As a cultural figure, Stein has too often been relegated to the margins. This beguiling biography reasserts her legacy
A timely argument that AI, geopolitical tensions and global production networks demand a new statistical infrastructure
Our hunger for the Earth’s natural riches drives both political power and immense destruction. Two new books call for a reappraisal of the wealth beneath our feet
The earthly cost of the resources beneath our feet; America’s gains from an open, globalised system of finance; a punchy history of ties between the US and Latin America; a newly translated novel of European strife by a Prix Goncourt laureate; the evolving architecture of our ideal homes; why friendships are less valued than other relationships; novels by Helen Oyeyemi and Cécile Desprairies; the debate over rural rights to roam; Ocean Vuong’s second novel — plus Suzi Feay’s pick of debut fiction
A pithy and passionate book looks beyond class, clichés and megaphones to scrutinise how we engage with the UK countryside
From Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater to Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye: Owen Hopkins reflects on the home as catalyst for progress
Greg Grandin’s superb, punchy account of the deep ties between the US and Latin America forms a powerful case for closer ties in the present
Tiffany Watt Smith’s fascinating book asks why friendships are less valued by society than conjugal or familial relationships
Donald H Chew takes a timely look at the benefits the US has reaped from an open and competitive system
Three books offer a guide to shifting power in the region and what it means for the US and Europe
Selena Wisnom walks the shelves of King Ashurbanipal’s library, revealing what the books tell us about the ideas circulating in 7th-century BC Mesopotamia
Christopher Clarey traces how the Spaniard came to dominate the French Open, among his 22 Grand Slam titles
A first-hand account from the UAE’s longest-serving female minister about hosting the World Expo and transforming the emirate into an aspirational destination
The story of a quirky design choice that turbocharged user-generated content — and is now clicked 160bn times a day
Iain Pears’ biography of Francis Haskell and Larissa Salmina is a tale of east-west romance in the cold war
The bestselling Dutch historian makes a persuasive case for ambitious people to focus on under-the-radar causes
Three gruesome killings in the 1970s and the writer who hasn’t been able to stop investigating them
New books by Robert Macfarlane and Tony Juniper strengthen the case for granting the natural environment protection in law on par with personhood
Ian Stewart takes an imaginative, scholarly look at Celticism and its shifting interpretations
Taylor Swift, the philosophy of AI, and imagining an anti-capitalist business school
FT and Schroders launch Business Book of the Year Award as industry debates new technology
The renowned economist issues a timely warning that the threat to America’s currency comes from within, in the shape of a growing debt mountain
The poet captures to heart-rending effect the shame attached to adolescent queer desire
Why the intimate and flexible genre is favoured by dissidents and political exiles
Without the burden of straightforward biographical inventory, this inventive work of criticism sheds new light on the composer’s life
