Summer reads
A new collection of our most beach-friendly articles
Welcome to Summer reads, our guide to a season of great reading. We’ve sifted through our pages to find some of our most enjoyable, luminous and thought-provoking stories. In the selection on this page, our writers suggest the best books to read on everything from money-making to mountaineering. Our columnists explain why there’s a new economics of fertility; and how the office romance fizzled. Our correspondents investigate how a free Hong Kong became a police state; and take you into the Alaskan wilderness on a hunt for the forces that will sustain the oil economy. Scroll down for much more. We hope this collection carries you through a brilliant summer.
Stephanie Studer
US digital editor
If you want… to expand your mind
Richer societies mean fewer babies. Right?
A guide to the new economics of fertility
Do tips make for better service?
The evidence is mixed—and the practice varies widely across the world
The surprising upside of climate migration
To adapt to climate change, people will move. The results will not be all bad
How Microsoft could supplant Apple as the world’s most valuable firm
It hopes to seize on AI to transform the future of work
If you want… five perfect books on (almost) any topic
Five novels that imagine dictatorship in America
A gripping way into thinking about democracy under threat
Five books about Iraq, a cradle of civilisation and catastrophe
What to read to understand the country’s recent history—and its ancient beginnings
Five books on the best approaches to being an investor
What to read to understand how to make your money grow
Five of the best books on climbing mountains
The books and a documentary that capture the pull of the peaks
If you want… to escape to another world
War in space is no longer science fiction
Inside America’s celestial struggle against China and Russia
Romantasy brings dragons and eroticism together. At last
Novels starring hot fairies are selling millions of copies
Finding aliens means studying new sorts of planet
But the places extraterrestrial life can be looked for are not the places it is most likely to thrive
Tuvalu plans for its own disappearance
Is a country still a country if it sinks?
If you’d rather… get to know this one better
The Alaskan wilderness reveals the past and the future
The oil flows more slowly, the climate changes more quickly
How a free and open Hong Kong became a police state
It was a long time in the planning
Where capitalism and conservation meet
Can you put a price on the wonders of nature?
The deadly journey to the Gulf
Migrants from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia risk drowning, extortion and violence
If you want… to gen up on artificial intelligence
How AI could change computing, culture and the course of history
Expect changes in the way people access knowledge, relate to knowledge and think about themselves
Three reasons why it’s good news that robots are getting smarter
They are becoming more capable, easier to program and better at explaining themselves
AIs will make health care safer and better
It may even get cheaper, too, says Natasha Loder
Could AI transform life in developing countries?
Optimists hope it will ease grave shortages of human capital
If you want… relationship advice and love The Economist
The decline of the office romance
Fewer romantic relationships will be forged at the water cooler. That is a shame
Sexual problems can wreck lives. Yet remedies are often simple
Doctors and schools should be franker about pleasure
Cousin marriage is probably fine in most cases
It is also illegal in 25 American states
Polyamory is getting slivers of legal recognition in America
Searching for rights in a monogamous world
If you want… to gorge on food writing
How Provençal rosé became the summer tipple par excellence
When temperatures rise, wine-drinkers think pink
Chinese food is more diverse than Western eaters might think
In “Invitation to a Banquet” Fuchsia Dunlop celebrates the cuisine’s spread and savour
Liquorice flourishes in salty soils of the dried-up Aral Sea
Karakalpakstan is the sweet root’s new production hub
How to eat to 100
Dan Buettner’s book explores America’s healthiest cuisines
If you’re… an omnivore and just want to be surprised
Can playing cards help catch criminals?
A novel idea for solving cold cases comes with high-stakes risks
God™: an ageing product outperforms expectations
An economist tries to explain religion
The third-largest exporter of television is not who you might expect
After America and Britain, Turkey is the biggest seller of scripted shows
Christian Californians may have a solution to America’s obesity
Lessons in longevity from Seventh-day Adventists
If you want… to read what everyone else is reading
The exponential growth of solar power will change the world
An energy-rich future is within reach
Why Costco is so loved
Keeping customers, employees and investors happy is no mean feat
Why southern Europeans will soon be the longest-lived people in the world
Diet and exercise, but also urban design and social life
Donald Trump has finally got it right about the January 6th insurrectionists
They were “warriors”—that’s the problem