Philip Roth, “Everyman.”

Michael Burleigh, “Earthly Powers.”

Pope Benedict XVI, “Jesus of Nazareth.”

Teammates– David Halberstam

The Big Picture– Edward Epstein (fascinating account of the transformation of the movie business from its early days until now.)

Amity Shlaes, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression

Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire

J.K. Rolling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Bess Vanrenen (ed.), Generation What? Dispatches From the Quarter-Life Crisis.

Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities.

Joseph Ellis, Founding Brothers.

Bess Vanrenen (ed.), Generation What? Dispatches From the Quarter-Life Crisis.

Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities.

Joseph Ellis, Founding Brothers.

Richard Powers, The Echo Maker.

Robert Frank, Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class

William Irwin Thompson, The American Replacement of Nature.

Notebooks of Simone Weil.

Mine:

The Matisse Stories by A.S. Byatt

Freedom & Necessity by Emma Bull and Steven Brust

Rights at Work by Michael McCann

Legitimizing Gender Inequality by Nelson and Bridges

Suzuki, Shunryu. Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai. Elegant commentary.

Tolkien, J.R.R. (ed. Christopher Tolkien). Morgoth’s Ring. Tolkien does the problem of metaphysical evil.

Waugh, Evelyn (ed. Donat Gallagher). The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh. Out of print. I love dipping into Waugh’s journalism. I covet his prose style.

Suzuki, Shunryu. Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai. Elegant commentary.

Tolkien, J.R.R. (ed. Christopher Tolkien). Morgoth’s Ring. Tolkien does the problem of metaphysical evil.

Waugh, Evelyn (ed. Donat Gallagher). The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh. Out of print. I love dipping into Waugh’s journalism. I covet his prose style.

Velleman, J. David. Self to Self: Selected Essays (2006). Brilliant stuff on personal identity and moral psychology, involving plausible and provocative interpretations and critiques of Kant and Freud, and using the latter to fill out the former.

Pappe, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006). A must read by one of Israel’s best historians.

Kraut, Richard. What is Good and Why: The Ethics of Well-Being (2007). I’ve tried to read everything by Kraut ever since his Socrates and the State (1984).

Caney, Simon. Justice Beyond Borders: A Global Political Theory (2005). I’ve been meaning to read this for a while and just finished. A must read for those who believe in the need for a sophisticated cosmopolitan ethics with political punch and implications for global distributive justice.

Jacoby, Russell. Picture Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age (2005). Utopian imagination often gets a bad press and Jacoby is one of its more erudite and politically sophisticated defenders.

Jambert, Christian. The Act of Being: The Philosophy of Revelation in Mulla Sadra (2006). I very much look forward to reading this work on perhaps the foremost philosopher in the Islamic tradition.

Jullien, Francois. A Treatise on Efficacy: Between Western and Chinese Thinking (2004). I’m trying to read everying by Jullien translated into English because he is one of the precious few who can fill out the meaning of “comparative philosophy.”

Bolton, Derek and Jonathan Hill. Mind, Meaning, and Mental Disorder: The Nature of Causal Explanation in Psychology and Psychiatry (2nd ed., 2003). Fundamental.

Pickering, Neil. The Metaphor of Mental Illness (2006). Provocative.

Sadler, John Z. Values and Psychiatric Diagnosis (2005). Fundamental.

Velleman, J. David. Self to Self: Selected Essays (2006). Brilliant stuff on personal identity and moral psychology, involving plausible and provocative interpretations and critiques of Kant and Freud, and using the latter to fill out the former.

Pappe, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006). A must read by one of Israel’s best historians.

Kraut, Richard. What is Good and Why: The Ethics of Well-Being (2007). I’ve tried to read everything by Kraut ever since his Socrates and the State (1984).

Caney, Simon. Justice Beyond Borders: A Global Political Theory (2005). I’ve been meaning to read this for a while and just finished. A must read for those who believe in the need for a sophisticated cosmopolitan ethics with political punch and implications for global distributive justice.

Jacoby, Russell. Picture Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age (2005). Utopian imagination often gets a bad press and Jacoby is one of its more erudite and politically sophisticated defenders.

Jambert, Christian. The Act of Being: The Philosophy of Revelation in Mulla Sadra (2006). I very much look forward to reading this work on perhaps the foremost philosopher in the Islamic tradition.

Jullien, Francois. A Treatise on Efficacy: Between Western and Chinese Thinking (2004). I’m trying to read everying by Jullien translated into English because he is one of the precious few who can fill out the meaning of “comparative philosophy.”

Bolton, Derek and Jonathan Hill. Mind, Meaning, and Mental Disorder: The Nature of Causal Explanation in Psychology and Psychiatry (2nd ed., 2003). Fundamental.

Pickering, Neil. The Metaphor of Mental Illness (2006). Provocative.

Sadler, John Z. Values and Psychiatric Diagnosis (2005). Fundamental.