Original Sin
Kathryn Paige Harden Weidenfeld & Nicolson (2026)
A 2021 analysis of genetic data from 1.5 million people, co-published by psychologist Kathryn Paige Harden, concluded that some DNA sequences were more common in people with an addiction than in those without. “This conflation of genetics with incorrigibility is yet another legacy of the doctrine of original sin,” Harden remarks in her intriguing study of what causes human wrongdoing, informed by a Christian upbringing that she later rejected. DNA, as with original sin, “cannot definitely say that you will commit a crime”.
Tell Me Where It Hurts
Rachel Zoffness Grand Central (2026)
Pain is a complex phenomenon. It “hurts more when we’re lonely and sad than when we’re happy and surrounded by people we love”, writes pain scientist Rachel Zoffness. Her fascinating book abounds in vivid, complex examples of pain. For instance, a construction worker jumped off a plank onto an upright 18-centimetre nail that pierced his entire boot, causing him agony. But, after doctors sedated him and removed the boot, they saw that the nail had miraculously passed through a space between his toes with “not a scratch to be found”.
The Information State
Jacob Siegel Henry Holt (2026)
Experience as a US Army officer serving in Afghanistan allowed journalist Jacob Siegel to recognize the techniques of information warfare. His well-informed book accuses US government–technology partnerships, established after 2001 to fight the global war on terror, of now targeting Americans through a war on disinformation. Rather than reforming the Internet’s infrastructure, they make it serve their own interests — as revealed by the archives of the social-media company Twitter (now X).
Inescapable
F. Marina Schauffler Johns Hopkins Univ. Press (2026)
