Six great reads: Trump v Nato, the ‘filthy fifteen’ and the rise of selfish self-help

2 weeks ago 34

1. ‘I’m leaving,’ Trump said. ‘There’s no reason to be here any more’: inside the meeting that brought Nato to the brink
Donald Trump with Jens Stoltenberg in 2019. Photograph: Shealah Craighead/The White House
In a nail-biting extract from his book, the alliance’s former secretary general Jens Stoltenberg recalled the rollercoaster ride of dealing with Donald Trump – and how close the US president brought the organisation to the point of collapse.
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2. ‘I was called an enemy of the people’: how the US Senate went to war with the biggest rock stars of the 1980s
Senator Paula Hawkins holds up the cover of Def Leppard’s album Pyromania at a 1985 Senate hearing. Photograph: James Colburn/Globe Photos/Zuma/Alamy
Forty years ago, Prince, Madonna and Judas Priest were among stars named the “Filthy Fifteen” in a high-profile parents’ campaign against “objectionable” music. Garth Cartwright talked to some of those artists, and supporters including Alice Cooper, about being at the centre of a major moral panic.
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3. ‘Messiness makes you different’: Lukas Gage on meds, trauma, memoir – and filming TV’s most sexually frank scene
Lukas Gage, photographed in New York City for the Guardian, September 2025 Photograph: Maria Spann/The Guardian
The White Lotus and Euphoria star has published a “premature celebrity memoir” that takes on abuse, family dysfunction, personality disorders, shame and heartbreak. He explained to Tim Jonze why now was the right time to write it.
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4. The Pushkin job: unmasking the thieves behind an international rare books heist
Illustration: Antoine Cossé/The Guardian
Between 2022 and 2023, as many as 170 rare and valuable editions of Russian classics were stolen from libraries across Europe. Philip Oltermann’s long read posed the question: were the thieves merely low-level opportunists, or were there bigger forces at work?
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5. ‘Politics is nasty. And it’s getting worse’: Lionel Richie on his worries for America, his friend Michael Jackson – and why he still believes in the power of love
Lionel Richie at the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla in 2023. Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images
With his smooth ballads and winning smile, everyone knows the former Commodores singer – right? Here, Simon Hattenstone explored the hidden depths of a man who had a ringside seat to history, from the civil rights battles in his native Alabama to the rise and fall of pop’s biggest superstar.
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6. Look out for number one! Selfish self-help books are booming – but will they improve your life?
Zoe Williams reads the bestselling self-help books over the last five years and asks what they tell us about our very selfish political moment.
Zoe Williams investigated the publishing trend pitched squarely at those yearning for an Ayn Randian existence of absolute self-reliance. It turned out that there may be a downside to having the “courage to be disliked”.
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