Favorite Books
74 of my favorite books, in no particular order.
- The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World ＊
Vincent Bevins - Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations ＊
Vijay Prashad - Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman - How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States
Daniel Immerwahr - The End is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses
Dan Carlin - Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
Timothy Snyder - Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America
Vivek Bald - On Cuba: Reflections on 70 Years of Revolution and Struggle
Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad - Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane
S. Frederick Starr - Ghost Wars
Steve Coll - The Silk Roads: A New History of the World ＊
Peter Frankopan - The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World
Peter Frankopan - The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company
William Dalrymple - King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa ＊
Adam Hochschild - Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
Siddharth Kara - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari - Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Alfred Lansing - A History of the World in 6 Glasses ＊
Tom Standage - How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence
Michael Pollan - Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think
Brian Wansink - Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
Matthew Walker - Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions
Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths - A Brief History of Time
Stephen Hawking - Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology
Chris Miller - The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins - Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Joshua Foer - Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World—and Why Things Are Better Than You Think ＊
Hans Rosling - Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman - What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Randall Munroe - The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
Anne Fadiman - Daily Rituals: How Artists Work
Mason Currey - The Atlas of Unusual Borders: Discover intriguing boundaries, territories and geographical curiosities
Zoran Nikolic - The Power of Geography: Ten Maps that Reveal the Future of Our World
Tim Marshall - Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World
Tim Marshall - Islamic Design: A Genius for Geometry ＊
Daud Sutton - Atlas of Unusual Borders: Discover Intriguing Boundaries, Territories and Geographical Curiosities ＊
Zoran Nikolic - The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives
Viet Thanh Nguyen - The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns
John C. Bogle - The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman - Islamic Art in Cairo: From the 7th to the 18th Centuries
E. Prisse d’Avennes - Arabic Geometrical Pattern and Design
J. Bourgoin - Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel ＊
Rolf Potts - Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills ＊
The Mountaineers - Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle
Dervla Murphy - Journeys North: The Pacific Crest Trail
Barney Scout Mann - Educated: A Memoir ＊
Tara Westover - Survival in the Killing Fields
Mao Sim - The Choice: Embrace the Possible
Dr. Edith Eva Eger - Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)
Richard P. Feynman - Permanent Record
Edward Snowden - When Breath Becomes Air ＊
Paul Kalanithi - The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir
Kao Kalia Yang - Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden: Two Sisters Separated by China’s Civil War
Zhuqing Li - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass - Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates - Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
Geoff Colvin - Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention–and How to Think Deeply Again
Johann Hari - So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love ＊
Cal Newport - Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Susan Cain - Mastery ＊
Robert Greene - Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Cal Newport - The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Charles Duhigg - Meditations ＊
Marcus Aurelius - On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It ＊
Lucius Annaeus Seneca - The Art of Worldly Wisdom: A Pocket Oracle ＊
Baltasar Gracián - Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl - The Tao of Seneca: Practical Letters from a Stoic Master ＊
Lucius Annaeus Seneca - One Hundred Years of Solitude ＊
Gabriel García Márquez - Robot Dreams (Remembering Tomorrow)
Isaac Asimov - The Sympathizer
Viet Thanh Nguyen - Dune
Frank Herbert - The Distance of the Moon
Italo Calvino - Bend In The River
V. S. Naipaul - For Esme, With Love and Squalor
J. D. Salinger
History
Science
Nonfiction
Travel
Memoir
Self-Improvement
Philosophy
Fiction
＊ = Highly Recommend