Top list: Society and Social Sciences

Big ideas, bold discussions, and insightful reads. Explore the most popular books on society, psychology, politics, philosophy, the history of ideas—and beyond. Dive into something new, revisit the familiar, or challenge your thinking with fresh perspectives. Did someone say genius?

4.6 (102)

The Third Gilmore Girl : A Memoir

Try free now

Cancel anytime

The Third Gilmore Girl : A Memoir


INCLUDES A FOREWORD WRITTEN AND READ BY GILMORE GIRLS CREATOR, AMY SHERMAN-PALLADINO!

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A Goodreads Choice Awards Winner

“Come for the Gilmore Girls anecdotes, stay for the revealing truths about what it takes to build a lifelong career in and out of Hollywood” (The A.V. Club) in this candid and captivating memoir from award-winning and beloved actress Kelly Bishop, spanning her six decades in show business from A Chorus Line, Dirty Dancing, Gilmore Girls, and much more.

Kelly Bishop’s long, storied career has been defined by landmark achievements, from winning a Tony Award for her turn in the original Broadway cast of A Chorus Line to her memorable performance as Jennifer Grey’s mother in Dirty Dancing. But it is probably her iconic role as matriarch Emily in the modern classic Gilmore Girls that cemented her legacy.

Now, Bishop reflects on her remarkable life and looks towards the future with The Third Gilmore Girl. She shares some of her greatest stories and the life lessons she’s learned on her journey. From her early transition from dance to drama, to marrying young to a compulsive gambler, to the losses and achievements she experienced—among them marching for women’s rights and losing her second husband to cancer—Bishop offers a rich, genuine celebration of her life.

Full of witty insights and featuring a special collection of personal and professional photographs, The Third Gilmore Girl is a warm, unapologetic, and spirited memoir from a woman who has left indelible impressions on her audiences for decades and has no plans on slowing down.

4.4 (97)

The 50th Law

Try free now

Cancel anytime

The 50th Law


In The 50th Law, hip hop and pop culture icon 50 Cent (aka Curtis Jackson) joins forces with Robert Greene, bestselling author of The 48 Laws of Power, to write a “bible” for success in life and work based on a single principle: fear nothing. With stories from 50 Cent's life on the streets and in the boardroom as he rose to fame after the release of his album Get Rich or Die Tryin’, as well as examples of others who have overcome adversity through understanding and practicing the 50th Law, this deeply inspirational book is perfect for entrepreneurs as well as anyone interested in the extraordinary life of Curtis Jackson.

4.7 (31)

It Begins with You : The 9 Hard Truths About Love That Will Change Your Life

Try free now

Cancel anytime

It Begins with You : The 9 Hard Truths About Love That Will Change Your Life


THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER

The beloved relationship coach, teacher, and host of the top relationship podcast Jillian on Love reveals nine core truths about love and self-acceptance and provides powerful self-healing techniques and strategies to help us repair our relationship with ourselves and start building the rewarding relationships we deserve.

Jillian Turecki’s holistic, compassionate, yet no-nonsense approach to love has attracted a devoted following of millions. In her highly anticipated debut book, she makes clear that if you want a meaningful relationship filled with connection, security, and intimacy, you have to look within. The common denominator in all your relationships is you.

Drawing from decades of experience helping clients heal themselves and their relationships, It Begins with You introduces the 9 core truths we must accept in order to change our lives:

Truth 1: It begins with you. Truth 2: The mind is a battlefield. Truth 3: Lust is not the same thing as love. Truth 4: You have to love yourself. Truth 5: You must speak up and tell the truth. Truth 6: You need to be your best self (even after the honeymoon). Truth 7: You cannot convince someone to love you. Truth 8: No one is coming to save you. Truth 9: You must make peace with your parents. Blending therapeutic strategies, somatic techniques, client case studies, practical tools, tips, and guiding questions, It Begins with You gives us a roadmap to finally start doing the work needed to love ourselves and find the love we deserve. It's never too late to choose yourself.

4.5 (88)

Why Does He Do That?

Try free now

Cancel anytime

Why Does He Do That?


A groundbreaking look into the minds of abusive men from counselor Lundy Bancroft that gives listeners the tools they need to improve, survive, or leave an abusive relationship.

4.5 (309)

The Untethered Soul : The Journey Beyond Yourself

Try free now

Cancel anytime

The Untethered Soul : The Journey Beyond Yourself


Who are you? When you start to explore this question, you find out

how elusive it really is. Are you a physical body? A collection of

experiences and memories? A partner to relationships? Each time you consider these aspects of yourself, you realize that there is much more to you than any of these can define. In The Untethered Soul,

spiritual teacher Michael A. Singer explores the question of who we are and arrives at the conclusion that our identity is to be found in our

consciousness, the fact of our ability to observe ourselves, and the world around us. By tapping into traditions of meditation and

mindfulness, Singer shows how the development of consciousness can

enable us all to dwell in the present moment and let go of painful

thoughts and memories that keep us from achieving happiness and

self-realization.

The Untethered Soul offers a frank and friendly discussion of consciousness and how we can

develop it. In part one, Singer examines the notion of self and the inner dialogue we all live with. Part two examines the experience of energy as it flows through us and works to show listeners how to open their hearts to the energy of experience that permeates their lives. Ways to overcome tendencies to close down to the rest of the world are the subject of

part three. Enlightenment, the embrace of universal consciousness, is the subject of part four. And finally, in part five, Singer returns to daily life and the pursuit of unconditional happiness. Throughout, the book maintains a light and engaging tone, free from heavy dogma and prescriptive religious references. The easy exercises that figure in each chapter help listeners experience the ideas that Singer presents.

4.7 (29)

Love Life : How to Raise Your Standards, Find Your Person, and Live Happily (No Matter What)

Try free now

Cancel anytime

Love Life : How to Raise Your Standards, Find Your Person, and Live Happily (No Matter What)


NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

USA TODAY BESTSELLER

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

An essential set of tools and principles for healing your heart, finding love, and loving life.

Finding love can be hard. Being single can feel even harder. In Love Life, world-renowned coach and New York Times bestselling author Matthew Hussey provides a practical roadmap for letting go of past relationships, overcoming the fear of getting left behind, and finding the love we want.

Sometimes it feels like life and love are working against us. Just finding someone we like can be a struggle. Even when we do, we often find they’re not ready, or they want different things. Then there are the internal fears and anxieties that lead us to self-sabotage—that make us indulge the wrong behavior in others, hold back from expressing our needs for fear of losing someone, or overinvest in people and lose ourselves in the process. Love Life sheds light on these common patterns and how to overcome them, by showing us how to adopt new standards, elegantly communicate them, and develop the deepest levels of confidence that underpin them. Like many of us, Hussey has gone through major life changes over the past decade, and he opens up about his experiences, vulnerabilities, and mistakes.

Love Life is about doing love better. More than a book about romantic relationships, Love Life shows us how to take control of each of the major relationships in our lives: our relationship with others, our relationship with ourselves, and our relationship with life itself.

Our love lives have the power to elevate or eradicate the adjacent joy in our lives. Love Life sets you on the path to finding the love of your life, while deepening your love for life.

4.7 (332)

Down the Drain

Try free now

Cancel anytime

Down the Drain


A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The hotly anticipated book from “one of the all-time pop-culture greats” (New York magazine) that chronicles her shocking life and unyielding determination to not only survive but achieve her dreams.

Julia Fox is famous for many things: her captivating acting, such as her breakout role in the film Uncut Gems; her trendsetting style, including bleached eyebrows, exaggerated eyeshadow, and cutout dresses; her mastery of social media, where she entertains and educates her millions of followers. But all these share the trait for which she is most famous: unabashedly and unapologetically being herself.

This commitment to authenticity has never been more on display than in Down the Drain. With writing that is both eloquent and accessible, Fox recounts her turbulent path to cultural supremacy: her parents’ volatile relationship that divided her childhood between Italy and New York City and left her largely raising herself; a possessive and abusive drug-dealing boyfriend whose torment continued even from within Rikers Island; her own trips to jail as well as to a psychiatric hospital; her work as a dominatrix that led to a complicated entanglement with a sugar daddy; a heroin habit that led to New Orleans trap houses and that she would kick only after the fatal overdose of her best friend; her own near-lethal overdoses and the deaths of still more friends from drugs and suicide; an emotionally explosive, tabloid-dominating romance with a figure she dubs “The Artist”; a whirlwind, short-lived marriage and her trials as a single parent striving to support her young son. Yet as extraordinary as her story is, its universality is what makes it so powerful. Fox doesn’t just capture her improbable evolution from grade-school outcast to fashion-world icon, she captures her transition from girlhood to womanhood to motherhood. Family and friendship, sex and death, violence and love, money and power, innocence and experience—it’s all here, in raw, remarkable, and riveting detail.

More than a year before the book’s publication, Fox’s description of it as “a masterpiece” in a red carpet interview went viral. As always, she was just being honest. Down the Drain is a true literary achievement, as one-of-a-kind as its author.

4.1 (137)

Hillbilly Elegy : The Internationally Bestselling Memoir from Trump’s Future Vice-President of the United States

Try free now

Cancel anytime

Hillbilly Elegy : The Internationally Bestselling Memoir from Trump’s Future Vice-President of the United States


THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER / OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD

THE AMERICAN VICE PRESIDENT'S ORIGIN STORY

‘Essential reading for this moment in history’ New York Times

'You will not read a more important book about America this year' Economist

‘Brilliant … offers an acute insight into the reasons voters have put their trust in Trump’ Observer

J. D. Vance grew up in the hills of Kentucky. His family and friends were the people most of the world calls rednecks, hillbillies or white trash.

In this deeply moving memoir, Vance tells the story of his family’s demons and of America’s problem with generational neglect. How his mother struggled against, but never fully escaped, the legacies of abuse, alcoholism, poverty and trauma. How his grandparents, ‘dirt poor and in love’, gave everything for their children to chase the American dream. How Vance beat the odds to graduate from Yale Law School. And how America came to abandon and then condescend to its white working classes, until they reached breaking point.

‘A beautiful memoir but it is equally a work of cultural criticism about white working-class America … Vance offers a compelling explanation for why it’s so hard for someone who grew up the way he did to make it … a riveting book’ Wall Street Journal

** Now a major-motion picture directed by Ron Howard and starring Amy Adams, Glenn Close, and Gabriel Basso **

3.9 (15)

High Self-Esteem & Confidence Hypnosis: Inner Peace & Self-Acceptance : Powerful Sleep Hypnosis to Increase Confidence, Self-Awareness, Self-Worth & Self-Love to Change Your Life

Try free now

Cancel anytime

High Self-Esteem & Confidence Hypnosis: Inner Peace & Self-Acceptance : Powerful Sleep Hypnosis to Increase Confidence, Self-Awareness, Self-Worth & Self-Love to Change Your Life


Leave behind all the negative self-talk and use these simple steps to make even your wildest dreams come true!

Did you know that over 300 million people worldwide suffer from low self-esteem, low self-confidence, anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and hopelessness? But it doesn't have to be this way. Overcoming these bad feelings is way easier than you might think.

The things that we tell ourselves, about ourselves, become true. So, if we are stuck in this perpetual cycle of negative self-talk, things probably aren't going to go so well.

But if we can flip this script, then self-love, self-mastery, and abundance in all its forms lie just around the corner.

You'll discover:

• A life-changing path to restore your self-esteem

• The ultimate hypnosis to understanding what actually helps, and why this is so powerful

• A powerful hypnosis guaranteed to boost your self-confidence sky-high

• Answers to the most common questions asked about affirmations

• THE most powerful practices that will bring you to a state of inner peace

It's time to stop playing small; no more of this waiting around and simply letting everyone else shine forward. If you are ready to leave all the negativity behind and to, instead, embrace the fullest extent of your own potential, then scroll up and click the "buy now" button right now.

--

Listen to this hypnosis for 21 consecutive days - on a low volume to ensure uninterrupted sleep once you drift off.

3.8 (199)

Cleopatra and Frankenstein

Try free now

Cancel anytime

Cleopatra and Frankenstein


‘A tender, devastating and funny exploration of love and friendship and the yearning for self-evisceration. Coco Mellors is an elegant and exciting new voice’ PANDORA SYKES

New York is slipping from Cleo’s grasp. Sure, she’s at a different party every other night, but she barely knows anyone. Her student visa is running out, and she doesn’t even have money for cigarettes. But then she meets Frank. Twenty years older, Frank's life is full of all the success and excess that Cleo's lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a green card. She offers him a life imbued with beauty and art—and, hopefully, a reason to cut back on his drinking. He is everything she needs right now.

Cleo and Frank run head-first into a romance that neither of them can quite keep up with. It reshapes their lives and the lives of those around them, whether that’s Cleo's best friend struggling to embrace his gender identity in the wake of her marriage, or Frank's financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates after being cut off. Ultimately, this chance meeting between two strangers outside of a New Year’s Eve party changes everything, for better or worse.

Cleopatra and Frankenstein is an astounding and painfully relatable debut novel about the spontaneous decisions that shape our entire lives and those imperfect relationships born of unexpectedly perfect evenings.

4.0 (485)

The 48 Laws of Power

Try free now

Cancel anytime

The 48 Laws of Power


Cunning, instructive, and amoral, this controversial bestseller distills 3,000 years of the history of power into 48 well-explicated laws. Law 1: Never Outshine the Master. Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions. Law 7: Get Others to Do the Work for You, but Always Take the Credit. Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally. Law 33: Discover Each Man's Thumbscrew.

These are the laws of power in their unvarnished essence—the philosophies of Machiavelli (The Prince), Sun-tzu (The Art of War), Carl von Clausewitz, Talleyrand, the great seducer Casanova, con man Yellow Kid Weil, and other legendary thinkers and schemers. They teach prudence, stealth, mastery of one's emotions, the art of deception, and the total absence of mercy. Like it or not, all have practical applications in real life.

Each law is illustrated with examples of observance or transgression drawn from history and featuring such famous figures as Queen Elizabeth I, Henry Kissinger, Mao, Alfred Hitchcock, P.T. Barnum, Haile Selassie, Catherine the Great, and Socrates. Convincing, practical, sometimes shocking, this book will fascinate anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control.

4.8 (4)

You Can't Have It All : The Basic B*tch Guide to Taking the Pressure Off

Try free now

Cancel anytime

You Can't Have It All : The Basic B*tch Guide to Taking the Pressure Off


THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From New York Times bestselling author, OG Vanderpump Rules star, and host of the successful podcast Stassi, a “raw, relatable…brutally funny” (Bustle) guide to rethinking the girlboss life, taking the pressure off, and the lessons Stassi Schroeder’s learned since becoming a mom of two.

Before she wrote Off with My Head, a book about hitting what felt like rock bottom, Stassi Schroeder was writing an entirely different story: a basic bitch’s guide on how to be a—wait for it—“girlboss.” But then 2020 came along and after a global pandemic, losing her job, becoming a mom, and getting married, suddenly, being a girlboss wasn’t the vibe. Instead of giving up, Stassi grew and learned from her mistakes (you know, just standard evolution).

After two and a half years in limbo, Stassi was ready to launch her career again. She’d come a long way from that temperamental “Season One Stassi.” She’d gained a new perspective on what she wants out of life: to carve a path for herself, on her terms. The thing is, all this pressure to “have it all” while girlbossing it up…it’s exhausting, and Stassi isn’t sure it’s the ticket to happiness that we all thought it was.

That’s truly what this book is about: the desire for joy, and accepting that you may not be the “perfect” parent/partner/friend/human—and that’s okay! Instead of letting mom guilt or work guilt get her down, Stassi encourages us all to take the pressure off, give ourselves grace, and lean into the things that bring us happiness. And if you need a little sauvignon blanc or Aperol spritz to get you through the tough days…cheers!

3.7 (154)

The Game

Try free now

Cancel anytime

The Game


Nearly every major city in the world has them: hidden underground seduction lairs where men gather to trade the most devastatingly effective techniques ever invented to seduce women.

This is not fiction.

For two years, bestselling author Neil Strauss lived among these men. Using the pseudonym Style to protect his real-life identity, he began his remarkable journey from AFC (Average Frustrated Chump) to PUA (Pickup Artist) to PUG (Pickup Guru) —refining his approach, sharing unforgettable encounters with the likes of Tom Cruise, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Courtney Love, and ultimately transforming himself from frog to prince . . . to prisoner.

And then things started to get really strange.

One of the most explosive and controversial books in years, The Game is guaranteed to change the lives of men and transform the way women understand the opposite sex forever.

4.6 (24)

War

Try free now

Cancel anytime

War


Chosen by WATERSTONES as one of their BEST POLITICS BOOKS of 2024

Two-time Pulitzer prize winner Bob Woodward tells the revelatory, behind-the-scenes story of three wars – Ukraine, the Middle East and the struggle for the American presidency.

War is an intimate and sweeping account of one of the most tumultuous periods in presidential politics and American history.

We see President Joe Biden and his top advisers in tense conversations with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. We also see Donald Trump, conducting a shadow presidency and seeking to regain political power.

With unrivalled, inside-the-room reporting, Woodward shows President Biden’s approach to managing the war in Ukraine, the most significant land war in Europe since World War II, and his tortured path to contain the bloody Middle East conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.

Woodward reveals the extraordinary complexity and consequence of wartime back-channel diplomacy and decision-making to deter the use of nuclear weapons and a rapid slide into World War III.

The raw cage-fight of politics accelerates as Americans prepare to vote in 2024, starting between President Biden and Trump, and ending with the unexpected elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president.

War provides an unvarnished examination of the vice president as she tries to embrace the Biden legacy and policies while beginning to chart a path of her own as a presidential candidate.

Woodward’s reporting once again sets the standard for journalism at its most authoritative and illuminating.

4.3 (34)

Sociopath : A Memoir

Try free now

Cancel anytime

Sociopath : A Memoir


An engrossing, “completely fascinating” (Cosmopolitan) memoir revealing the author’s struggle to come to terms with her own sociopathy and shed light on the often maligned and misunderstood mental disorder.

Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other people did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing” felt.

In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified—well over 200 years ago—sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a like the madmen and evil villains in pop culture. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either.

This is the inspiring story of Patric’s journey to unlock the true nature of sociopathy and build a life of love and hope against all odds.

4.8 (24)

Body Language: Decode Human Behaviour and How to Analyze People with Persuasion Skills, NLP, Active Listening, Manipulation, and Mind Control Techniques to Read People Like a Book.

Try free now

Cancel anytime

Body Language: Decode Human Behaviour and How to Analyze People with Persuasion Skills, NLP, Active Listening, Manipulation, and Mind Control Techniques to Read People Like a Book.


READ PEOPLE LIKE A BOOK AND ALWAYS HAVE THE UPPER HAND IN ANY CONVERSATION WITH THESE FOOL-PROOF TECHNIQUES! People are fascinating.

We all have different personalities, backgrounds, and motivations that drive our behavior in unique ways.

But when it comes down to it, we’re all driven by the same basic human needs and desires. Learning how to identify these commonalities is key for gaining rapport with others and building strong relationships.

Once you understand what makes people tick on an emotional level, you can use this knowledge as a tool for persuasion or manipulation if need be!

Through mastering the art of body language, you'll discover how your body language affects other people's perceptions of you - both positively and negatively - so that you can make sure every interaction leaves them feeling good about themselves...and about you!

This audiobook will teach you everything there is to know about reading body language and understanding human behavior.

You'll learn how other people perceive different types of non-verbal communication from head nods and eye contact, down to hand gestures, and more subtle cues like posture. You can use these tips in any setting whether at work, school, home, or even when talking on the phone!

Know how to analyze people like a book so that you can predict what they're going to do next!

In this audiobook, you’ll get the blueprints to:

Never fall victim to manipulation ever again. Get into the minds of anyone you ever meet! Successfully interpret body language and use it to your advantage. Mentally stimulating lessons for a fun yet enlightening experience. Mastering how to analyze anyone and know their motives. Have the upper hand in any situation!

Once you master these techniques, it won't be long before your friends start calling you “the human lie detector” or “human polygraph machine." And if someone ever tries something shady on you, just remember;

The eyes never lie!

SCROLL UP, CLICK ON “BUY NOW”, AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE TODAY!

3.8 (4)

The Sinners : A Reverse Harem Romance

Try free now

Cancel anytime

The Sinners : A Reverse Harem Romance


I knew when I started this path it would lead to destruction...

...but nothing could have prepared me for this.

Drugs flooding campus. Tensions brewing between the factions. Old enemies reappearing. New secrets taking over my life. Love awakening a soul I long thought was dead.

Cassius, Clay, Hiro, and Royal have named me one of them, but sharing a title is easy. Can we share all that comes with it?

I’ll be tested in ways I’m not prepared for—by enemies and loves alike. There’s more going on with the academy, the Horsemen, and my parents' disappearance than I knew. What I do know is following that path will be dangerous.

I can't tell who the angels, demons, or devils are anymore.

I just know they're all after me.

The Sinners is a contemporary reverse harem high school bully romance. This is the second book in the series and features language, dark themes, and spicy scenes.

4.1 (245)

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?

Try free now

Cancel anytime

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?


“Smart, insightful, and warm. Dr. Julie is both the expert and wise friend we all need.” –Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone and co-host of the ""Dear Therapists"" podcast?

Drawing on years of experience as a clinical psychologist, online sensation Dr Julie Smith provides the skills you need to navigate common life challenges and take charge of your emotional and mental health in her debut book.

Filled with secrets from a therapist's toolkit, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before teaches you how to fortify and maintain your mental health, even in the most trying of times. Dr Julie Smith’s expert advice and powerful coping techniques will help you stay resilient, whether you want to manage anxiety, deal with criticism, cope with depression, build self-confidence, find motivation, or learn to forgive yourself. Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before tackles everyday issues and offers practical solutions in bite-sized, easy-to-digest entries which make it easy to quickly find specific information and guidance.

Your mental well-being is just as important as your physical well-being. Packed with proven strategies, Dr. Julie’s empathetic guide offers a deeper understanding of how your mind works and gives you the insights and help you need to nurture your mental health every day. Wise and practical, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before might just change your life.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

3.9 (122)

Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord

Try free now

Cancel anytime

Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord


Since being named “London’s Lord to Land” by a popular ladies’ magazine, Nicholas St. John has been relentlessly pursued by every matrimony-minded female in the ton. So when an opportunity to escape fashionable society presentsitself, he eagerly jumps—only to land in the path of the most determined, damnably delicious woman he’s ever met!

The daughter of a titled wastrel, Lady Isabel Townsend has too many secrets and too little money. Though she is used to taking care of herself quite handily, her father’s recent passing has left Isabel at sea and in need of outside help to protect her young brother’s birthright. The sinfully handsome, eminently eligible Lord Nicholas could be the very salvation she seeks.

But the lady must be wary and not do anything reckless and foolish…like falling madly, passionately in love.

4.4 (58)

A Taste for Poison : Eleven deadly substances and the killers who used them

Try free now

Cancel anytime

A Taste for Poison : Eleven deadly substances and the killers who used them


’Indecently entertaining.’ A Daily Mail Book of the Week

An Amazon US Best Book of 2022

'A fascinating tale of poisons and poisonous deeds which both educates and entertains.' — Kathy Reichs

As any reader of murder mysteries can tell you, poison is one of the most enduring — and popular — weapons of choice for a scheming murderer. It can be slipped into a drink, smeared onto the tip of an arrow or the handle of a door, even filtered through the air we breathe. But how exactly do these poisons work to break our bodies down, and what can we learn from the damage they inflict?

In a fascinating blend of popular science, medical history, and narrative crime nonfiction, Dr Neil Bradbury explores this most morbidly captivating method of murder from a cellular level. Alongside real-life accounts of murderers and their crimes —some notorious, some forgotten, some still unsolved — are the equally compelling stories of the poisons involved: eleven molecules of death that work their way through the human body and, paradoxically, illuminate the way in which our bodies function.

Drawn from historical records and current news headlines, A Taste for Poison weaves together the fascinating tales of spurned lovers, shady scientists, medical professionals and political assassins, showing how the precise systems of the body can be impaired to lethal effect through the use of poison. From the deadly origins of the gin & tonic cocktail to the arsenic-laced wallpaper in Napoleon’s bedroom, A Taste for Poison leads readers on a fascinating tour of the intricate, complex systems that keep us alive — or don’t.