Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.
(2018) Starting with the Ottoman conquests in the sixteenth century, this landmark book follows the story of the Arabs through the era of European imperialism and the Superpower rivalries of the Cold War, to the present age of unipolar American power. Drawing on the writings and eyewitness accounts of those who lived through the tumultuous years of Arab history, The Arabs balances different voices – politicians, intellectuals, students, men and women, poets and novelists, famous, infamous and the completely unknown – to give a rich, complex sense of life over nearly five centuries.
Rogan’s book is remarkable for its geographical sweep, covering the Arab world from North Africa through the Arabian Peninsula, and for the depth in which it explores every facet of modern Arab history. Charting the evolution of Arab identity from Ottomanism to Arabism to Islamism, it covers themes including the conflict between national independence and foreign domination, the Arab-Israeli struggle and the peace process, Abdel Nasser and the rise of Arab Nationalism, the political and economic power of oil and the conflict between secular and Islamic values.
This multilayered, fascinating and definitive work is the essential guide to understanding the history of the modern Arab world – and its future.
(2018) Sleep is one of the most important aspects of our life, health and longevity and yet it is increasingly neglected in twenty-first-century society, with devastating consequences: every major disease in the developed world – Alzheimer’s, cancer, obesity, diabetes – has very strong causal links to deficient sleep.
In this book, the first of its kind written by a scientific expert, Professor Matthew Walker explores twenty years of cutting-edge research to solve the mystery of why sleep matters. Looking at creatures from across the animal kingdom as well as major human studies, Why We Sleep delves into everything from what really happens during REM sleep to how caffeine and alcohol affect sleep and why our sleep patterns change across a lifetime, transforming our appreciation of the extraordinary phenomenon that safeguards our existence.
(2013) A new edition of Keri Smith’s bestseller, with updated material
Think of Wreck This Journal as the anarchist’s Artist’s Way — the book for those who’ve always wanted to draw outside the lines but were afraid to do it.
For anyone who’s ever wished to, but had trouble starting, keeping, or finishing a journal or sketchbook comes Wreck This Journal, an illustrated book featuring a subversive collection of suggestions, asking readers to muster up their best mistake – and mess-making abilities to fill the pages of the book (and destroy them).
Through a series of creatively and quirkily illustrated prompts, acclaimed artist Keri Smith encourages journalers to engage in “destructive” acts – poking holes through pages, adding photos and defacing them, painting with coffee, colouring outside the lines, and more – in order to experience the true creative process. With Keri Smith’s unique sensibility, readers are introduced to a new way of art and journal making, discovering novel ways to escape the fear of the blank page and fully engage in the creative process.
Bestselling author Keri Smith is a freelance illustrator by trade, and has illustrated for the Washington Post, The New York Times, Ford Motor Company, People, The Body Shop and Hallmark. She is the author of Wreck This Journal, How To Be An Explorer of the World and Mess. A native of Canada, she lives in the US.
(2017) Making a movie is a lot like going on a road trip. There are twists and turns and lots of surprises along the way.
Hit the road with author and illustrator Jeff Kinney and get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the latest 20th Century Fox movie, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul. In cinemas from the 20th May.
Find out what it takes to film a flock of seagulls invading a mini-van. Learn about a robot pig and an animatronic three-year-old. And discover everything that goes into making a feature film.
Complete with exclusive set photos, storyboards and original cartoons by Jeff Kinney. The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: The Next Chapter is the perfect book for anyone who’s ever wondered how a movie gets made and an ideal companion to the bestselling series. But buckle up: You’re in for a wild ride.
(2018) The pressure’s really piling up on Greg Heffley. His mom thinks video games are turning his brain to mush, so she wants her son to put down the controller and explore his ‘creative side’.
As if that’s not scary enough, Halloween’s just around the corner and the frights are coming at Greg from every angle.
When Greg discovers a bag of gummy worms, it sparks an idea. Can he get his mom off his back by making a movie . . . and will he become rich and famous in the process? Or will doubling down on this plan just double Greg’s troubles?
(2021) ‘It’s a foreboding,’ she said. ‘A knowing that something is looming around the corner. Like how when the seasons change you can smell Fall in the air right before the leaves change and the wind turns cold.’
In January 2020, as people started dying from a new virus in Wuhan, China, few really understood the magnitude of what was happening. Except, that is, a small group of scientific misfits who in their different ways had been obsessed all their lives with how viruses spread and replicated – and with why the governments and the institutions that were supposed to look after us, kept making the same mistakes time and again.
This group saw what nobody else did. A pandemic was coming. We weren’t prepared.
The Premonition is the extraordinary story of a group who anticipated, traced and hunted the coronavirus; who understood the need to think differently, to learn from history, to question everything; and to do all of this fast, in order to act, to save lives, communities, society itself. It’s a story about the workings of the human mind; about the failures and triumphs of human judgement and imagination. It’s the story of how we got to now.
(2020) Avery has a plan: keep her head down, work hard for a better future.
Then an eccentric billionaire dies, leaving her almost his entire fortune. And no one, least of all Avery, knows why.
(2020) Rediscover the magical story of Mary Lennox, who arrives in the wild and windswept Yorkshire a sickly and miserable girl – until she discovers a forgotten, Secret Garden.
As Mary works hard to bring the garden back to life, its magic begins to work on her too . . .
This classic and beloved story has been beautifully retold by Claire Freedman and brought to glorious visual life by new illustration talent Shaw Davidson
