Recommended Books
Recommendations within the Past Two Years [9/26/24]
1. A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them, April2023, by Timothy Egan 432 pgs, $22.68
2.
America
Last: The Right's Century-Long
Romance w/Foreign Dictators, by Jacob Heilbrunn; 264 pg, $20 Mar24
3.
Artificial
Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans by Melanie Mitchell, 2019, 336 pages
$19 Recommended July2023
4.
Attack
from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America, by Barbara McQuade, $30
489 pgs Feb24
5.
Atomic
Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America, by Joshua
Frank, 11/22; $20; 258 pgs
6.
Autocracy,
Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World; July2024; by Anne Applebaum;
$21; 224 pgs
7.
Backfire: How
Sanctions Reshape the World Against U.S. Interests, by Agathe Demarais, Nov2022,
304 pgs, $30
8.
Bring
the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America by Kathleen
Belew, 2018. 352 pages. Recommended
Nov 2023
9.
Chip War: The
Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology, Oct 2022, by Chris Miller
464 pgs $20
10. Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet Sept2023; by Ben Goldfarb $20; 384 pgs
11. End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration, by Peter Turchin, 368 pgs, $21, June2023
12. Free and Equal: A Manifesto for a Just Society by Daniel Chandler; May2024; 432 pgs; $20
13. Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World by Cade Metz. 384 pages 2021, Recommended July2023
14. Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad, Oct2022 by Matthew F. Delmont, 400 pgs, $22
15.
How to
Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States,
March2020 but recommended 6/2023, by Daniel Immerwahr,
$13.59, 528 pgs
16.
Hundred
Years' War on Palestine; Jan, 2021; by Rashid Khalidi 336 pages, $13 Recommended
Nov 2023
17.
Inequality
Kills Us All: COVID-19's Health Lessons for the World, by Stephen Bezruchka 11/22,
214 pgs, $43
18.
Nine Black
Robes: Inside the Supreme Court's Drive to the Right and Its Historic
Consequences, 411 pgs, $21.50 by Joan Biskupic April2023
19.
No
Miracles Needed: How Today's Technology Can Save Our Climate
and Clean Our Air by Mark Z. Jacobson 2/23 440 pgs $14.95
20.
Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence, by
James Lovelock, 11/2020 Rec 11/22, $15, 160 pgs
21.
Nuclear
War: A Scenario, by Annie
Jacobsen; 400 pgs, $19, Mar2024
22.
PAVED
PARADISE: How Parking Explains the World | By Henry Grabar | 346 pp. $24 May2023
23. Plunder: Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America, May2023 by Brendan Ballou 368 pgs $22
24. Possible: Ways To Net Zero, by Chris Goodall; Mar2024; 390 pgs; $16
25. Poverty, By America. By Matthew Desmond. July2023, 304 pages $22
26. Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism--and What Comes Next Jan2023; by Bradley Onishi; 237 pgs; $24
27. Prequel: An American Fight against Fascism by Rachel Maddow, Oct 2023. 416 pages.
28. Rebellion: How Antiliberalism Is Tearing America ApartAgain, Apr24; by Robert Kagan; $23; 256 pgs
29. Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better by Jennifer Pahlka, June23, $20, 336 pgs
30. Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O'Connell's urgent mission to bring healing to homeless people, Tracy Kidder 291pgs Jan2023
31.
Shielded: How the
Police Became Untouchable, Feb2023 by Joanna Schwartz 336 pgs, $28.50
32.
The Crisis
of Democratic Capitalism Feb23 by Martin Wolf, 496 pgs, $26
33. The Identity Trap: a Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time, by Mounk, Yascha, Sep23; 416 pgs; $20
34. The Revolt Against Humanity: Imagining a Future Without Us, by Kirsch, Adam, $16, 104 pgs, Jan 2023
35. The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic Hardcover May2023, 352 pgs by Stephen Vladeck
36.
These Are
the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs―and Wrecks―America, April2023,
by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner, 400 pgs, $27
37.
They Were
Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South, recommended
Jun2023, by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, $11, 320 pages
38.
Weapons of
Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind by Robert Draper 400
pages 10/22 $17.50
39.
Winner
Sells All: Amazon, Walmart, and the Battle for Our Wallets by Jason Del
Rey, 304 pages $24 June2023
40.
Where Have
All the Democrats Gone? The Soul of the Party in the Age of Extremes
by Ruy Teixeira, John B. Judis Nov2023; $20; 336 pgs
41.
White
Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy; Feb24; by Tom Schaller
& Paul Waldman; $20, 320 pgs
42.
Who's
Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler; Mar2024; 320 pgs;
$22
Older Recommendations
1. A Paradise Built in Hell: Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster by Rebecca Solnit. 354 pages $15.09, 2010
2. A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, March 2021 by Jeff Hawkins $18.00, 288 pages
3. After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul May 2022, by Tripp Mickle $23; 512 pgs
4.
All-American
Nativism: How the Bipartisan War on Immigrants Explains Politics as We Know
It by Daniel Denvir Paperback January 14, 2020 388 pages
$13.87
5.
All the
Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, 2008,
by Stephen Kinzer 296 pages, $12.99
6.
Amazon
Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire May 2021
by Brad Stone 496 pgs $19
7.
American
Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of
President Trump Hardcover $17.99 July 16, 2019 by Tim Alberta 688
pages
8.
Another
Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, Recom 03/22,
by Neema Avashia 171pgs $20
9. Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All by Michael Shellenberger , June 2020, 432 pgs $17.49
10.
Army of
None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War, by Paul Scharre, Hardback April 24, 2018 $25.16 448 pages
Paperback out in March 2019
11.
Billionaire
Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American Mar20,
Justin Farrell; $18.99; 392 pages
12.
Burning
Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New
Republican Party Hardcover July 7, 2020, by Julian E. Zelizer, $27, 368 pages
13.
Chaotic
Neutral: How the Democrats Lost Their Soul in the Center Sept 2022;
by Ed Burmila 352 pgs $29
14.
Charged: The New
Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration, $17.37
Hardcover April 9, 2019; by Emily Bazelon 448 pages
15.
Commanding
Hope: The Power We Have to Renew a World in Peril, Sept
2020, by Thomas Homer-Dixon 464 pgs
16. Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China by Michael Beckley & Hal Brands Hardcover$21 304 pgs Aug 2022
17. Dismantling Global White Privilege: Equity for a Post-Western World Jan 2022 by Chandran Nair 264 pgs $20
18. Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History by Kurt Andersen August, 2020 464 pgs; $14.29
19. Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis, by Annie Proulx, Sep 2022 208 pgs $14
20. Flying Blind; The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing by Peter Robison, Nov 2021. 328 pages $10
21.
Generation
Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America by Randy Shaw, Nov2018 304 pp., $18.20 hardback
22.
Hate Inc. Why
Todays Media Makes Us Despise One Another by Matt Taibbi 304 pages, Hardcover,
$14.99, 2019
23.
How to Be
an Antiracist Hardcover August 13, 2019 by Ibram
X. Kendi $14.79 320 pages
24.
How to
Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches
Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence May
15, 2018 by Michael Pollan 480 pages
$19.04 Hardcover
25.
How
Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. 299 pages, 2019, $11.79
26.
How to
Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs
We Need, Feb 2021, by Bill Gates $20.49, 272 pages
27.
How We Die:
Reflections of Life's Final Chapter, $10.11 PB Jan 15, 1995 by Sherwin
B. Nuland; 278 pages
28.
It Was All
a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump Aug, 2020
by Stuart Stevens $24.26, 256 pgs
29.
Landslide: The Final
Days of the Trump Presidency by Michael Wolff July 2021 336 pages
hardback $17.62
30.
Like,
Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube's Chaotic Rise to World
Domination By Mark Bergen 464 pgs hardback $27
31.
Lynching
and Leisure, Race and the Transformation of Mob Violence in Texas, by Terry
Anne Scott, $26, 400 pages 4/22
32.
Meme Wars: The
Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America by Joan
Donovan, Emily Dreyfuss, Brian Friedberg, Sept 2022. 432 pages $20
33.
Merge Left: Fusing
Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America, by Ian Haney Lσpez,
2019 282 pgs $19.00
34.
No
Immediate Danger: Vol 1 of Carbon Ideologies, William T.
Vollmann. $24.30 624 pages, 1st Edition
(April 10, 2018)
35.
No Good
Alternative: Vol 2 of Carbon Ideologies by William T. Vollmann. $25.47 688 pages 1st Edition (June 5, 2018)
36.
On Fire: The
(Burning) Case for a Green New Deal Hardcover $21.99 Sep 17, 2019 Naomi Klein
320 pages
37. Packing the Court: The Rise of Judicial Power and the Coming Crisis of the Supreme Court by James MacGregor Burns 336 pages; $11.95 2009
38. Peril by Bob Woodward & Robert Costa, Hardcover Sept 2021, 512 pages $18.00
39. Politics Is for Power: How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change. Eitan Hersh. 282 pages. $15.86 Jan 2020
40. Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival Sep, 2021, by Richard Heinberg $14 400 pgs
41.
RIP GOP: How New
America Is Dooming the Republicans Sep 10, 2019 by Stanley B.
Greenberg $25.11. 336 pages
42.
Saving Us: A
Climate Scientist's Case for Hope/Healing in a Divided World, Sept 2021,
by Katharine Hayhoe 320pgs, $23
43.
Servants
of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Trump, and the Corruption of Justice by David
Enrich Sep 2022 375 pgs $29
44.
Stamped
from the Beginning: History of Racist Ideas in America, 2017 by Ibram Kendi 608 pages paperback $11.37
45.
Stolen
Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again, Jan2022,
by Johann Hari 368 pgs $16
46. Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires, Sep 2022, by Douglas Rushkoff 224 pgs $18
47.
Surviving
Autocracy, by Masha Gessen. 288 pages.
June 2021 $14.23
48. The Destructionists: The 25 Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party By Dana Milbank Aug 2022 405 pgs Hardback $20
49.
The End of
Policing Paperback August 28, 2018 by Alex S. Vitale 272 pages, $13.99
50.
The
Anatomy of Organized Hate: Stories of Former White Supremacists - and
America's Struggle to Understand the Hate Movement August 1, 2019 by
Lonnie Lusardo. 340 pages. $16.49. Local
Seattle author.
51.
The Button: The New
Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump Hardcover, June
2020, by William J. Perry
$25.16 335 pages
52.
The Common
Good by Robert Reich, January 15, 2019; 208 pages; $7.29
paperback
53. The Cruelty Is the Point: The Past, Present, Future of Trump's America June, 2021 by Adam Serwer, 384pgs, $16.80
54. The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War Jan2022, by Nicholas Mulder 448 pgs, $27
55.
The End of
Ice: Bearing Witness, Finding Meaning in Climate Disruption $17.99 Jan2019
by Dahr Jamail 272 pages
56.
The End of
the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America, March
5, 2019 by Greg Grandin Hardcover:
384 pages $16.22
57.
The Kurds: A
Divided Nation in Search of a State Paback November
2018 by Michael M Gunter $26.95 330 pages
58. The Power of Crisis: How Three Threats and Our Response Will Change the World May 2022 by Ian Bremmer $24 272 pgs
59.
The
Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, by
Jonathan Haidt. $11.52 paperback. 528 pages
February 12, 2013
60.
The Shia
Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future April,
2007 by Vali Nasr, $2.00 320 pages
61. The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914, 2014, by Christopher Clark, Recommended 3/2022; $14, 736 pgs
62. The Solutions are Already Here: Strategies for Ecological Revolution from Below Feb 2022 by Peter Gelderloos 256 pgs; $23
63. The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth by Ben Rawlence Jan 22, $15, 320 pgs
64.
The
Southernization of America: A Story of Democracy in the Balance March,
2022, by Cynthia Tucker (Author), Frye Gaillard
$22 176 pages
65.
The
Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It
Again by Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Garrett. 480 pages. $29.25 Sept 2021
66.
The Warmth
of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, by Isabel
Wilkerson, 678 pgs, $11.99 2011
67.
Them: Why
We Hate Each Other--and How to Heal by Ben Sasse. 288
pages. $15.88 2019
68.
This Land
Is Our Land: An Immigrant's Manifesto $17.39 Hardcover June 4, 2019
by Suketu Mehta 320 pgs
69.
To Start a
War: How Bush Administration Took America into Iraq Hardcover July
2020, Robert Draper $27, 496 pages
70.
TRIUMPH OF
THE CITY. How Our Greatest
Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, ¬Greener, Healthier, and Happier. By Edward
Glaeser 352
pp. $16.99. 2012
71.
You Bet
Your Life: From Blood Transfusions to Mass Vaccination, the Long and Risky
History of Medical Innovation Hardcover June 2022, published September
2021, by Paul A Offit; 272 pgs, $19
72.
Uncivil
Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity April 16, 2018 by Lilliana
Mason PB $17.62 192 pages
73.
White
Trash. The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, by Nancy
Isenberg. 2017. 494 pages. $10.69
74.
Why We Did
It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell. By Tim Miller. 279
pgs June 2022 $23