In 2012 I mostly stopped reading books and began mostly reading articles. In mid-2023 I began reading books again, and then started listening to audio books while walking the dogs and doing chores.
Number of books in this list: /
Audio: Killers of the Flower Moon The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann, 2017
Historical detective novel. In the 1920s, the Osage Nation in Oklahoma was set up by Congress to be stolen from and murdered.
Audio: God & the Big Bang: Discovering Harmony Between Science & Spirituality by Daniel C. Matt, 1998
Esp: Chapter 10.
Audio: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, 2007
Her family's experience eating locally and from their garden
Audio: The Fraud by Zadie Smith, 2023
1873 life in England, about The Tichborne Trial in a background of slavery
Audio: Fly Away by Kristin Hannah, 2013
Firefly Lane #2 (I watched the Netflix versions a while ago)
Audio: The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions - and How The World Lost its Mind by Dan Davies, Apr 2024
Audio: Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver, 2018
A family in NJ and a parallel homeowner in the 1880s, Thatcher Greenwood and Mary Treat
10+ Podcasts: The Telepathy Tapes Abilities of non-speaking autistics by Ky Dickens, 2024
Based on the work of neuroscientist Dr. Diane Hennacy Powell
Audio: A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen Hawking, 1990
Overview of what we know about physics, space, and time
Audio: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, 2022
Pulitzer winner- A boy grows up amid poverty, addiction, and denial
Audio: The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, 2021
3 women code breakers at Bletchley Park must root out a spy.
HORRIBLE Audio: Battle for the American Mind
: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation by Pete Hegseth & David Goodwin, 2022A Christian National conspiracy theorist rant. He seems completely ignorant of many of the terms he uses and gives no definitions. He thinks teaching any non-traditional ideas are "an attack from the left." He conflates progressives with Marxists and erroneously thinks the ancient Greeks (800 bce to 145 ace) were Christians. His paranoia leads him to think education equals left-wing activism. He seems to be uneducated about education and invents history about it without mentioning the many changes.
Audio: Living with our Dead On Loss and Consolation by Delphine Horvilleur, May 2024
A rabbi shares wisdom about death, in 11 stories of loss, mourning, and consolation.
Audio: From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty, 2018
Dead bodies are not a health hazard. In the early 1800's in America, caskets, headstones, funeral parlors, and morticians were rare. Families dressed bodies, helping to process their grief, and buried them usually just in a shroud. Around the world, people do a host of different things, often having a very natural relationship with the deceased.
Audio: A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing by Lawrence M. Krauss, 2012
The theories of physics are well established. What makes sense from evidence in the universe is that empty space is unstable and processes tend to happen that produce our universe. A deity is unnecessary. Evidence supports nothing produced by theology.
Audio: A Briefer History of Time: The science classic made more accessible by Stephen Hawking, 2005
Overview of what we know about physics, space, and time
Audios: Invisible City, Run You Down, Conviction The Rebekah Roberts trilogy by Julia Dahl, 2014, 2015, 2017
A young reporter chances on clues to a death in a Hasidic community in New York that intersects with her unknown past.
Audio: Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott, 2020
Audio: The Male Brain: A Breakthrough Understanding of How Men and Boys Think by Louann Brizendine M.D., 2010
Audio: The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II by Candace Fleming, 2024
Audio: Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith, 2017
Audio: War by Bob Woodward, Oct, 2024 About the years prior to the war in Ukraine and the first 2.5 years
Audio: Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson, 2009
About: Slow Hunches, Networks of Innovation, The Adjacent Possible, embracing errors
Audio: The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself by Sean Carroll, 2016 The nature of the universe at the quantum level is known, according to a ton of experimental evidence. This supports a philosophy called Poetic Naturalism. "Poetic" refers to that there are many ways of talking about emergent phenomena at different levels. Nothing revealed by experiments requires the existence of a god, souls, or anything else, including life and consciousness.
Audio: Living Apart: How the Government Betrayed a Landmark Civil Rights Law by Nikole Hannah-Jones, 2013
The federal govt failed to enforce fair-housing laws
Audio: On Settler Colonialism:
Ideology, Violence, and Justice
by Adam Kirsch,
Aug 2024
"Settler Colonialism" didn't happen- it's an ideology.
Yes, colonization of a society without consent is wrong,
as is settlement by displacing people violently.
But law-abiding, peaceful immigrants and children of colonizers
and settlers are not continuing the crime, like the ideology of "settler colonization" insists.
Audio: The Upgrade How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in Midlife and Beyond by Louann Brizendine M.D., 2021
Audio: A Promised Land:
by Barack Obama,
2020
An interesting, readable, and warm unveiling of his
experience as a candidate and president. But it ends in 2011!
When's the sequel?
Audio: True Gretch: What I‘ve Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between by Gretchen Whitmer, July, 2024
Audio: Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People - and the Fight to Resist It by Ari Berman, 2024
Audio: Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt PhD, 2020
Audio: Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West by Catherine Belton, 2022
Audio: At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House by H. R. McMaster, Aug 27, 2024
Audio: Goyhood: A Novel by Reuven Fenton, May 2024
Audio: Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point by Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt, Sep 2023
Audio: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, 1929
Audio: Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines by Joy Buolamwini, Oct, 2023
Audio: The Mother of All Questions: Further feminist essays by Rebecca Solnit, 2017
Audio: The Enigma of Reason by Hugo Mercier, Dan Sperber, 2017
Audio: The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom by Simon Winchester, 2009
Audio: All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson, 2020
Audio: The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward by Daniel H. Pink, Gisela Chipe, et al., 2022
Audio: Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho, 2020
Audio: Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew by Emmanuel Acho, Noa Tishby, May 7, 2024
(Connects antisemitic tropes and hatred of the past to current events)
Audio: Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump by Rick Reilly, 2020
Audio: Tired of Winning: DT and the End of the GOP by Jonathan Karl, 2023
Audio: Enough: by Cassidy Hutchison 2023
Her experience working for Trump's administration.
Audio: Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing System by Jenny Schuetz, 2022
Audio: Who Gets Believed: When the Truth Isn't Enough by Dina Nayeri, Ayesha Antoine, et al., 2023
Audio: Is This A Cult?: Confronting the Line between Transformation and Exploitation by Anne Peterson, January 2024
Audio: Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump by Clay Cane, January 2024
Honor
by Thrity Umrigar,
July 2022
About a man murdered for "honor" in India, and the lawyer that fights for justice.
Audio:
Democracy Awakening by Healther Cox Richardson,
Sep 2023
She traces the roots of DT's "authoritarian experimentÓ back
to America's earliest days and how history led to today's politics.
Conservatism preyed upon a disaffected population,
weaponized language and promoted a false history to consolidate power.
Trump expanded it to follow Hitler's strategies with constant large lies,
and, like Hitler, rose in power to do harm.
Audio: Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
A true'ish story of inhabitants in slum in Mumbai, in a country where corruption is universal.
Audio: When by Daniel H. Pink
Different times of the day are better for different kinds of work and thinking.
Audio: Drive by Daniel H. Pink
What motivates people and why businesses often fail- Excellent!
Audio: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The discovery of self in a racist culture that instills constant fear.
Audio: The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer
Biography of Adrian Fry'a efforts getting artists and writers out of Vichy France.
Audio: People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn
A great book- thoughtful perspectives.
Audio: Feeling Good Together
by David D. Burns MD (see also Feeling Great)
America's master of therapy shares proven techniques to making relationships work.
Audio: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys,
A story of a family torn from their home in Lithuania by Stalin's brutal and brutish Soviet occupation.
Audio: Inheritance by Dani Shapiro
A woman's discovery through DNA analysis and then research
that her dad was not her biological father.
(I have several new first cousins due to an uncle
who was a med student in the 1950's, and me being on 23&me.)
Audio: The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music
By & narrated by: Dave Grohl
The drummer who joined Nirvana, and later created Foo Fighters
tells a tale of dedication and passion to his music, deep gratitude
for the great musicians he emulated, and many adventures.
Yes, his caffeine
addiction became a 2-minute video.
Audio: BAD: The Dying Citizen:
How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America
by Victor Davis Hanson,
FULL of errors in logic and reasoning, besides huge bias. 2021
Audio: The Great Reversal: How America Gave Up on Free Markets
By: Thomas Philippon
America in the mid and late 1900's had the most competitive markets. Europe emulated these while America succombed to greed and corruption.
Audio: How to Do the Work: Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self
By: Dr. Nicole LePera
An excellent book with guidance and information about achieving
mental, emotional, and physical health.
This book gives a great overview of the field, reminding me to keep up
many specific healthy practices.
For those who have issues with their past, it gives perspective about what healthy
looks and feels like, as well as exercises and practices to speed your progress.
See also her Free Resources page.
You can also listen to the book
for free on YouTube,
or on spotify,
and probably elsewhere.
"As you heal yourself, you heal the world around you."
February, 2024:
9-page paper: The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis, Lynn White. 1967
45-page paper: Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected
AudioBook: Legacy:
A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine
by Uch Blackstock MD
AudioBook: So Damn Much Money:
The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government
by Robert G. Kaiser, 2009
***** Mostly excellent. There are a lot of details and history to get through. I thought that Congress is horribly corrupt and dysfunctional. It's worse.
January, 2024:
AudioBook: The E-Myth Revisited, by Michael E. Gerber
About why entrepreneurs and businesses fail
AudioBook: To Siri With Love
by Judith Newman
(the mother of a kid with Autism)
2023 (27):
AudioBook: The Honest Truth About Dishonesty
by Dan Ariely
How we lie to ourselves and cut corners, lots of psychology experiments show how thoughts not only influence us, but change our perception of honesty. (We all have these influences- it does not cover how different people differ in honesty.)
AudioBook: Are Prisons Obsolete?
by Angela Y. Davis
She gives the rich history of prisoners being a
source of low-cost workers after slavery, and similar horrors
up to the present.
AudioBook: Amateur: A Reckoning with Gender, Identity, and Masculinity
by Thomas Page McBee
AudioBook: The West
by Naoise Mac Sweeney
Traces the development of the myth of "The West"
AudioBook: Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
AudioBook: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert, Anne Twomey, et al
AudioBook: This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson
AudioBook: The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
AudioBook: Feeling Great by David D. Burns MD
I read his original book years ago: Feeling Good.
(See also: Feeling Good Together.)
AudioBook: Irresistable by Adam Alter
AudioBook: Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas
The Elite Charade of (philanthropists) Changing the World
AudioBook: Becoming by Michelle Obama
AudioBook: Sapiens by Yuvel Noah Harari
AudioBook: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Jennifer Kim, et al
AudioBook: Democracy by Condoleezza Rice
AudioBook: Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng, Lucy Liu
AudioBook: Recoding America: Why Govt is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better by Jennifer Pahlka
AudioBook: Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians got Dumb and Dumber by Andy Borowitz
AudioBook: The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis
AudioBook: Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
AudioBook: Beloved by Tony Morrison
AudioBook: Wise Aging by Rabbi Rachel Cowan, Linda Thal
AudioBook: Daughter of Molokai by Alan Brennert
AudioBook: Molokai by Alan Brennert
AudioBook: The Swimmers: A Novel by Julie Otsuka
AudioBook: The Elegance of Simplicity by Sophie McLean
AudioBook: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
2022 and earlier that I happen to recall (9)
2022: In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
Caste The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, 2020
The commonalities of the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany
Aug 2021: The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist
Sep 2021: The Bad Widow Guide to Life after Loss by Alison Pena A woman's journey through grief after her husband's death
2020: The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy Katherine M. Gehl , Michael E. Porter , et al. Jun, 2020
2020: So You Want to Talk About Race
by Ijeoma Oluo
2020: Too Much and Never Enough by Trump, Mary L.
Caste The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, 2020
The commonalities of the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany
Sep 2015: Our Political Nature by Avi Tuschman