Your summer reading list sorted

Summer offers a chance to rest and rejuvenate with a great read. But beach bag space is limited, and deciding what to bring is hard. Should Garner garner a spot? More Moriarty? Room for the new Rooney, perhaps?

Luckily for Anthony Albanese, we at Grattan Institute have taken the guesswork out of packing. Here are our six recommended reads for the PM – and indeed all Australians interested in public policy – this summer.

Ṉäku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions: How the people of Yirrkala changed the course of Australian democracy by Clare Wright

The historian Clare Wright knows a thing or two about Australian democracy. In this third and final instalment of her Democracy trilogy, Wright describes the creation of Ṉäku Dhäruk (the Yirrkala bark petitions), a pivotal moment in Indigenous-settler relations.

The petitions, written in Yolŋu Matha and English, were presented to parliament in 1963, in a sophisticated act of diplomacy and statehood. They make several requests, consultation with the Yolŋu landowners key among them. The requests went unheeded.

Wright’s work is a masterclass in storytelling, drawing from a rich array of primary sources. If studying history helps us learn from our mistakes, Australia’s dismissal of the bark petitions is a chapter worth poring over.

Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham

What is an acceptable risk? This question propels Adam Higginbotham’s riveting history of the Space Shuttle Challenger, which exploded just after takeoff on 28 January 1986, killing all seven crew.

At its heart, Challenger is a human story. Nasa’s early success in the space race obscured the huge risks involved in rocketing humans into space. The frozen rubber O-rings that caused the disaster were a known problem. Flawed decision-making allowed it to become merely one “acceptable risk” among many.

Higginbotham provides a timely reminder that it’s ultimately individuals who shape the success or failure of our greatest endeavours, astronomical or otherwise.

Making Sense of Chaos: A Better Economics for a Better World by J Doyne Farmer

What do a dripping tap, an ant colony and the global financial crisis have in common? According to J Doyne Farmer, they are all best understood through complex systems science – the study of how simple interactions between many parts lead to chaotic behaviour and unexpected patterns.

In Making Sense of Chaos, he argues that complexity science can offer a valuable new perspective on sticky questions that economics has long wrestled with, like: why do markets crash?

Accessible and thought-provoking, Farmer’s book blends stories from his long and varied career with a comprehensive introduction to the field. Whether you’re new to economics or a seasoned expert, this book will inspire you to embrace a little bit of chaos.

Seventy Miles in Hell by Caitlin Dickerson

For this piece in the Atlantic magazine, the investigate journalist Caitlin Dickerson travelled the Darién Gap, a dense stretch of jungle between Colombia and Panama. Thought for centuries to be impassable, it has become a route for thousands of people desperate to reach the US.

Dickerson’s extraordinary account gives us a rare look at the people who find themselves on this route. Her first travelling companions are a Venezuelan nurse and engineer, and their two small children, whom they physically carry through the jungle.

Migrants are often treated as easy scapegoats, economic inputs, or merely numbers. Dickerson’s account compels you to bear witness to the human beings – with their own hopes, strengths, and impossible choices – behind every number.

Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI by Madhumita Murgia

In Code Dependent, Madhumita Murgia explores the human costs and benefits of AI’s growing role in our systems and decisions.

Murgia, an editor at the Financial Times, uses stories from across the globe to illuminate the varied effects of AI technologies. We meet Helen, a victim of deepfake technologies; Hiba, who is training AI algorithms in Bulgaria; and Karl, an AI model designer.

Code Dependent is a book for our times – a thought-provoking read for anyone interested in how AI technologies are reshaping the world around us.

Only the Astronauts by Ceridwen Dovey

Our final pick invites you, and the prime minister, to escape to the cosmos. Ceridwen Dovey’s Only the Astronauts comprises five short stories, each from the perspective of different space objects, real and imagined (including a mannequin set adrift by Elon Musk and a team of tampon-astronauts or “tamponauts”).

Dovey, an Australian science writer and novelist, shows us humans as they might appear to the objects they create and use, from the quirks of different astronauts aboard the International Space Station, to the masculine bravado of the space race.

This inventive collection of stories has moments of beauty, as well as laugh-out-loud fun. It’s perfect for dipping into this summer, ideally while also dipping your toes in the lapping ocean.