Caring deeply about our children is part of what makes us human. Drawing on the study of human evolution and the authorA's own scientific research into how children learn, the author shows that although caring for children is profoundly important, it is not a matter of shaping them to turn out a particular way.

Gives us an account of the fundamental unit of heredity - and a vision of both humanity's past and future. In this book, the story begins in an obscure Augustinian abbey in Moravia in 1856 where a monk stumbles on the idea of a "Unit of heredity". It intersects with Darwin's theory of evolution, and collides with the horrors of Nazi eugenics.

Genghis Khan was by far the greatest conqueror the world has ever known, whose empire stretched from the Pacific Ocean to central Europe, including all of China, the Middle East and Russia. So how did an illiterate nomad rise to such colossal power, eclipsing Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Napoleon?

It is Christmas Eve, and John Rivers is thinking about the past; about his sheltered upbringing; about an extraordinary time spent as a lab assistant to the great physicist Henry Maartens; about Maartens' beautiful wife, Katy, and about a love affair which shook Rivers to the core and caused him to question everything he once revered.

The Second World War was a German war like no other. The Nazi regime, having started the conflict, turned it into the most horrific war in European history. Yet we still do not know what Germans thought they were fighting for and how they experienced the war. This book looks at how the German people experienced the Second World War.

Why would you kill your neighbour? Based on the best part of a decade embedded with the homicide units of the LAPD, this work of reportage takes us onto the streets, inside the homes and into the lives of a community wracked by a homicide epidemic.

There's nothing sinister about a London bus. Nothing supernatural could occur on a busy Tube platform. There's nothing terrifying about a little caterpillar. And a telephone, what could be scary about that? There's no need for a ticking clock, a limping footstep, or a knock at the door to start you trembling. There's nothing to be scared of.

A high-pitched laugh echoes in an empty church. Selected from the book Ghost Stories by M.R.A series of short books by the world's greatest writers on the experiences that make us humanAlso in the Vintage Minis series:Drinking by John CheeverSummer by Laurie LeeFriendship by Rose TremainLove by Jeanette Winterson