The Economist reads

The best recent books on culture and ideas

Our eight picks include a book on the relationship between bears and people and a binge-worthy one about television

1960s black and white photograph of a family of four watching television in the living room, parents on the sofa and children lying on the floor.
Photograph: Getty Images

Wonder, fear and friction characterise the relationship between bears and people. The author, a journalist for Reuters, travels the world in search of eight surviving species of bruin, including grizzlies and pandas, bringing readers on a riveting and unique sort of bear hunt.

Discover more

Young mother is reading a book to her two sons for a good night sleep. Night time with reading lamp.

Books for young children that you can read over and over and over

Parents will enjoy these, too

Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton, the Governor of Arkansas, is surrounded by supporters of her husband at a Washington campaign rally in 1992.

Books that imagine that history took a different course

What if Hitler had won and Hillary Rodham had broken up with Bill Clinton?


A person carries a 'Stay Woke' sign during the 'Teach No Lies' march to the School Board of Miami-Dade County to protest Florida's new standards for teaching Black history, which have come under intense criticism for what they say about slavery, USA.

What to read about America’s culture wars

Four books on controversies that helped to shape the presidential election


What to read about grief and bereavement

Six books about feelings that are both universal and unique to the person experiencing them

Books that probe the secrets of the Mossad 

Seven books on Israeli intelligence agencies, which are spearheading the offensive against Hizbullah in Lebanon

An introduction to Lebanon, perhaps the next front in a wider war

Four books and a film on a pivotal Middle Eastern country