BOOK OF THE DAY

Captives and Companions by Justin Marozzi. Could you tell us what this one is about?

This is a history of slavery and the slave trade in the Islamic world. It goes back to the time of the Prophet and some of his more contentious teachings, which are still used to justify slavery today. It’s book-ended with reports of modern slavery in Mali.  It’s a great, epic, sweeping history that takes us through 1500 years.

The story is told with real panache. Marozzi will take us inside an Ottoman sultan’s harem. If you have many concubines, you also need to have many slaves to guard them, including eunuchs.

One of the reasons why we, the judges, all liked it was that it took a certain amount of courage to write it. It’s obviously a tricky subject. There are a lot of books about the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the Americas, but there hasn’t been a huge amount of literature—certainly in the English-speaking world—about the slave trade in the Islamic world, which has been more enduring. As many people were enslaved over a longer period of time, so they are certainly comparable, but the size of the literature isn’t. He managed to write about it in a very candid way without being cheaply provocative or trying to score points.

I read the prologue, where he’s outside Bamako in Mali talking to somebody who’s enslaved. That was a shock, reading about slavery today.

It’s an incredibly resonant book. He also knows how to tell a story. So he will take contemporary accounts, which are often over the top and fanciful with made-up numbers, and give that story. Then, more soberly, he’ll read between the lines. It’s a hard job for him to do, and I think he’s achieved it.

One of the problems with history about slavery is that the enslaved people rarely have a voice, and he does a good job of trying to ensure they do.

He’s also very good at the nuance of it. Enslaved people could actually rise up the ranks, for example, at the Ottoman court, and have quite distinguished positions, despite being enslaved. It’s a fascinating picture, and he’s written it with real confidence.

THE GREATEST BOOKS OF THE WORLD: THE BHAGAVAD GITA — SONG CELESTIAL OF ETERNAL WISDOM

THE GREATEST BOOKS OF THE WORLD

Series Introduction

Down the centuries, certain books have stood apart — not merely as works of art or philosophy, but as guiding lights for the human spirit. They have shaped civilizations, inspired revolutions, and comforted the hearts of millions. This new series, “THE GREATEST BOOKS OF THE WORLD,” seeks to revisit these immortal creations — one book at a time — exploring their timeless wisdom and their continuing relevance in our lives today.

THE BHAGAVAD GITA — SONG CELESTIAL OF ETERNAL WISDOM

Among the greatest books ever written, The Bhagavad Gita stands as a radiant jewel — timeless, universal, and profound. For over two millennia, it has guided seekers, philosophers, and ordinary men and women in their quest for meaning and inner peace. Its name literally means “The Song of the Divine,” and its music has never faded.

A Dialogue of the Soul

The setting of the Gita is the battlefield of Kurukshetra — a symbol of life itself, where every human being must face moral dilemmas and inner conflicts. Prince Arjuna, overwhelmed by sorrow and doubt at the thought of fighting his kinsmen, lays down his bow. At that crucial moment, his charioteer — none other than Lord Krishna — becomes his teacher and friend, revealing to him the supreme wisdom of life.

Through eighteen chapters, the Gita unfolds a magnificent dialogue between man and God, between confusion and clarity, between bondage and liberation. Krishna’s words do not merely address Arjuna; they speak to all humanity. They remind us that duty (dharma) performed without attachment, and action done in the spirit of surrender, lead to the highest freedom.

The Way of Action, Knowledge, and Devotion

The Bhagavad Gita presents a balanced philosophy of life — not escapism, but engagement; not renunciation of the world, but transformation through selfless action. It reconciles the paths of karma (action), jnana (knowledge), and bhakti (devotion) into a unified vision of spiritual harmony.

Krishna teaches that every human being must act, but action should be rooted in detachment — “Work alone is your privilege, never the fruits thereof.” When work is performed as an offering to the Divine, the mind becomes pure, and the heart serene.

Equally powerful is Krishna’s assurance of love: “Whenever righteousness declines and unrighteousness prevails, I manifest Myself.” This eternal promise gives hope to all who struggle in the darkness of confusion and despair.

A Living Scripture

The greatness of the Gita lies in its universality. It belongs not only to Hindus or Indians but to the entire human race. Thinkers like Emerson, Thoreau, Tolstoy, and Gandhi found in it an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Mahatma Gandhi called it “my spiritual dictionary,” turning to it in moments of doubt for strength and clarity. Albert Einstein once remarked that when he read the Gita, he felt his own problems “diminished to nothingness.”

The Eternal Message

The Gita does not preach withdrawal from the world but the art of living in it with wisdom and serenity. It teaches us to act without selfish desire, to love without attachment, and to live without fear.

In its luminous verses, we find the secret of inner freedom:

> “When a man lets go of all desires, and moves without longing, without the sense of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ — then he finds peace.”

The Bhagavad Gita thus remains the eternal companion of all who seek truth. It is the song of the soul — a song that continues to echo across centuries, calling us to awaken, to act, and to realize the divinity within ourselves.

Grateful thanks to ChatGPT for its great help and support in creating this blogpost.

BOOK OF THE DAY

The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s by Jason Burke, which looks at terrorism in the years 1967 to 1983. Could you tell us what it’s about and why it’s such a good book?

Jason Burke has done an impressive job with many different sources, crossing the whole of Europe and the Middle East.

The book is about the links between Palestinian and Western European terrorism. So you get the Red Army Faction playing a role. But the real focus, I think, is on the various off-shoots of the PLO, like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. It’s looking at these groups, trying to understand their motivations and what they were doing.

Do you remember when 9/11 happened, there was talk of the attack being ‘spectacular’ because Osama bin Laden had done this really attention-grabbing work of terrorism by flying two planes into the Twin Towers? It was these Palestinian terrorists and their sympathizers in the West who started that.

The very fact that getting on an airplane now involves what seems like an hour of going through detectors is down to these people, who came up with the idea that seizing airliners was a spectacular and eye-grabbing way of getting attention. So there’s a lot about airlines…I mean, I wouldn’t read this book on a plane, because it will only unnerve you.

There are some very interesting characters along the way. For instance, Carlos the Jackal, who became a gun for hire. He was from a rich Venezuelan background, a very left-wing family, but by the end, he’d been corrupted by the violence and was doing it for money. So the East Germans, the Bulgarians, and the like might have hired him to do freelance terrorism jobs.

These terrorists were some kind of idealists, but there’s a story of corruption there as well, which was interesting. There’s a bit of nuance.

BOOK OF THE DAY

With insight, humor and fascinating detail, Lacey brings brilliantly to life the stories that made England -- from Ethelred the Unready to Richard the Lionheart, the Venerable Bede to Piers the Ploughman.

The greatest historians are vivid storytellers, Robert Lacey reminds us, and in Great Tales from English History, he proves his place among them, illuminating in unforgettable detail the characters and events that shaped a nation.

In this volume, Lacey limns the most important period in England's past, highlighting the spread of the English language, the rejection of both a religion and a traditional view of kingly authority, and an unstoppable movement toward intellectual and political freedom from 1387 to 1689.

Opening with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and culminating in William and Mary's "Glorious Revolution," Lacey revisits some of the truly classic stories of English history: the Battle of Agincourt, where Henry V's skilled archers defeated a French army three times as large; the tragic tale of the two young princes locked in the Tower of London (and almost certainly murdered) by their usurping uncle, Richard III; Henry VIII's schismatic divorce, not just from his wife but from the authority of the Catholic Church; "Bloody Mary" and the burning of religious dissidents; Sir Francis Drake's dramatic, if questionable, part in the defeat of the Spanish Armada; and the terrible and transformative Great Fire of London, to name but a few.

Here Anglophiles will find their favorite English kings and queens, villains and victims, authors and architects - from Richard II to Anne Boleyn, the Virgin Queen to Oliver Cromwell, Samuel Pepys to Christopher Wren, and many more.

Continuing the "eminently readable, highly enjoyable" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) history he began in volume I of Great Tales from English History, Robert Lacey has drawn on the most up-to-date research to present a taut and riveting narrative, breathing life into the most pivotal characters and exciting landmarks in England's history.

BOOK OF THE DAY

Every act of kindness, every moment of cruelty, every leap of courage or failure of nerve can be traced back to ten fundamental patterns woven into the fabric of human nature. This is the bold premise of Dexter Dias's The Ten Types of Human, a work that reads less like an academic treatise and more like a riveting investigation into the soul of our species.

Dias, a human rights barrister who has witnessed humanity at its most vulnerable and monstrous, spent a decade gathering stories from courtrooms, war zones, and intimate encounters with survivors, perpetrators, and heroes. The result is a framework that refuses to sanitize or simplify. Grounded in neuroscience, historical evidence, and raw human experience, this book forces us to confront the uncomfortable truth that we contain multitudes, and that understanding these contradictions might be our best hope for survival.

The Ten Types: Who We Are When Everything Is at Stake

1. The Rescuer

Why does one person dive into freezing water to save a drowning stranger while another stands frozen on the shore? The Rescuer reveals the mystery of selfless courage—the force that compels us to act when every instinct screams retreat. Dias explores the neuroscience of heroism and discovers that bravery isn't the absence of fear but something far more complex: a moral reflex that overrides self-preservation.

2. The Aggressor

This is the type we pretend doesn't live in us. But Dias forces us to confront an uncomfortable reality: violence isn't confined to psychopaths or sadists. Ordinary people, under the right (or wrong) circumstances, can inflict extraordinary harm. Through harrowing accounts of genocide, abuse, and everyday brutality, he maps how fear, power, and dehumanization can awaken our darkest impulses.

3. The Believer

What makes someone follow a cause to the death? The Believer thrives on conviction, finding meaning in ideologies, faiths, and movements. Dias shows how this type can inspire profound good—or catastrophic evil. It's about the human need for purpose, the comfort of certainty, and the danger of unquestioning devotion.

4. The Conformer

We like to think we're independent thinkers, but The Conformer tells a different story. Social pressure is one of the most powerful forces shaping human behavior, capable of turning bystanders into accomplices or igniting collective action. Dias unpacks famous psychological experiments and real-world tragedies to show how easily we mirror those around us—sometimes for connection, sometimes at a terrible moral cost.

5. The Nurturer

If The Aggressor is our capacity for destruction, The Nurturer is our capacity for repair. This is the part of us that cradles the wounded, feeds the hungry, and sits with the dying. Rooted in parental instinct but extending far beyond it, The Nurturer represents the radical act of caring for those who cannot care for themselves. Dias argues it's the quiet force that holds civilization together.

6. The Survivor

What does it take to endure the unendurable? The Survivor emerges in extremity—in concentration camps, natural disasters, abusive homes. Dias chronicles stories of resilience that defy comprehension, revealing how humans adapt, persist, and sometimes even find meaning in the midst of suffering. This type is about more than just staying alive; it's about the refusal to be broken.

7. The Manipulator

Manipulation gets a bad reputation, but Dias reveals it as morally neutral—a tool that can serve diplomacy or deception, healing or harm. From con artists to master negotiators, The Manipulator understands influence and wields it with precision. This type reminds us that persuasion is part of our social architecture, and its ethics depend entirely on intent.

8. The Tinker

In the face of problems, The Tinker asks: "What if we tried this?" This is humanity's creative spark, the drive to experiment, invent, and improve. Whether developing life-saving vaccines or engineering escape routes from impossible situations, The Tinker represents optimism in action—the belief that things can always be made better.

9. The Fighter

The Fighter doesn't accept injustice quietly. Fueled by righteous anger and moral conviction, this type marches, protests, and demands change even when the cost is steep. Dias connects this pattern to every major liberation movement in history, showing how The Fighter transforms outrage into action and suffering into progress.

10. The Seeker

Why do we climb mountains, ask impossible questions, and search for meaning in a chaotic universe? The Seeker is our restless hunger for truth and transcendence. This type explores not just the world but the self, forever asking: "What else is there? What does it all mean?" It's the force behind scientific discovery, spiritual quest, and personal transformation.

Dias presents a framework for understanding the contradictions within us—how the same person can be both cruel and kind, cowardly and brave, selfish and sacrificial. The power of these types lies not in their separation but in their coexistence, constantly competing for dominance depending on circumstance, culture, and choice. This is a book that stays with you long after the final page, not because it tells you who you are, but because it forces you to ask: Who do you want to be? Which types will you nurture? Which will you resist? In a world that feels increasingly fragmented and hostile, Dias offers a language for talking about our shared humanity, in all its terrifying beauty and beautiful terror.

BOOK: https://amzn.to/46YvBLp

GREETINGS!

BOOK OF THE DAY

Using firsthand accounts—journals, letters from British officers in the field, reports from colonial governors in the colonies—Michael Pearson has provided a contemporary report of the Revolution as the British witnessed it. Seen from this perspective, some of the major events of the war are given startling interpretations: For example, the British considered their defeat at Bunker Hill nothing more than a minor setback, especially in light of their capture of New York and Philadelphia. Only at the very end of the conflict did they realize that the Yankees had lost the battles but won the war. From the Boston Tea Party to that day in 1785 when the first U.S. ambassador presented his credentials to a grudging George III, here is the full account of "those damned rebels" who somehow managed to found a new nation.

BOOK OF THE DAY

The New York Times bestselling tour of the cosmos from three of today's leading astrophysicists

Welcome to the Universe is a personal guided tour of the cosmos by three of today's leading astrophysicists. Inspired by the enormously popular introductory astronomy course that Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott taught together at Princeton, this book covers it all—from planets, stars, and galaxies to black holes, wormholes, and time travel.

Describing the latest discoveries in astrophysics, the informative and entertaining narrative propels you from our home solar system to the outermost frontiers of space. How do stars live and die? Why did Pluto lose its planetary status? What are the prospects of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe? How did the universe begin? Why is it expanding and why is its expansion accelerating? Is our universe alone or part of an infinite multiverse? Answering these and many other questions, the authors open your eyes to the wonders of the cosmos, sharing their knowledge of how the universe works.

Breathtaking in scope and stunningly illustrated throughout, Welcome to the Universe is for those who hunger for insights into our evolving universe that only world-class astrophysicists can provide.

BOOK OF THE DAY

#1 International Bestseller: A frontline trauma surgeon tells his "riveting" true story of operating in the world's most dangerous war zones (The Times).

For more than twenty-five years, surgeon David Nott has volunteered in some of the world's most perilous conflict zones. From Sarajevo under siege in 1993 to clandestine hospitals in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, he has carried out lifesaving operations in the most challenging conditions, and with none of the resources of a major metropolitan hospital. He is now widely acknowledged as the most experienced trauma surgeon in the world.

War Doctor is his extraordinary story, encompassing his surgeries in nearly every major conflict zone since the end of the Cold War, as well as his struggles to return to a "normal" life and routine after each trip. Culminating in his recent trips to war-torn Syria—and the untold story of his efforts to help secure a humanitarian corridor out of besieged Aleppo to evacuate some 50,000 people—War Doctor is a heart-stopping and moving blend of medical memoir, personal journey, and nonfiction thriller that provides unforgettable, at times raw, insight into the human toll of war.

"Superb . . . You are constantly amazed that men such as Nott can witness the extraordinary cruelties of the human race, so many and so foul, yet keep going." —Sunday Times

"Gripping and fascinating medical stories." —Kirkus Reviews

BOOK OF THE DAY

Kamala Harris recounts her whirlwind 2024 presidential campaign

• The Atlantic says this “newsworthy book” is “blunt, knowing, fervent, occasionally profane, [and] slyly funny”
• After President Joe Biden announced he wasn’t seeking reelection, the country’s first woman vice president had just 107 days to make her case to the American people
• A buzzy account of the shortest presidential campaign in modern history

RELEASED: SEPTEMBER 23, 2025

PUBLISHER DESCRIPTION

For the first time, and with surprising and revealing insights, former Vice President Kamala Harris tells the story of one of the wildest and most consequential presidential campaigns in American history.

Your Secret Service code name is Pioneer.
You are the first woman in history to be elected vice president of the United States.
On July 21, 2024, your running mate, Joe Biden, announces that he will not be seeking reelection.
The presidential election will occur on November 5, 2024.
You have 107 days.

From the chaos of campaign strategy sessions to the intensity of debate prep under relentless scrutiny and the private moments that rarely make headlines, Kamala Harris offers an unfiltered look at the pressures, triumphs, and heartbreaks of a history-defining race. With behind-the-scenes details and a voice that is both intimate and urgent, this is more than a political memoir--it’s a chronicle of resilience, leadership, and the high stakes of democracy in action.

Written with candor, a unique perspective, and the pace of a page-turning novel, 107 Days takes you inside the race for the presidency as no one has ever done before.

BOOK OF THE DAY

Change Your Words, Change Your World 

There are hundreds of books, workshops, and classes that teach us how to communicate effectively with others, but very few of us pay attention to how we speak to ourselves. Best-selling author and communication expert Cynthia Kane believes this is a problem, and she is sounding the alarm! Kane writes that there is an unreported epidemic of negative self-talk in our culture today. Many of us speak to ourselves in demeaning and hurtful ways, using language we would never use with anyone else. To make matters worse, we often don’t even realize when we are doing this, as these old mental tapes play in repeating loops without our awareness. In Talk to Yourself Like a Buddhist, certified mindfulness and meditation instructor Cynthia Kane introduces the Middle Path of Self-Communication, which consists of five mindful practices—Listen, Explore, Question, Release, and Balance—all of which are grounded in Buddhist principles. This book will show you how to: Identify your negative self-talk and explore the underlying self-judgments that produce it Release the judgments that are poisoning your self-communication Practice a system of balanced internal communication based on truth and compassion When we speak to ourselves negatively, we set a tone for our day and our interactions with others in the world. Talk to Yourself Like a Buddhist can teach you how to turn off the enemy in your mind—and create a new relationship with yourself and the world around you—simply by noticing, investigating, and changing the words you use to speak to yourself.

BOOK OF THE DAY

The #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller

The basis for the PBS Ken Burns Documentary The Gene: An Intimate History

Now includes an excerpt from Siddhartha Mukherjee’s new book Song of the Cell!

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies—a fascinating history of the gene and “a magisterial account of how human minds have laboriously, ingeniously picked apart what makes us tick” (Elle).

“Sid Mukherjee has the uncanny ability to bring together science, history, and the future in a way that is understandable and riveting, guiding us through both time and the mystery of life itself.” —Ken Burns

“Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee dazzled readers with his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Emperor of All Maladies in 2010. That achievement was evidently just a warm-up for his virtuoso performance in The Gene: An Intimate History, in which he braids science, history, and memoir into an epic with all the range and biblical thunder of Paradise Lost” (The New York Times). In this biography Mukherjee brings to life the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices.

“Mukherjee expresses abstract intellectual ideas through emotional stories…[and] swaddles his medical rigor with rhapsodic tenderness, surprising vulnerability, and occasional flashes of pure poetry” (The Washington Post). Throughout, the story of Mukherjee’s own family—with its tragic and bewildering history of mental illness—reminds us of the questions that hang over our ability to translate the science of genetics from the laboratory to the real world. In riveting and dramatic prose, he describes the centuries of research and experimentation—from Aristotle and Pythagoras to Mendel and Darwin, from Boveri and Morgan to Crick, Watson and Franklin, all the way through the revolutionary twenty-first century innovators who mapped the human genome.

“A fascinating and often sobering history of how humans came to understand the roles of genes in making us who we are—and what our manipulation of those genes might mean for our future” (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), The Gene is the revelatory and magisterial history of a scientific idea coming to life, the most crucial science of our time, intimately explained by a master. “The Gene is a book we all should read” (USA TODAY).

BOOK OF THE DAY

A captivating account of the legendary empire that made Western civilization possible

Byzantium. The name evokes grandeur and exoticism—gold, cunning, and complexity. In this unique book, Judith Herrin unveils the riches of a quite different civilization. Avoiding a standard chronological account of the Byzantine Empire's millennium—long history, she identifies the fundamental questions about Byzantium—what it was, and what special significance it holds for us today.

Bringing the latest scholarship to a general audience in accessible prose, Herrin focuses each short chapter around a representative theme, event, monument, or historical figure, and examines it within the full sweep of Byzantine history—from the foundation of Constantinople, the magnificent capital city built by Constantine the Great, to its capture by the Ottoman Turks.

She argues that Byzantium's crucial role as the eastern defender of Christendom against Muslim expansion during the early Middle Ages made Europe—and the modern Western world—possible. Herrin captivates us with her discussions of all facets of Byzantine culture and society. She walks us through the complex ceremonies of the imperial court. She describes the transcendent beauty and power of the church of Hagia Sophia, as well as chariot races, monastic spirituality, diplomacy, and literature. She reveals the fascinating worlds of military usurpers and ascetics, eunuchs and courtesans, and artisans who fashioned the silks, icons, ivories, and mosaics so readily associated with Byzantine art.

An innovative history written by one of our foremost scholars, Byzantium reveals this great civilization's rise to military and cultural supremacy, its spectacular destruction by the Fourth Crusade, and its revival and final conquest in 1453.

BOOK OF THE DAY

This dramatic history of an ingredient that changed the world "offers up a number of fascinating stories" (The New York Times Book Review).

Sugar explores the history behind the sweetness, revealing, among other stories, how powerful American interests deposed Queen Lili'uokalani of Hawaii; how Hitler tried to ensure a steady supply of beet sugar when enemies threatened to cut off Germany's supply of overseas cane sugar; and how South Africa established a domestic ethanol industry in the wake of anti-apartheid sugar embargos.


The book follows the role of sugar in world events and in individual lives up to the present day, showing how it made eating on the run socially acceptable and played an integral role in today's fast food culture and obesity epidemic. Impressively researched and commandingly written, Sugar will forever change perceptions of this tempting treat.


"A highly readable and comprehensive study of a remarkable product." —The Independent

"Epic in ambition and briskly written." —The Wall Street Journal

"Readers will never again be able to casually sweeten tea or eat sweets without considering the long and fascinating history of sugar." —Booklist

BOOK OF THE DAY

The Elephant's Journey (Portuguese: A Viagem do Elefante) is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago. It was first published in 2008 with an English translation in 2010.

Plot

In 1551, King João III of Portugal gave Archduke Maximilian an unusual wedding present: an elephant named Solomon or Suleiman. This elephant's journey from Lisbon to Vienna was witnessed and remarked upon by scholars, historians, and ordinary people.[1] Out of this material, José Saramago has spun a novel already heralded as "a triumph of language, imagination, and humor" (El País).[full citation needed]

Solomon and his keeper, Subhro, begin in dismal conditions, forgotten in a corner of the palace grounds. When it occurs to the king and queen that an elephant would be an appropriate wedding gift, everyone rushes to get them ready: Subhro is given two new suits of clothes and Solomon a long overdue scrub. They cross the border into Spain at Castelo Rodrigo and meet the Archduke at Valladolid.

Accompanied by the Archduke, his new wife, the royal guard, Solomon and Subhro cross a continent riven by the Reformation and civil wars. They make their way through the storied cities of northern Italy: Genoa, Piacenza, Mantua, Verona, Venice, and Trento, where the Council of Trent is in session. They brave the Alps and the terrifying Isarco and Brenner Passes; they sail from Rosas across the Mediterranean Sea and later up the Inn River (elephants, it turns out, are natural sailors). At last they make their grand entry into the imperial city. The Elephant's Journey is a tale of friendship and adventure.

BOOK OF THE DAY

Experience the history, politics, and tragedy of World War II as you've never seen it before with original, often firsthand daily reportage of The New York Times, our country's newspaper of record.

The Times' complete coverage of World War II is now available for the first time in this unique package. Hundreds of the most riveting articles from the archives of the Times including firsthand accounts of major events and little-known anecdotes have been selected for inclusion in The New York Times: The Complete World War II. The book covers the biggest battles of the war, from the Battle of the Bulge to the Battle of Iwo Jima, as well as moving stories from the home front and profiles of noted leaders and heroes such as Winston Churchill and George Patton.

A respected World War II historian and writer, editor Richard Overy guides readers through the articles, putting the events into historical context. The enclosed DVD-ROM gives access to more day-by-day coverage of World War II in The New York Times -- from the invasion of Poland to V-J day with access to over 98,000 articles.

Beautifully designed and illustrated with hundreds of maps and historical photographs, it's the perfect gift for any war, politics, or history buff.