Ask HN: Recommend one book I need to read this summer?

If you enjoyed those books, I'd recommend Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky as well! It explores the concept of a race of spiders evolving into sentience and how wildly different it's civilization and technology would be.

An odd one here. 'Chimpanzee Material Culture'[0]. It's getting on a bit (pub 1992) so perhaps others can recommend a more updated study, but it's a sophisticated presentation of chimps, their culture, how they compare to human hunter-gatherers (and how difficult it can be to distinguish between crude stone tools used by one or other), how difficult it is to even phrase the right question when it comes to comparing chimps and humans, and a list of open issues. Anyone who wants to talk about limits of nonhuman should read this.

And with a sense of humour too. Not too heavy, and I found it a genuine page-turner (rather unexpected that!)

And as I mention humour I just reminded myself of 'The Innocent Anthropologist'[1] which is kind-of similar in a way but totally hilarious [1]. It's really funny, also very educational, and would make a very good complement to the first.

I suppose to continue the theme of other cultures (which fascinate me because they teach me so much about my own culture and assumptions when I read how very different other societies can be), 'Aztec'[2]. It tracks the life of a (fictional) aztec and the destruction of his culture and people as the conquistadors arrive. The author does take some historical liberties; allow for that a little. I'll call it the best book I ever read, however it is dense so it either works for you or it doesn't. But if it works, it is amazing!

[0] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chimpanzee-Material-Culture-Implica...

[1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Innocent-Anthropologist-Notes-Mud-H...

[2] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aztec-Gary-Jennings/dp/0765317508

Haha, in Stephenson's latest we find he is even more than that!

Read an intro book on biology at university level. I think I read this one, but feel free to grab a newer one:

https://www.amazon.com/Zoology-Robert-Dorit/dp/0030305047/re...

I used to read books on physics, but I think I learned an order of magnitude more about the world we live in from the above book, and it didn't require more than a high school level understanding of chemistry and biology. I read three more books on various topics in biology afterwards.

Otherwise, if you are the sort of person who can stomach a theoretical book, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed is really the kind of book that takes a while to get through, but you start seeing things differently afterwards. It discusses how large organizations can mean well and do evil.

I only started reading this one yesterday. I honestly know nothing of this book other than everybody always mentions it (along with 1984, Animal Farm and Farenheit 451). The first few pages made me raise a few eyebrows already, looking forward to finishing it.