Six great reads: Trump Island, Albania; DB Cooper revisited; and Alanis oughta know

1. The 50 hottest books to read now

A Guardian illustration of a flower made of books. Illustration: Nathalie Lees/The Guardian

Our books team packed for the beach to compile their essential list of summer reading: from novels by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Alan Hollinghurst to memoirs by Cher and Manhattan enfant terrible restaurateur Keith McNally, there’s something for everyone. Plus they also rounded up the best new paperbacks and children’s fiction. Put those screens away!

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2. Sold to the Trump family: one of the last undeveloped islands in the Mediterranean

A derelict building on Sazan Island. Photograph: Hemis/Alamy

“On Sazan, a small island off the coast of Albania, the landscape is Jurassic. Ferns, giant lavender, plumbago, rosemary, broom and laurels grow on the mountain at its centre. The view from the top, with its dramatic sunsets, is dizzyingly beautiful.

Albanians call Sazan Ishulli i Trumpëve – Trump Island. Until now mostly untrammelled by development, it is on the verge of becoming a mecca for ultra-luxury tourism, another addition to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s real-estate portfolio … ”

The pair have spent more than $1bn on an Albanian island that will be a luxury resort – once the unexploded ordnance has been removed. Marzio Mian travelled to Sazan to see how the developers’ amibitions intersect with a bigger geopolitical picture.

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3. Is he still alive? The mystery of DB Cooper – the hijacker who disappeared

A design including police sketches of DB Cooper. Composite: Guardian Design; Publicity image/Alamy

It’s one of the most famous missing persons cases in history: in 1971, a man held a plane to ransom for $200,000, then parachuted out in his suit and dress shoes, never to be seen again. What happened to him? Daniel Lavelle took a fresh look at a mystery that still has people scrabbling for answers – as well as a Manhattan dive bar dedicated to it.

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4. ‘If men couldn’t have sex with me, they didn’t know what to do with me’: Alanis Morissette on addiction, midlife liberation and the predatory 90s

Alanis Morissette onstage in Hollywood in 1995. Photograph: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc

She made her name with rage-fuelled anthems – and sold 75m records in the process. Speaking to Charlotte Edwardes ahead of her set at Glastonbury on Friday evening, the California-dwelling earth mother explained why she’s ready to let rip again …

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5. From Tate Modern to Grimsby docks: the team saving Britain’s cherished buildings from the wrecking ball

Battersea power station in London. Photograph: PR

Can you imagine Liverpool without its Welsh Streets or London without Battersea Power Station? For 50 years, writes our architecture critic Oliver Wainwright, one small band of activists have been finding creative alternative uses for great buildings their owners couldn’t see.

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6. I was one of those men who couldn’t stop talking. Here’s how I learned to shut up and listen

Ioan Marc Jones decided to focus more on listening to people. Photograph: Handout

“I started to notice my interruptions, the creative ways I managed to bring the conversation back to my favourite topic: me. I noticed how, in lieu of listening, my mind would embark on wild and weird adventures, fighting against the odds to relate everything back to my experience. My partner recalled the time that I said, to my embarrassment: “That reminds me of me.”

Ioan Marc Jones did his bit to end the plague of mansplaining, manologuing and bropriating … by shutting up himself

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