Most read Education books

Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalist parents in the mountains of rural Idaho, she grew up without a birth certificate, without school, and without doctors — her father distrusted the government and modern medicine, and the family spent its days preparing for the end of the world and working in a dangerous scrapyard. Educated is Westover's account of how she taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to win a place at university, and of the widening gulf that opened between the person she was becoming and the family she left behind. From Brigham Young University she went on to Cambridge and a doctorate — an education that gave her the tools to understand her own past, including the violence and denial that fractured her family. Honest and unsparing, this bestselling memoir is about the price and the promise of self-invention: how learning can remake a mind, and how hard it is to hold on to those you love when you can no longer share their version of reality.

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Fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find two strange anonymous notes in her mailbox, each posing a single unsettling question: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" Soon a mysterious philosopher named Alberto Knox begins sending her a correspondence course in the history of Western thought, walking her from the pre-Socratics through Plato, Descartes, Kant, Marx, and Sartre. But the lessons are tangled up in a stranger mystery. Sophie keeps receiving postcards addressed to a girl named Hilde Møller Knag, a girl she has never met, and small impossible things begin happening around her. As her philosophical education deepens, Sophie starts to suspect that the questions she's being taught to ask apply uncomfortably well to her own reality. First published in Norway in 1991 and translated into dozens of languages, Sophie's World is both an accessible primer on the great questions of philosophy and a playful, mind-bending novel about the nature of existence. Jostein Gaarder threads a genuine survey of ideas through a story that keeps quietly folding back on itself, rewarding curious readers of all ages.

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When a dying buccaneer leaves young Jim Hawkins a map to Captain Flint's buried treasure, Jim sails aboard the Hispaniola to claim it — not knowing the ship's charming one-legged cook, Long John Silver, has stocked the crew with pirates plotting mutiny. Robert Louis Stevenson's foundational adventure classic and coming-of-age tale, powered by one of literature's greatest morally ambiguous villains.

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Bill Bryson sets out to answer the biggest questions there are: how the universe began, how the Earth was formed, how we came to know its age, what everything is made of, and how life — and eventually we — arose from it all. Rather than simply reciting facts, he tracks down the answers and the often eccentric, quarrelsome, and brilliant scientists who found them. Ranging from the Big Bang to quantum physics, from the depths of geologic time to the fragility of life on a small blue planet, Bryson translates dense and forbidding science into vivid, funny, endlessly curious storytelling. Along the way he conveys just how improbable, precarious, and astonishing our existence really is. A hugely popular work of science writing, it turns the history of nearly everything into an accessible and genuinely delightful adventure.

Four creatures share a maze and a daily supply of cheese, until one morning it vanishes. Two mice go looking at once. Two little people wait, blame each other and starve, until one of them has to step into the maze alone.

What if you tried to hit a baseball at near light speed? Or what if humanity faced a robot apocalypse? Randall Munroe, the creator of xkcd, uses science and humor to answer these wild questions. He explores bizarre 'what ifs' with hilarious, often explosive, results.

Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Randy Pausch, dying of pancreatic cancer, gave a final lecture titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". This book, written with Wall Street Journal reporter Jeffrey Zaslow, expands on that talk. It pairs episodes from Pausch's life with the lessons he took from them, written as advice for his three young children.

Economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner turn economic tools loose on everyday puzzles—cheating sumo wrestlers, the finances of a crack gang, what really matters in parenting, and why crime fell in the 1990s. A playful, data-driven, myth-busting look at the hidden incentives that shape human behavior.

Malcolm Gladwell's 2005 exploration of "thin-slicing" — the fast, unconscious judgments the mind makes in seconds. Drawing on art forgery, speed dating, war games, and the shooting of Amadou Diallo, he shows when snap decisions are startlingly accurate and when bias and stress make them fail.

When the Taliban take over the Swat Valley and ban girls from school, Malala Yousafzai speaks out. In October 2012 a gunman shoots her on her school bus, and her recovery in Birmingham becomes the next stage of her campaign.

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Anne Lamott shares her unique perspective on the art and demanding work of writing. Drawing from personal anecdotes, including a memorable family story about tackling an overwhelming task "bird by bird," she offers guidance to aspiring and seasoned writers alike. This book serves as a compassionate and humorous companion for anyone navigating the creative process.

Daniel Goleman's landmark bestseller argues that emotional intelligence — self-awareness, empathy, impulse control, and social skill — can matter as much as IQ for success in life, work, and relationships. Synthesizing brain and behavioral science, he shows these are learnable skills and makes the case for cultivating them from childhood.

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that a play-based childhood was swapped for a phone-based one in the space of a few years, and that the swap is the main driver behind the surge in teen anxiety, depression and self-harm that began around 2010. He proposes four norms for reversing it: no smartphone before high school, no social media before 16, phone-free schools, and far more unsupervised play.

Psychologist Angela Duckworth argues that passion and persistence matter more than talent. Using her research and visits to West Point cadets and Spelling Bee finalists, she shows how grit is measured and how parents, teachers and managers can build it.

A sociologist's landmark critique of American high school history textbooks, exposing the myths, omissions, and Eurocentric bias that shape how students learn their own country's past. First published in 1995 and revised in 2007, it remains one of the most widely read challenges to how U.S. history is taught.

Curious about the cosmos but short on time? Neil deGrasse Tyson makes understanding black holes, dark matter, and the Big Bang simple in this quick guide. It's the perfect way to get up to speed on the universe's biggest questions.

In a world increasingly swayed by misinformation, Carl Sagan issues a vital call for scientific literacy. This book serves as a powerful defense of critical thinking, urging readers to distinguish between evidence-based science and the seductive allure of pseudoscience. Sagan explores historical examples of irrationality and warns of the dangers posed by contemporary myths to our freedoms.

A guide to four levels of reading, from basic literacy to comparing many books on one subject. It teaches how to question an author, trace an argument and read poetry, history, science and fiction with real understanding.

Benjamin Franklin's account of his own life, written in four sittings between 1771 and 1790 and left unfinished at his death, breaking off in 1757.

Sönke Ahrens's practical guide to the Zettelkasten, or "slip-box," method — the linked-index-card system that let sociologist Niklas Luhmann produce dozens of books. Ahrens argues that writing should drive thinking, and lays out a simple workflow of fleeting, literature, and permanent notes to help students, academics, and knowledge workers read deliberately and turn scattered reading into finished writing.

Helen Keller's autobiography recounts her extraordinary journey from a childhood illness that left her blind and deaf to becoming a world-renowned author, activist, and lecturer. This memoir details her early struggles with communication and her breakthrough with her teacher, Anne Sullivan, who opened up the world of language to her. It is a testament to the power of perseverance and the human spirit's ability to overcome immense challenges.

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Many novelists fear writing hundreds of pages only to find their story lacks urgency or internal logic, leading to a complete rewrite. Lisa Cron, a story coach, offers a powerful alternative to traditional 'pantsing' or 'plotting' methods. This guide reveals how to use cognitive storytelling strategies, based on brain science, to build a scene-by-scene blueprint. It takes you from an initial idea to a complete, multilayered plan, resulting in a first draft with the depth of a much later version.

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Feeling lost in math or science? This book offers practical advice to help you learn difficult subjects more effectively. Author Barbara Oakley shares her personal journey from struggling student to successful engineer, revealing techniques that anyone can use to improve their understanding of technical topics and approach problems with new confidence.

This collection gathers over 200 cartoons that humorously and affectionately depict the daily experiences of teachers. Spanning from kindergarten to college, these illustrations capture the highs and lows of shaping young minds. It's a wonderful gift for anyone in education.

• multiple povs

Offers time-management strategies, tips on taking tests, techniques for writing essays better and faster, and self-assessment tests to help students analyze their study skills.

Do you ever get confused by punctuation? Lynne Truss offers a humorous and insightful look at the rules and quirks of grammar, from the proper use of apostrophes to the mystery of the semicolon. This book is a delightful guide that will help you navigate the often-misunderstood world of punctuation with clarity and a good laugh.

This study guide offers a comprehensive overview of a literary work. It provides detailed summaries, character analyses, and thematic explorations to deepen your understanding of the text. Perfect for students and avid readers alike, this guide helps you navigate complex plots and appreciate the author's craft.

Explore the fundamental concepts of physics with Nobel laureate Richard Feynman. This book distills six of his famous Caltech lectures, covering topics from atoms to quantum mechanics. It's an accessible introduction to complex ideas, presented by one of the most brilliant scientific minds.

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