Please see my policy regarding recommended books. All these books are recommended.
There are, of course, many many great books that are not on this list. You know, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Elting, Chandler, Norton, – the list goes on. This is a sampling of some of the books I think are the best I’ve read in my life, for various reasons.
Climate Change
- Amitav Ghosh, “The Great Derangement“
General Studies
- Howard Zinn, “A People’s History Of The United States“
Darrell Huff, “How to Lie With Statistics”I have cancelled Huff. See [stderr]- John Gall, “Systemantics” [This remains a favorite ‘giftable’ book for tech workers]
- Tim Weiner, “Legacy of Ashes – the History of the CIA” “Enemies – a History of the FBI“
- Mark Reibling, “Wedge: The Secret War Between the FBI and CIA “
- David Landes, “The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present“
- Charles Mann, “1491” and “1493“
- Philipp Dettmer: “Immune: a Journey Into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive“
- Siddartha Mukherjee, “The Emperor of All Maladies – a Biography of Cancer”
- Thomas Hager, “The Alchemy of Air” and “The Demon Under the Microscope“
- David Halberstam, “The Best and The Brightest”
- Stephen Jay Gould: “The Mismeasure of Man“
- Richard Hofstadter: “Social Darwinism in American Thought“
- Ed Yong: “I Contain Multitudes“
- Timothy Snyder: “Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin“
- Nancy Isenberg: “White Trash : the 400-Year Untold History of Class in America“
- Ibram X. Kendi: “How to Be An Anti-racist“
- Kristina DuRocher: Raising Racists – the Socialization of White Children in the Jim Crow South
Military History
- George MacDonald Fraser, “Quartered Safe Out Here” (a beautiful and sad book about men at war)
- Cavalie Mercer, “Journal of the Waterloo Campaign“
- Hans Schmidt, “Maverick Marine: Smedley Butler and the Contradictions of American Military History”
Labor History
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James Green, The devil is here in these hills : West Virginia’s coal miners and their battle for freedom
Art / Crafts
- Corinne Botz, “The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death“
Science Fiction
- Sheri Tepper “The Gate To Women’s Country“
- Joe Haldeman “All My Sins Remembered” (short stories)
Politics
- Richard Popkin, “History of Skepticism from Savanarola to Bayle“
- Robert Paul Wolff, “In Defense of Anarchism“
- Saul Alinsky “Rules for Radicals“
Philosophy
- Will Durant, “The Story of Philosophy“
- A. C. Grayling “The Meaning of Things” (audiobook, read by the author)
Literature
- Norton Juster, “The Phantom Tollbooth” (children’s?)
- Ronald Welch, “Knight Crusader” (series) (‘young adult’ military fiction)
- George MacDonald Fraser, “MacAuslan in The Rough” (series)
- Arturo Perez-Reverte “The Club Dumas” (literary mystery as art)
- Boris Akunin “The Winter Queen” (an Erast Fandorin mystery)
- R. E. Howard “The Sowers of the Thunder” (‘young adult’ military fiction)
Other
- Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching” Ursula Le Guin’s translation is elegant, lyrical, and beautiful and has become my favorite translation