Politics and current affairs

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime. By John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama. By David Remnick

The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers. By Richard McGregor

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory. By Peter Hessler

Molotovâs Magic Lantern: A Journey in Russian History. By Rachel Polonsky

Curfewed Night: One Kashmiri Journalistâs Frontline Account of Life, Love and War in his Homeland. By Basharat Peer

The Fear: The Last Days of Robert Mugabe. By Peter Godwin

The Watchers: The Rise of Americaâs Surveillance State. By Shane Harris

The Rule of Law. By Tom Bingham

The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Childrenâs Futureâand Why They Should Give it Back By David Willetts

Biography and memoir

The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance. By Edmund de Waal

Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Familyâs Feuds. By Lyndall Gordon

Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) With Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. By Stephen Sondheim

The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece.By Eric Siblin

History

Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. By Timothy Snyder

Why the West RulesâFor Now: The Patterns of History and What They Reveal About the Future. By Ian Morris

Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962. By Frank Dikotter

Red Plenty: Industry! Progress! Abundance! Inside the Fifties' Soviet Dream. By Francis Spufford

A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided. By Amanda Foreman

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of Americaâs Great Migration. By Isabel Wilkerson

Pearl Buck in China: Journey to the Good Earth. By Hilary Spurling

A History of the World in 100 Objects. By Neil MacGregor

Economics and business

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. By Michael Lewis

More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of the New Elite. By Sebastian Mallaby

High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg. By Niall Ferguson

Science and technology

A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming. By Paul Edwards

Biology is Technology: The Promise, Peril, and New Business of Engineering Life. By Rob Carlson

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. By Matt Ridley

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. By Steven Johnson

What Technology Wants. By Kevin Kelly

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. By Siddhartha Mukherjee

Culture, society and travel

Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages. By Guy Deutscher

Sweetness and Blood: How Surfing Spread from Hawaii and California to the Rest of the World, With Some Unexpected Results. By Michael Scott Moore

Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theatre. By Larry Stempel

McGilchristâs Greek Islands. By Nigel McGilchrist

Fiction

Freedom. By Jonathan Franzen

To the End of the Land. By David Grossman

Parrot and Olivier in America. By Peter Carey

The Unnamed. By Joshua Ferris

Mr Peanut. By Adam Ross

The Imperfectionists. By Tom Rachman

Selected Stories. By William Trevor

Poetry

Human chain. By Seamus Heaney

White Egrets: Poems. By Derek Walcott

(lets hear it for perl one-liners.)