Browse our new non-fiction books for October! Includes tasty recipes, secrets of Ancient Egypt, adventurous landscapes and more.
Want more suggested books? Take a look at our recommendations.
The AGI Chronicles: Inside the Story of the Race to Create an Artificial Superintelligence
Kevin Roose
This is the inside story of the birth of AGI, as told by the people who are bringing it into existence, or trying to stop it from coming into existence, and who are grappling with the consequences before anyone else.
Building Artificial General Intelligence – a machine that is as smart or smarter than humans, at everything our brains can do – has been the goal for the world’s biggest technology companies for about the last decade, and it is probably the most consequential technological project in history. Only a few hundred people are fully awake to what’s actually happening on the AI frontier, or how short the timelines are.
Powerful AI will reshape society – and most governments and big corporations already view this conclusion as obvious, as evidenced by the trillions of dollars they’re spending to get there first. New York Times journalist Kevin Roose may be the only person who can tell this story.
Proper Home Cooking
Si King
In his first solo title, Si King shares the food he cooks and eats at home: honest, unfussy dishes built for real life, real budgets and real families.
This is Si at his most practical and generous – packed with tips, shortcuts and hard-won wisdom he’s gathered over a lifetime at the stove. From weekday workhorses and store-cupboard raids to feeding a full house, these recipes prove that eating well doesn’t have to cost a fortune or take all evening.
With more than 100 triple-tested recipes, Si shows that a little know-how and a handful of good ingredients go a long way – and that the best food is nearly always the simplest. Alongside the recipes, Si shares the personal stories, memories and kitchen wisdom that have shaped a lifetime of cooking for the people he loves.
The Book Was Better: The Triumphs and Travesties of Book to Film Adaptation
Lousie Willder
Yes, book lovers cry! Hollywood never gets it right – they gloss over crucial moments, the dialogue sounds bizarre and the characters never look like they’re supposed to.
But then what about Jaws or The Godfather? These films are so much better than the potboiler novels they came from. And then there are some perfect adaptations. Doesn’t every reader’s heart sing when they watch Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility?
In this rollicking adventure through the towering heights and unplumbed depths of book to screen adaptations, Louise Willder, author of ‘Blurb Your Enthusiasm’, uncovers what makes a good adaption, how some can be so bad, and why we insist on telling the same stories over and over and over.
Ancient Egypt: A History in Seven Treasures
Bettany Hughes
Historian Bettany Hughes unearths the stories of a civilisation through seven of its most precious treasures, revealing the people, power and beliefs that shaped the Nile’s enduring world.
Her thrilling journey of discovery explores the secrets and splendour of the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Sphinx, Cleopatra’s secret island of Philae, Hatshepsut’s temple at Deir el-Bahari, Tutankhamen’s tomb, the underwater city at Alexandria, and the most beautiful mummy in the world.
Drawing on her own vivid first-hand encounters at each site, Hughes brings to life the splendour, drama and humanity of ancient Egypt as never before.
Edimentals: Edible Plants to Grow & Enjoy
Huw Richards
Huw Richards shows you how to grow 100 edible plants with fabulous flowers or foliage, so you can create a beautiful and productive garden or pot display.
Spanning vegetables, herbs, flowers, trees, and shrubs, discover why edimental plants are the multi-tasking heroes of any garden, delivering on visual impact, attracting beneficial insects, and producing tasty crops. Alongside essential growing information, planting plans illustrate some of Huw’s favourite plant combinations to give you inspiration to replicate in your own edimental garden.
From the deep red, drooping flowerheads of amaranth (that produce sweet and nutty seeds perfect for topping porridge or soup) to the bright pop of dahlia flowers (to garnish salads), this book is full of exciting new ways to enjoy a thriving, productive, and beautiful garden.
The Wild Road Home: Fifteen National Parks, One Remarkable Adventure
Simon Parker
Outdoor enthusiast, cyclist and acclaimed travel writer Simon Parker was restless for a new adventure, but with a small baby his explorations needed to begin at home. He decided to cycle through all 15 of the UK’s national parks in the anniversary year of the first one’s founding, the Peak District.
This became a life-changing journey through a landscape, and nation, in flux. While each park offered beauty and surprises, all of them revealed the challenges of making space for nature on an overpopulated island.
Perilous Enchantment: The True History of Faeries
Sarah Clegg
We often think of them as tiny, glittering creatures fluttering about in pastel tulle, but fairies haven’t always been so benign. Here, historian Sarah Clegg explores the true history of fairies, and the menace and ambiguity that always lurks within the shimmering fantasy.
This history takes us from elf fires in Iceland to a burial mound in Ireland; and from a stream in Cottingley where two sisters created a fairy hoax to a modern-day fairy ball in Los Angeles. Along the way, Clegg reveals fairies’ connection to ancient gods and their role in the witch-trials, and examines their seductive presence in romantasy today.
This is a story of how fairy myths grew and spread across Europe, of how they changed and developed, and why we have, for centuries, been so enthralled by the danger and enchantment of the fae.
Castles: A Fortified History of the World
Dan Jones
Castles have been built to defend humanity for millennia – from the walls of Troy over three thousand years ago and the desert bastion of Krak des Chevaliers in Syria; to Windsor Castle and the Tower of London; to Himeji in Japan and the Maginot Line in the Second World War.
They have inspired terror and ambition, foiled conquering forces, and been deployed as the ultimate expression of wealth, status and supremacy. Jones leads readers on a journey through centuries and across continents as each castle tells a unique story of power, politics and survival, revealing the shifting tides of warfare, the rise and fall of empires, the resilience of people under siege and the flourishing of new ideas.
This is an epic story of how humans first came to build fortifications and how they expanded into powerfully capturing our imagination.
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