My Favorite Books

My favorite books:

Fiction

  • The Plague by Camus - for stating quite simply what we learn in a time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in people than to despise.
  • Kurt Vonnegut - for picking up where Camus left off.
  • The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss - for the stories we tell to ourselves to get to sleep.
  • The Lady of the Lake (and the rest of the Witcher books) by Andrzej Sapkowski - for telling a tale of war from the medic's tent.
  • The Road by Cormac McCarthy - for destroying all the world but one relationship and finding beauty.

Nonfiction

  • Noam Chomsky - for his reflections on US foreign policy.
  • Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen - for his reflections on US history.
  • Postmodern philosophy - for problematizing grand theories of the world.
  • Achieving Our Country by Richard Rorty - for storming the ivory tower.
  • How To Talk So Kids Can Learn by Faber and Mazlish - for talking to kids.
  • Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher - for talking to people.
  • The Book of Job - for making me comfortable with atheism.