The Best of Guardian Books

What can the great myths (and the summer blockbusters) tell us about peace? The writer, who has turned to fables all his life, weighs their wisdom – and considers the price he himself has paid for…

«‘Peace only exists here in pink plastic’ … Barbie, one of this summer’s legends.»

The long read: Andrew Wylie is agent to an extraordinary number of the planet’s biggest authors. His knack for making highbrow writers very rich helped to define a literary era – but is his reign now…

It feels like we live in an era of constant distraction, but the truth is more complex

«Since at least 2008, when the US tech journalist Nicholas Carr asked: “Is Google making us stupid?”, there has been a sense of crisis around our concentration spans.»

Six years ago the writer developed tinnitus. He explains how it has reframed his relationship with his body and the world – and how music is his salve

The author describes the book, subtitled Meditations After an Attempted Murder, as ‘a way to take charge of what happened, and to answer violence with art’

Trust your gut, boost your memory, de-bias your decision making… can we train our brains to perform better?

«A decade ago, the fashion was to be pessimistic about the prospects of improving our thinking, and even about the value of thinking at all.»

It feels great to give at Christmas. But does that pleasure detract from the good deed?

Created in New York by Jewish immigrants, the first comic book superheroes were mythic saviours who could combat the Nazi threat. They speak to the dark politics of out times

The mind behind Jimmy Corrigan on casting himself as a ‘jerk’ in his new book Rusty Brown, childhood nostalgia and discovering his distinctive style

Today’s thumbs-up, thumbs-down approach to feminism is boring and reductive. It is time to embrace complexity

Around the world, luridly retro ideas of what it means to be a man have caused a rush of testosterone – from Bollywood bodybuilding to nuclear brinkmanship

Dazzling debut novels, searing polemics, the history of humanity and trailblazing memoirs ... Read our pick of the best books since 2000

A fifth part of The Tale of Genji, which was completed around 1010 by a woman later named Murasaki Shikibu, has been found in a house in Tokyo

The historian offers a hopeful view of human nature in his latest book, Humankind. It couldn’t have come at a better time

In the eye-opening new book Unwell Women, Elinor Cleghorn uses her own misdiagnosis at the hands of male doctors as a jumping point for an alarming history lesson

«“It’s probably the first time in history that women’s subjective experiences and voices are used. That’s an important place to begin because women are not a monolith.”»

Hawkish politicians and reckless bankers never face the consequences of their actions – but they should, according to this arresting but flawed book

From ‘proactive aggression’ to our ‘predilection’ for polygamy, an engaging study of the traits that have influenced civilisation

A mathematician tries to make sense of the world through different lenses in this surprisingly original book

From Aristotle to Iris Murdoch: what the greatest minds of the past 2,500 years have to tell us about the good life

«Till Lauer/The GuardianLivros de filosofiaPartilhar no FacebookPartilhar no TwitterPartilhar via e-mail»

A timely guide to the Greek philosopher – and rival to the Stoics – who saw freedom from anxiety as the ultimate goal

«Unnatural and unnecessary desires, such as for wealth, power, fame or eternal life, are considered “corrosive”, to be avoided like the plague.»

A hi-tech medical exam draws its subject back to a more archaic, essential experience

Hailed as one of the most significant archival discoveries of modern times, text seems to show the Paradise Lost poet making careful annotations on his edition of Shakespeare’s plays

The Oxford psychology professor traces the evolutionary advantages, or otherwise, of faith

«Those who sign up to religions, he points out, “can incur serious costs in terms of self-imposed pain, celibacy and even self-sacrifice”.»

Our lives are finite – but do we keep that in mind and spend our time well? The latest attack on religion by Richard Dawkins and Martin Hägglund’s argument for ‘secular faith’

Last year, research cast doubt on the dominant ‘chemical imbalance’ theory of depression. Now two persuasive books by scientists Philip Gold and Camilla Nord offer very different causes of the illness…

«psilocybin docks into the same receptors as brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a protein that promotes the growth and rewiring of neurons»

When a group of schoolboys were marooned on an island in 1965, it turned out very differently to William Golding’s bestseller, writes Rutger Bregman

Could the universe be an elaborate game constructed by bored aliens?

Without us noticing, we are entering the postcapitalist era. At the heart of further change to come is information technology, new ways of working and the sharing economy. The old ways will take a long while to disappear, but it’s time to be utopian

We might think the sky is blue and trees are green, but the truth is rather stranger

«Many people today think of blue as masculine and pink as feminine, but only a hundred years ago baby boys were dressed in pink and girls in blue.»