These are the best books of 2015 according to the Economist.

Politics and current affairs

Near and Distant Neighbours: A New History of Soviet Intelligence

Jonathan Haslam
Oxford University Press

Amazon
–

Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis

Robert Putnam
Simon & Schuster

Amazon
–

North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors

Daniel Tudor and James Pearson
Tuttle

Amazon
$1.99

Ghettoside: Investigating a Homicide Epidemic

Jill Leovy
Spiegel & Grau; Vintage

Amazon
–

Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story

David Maraniss
Simon & Schuster

Amazon
–

History

Nagasaki: Life after Nuclear War

Susan Southard
Viking; Souvenir

Amazon
–

Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles

Bernard Cornwell
Harper Collins; William Collins

Amazon
$15.95

The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East

Eugene Rogan
Basic Books; Allen lane

Amazon
–

Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning

Timothy Snyder
Tim Duggan Books; Bodley Head

Amazon
$12.07

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

Mary Beard
Liveright; Profile

Amazon
–

[amazon template=custom_thumbnail&asin=0375713964&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Empire of Cotton: A Global History Sven Beckert]

[amazon text=Empire of Cotton: A Global History&template=custom_title&asin=0375713964&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Empire of Cotton: A Global History Sven Beckert]

[amazon text=Sven Beckert&template=custom_search&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Sven Beckert]
Knopf; Allen Lane

[amazon text=Amazon&template=custom_text_price&asin=0375713964&multi_cc=1&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Empire of Cotton: A Global History Sven Beckert]

What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing

Brian Seibert
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Amazon
–

Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia

Dominic Lieven
Allen Lane

Amazon
–

Biography and memoir

Kissinger: The Idealist, 1923-1968

Niall Ferguson
Penguin Press; Allen Lane

Amazon
$11.09

Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot

Mark Vanhoenacker
Knopf; Chatto & Windus

Amazon
–

Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life

Jonathan Bate
Harper; William Collins

Amazon
–

[amazon template=custom_thumbnail&asin=038535066X&search_text=%TITLE%&title=The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World Andrea Wulf]

[amazon text=The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World&template=custom_title&asin=038535066X&search_text=%TITLE%&title=The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World Andrea Wulf]

[amazon text=Andrea Wulf&template=custom_search&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Andrea Wulf]
Knopf; John Murray

[amazon text=Amazon&template=custom_text_price&asin=038535066X&multi_cc=1&search_text=%TITLE%&title=The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World Andrea Wulf]

Economics and business

The Public Wealth of Nations: How Management of Public Assets Can Boost or Bust Economic Growth

Dag Detter and Stefan Fölster
Palgrave Macmillan

Amazon
$13.38

Other People’s Money: The Real Business of Finance

John Kay
PublicAffairs; Profile

Amazon
$12.00

Inequality: What Can Be Done?

Anthony Atkinson
Harvard University Press

Amazon
–

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics

Richard Thaler
Norton; Allen Lane

Amazon
$9.00

Economics Rules: The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science

Dani Rodrik
Norton; Oxford University Press

Amazon
–

Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup

Andrew Zimbalist
Brookings Institution Press

Amazon
$1.99

Culture, society and travel

The Road to Character

David Brooks
Random House; Allen Lane

Amazon
$8.69

Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family

Anne-Marie Slaughter
Random House; Oneworld

Amazon
$1.95

[amazon template=custom_thumbnail&asin=0812993543&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates]

[amazon text=Between the World and Me&template=custom_title&asin=0812993543&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates]

[amazon text=Ta-Nehisi Coates&template=custom_search&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Ta-Nehisi Coates]
Random House

[amazon text=Amazon&template=custom_text_price&asin=0812993543&multi_cc=1&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates]

Schubert’s Winter Journey: An Anatomy of an Obsession

Ian Bostridge
Knopf; Faber and Faber

Amazon
$18.20

Plucked: A History of Hair Removal

Rebecca Herzig
NYU Press

Amazon
–

Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio

Misha Glenny
Bodley Head; Knopf

Amazon
–

Science and technology

Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner
Crown; Random House

Amazon
–

Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

Steve Silberman
Avery; Allen & Unwin

Amazon
–

The Vital Question: Why Is Life the Way It Is?

Nick Lane
Norton; Profile

Amazon
–

Humans Need Not Apply: A Guide to Wealth and Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Jerry Kaplan
Yale University Press

Amazon
–

Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension

Matt Parker
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Particular Books

Amazon
$10.65

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

Carlo Rovelli
Translated by Simon Carnell, Erica Segre
Allen Lane

Amazon
–

The New Wild: Why Invasive Species Will Be Nature’s Salvation

Fred Pearce
Beacon Press

Amazon
–

Adventures in Human Being

Gavin Francis
Basic Books; Profile

Amazon
–

Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells

Helen Scales
Bloomsbury

Amazon
–

How to Talk about Videogames

Ian Bogost
University of Minnesota Press

Amazon
$6.98

Fiction

A Brief History of Seven Killings

Marlon James
Riverhead; Oneworld

Amazon
–

The Fishermen

Chigozie Obioma
Little, Brown; One

Amazon
$14.00

Seiobo There Below

Laszlo Krasznahorkai
Translated by Ottilie Mulzet
New Directions; Tuskar Rock

Amazon
$12.00

Submission

Michel Houellebecq
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; William Heinemann

Amazon
–

A Little Life

Hanya Yanagihara
Doubleday; Picador

Amazon
$9.95

An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It

Jessie Greengrass
JM Originals

Amazon
–

[amazon template=custom_thumbnail&asin=1609452860&search_text=%TITLE%&title=The Story of the Lost Child The Neapolitan Novels Elena Ferrante]

[amazon text=The Story of the Lost Child&template=custom_title&asin=1609452860&search_text=%TITLE%&title=The Story of the Lost Child The Neapolitan Novels Elena Ferrante] (Neapolitan Novels, Book Four)

[amazon text=Elena Ferrante&template=custom_search&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Elena Ferrante] Translated by [amazon text=Ann Goldstein&template=custom_search&search_text=%TITLE%&title=Ann Goldstein]
Europa

[amazon text=Amazon&template=custom_text_price&asin=1609452860&multi_cc=1&search_text=%TITLE%&title=The Story of the Lost Child The Neapolitan Novels Elena Ferrante]

The Economist is an English-language weekly newspaper edited in offices in London. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843. For historical reasons, the Economist refers to itself as a newspaper, but each print edition appears on small glossy paper like a news magazine.

The Economist claims that it “is not a chronicle of economics”. Rather, it aims “to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress”. It takes an editorial stance of classical and economic liberalism which is supportive of free trade, globalisation, free immigration and cultural liberalism (such as supporting legal recognition for same-sex marriage). The publication targets highly educated readers and claims an audience containing many influential executives and policy-makers. (Wikipedia.)

Source: The Economist
Last checked on: 16 December 2015
Image: The Economist / Illustration by Daniel Pudles

Politics and current affairs

Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=1476769893" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Ghettoside: Investigating a Homicide Epidemic<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=1847923356" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=1476748381" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

History

Nagasaki: Life after Nuclear War<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0670025623" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=1101903457" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0871404230" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0865479534" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Biography and memoir

Kissinger: The Idealist, 1923-1968<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=1594206538" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=038535181X" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0062362437" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Economics and business

Inequality: What Can Be Done?<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0674504763" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0393080943" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Culture, society and travel

The Road to Character<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=081299325X" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0812994566" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Plucked: A History of Hair Removal<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=1479840823" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0385351038" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Science and technology

The Vital Question: Why Is Life the Way It Is?<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=1781250367" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0374535639" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0399184414" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Adventures in Human Being<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0465079687" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

How to Talk about Videogames<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0816699127" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Fiction

A Brief History of Seven Killings<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=1594633940" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

The Fishermen<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0316338370" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Seiobo There Below<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0811219674" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Submission<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0374271577" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

A Little Life<img data-lazy-fallback="1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=e0680b-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0804172706" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis

Ghettoside: Investigating a Homicide Epidemic

Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story

Nagasaki: Life after Nuclear War

Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing

Kissinger: The Idealist, 1923-1968

Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot

Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life

Inequality: What Can Be Done?

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics

The Road to Character

Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family

Plucked: A History of Hair Removal

Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio

The Vital Question: Why Is Life the Way It Is?

Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

Adventures in Human Being

How to Talk about Videogames

A Brief History of Seven Killings

The Fishermen

Seiobo There Below

Submission

A Little Life