Griffiths goes beyond the familiar accounts of faithful hounds rescuing their owners or comforting the lonely, to explain in sometimes quirky detail how and why animals are so good at making us healthier and happier.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When dogs look at a human face, she writes, they automatically gaze to their left so they can look at the right-hand side of the face, which is the side that expresses emotions most tellingly. They don\u2019t do this for monkeys or other dogs, says Griffiths. \u201cIt\u2019s just for us,\u201d and may have evolved to gauge our emotions.<\/p>\n
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The way animals organise themselves collectively also offers us what Griffiths calls \u201cpolitical medicine\u201d. Thus we learn of the fieldfare birds that ward off enemy crows trying to steal their eggs by flying high above them en masse and doing \u201ca massive synchronized shit\u201d. Their scientific name is Turdus pilaris.<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s intractable addiction to plastic may not offer as many gripping anecdotes. But former Wall Street Journal reporter Saabira Chaudhuri does a mighty job of showing how plastic came to take over our lives, and why we have repeatedly failed to curb it, in Consumed: How Big Brands Got Us Hooked on Plastic<\/strong> (Blink \u00a322).<\/p>\n This failure is chilling considering the equivalent of one rubbish truck of plastic waste goes into the ocean every minute and microplastics are found in everything from foetuses to tea bags.<\/p>\n When retailers first embraced plastic in the 1930s, it kept food fresher for longer and cut costs because stores didn\u2019t need staff to weigh produce. \u201cBut a major reason supermarkets took to plastic packaging with such enthusiasm was that plastic encouraged people to buy more,\u201d Chaudhuri writes. It made things look more attractive and, by the 1960s, it was essential for repackaging commodities as brands. <\/p>\n Current models of waste collection and recycling that cash-strapped governments struggle to run effectively may not be the answer. Chaudhuri makes a powerful case for smarter rules on recycling and other measures that push plastic-using companies to bear more of its growing environmental and social costs.<\/p>\n Back in the natural world, researcher and self-described \u201cgeography nerd\u201d, Maxim Samson, takes a fresh look at humanity\u2019s imprint on the planet in Earth Shapers: How Humans Mastered Geography & Remade the World<\/strong> (Profile \u00a322). <\/p>\n This is Samson\u2019s second book in two years, after 2023\u2019s Invisible Lines<\/a> showed the unexpected side effects of human-drawn borders. This time he has written something of a riposte to the idea that geography is destiny by charting the myriad ways in which humans have reshaped their surroundings to become more interconnected.<\/p>\n Some of the territory he covers is familiar, such as the Panama Canal that the US built in little more than a decade, opening up once unthinkable gains from faster transport of goods to safer journeys for navigators. But much of the book focuses on less famous projects, such as the Qhapaq \u00d1an, or great road system of the Incas that connected the planet\u2019s largest rainforest, the Amazon, with its driest hot desert, the Atacama, and biggest ocean, the Pacific.\u00a0<\/p>\n More recently there is Saudi Arabia\u2019s plan for The Line, a futuristic, hyperconnected \u201ccognitive city\u201d consists of two skyscrapers 200m wide and 170km long that will, according to its boosters, constitute a \u201ccivilisational revolution\u201d.<\/p>\n Finally, Californian journalist Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow has written the latest in a growing number of books about nuclear power<\/a>, Atomic Dreams: The New Nuclear Evangelists and the Fight for the Future of Energy<\/strong> (Algonquin Books $30).<\/p>\n This is no fierce polemic in favour of a steady source of low-carbon electricity that many think is needed at a time when climate change is a growing threat and an energy-hungry AI future beckons. Rather, Tuhus-Dubrow tells the story of the \u201cnuclearists\u201d, the surprisingly diverse pro-nuclear campaigners who have spent years arguing nuclear does not necessarily mean catastrophic meltdowns and radioactive death.<\/p>\n The best titles of the year so far \u2014 from politics, economics and history to art, food and, of course, fiction, FT writers and critics choose their favourite reads of the year so far<\/a><\/p>\n Much of it centres on Diablo Canyon, California\u2019s last nuclear power plant. It was due to close in 2025 until the decision was reversed in 2022 under a Democratic state governor, Gavin Newsom. That was a win for women such as Diablo Canyon workers Heather Hoff and Kristin Zaitz, co-founders of a group called Mothers for Nuclear. It was also part of a trend of growing public support for nuclear in the US, along with increasing state backing for plants.<\/p>\n As the daughter of anti-nuclear, green-minded parents, Tuhus-Dubrow understands nuclear\u2019s cost and toxic waste, but also its benefits. \u201cTo be a bit reductive, I\u2019ve come around to thinking: nuclear isn\u2019t as bad as I thought, and renewables aren\u2019t as good as I thought,\u201d she writes. Nuclear is neither a panacea nor an abomination, she adds. \u201cLike any energy source, it has upsides and downsides.\u201d<\/p>\n Join our online book group on Facebook at FT Books Caf\u00e9<\/a> and follow FT Weekend on Instagram<\/a>, Bluesky<\/a> and X<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/https:\/\/d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net\/production\/60cbd2a3-910a-4d58-a8e4-af1e1a22b02a.jpg\")
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Summer Books 2025<\/p>\n