Bill Gates’ Summer Reading Picks from PRH

The most ambitious, hilarious, and affecting novel to date by the Booker Prize-finalist David Mitchell, a writer who "imagines a literature for the 21st Century" (the Guardian)

A grand vision defined: The CEO of The Walt Disney Company shares the ideas and values he has used to reinvent one of the most beloved companies in the world, and inspire the people who bring the magic to life.

#1 New York Times bestseller“Barry will teach you almost everything you need to know about one of the deadliest outbreaks in human history.”—Bill Gates"Monumental... an authoritative and disturbing morality tale."—Chicago Tribune The strongest weapon against pandemic is the truth. Read why in the definitive account of the 1918 Flu Epidemic.  Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon. As Barry concludes, "The final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that...those in authority must retain the public's trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart."   At the height of World War I, history’s most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease.

The blockbuster phenomenon that charts an amazing journey of the mind while revolutionizing our concept of memory“Highly entertaining.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker“Funny, curious, erudite, and full of useful details about ancient techniques of training memory.” —The Boston GlobeAn instant bestseller that has now become a classic, Moonwalking with Einstein recounts Joshua Foer's yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes." He draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of remembering, and venerable tricks of the mentalist's trade to transform our understanding of human memory. From the United States Memory Championship to deep within the author's own mind, this is an electrifying work of journalism that reminds us that, in every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.

A mission to Mars. A freak accident. One man's struggle to survive.

The mega-bestseller with more than 1.5 million readers that is soon to be a major television series"The novel buzzes with the energy of numerous adventures, love affairs, [and] twists of fate." --The Wall Street Journal

The world's most entertaining and useless self-help guide, from the brilliant mind behind the wildly popular webcomic xkcd and the #1 New York Times bestsellers What If? and Thing Explainer