether family life does deliver 鈥� throughout our different stages and ages. As you would expect from an anthropologist, Small鈥檚 time frame spans millions of years and her scope is global 鈥� all human life and setup is here, promises the publisher. From a peek, it looks like family is as varied as the human experience. Lots of room for manoeuvre, thankfully.

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This has to be the strangest August ever, with climate-changed weather making itself felt all over the place. It is also strange because new books are in short supply. That said, the shelves are by no means bare. We have books to recommend to you on everything from octopus ethics and designing the universe to endometriosis and talking to computers. So, whatever you end up doing to refresh and recharge, we鈥檝e got the book for you.

by Daniel Lieberman聽

Meaty palaeo? Going veggie or vegan? Eating Mediterranean? Fasting, intermittently or otherwise? Low or high carbs? Enough 鈥� before we all lose the plot! Enter Daniel Lieberman, an evolutionary anthropologist at Harvard University who, says his publisher, 鈥渢ackles this confusion head on with his trademark blend of lively storytelling and myth-busting science鈥�.

As you would expect, Lieberman draws on evolutionary biology, anthropology and physiology to figure out how we are going so wrong. He travels all the way back, moving from what humans evolved to eat through to how fire, farming and industrialisation transformed our diets, and right up to today as we learn how to combine all that history with rigorous medical science. It will be fascinating to see what former New 女生小视频 staffer Chris Simms makes of it in our review, to be published shortly.

by Jonathan Loh

To know where we are headed, it can help to have a reasonable grasp of where we have been. So, will some big-picture thinking from an independent scholar help? Jonathan Loh鈥檚 publishers call his book Life Story a 鈥減anoramic history of life, revealing the forces that have shaped our world 鈥� and could shape it again鈥�. We move through the rise of Homo sapiens, from foragers to farmers, from the Bronze Age to the industrial revolution, through 鈥渉idden patterns linking genetics and language, organisms and states, ecosystems and economies, mass extinctions and civilisational collapse鈥�.

Humans may dominate the planet, but, as machine intelligence gathers pace, is that supremacy only a phase? Loh is a biologist who has worked as a consultant to organisations such the United Nations Environment Programme and WWF on the conservation of biological and cultural diversity, so he should be well placed to build a deep chronicle of the past and lay out his big idea: culture as a form of life. What would that mean in terms of an AI future? We shall see鈥β犅�

by Xiaochang Li

The idea of talking to machines has been an enduring human fantasy. Divination Engines is a bit of a wild card: author Xiaochang Li, an assistant professor in the department of communication at Stanford University in California, shows her readers how that dream 鈥渂oth fueled the demand for data and set the stage for today鈥檚 generative AI鈥�. Sneak peaks reveal a book that is no easy read (brace for technical details), but one in which Li manages to explain the origins of what we call natural language processing, as well as the 20^th-century debates between computer scientists, linguists and communication engineers that shaped today鈥檚 technology.

She sets out to show how computer speech recognition advanced technology by de-emphasising linguistic meaning in favour of statistical prediction 鈥� that is, how researchers gradually abandoned systems that tried to聽understand聽human language in favour of workarounds that just predicted聽patterns in speech and text data. The rest is, as they say, history鈥� and that鈥檚 before we even mention search engines, spam filters, content managers and the like. All this comes at the cost of needing more and more new data 鈥� forever! This will be a tough read for many of us, but one that鈥檚 worth the effort. Oh, and Kate Crawford, author of Atlas of AI, calls the book 鈥渁 landmark in the critical history of artificial intelligence鈥�.

by Catherine Heymans

No small ambition in this next book, either. Astrophysicist Catherine Heymans鈥檚 latest is, according to its subtitle, no less than a look at the 鈥渟cience of real and virtual worlds鈥�. At its heart is that wonderful, death-defying question: could we be living in a computer simulation, and how would we even know? It all sounds fascinating, as Heymans, the astronomer royal for Scotland, takes us 鈥渙n a humorous and mind-bending journey through the science of reality itself鈥�.

From subatomic particles and the cosmic mysteries of dark matter to the secrets of the human senses, we are promised an exploration of 鈥渨hether humanity could ever create a virtual universe as rich and diverse as our own 鈥� and what that means for our sense of self, free will and consciousness鈥�. Not much going on here, then.

by Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi

This is one for all of us who love silvery-grey snow leopards, those fabulous and elusive beasts, which live in the rugged mountains of central Asia, camouflaged against the rocks and cliffs. For the past 20 years, scientist, conservationist and mountaineer Kulbhushansingh (Kullu) Suryawanshi has studied them in the wild, exploring every aspect of their lives from habitat to prey to population 鈥� sometimes living for months in the world鈥檚 toughest, most remote environments. Suryawanshi, we are promised, has 鈥減ioneered new research that shines fresh light on these charismatic and vulnerable animals, showing how their fate is entangled with the local people and how their survival is central to preserving an austere, delicate ecosystem鈥�.

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by Lani Watson

There is something wonderful about books with a single letter as their main title. Q (and here鈥檚 the subtitle so we know what we鈥檙e talking about: The hidden power of questions in a world that wants answers) is all about the art and science of asking questions, as the only creature on Earth that does so in any formal sense. But we鈥檙e trained to look for answers, not how to ask questions 鈥� so much so, says author Lani Watson, that we live in an answer-rich, question-poor world.

Yet, as the publishers remind us,鈥� from doctors鈥� surgeries to courtrooms to dating, the ability to ask questions determines our experiences. In a world obsessed by answers, asking better questions is powerful.鈥�

That sounds very wise, and we should be in good hands: Watson is a philosopher and honorary fellow at the University of Edinburgh, UK, as well as a former research fellow at the University of Oxford. Plug into what her publishers call a 鈥渃aptivating narrative from the death of Socrates to the age of AI鈥�, and you will soon learn how to think about the questions you ask and the ones you don鈥檛.

by Richard Schweid

With octopus blooms suddenly appearing in many places, journalist Richard Schweid and publisher University of North Carolina Press could hardly have hit on a more provocative subject. Billed as a 鈥済ripping, on-the-ground investigation into the global race to farm octopus and the ethical firestorm it has ignited鈥�, there is clearly a lot to chew on as we explore the 鈥渆thics and future of growing the world鈥檚 most intelligent invertebrate鈥�.

Among the issues is the fact that, in 2021, the London School of Economics recognised invertebrates such as cephalopods (octopus, cuttlefish, squid) and decapods (crayfish, crabs, lobsters) as capable of experiencing pain, distress and happiness, finding that high-welfare farming of them would therefore be impossible. But the enormous international demand for octopus meat continues to grow, even as wild octopus populations decline. Fishers in the UK鈥檚 south-west are already experiencing problems as the vast number of octopuses eat their typical high-value catch: adult lobsters, brown edible crabs, scallops and the like. What to do instead? Eat the octopuses? Apparently, recipes are proliferating鈥� a dilemma indeed.

by Evelyn Scott

This is no less than an expos茅 of medical misogyny, says the publisher of what looks like a forthright book about endometriosis, A Bloody Scandal: How medicine fails women in pain. There should be a huge market for it, given the sheer number who experience it (it is often said that 1 in 10 women do, but the real figure is probably higher), often in silence and for decades.

Author Evelyn Scott weaves in her own experience of the condition: she was just a teenager when she first had the symptoms of endometriosis. She shares 15 years during which she endured constant, agonising pain 鈥� and hopeless ineptitude when seeking support, ranging from dismissals on the grounds of hysteria to misdiagnoses. She felt completely isolated, until she discovered all the other women experiencing the same condition. Powerful stuff and, many will argue, long overdue.

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