I hate history!  But this is unique.  Firstly it's one of the very few books that covers Russia's history from it's nomadic tribe beginnings to the present day, which is a feat in itself.  secondly, it's actually readable, even to someone like me who "doesn't do history".  It's a very readable and interesting book, and absolutely fascinating. 

This is a fascinating book.  The most valuable stone in the world isn't diamonds, it's Imperial Green Jade, prized for a millenium by the Chinese Emperors, and virtually unknown in the West until recently.  It was worshipped.  Mandarin Emperors used to grind it and drink it as an elixir of life.  Today it is the centre of a terrifying and disgusting regime who mines it with expendable drug addicts in inhuman conditions.  It's a true life story of 2 reporters who went to see for themselves, and amazingly survived.

A series of essays or commentaries on aspects of the film "The Matrix" that merit expansion, by doctors, economists, philosophers, religious scholars and technologists.  Clears up a lot of questions raised by the film about symbolism etc, and present the philosophy in a great way.  If you like The Matrix, why haven't you read this before?

A book of essays?  Hmm not really, the publisher must have been writing that description creatively.  This little book reads like a Tao or Zen collection of short pieces, and is well worth a read. 

Now don't laugh... but this is the story of the apple, the tulip, the potato and marijuana.  The story (it's a kind of detective fiction crossed with non-fiction) of these 4 species and how they deliberately and craftily evolved to take advantage of us humans, by making US think we're breeding THEM.  "Plants are so unlike people that it's very difficult for us to appreciate fully their complexity and sophistication... While we were nailing down consciousness and learning to walk on two feet, they were... inventing photosynthesis... and perfecting organic chemistry... Why would they go to all this trouble?... it makes just as much sense to think of agriculture as something the grasses did to people as a way to conquer the trees."

Katy Payne and team studied elephants for 12 years.  They found astonishing evidence for an animal society rich in communication and compassion.  An amazing story of the life, communication and emotions of elephants - and humans.  Her team was multicultural, and each culture interpreted their findings differently, and adds a different perspective.

I put this book here because I have NO IDEA how to classify it!  RAW's stuff is adored by cult groupies and I don't like a lot of it, but this one is fascinating.  Maybe I should have put it in psychology... or philosophy... who knows?

This book is by Nigel Farndale, who I do not know from Adam, but his wife was a friend of mine and gave me a copy otherwise I might never have found this brilliant and wonderful diamond of a book.  It's a wonderful read of his interviews with "Heroes and Villains".  Informative, witty, entertaining - it's the best gift I got that year! 

The book of the film.  Gripping. In this gripping true-life story, author Joe Simpson recounts a climb in the Peruvian Andes that is one stroke of bad luck after another. With everything working against their survival, including a horrible fall where Simpson shatters his right leg, Simpson and his climbing partner, beat the odds in this wonderful book of friendship, choices, endurance, and the strength ofthe human spirit.

Do you remember how the world watched and waited with bated breath as the Kursk submarine disaster unfolded?  How we willed them to get the men out alive?  The book is gripping.  Robert Moore the author of A Time to Die through extensive reasearch and retelling o facts gives a chiling hour-by-hour narrative of what happened in August 200 when the "Kursk" a Russian submarine suddenly experienced two explosions that killed all on board. The details gathered and the accounts given by family of the crew memebers and those who were on the rescuemission will keep the reader enthralled as the answers to what really happened begin to unfold.

The history of economic genius.  Sound boring?  Not at all - Told with a great deal of livening up of the stories of these stranger-than-life personalities.

The true story of Richard Marcinko, trainer of the special SEAL Unit turned into fiction in Rogue Warrior books.

(Copied from book cover) Why is 99.9% of all violent crime committed by men?  Why do more men consult their doctors about impotence than anything else?  And why do the figures for violent and sexual crime keep rising, year after year? ...Rosalind miles examines what it means to "be a man" in a world where male violence has set the agenda for militarism, rape and recreational savagery.  She investigates the demands made on men by society, and the cost of the macho myth - to humankind and to men themselves.