| Biography /
Autobiography / Memoir |
|
Al Franken, Giant of the Senate by Al Franken |
|
An American Family: A Memoir of Hope and Sacrifice by Khizr Khan |
|
Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story by Lis Smith |
|
The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal by William J. Burns |
|
Believer: My Forty Years in Politics by David Axelrod |
|
The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening by Ari Shapiro |
|
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates |
|
Blood of the Liberals by George Packer - Part
autobiography, part family history and part essay on the history of
liberalism in the United States. George Packer's family history is a
fascinating one. It interacts with the development of liberalism for
at least the last 150+ years and through his discussion of his
family's history we learn a lot about liberalism. |
|
Bloomberg by Bloomberg, Revised and Updated 2nd Edition by Michael R. Bloomberg |
|
The Book of Joe: The Life, Wit, and (Sometimes Accidental) Wisdom of Joe Biden by Jeff Wilser |
|
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah |
|
Buffett:
The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein |
|
Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead by Jim Mattis & Bing West |
|
Chasing Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid by Jessica Alexander |
|
The
Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James
McBride |
|
The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story by Robert Baer & Dayna Baer |
|
Confessions
of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins (Audio CD) - A 9.5
hour unabridged audio version of this book in which it the author relates
his atypical professional experiences, one where he created economic
forecasts to suit his superiors and American interests. These forecasts
generally misled other countries into agreeing to various financial
arrangements that ultimately were not at all in their interest as these
forecasts were purposely slanted. His professional experiences are not the
sort found in textbooks. As the saying goes "Lies, damn lies and
statistics!" |
|
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner |
|
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover |
|
Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly |
|
Faith
of My Fathers by John McCain (Abridged audio CD) |
|
Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence by James R. Clapper with Trey Brown |
|
From the Ground Up: A Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America by Howard Schultz |
|
Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis |
|
Grounded: A Senator's Lessons on Winning Back Rural America by Jon Tester |
|
Here, Right Matters: An American Story by Alexander Vindman |
|
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey |
|
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance |
|
Hunting
the Jackal by Billy Waugh with Tim Keown -Mr. Waugh is certainly
someone who has compiled a very impressive record defending our country and
our country is the better for it. While I doubt that this book will win any
major literary awards, it is still an interesting well written fast paced
and entertaining story which I enjoyed. If this type of material or story
interests you then you will not be disappointed as Mr. Waugh is the real
deal and few can relate a story such as his as there may not be any other
people around who've written autobiographies of a career in the Special
Forces (and doing similar but different work later on for the CIA) that
spans half a century! If I ever were to cross paths with Mr. Waugh (not
likely as he seems to spend all his time in dangerous places) then I would
consider it an honor to meet him and thank him for defending my country.
|
|
Imagining
Robert: My Brother, Madness, and Survival: A Memoir by Jay
Neugeboren - This book sucks you in. I learned a lot about the life of someone with a
non-trivial emotional problem(s) and how society (and families) treats them.
This is also an absorbing personal story that made it hard for me to put the
book down. Well written, highly absorbing, and educational. |
|
In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu |
|
It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War by Lynsey Addario |
|
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott |
|
I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad by Souad Mekhennet |
|
Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now by Evan Osnos |
|
The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden's White House and the Struggle for America's Future by Franklin Foer |
|
Leadership
by Rudolph W. Giuliani with Ken Kurson |
|
Lessons From The Edge: A Memoir by Marie Yovanovitch |
|
Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA by Amaryllis Fox |
|
The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border by Francisco Cantu |
|
Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart |
|
Looking Up: The True Adventures of a Storm-Chasing Weather Nerd by Matthew Cappucci |
|
Lone
Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes
of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell (Abridged audio CD) -
Marcus Lutrell's book excels in the telling of his becoming a Navy SEAL and
the mission that led to the writing of this book. It's only downside IMHO
are the sections where Lutrell rails against "liberal journalists" (and
liberals in general?). It is not that I disagree with him (I probably
do disagree with him in many cases), it is that he spends too much time
railing against them and repeating his disdain of them a multiple of times
- we got it the first time. Still, the autobiographical stories which
are the main part of the book more than make up for this as Lutrell is a
good storyteller and he has quite a story to tell. |
|
Mountains
Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the
World by Tracy Kidder |
|
Pelosi by Molly Ball |
|
Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning by Elliot Ackerman |
|
Promise Me, Dad by Joe Biden |
|
A Promised Land by Barack Obama |
|
Outpost: Life on the Frontlines of American Diplomacy: A Memoir by Christopher R. Hill |
|
The Road Taken: A Memoir by Patrick Leahy |
|
Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations by William H. McRaven |
|
Schlepping
Through the Alps: My Search for Austria's Jewish Past with Its Last
Wandering Shepherd by Sam Apple |
|
See
No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on
Terrorism by Robert Baer |
|
Shooting Ghosts: A U.S. Marine, a Combat Photographer, and Their Journey Back from War by Brennan USMC (Ret), Thomas J.& Finbarr O'Reilly |
|
Shortest Way Home: One Mayor's Challenge and a Model for America's Future by Pete Buttigieg |
|
The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky by Simon Shuster |
|
Snapshots Sent Home: From Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine―A Memoir by JT Blatty |
|
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre |
|
Standing My Ground: A Capitol Police Officer's Fight for Accountability and Good Trouble After January 6th by Harry Dunn |
|
Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder |
|
The Targeter: My Life in the CIA, Hunting Terrorists and Challenging the White House by Nada Bakos |
|
Teacher
Man: A Memoir by Frank McCourt |
|
There Is Nothing For You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century by Fiona Hill |
|
The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris |
|
Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years by David Litt |
|
The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis |
|
The Unexpected Spy: From the CIA to the FBI, My Secret Life Taking Down Some of the World's Most Notorious Terrorists by Tracy Walder |
|
United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good by Cory Booker |
|
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa by Peter Godwin |
|
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi |
|
When the Tempest Gathers: From Mogadishu to the Fight Against ISIS, a Marine Special Operations Commander at War by Andrew Milburn |
|
Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?: And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House by Alyssa Mastromonaco |
|
Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story by Greg Smith |
|
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed |
|
The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House by Ben Rhodes |
| |
|
Business, Economics, Management, Careers &
Finance |
|
Antitrust: Taking on Monopoly Power from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age by Amy Klobuchar |
|
Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future by Paul Krugman |
|
The Big Pivot: Radically Practical Strategies for a Hotter, Scarcer, and More Open World by Andrew S. Winston |
|
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis
- The financial meltdown; what really happened, why it happened and
who's to blame. |
|
Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis |
|
A Brief History of Equality by Thomas Piketty |
|
Bright Lights, No City: An African Adventure on Bad Roads With a Brother and a Very Weird Business by Max Alexander |
|
Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist by Ray C. Anderson & Robin White |
|
But Will the Planet Notice?: How Smart Economics Can Save the World by Gernot Wagner
- Enlightening, educational and entertainingly written. |
|
Carbon Finance: The Financial Implications of Climate Change by Sonia Labatt & Rodney R. White |
|
Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller |
|
The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming World by William D. Nordhaus |
|
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings by Philip A. Fisher
- A classic. |
|
Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey D. Sachs |
|
Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors by Michael E. Porter
- Excellent, a classic, one of the few "must reads" in any MBA
program. It's one you will keep long after you finish your MBA. (I
read the 1980 edition but I gather the newer / current edition is
extremely similar). |
|
Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy - A
classic. |
|
Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger |
|
Contrarian Investment Strategies in the Next Generation by David Dreman |
|
Corporate Sustainability: Integrating Performance and Reporting by Ann Brockett & Zabihollah Rezaee |
|
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Thingsby William McDonough & Michael Braungart |
|
Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy by Jigar Shah |
|
The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism by Martin Wolf |
|
Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World by Peter S. Goodman |
|
Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben |
|
The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy by Stephanie Kelton
- Reading this was an epiphany for me in how to look at federal
budget deficits. Very highly recommended. |
|
The Ecology of Commerce Revised Edition: A Declaration of Sustainability by Paul Hawken |
|
The Effective Public Manager: Achieving Success in a Changing Government by Steve Cohen, William Eimicke, & Tanya Heikkila |
|
Essentials of Supply Chain Management by Michael H. HugosEssentials of Supply Chain Management by Michael H. Hugos
- A basic overview. |
|
The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil by Christine Bader |
|
Extreme Economies: What Life at the World's Margins Can Teach Us About Our Own Future by Richard Davies |
|
Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - and Helped Save an American Town by Beth Macy |
|
Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose (2nd Edition) by Rajendra S. Sisodia, Jagdish N. Sheth & David B. Wolfe |
|
Force of Nature: The Unlikely Story of Wal-Mart's Green Revolution by Edward Humes |
|
Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America by Alec MacGillis |
|
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins
and
Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great by Jim Collins
- The later is a supplement to the former. |
|
Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage by Daniel C. Esty & Andrew Winston
|
|
The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them by Joseph E. Stiglitz |
|
Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History by Matt Taibbi |
|
Guide to Financial Markets by Marc Levinson |
|
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK(R) Guide by Project Management Institute
- Essential / useful guide for those looking to be come certified as
a Project Management Professional (PMP) and/or to learn more about
project management. Caution: May induce drowsiness. |
|
Homewreckers: How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions Out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream by Aaron Glantz |
|
How Markets Fail by John Cassidy |
|
HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management by Harvard Business Review |
|
The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition) by Benjamin Graham
- A classic (I read the 1973 edition but I gather the newer /
current edition is even better). |
|
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard |
|
Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis |
|
The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy by Christopher Leonard |
|
Making Competition Work in Electricity by Sally Hunt |
|
Making Sustainability Stick: The Blueprint for Successful Implementation by Kevin Wilhelm |
|
Making Sustainability Work: Best Practices in Managing and Measuring Corporate Social, Environmental, and Economic Impacts by Marc J. Epstein & Adriana Rejc Buhovac |
|
MegaThreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, And How to Survive Them by Nouriel Roubini |
|
The Middle Out: The Rise of Progressive Economics and a Return to Shared Prosperity by Michael Tomasky |
|
More: The Politics of Economic Growth in Postwar America by Robert M. Collins
- Enlightining but I'm not sure that I agree with everything the
author says. |
|
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins & L. Hunter Lovins
- A classic that holds up extremely well 15 years after its
publication. It is always tough to predict the future and some
(small) parts
of the book that discuss technology, markets and politics could use
an update but this observation should in no way dissuade one from
buying this book. Highly recommended! |
|
The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti |
|
The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America by Gabriel Winant |
|
People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent by Joseph E. Stiglitz |
|
Photographers at Work: Essential Business and Production Skills for Photographers in Editorial, Design, and Advertising by Martin Evening |
|
The Photographer's MBA: Everything You Need to Know for Your Photography Business by Sal Cincotta |
|
PMP Exam Prep, Eighth Edition: Rita's Course in a Book for Passing the PMP Exam by Rita Mulcahy
- The book to read after you've read the
PMBOK, and it's a lot more readable (not that that is
saying much!). |
|
Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity by Scott Galloway |
|
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power by Daniel Yergin |
|
Profession and Purpose: A Resource Guide for MBA Careers in Sustainability by Katie Kross |
|
Project Management Fundamentals: A Practical Overview of the PMBOK by George T. Edwards |
|
Purple Squirrel by Michael B Junge |
|
The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World by Daniel Yergin
- A long (700+ page) book that is definitely worth the time it will
take to read it. Very highly recommended! |
|
A
Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel - A timeless
"classic". IMHO, the best one-book introduction to investing. |
|
The Rare Find: Spotting Exceptional Talent Before Everyone Else by George Anders |
|
The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win by Jeffrey Hollender & Bill Breen |
|
The Responsible Company by Yvon Chouinard & Vincent Stanley |
|
Return on Sustainability: How Business Can Increase Profitability and Address Climate Change in an Uncertain Economy by Kevin Wilhelm
- Recommended with some caveats (read my Amazon.com review). |
|
Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity by Joseph E. Stiglitz |
|
The Riches of This Land: The Untold, True Story of America's Middle Class by Jim Tankersley |
|
Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industry by Travis Bradford |
|
Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle by Dan Senor & Saul Singer |
|
Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World by Gary Hirshberg |
|
Strategies for the Green Economy: Opportunities and Challenges in the New World of Business by Joel Makower |
|
The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook: When It All Comes Together by Jeana Wirtenberg
- Skip this one! (that is, don't waste your time with it!). Long version: I can't think of anything
specific to disagree with that is in this book. OTOH, it seems like
generic generalized management advice with a sustainability flavor
to it. |
|
Sustainable Value: How the World's Leading Companies Are Doing Well by Doing Good by Chris Laszlo |
|
The Team Handbook Third Edition by Peter R Scholtes, Brian L. Joiner & Barbara J Streibel |
|
Time for Socialism: Dispatches from a World on Fire, 2016-2021 by Thomas Piketty |
|
The Truth About Green Business by Gil Friend |
|
The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability--Designing for Abundance by William McDonough & Michael Braungart |
|
Walking the Talk: The Business Case for Sustainable Development by Chad Holliday, Stephan Schmidheiny & Philip Watts |
|
The
Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor
by David Landes -David Landes is an enjoyable story teller and
writes in a very readable manner. He explains, with amply researched proofs,
why various countries have developed the way they have. I learned a lot
about world history as well as economics and how geography, culture and
government have all interacted in the world to explain the economic history
of the world, why some countries are rich and others are poor. |
|
When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm by Walt Bogdanich & Michael Forsythe |
|
Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming by by McKenzie Funk |
|
The World According to Monsanto by Marie-Monique Robin |
|
You Can Be a Stock Market Genius Even if You're Not Too Smart: Uncover the Secret Hiding Places of Stock Market Profits
by Joel Greenblatt - Poor title, great book! The title of this book does
a disservice to its contents. The title is much more sensationalist
than the book. |
|
Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel |
| |
| Environment, Energy,
Climate, & Sustainability,... |
|
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power by Al Gore |
|
Between Ruin and Restoration: An Environmental History of Israel by Daniel E. Orenstein, Alon Tal & Char Miller |
|
The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters by Rose George |
|
The Big Pivot: Radically Practical Strategies for a Hotter, Scarcer, and More Open World by Andrew S. Winston |
|
The Big Ratchet: How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis by Ruth DeFries |
|
The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water by Charles Fishman |
|
Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth by Rachel Maddow |
|
The Bridge at the Edge of the World by James Gustave Speth |
|
Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist by Ray C. Anderson & Robin White |
|
But Will the Planet Notice?: How Smart Economics Can Save the World by Gernot Wagner
- Enlightening, educational and entertainingly written. |
|
Carbon Finance: The Financial Implications of Climate Change by Sonia Labatt & Rodney R. White |
|
A
Civil Action by Jonathan Harr - The book is better than the film
IMO. |
|
The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming World by William D. Nordhaus |
|
Climate Change: Picturing the Science by Gavin Schmidt & Joshua Wolfe |
|
Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet by Michael Bloomberg & Carl Pope |
|
Climate Shock: The Economic Consequences of a Hotter Planet by Gernot Wagner & Martin L. Weitzman |
|
The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the Earth by Eric Pooley
- Riveting and detailed history of the effort to get climate
legislation passed in the US (and other related subjects). |
|
Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey D. Sachs |
|
Compost City: Practical Composting Know-How for Small-Space Living by Rebecca Louie |
|
Corporate Sustainability: Integrating Performance and Reporting by Ann Brockett & Zabihollah Rezaee |
|
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Thingsby William McDonough & Michael Braungart |
|
Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy by Jigar Shah |
|
DDT Wars: Rescuing Our National Bird, Preventing Cancer, and Creating the Environmental Defense Fund by Charles F. Wurster |
|
Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben |
|
Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David R. Montgomery |
|
Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change by George Marshall |
|
Drought: An Interdisciplinary Perspective by Ben Cook |
|
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben |
|
Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming Paperback by Fred Krupp & Miriam Horn |
|
The Earth System (3rd Edition) by Lee R. Kump, James F. Kasting & Robert G. Crane |
|
Eco Barons: The New Heroes of Environmental Activism by Edward Humes |
|
The Ecology of Commerce Revised Edition: A Declaration of Sustainability by Paul Hawken |
|
Environmental Law and Policy 3d Edition by James Salzman & Barton H. Thompson Jr. |
|
Environmental Regulation: Law, Science, and Policy, Seventh Edition by Robert V. Percival, Christopher H. Schroeder, Alan S. Miller & James P. Leape |
|
Environmental Science: Toward a Sustainable Future (12th Edition) by Richard T. Wright & Dorothy Boorse |
|
Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? by Bill McKibben |
|
Food Foolish: The Hidden Connection Between Food Waste, Hunger and Climate Change by John M. Mandyck & Eric B. Schultz |
|
Force of Nature: The Unlikely Story of Wal-Mart's Green Revolution by Edward Humes |
|
Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing by Doug McKenzie-Mohr |
|
Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food by Paul Greenberg |
|
Frackopoly: The Battle for the Future of Energy and the Environment by Wenonah Hauter
- Strong in describing the potential dangers of fracking and the
movement / fight that has arisen to stop it. Not so strong (or
worse) on other public policy issues. |
|
Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution by Auden Schendler |
|
Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash Paperback by Edward Humes |
|
The Global Warming Reader: A Century of Writing About Climate Change by Bill McKibben
- Like any anthology, some chapters are better than others (and some
are a bit dated as climate science and politics are always
evolving). |
|
Good Dirt: Confessions Of A Conservationist Second Edition Edition by David E. Morine |
|
The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration by Jake Bittle |
|
Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage by Daniel C. Esty & Andrew Winston
|
|
Grow a Greener Data Center by Douglas Alger |
|
The Guide to Greening Cities by Sadhu Aufochs Johnston, Steven S. Nicholas & Julia Parzen |
|
Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity by Joseph G. Allen & John D. Macomber |
|
The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet by Jeff Goodell |
|
Heating, Cooling, Lighting: Sustainable Design Methods for Architects by Norbert Lechner |
|
The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines by Michael E. Mann |
|
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman
(Abridged Audio CD) |
|
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates |
|
Let There Be Water: Israel's Solution for a Water-Starved World by Seth M. Siegel |
|
Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century by Mark Dowie |
|
Making Sustainability Stick: The Blueprint for Successful Implementation by Kevin Wilhelm |
|
Making Sustainability Work: Best Practices in Managing and Measuring Corporate Social, Environmental, and Economic Impacts by Marc J. Epstein & Adriana Rejc Buhovac |
|
Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming by Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. M. Conway |
|
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins & L. Hunter Lovins
- A classic that holds up extremely well 15 years after its
publication. It is always tough to predict the future and some
(small) parts
of the book that discuss technology, markets and politics could use
an update but this observation should in no way dissuade one from
buying this book. Highly recommended! |
|
A New Blueprint for a Green Economy by Edward B. Barbier & Anil Markandya |
|
The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet by Michael E. Mann |
|
The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations by Daniel Yergin |
|
Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist by Bill McKibben
- Inspiring and important. |
|
Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis by Al Gore
- If you want to only read one book which will explain all the
issues regarding the climate crisis then this is the book. It
has an impressive amount of breadth and depth and is very readable. |
|
Photovoltaic Systems by James P. Dunlop |
|
The Polluters: The Making of Our Chemically Altered Environment
by Benjamin Ross & Steven Amter - That the chemical industry
has released huge quantities of inadequately treated toxic wastes
into the environment is not news to most people. What was news
to me was how successful (truly breathtaking) the industry was for
many many years in their efforts to thwart government regulation of
their impact on the environment. The "regulatory capture" of
government entities (including the Public Health Service) by the
industry was more than I ever would've believed prior to reading
this book. This subject may sound dry but this write-up is actually
an enjoyable quick read (with lots of good guys, bad guys, greed,
duplicity, conflicts of interest, etc). |
|
Pollution in a Promised Land: An Environmental History of Israel by Alon Tal
- The most complete environmental history of Israel in English that
I am aware of. It has great breadth and depth. |
|
Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology by Alexis Madrigal |
|
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power by Daniel Yergin |
|
Profession and Purpose: A Resource Guide for MBA Careers in Sustainability by Katie Kross |
|
The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World by Daniel Yergin
- A long (700+ page) book that is definitely worth the time it will
take to read it. Very highly recommended! |
|
Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman: Conservation Heroes of the American Heartland by Miriam Horn |
|
Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era by Amory Lovins |
|
The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win by Jeffrey Hollender & Bill Breen |
|
The Responsible Company by Yvon Chouinard & Vincent Stanley |
|
Return on Sustainability: How Business Can Increase Profitability and Address Climate Change in an Uncertain Economy by Kevin Wilhelm
- Recommended with some caveats (read my Amazon.com review). |
|
The Rise of the U.S. Environmental Health Movement by Kate Davies |
|
Rooftop Revolution: How Solar Power Can Save Our Economy-and Our Planet-from Dirty Energy by Danny Kennedy |
|
Second Nature: Scenes from a World Remade by Nathaniel Rich |
|
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert |
|
The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers, and Foodies Are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet by Kristin Ohlson |
|
Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industry by Travis Bradford |
|
Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World by Gary Hirshberg |
|
Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity by James Hansen |
|
Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States by Leah Cardamore Stokes |
|
Strategies for the Green Economy: Opportunities and Challenges in the New World of Business by Joel Makower |
|
Sun, Wind & Light: Architectural Design Strategies, 2nd Edition by G. Z. Brown & Mark DeKay |
|
The Sustainable City by Steven Cohen |
|
The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook: When It All Comes Together by Jeana Wirtenberg
- Skip this one! (that is, don't waste your time with it!). Long version: I can't think of anything
specific to disagree with that is in this book. OTOH, it seems like
generic generalized management advice with a sustainability flavor
to it. |
|
Sustainable Value: How the World's Leading Companies Are Doing Well by Doing Good by Chris Laszlo |
|
Sustainability Management: Lessons from and for New York City, America, and the Planet by Steven Cohen |
|
Sustainability Policy: Hastening the Transition to a Cleaner Economy by Steven Cohen, William Eimicke & Alison Miller |
|
Taking Back Eden: Eight Environmental Cases that Changed the World by Oliver A. Houck |
|
The Thinking Person's Guide to Climate Change by Robert Henson
- Good book, corny title, a science book with great breadth and
decent depth, written for non-scientists. |
|
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein
- An impressive and broad work and while I do agree with many of Ms.
Klein’s points, I can not in the end recommend this book because of
what I perceive of as its shortcomings (or maybe it is just that I
disagree with her analysis and opinions in too many places). In too
many places I believe that Ms. Klein’s analysis to be wrong and that
too many of the public policies that she recommends to be wholly
unrealistic either in conception or in having any chance that they
would or could ever be adopted. At times this book read like a
polemic. |
|
The Truth About Green Business by Gil Friend |
|
Tools for Grassroots Activists: Best Practices for Success in the Environmental Movement by Nora Gallagher & Lisa Myers |
|
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert |
|
Understanding Environmental Policy by Steven Cohen |
|
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells |
|
The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability--Designing for Abundance by William McDonough & Michael Braungart |
|
The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century by Dr. Dickson Despommier |
|
Walking the Talk: The Business Case for Sustainable Development by Chad Holliday, Stephan Schmidheiny & Philip Watts |
|
The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World by Jeff Goodell |
|
The Way Into Judaism and the Environment by Jeremy Benstein
- Most discussions of what Judaism has to say about the environment
involve pasook tossing,
quoting a few relatively well known verses from traditional Jewish
sources (i.e. the bible) and expounding on how they demonstrate that
Judaism is an environmentally friendly religion. While Jeremy's book
does discuss all of the usual verses, it doesn't stop there. It goes much much
further and creates a learned, sophisticated and nuanced connection
between Judaism and pro-environmental policies and behaviors.
(Full disclosure: I met Jeremy in 2008 when I
participated in a multi-day hike in Israel to raise money for The Heschel Center, Jeremy's NGO, which works on environmental issues in
Israel, and for another environmental group. I've written these
comments on my own volition without Jeremy's knowledge). |
|
We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer |
|
When the Rivers Run Dry: Water - The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century by Fred Pearce
|
|
Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming by by McKenzie Funk |
|
Windfall: How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America’s Power by Meghan L. O'Sullivan |
|
Winning the Green New Deal: Why We Must, How We Can by Varshini Prakash & Guido Girgenti |
|
The World According to Monsanto by Marie-Monique Robin
- This book tells an amazing and extremely troubling true story of
corporate greed. It tells the story of Monsanto and does it with a
serious rigor that refutes any attempt that might be made to dismiss
it. One might think that with all the things that Monsanto has done
that has knowingly damaged the health of humans and animals in the
pursuit of profit that they would have been put out of business by
now because of criminal and civil penalties. Well written, very
educational and highly recommended!
|
|
World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse by Lester R. Brown |
| |
| Fiction |
|
The Brethren by John Grisham |
|
The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God & Other Stories by Etgar Keret |
|
Redeployment by Phil Klay |
|
A Replacement Life: A Novel by Boris Fishman |
|
Scribblers
on the Roof by Melvin Jules Bukiet & David G. Roskies - The
book is quite entertaining, a collection of stories written by Jewish
writers. |
| |
| Food |
|
American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood by Paul Greenberg |
|
The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table by Tracie McMillan |
|
Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal by Mark Bittman |
|
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer - If the first
step in resolving a problem is acknowledging that you have the
problem, then requiring all meat and poultry eaters (as well as
everyone else) to read this
book would probably satisfy step one. The knowledge gained from
reading this book will probably lead to changes in our society that
would benefit everyone (regardless of whether everyone became a
vegetarian or not). |
|
The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David Kessler
- Dr. Kessler covers does a great job of covering this topic with
much breadth and a decent amount of depth. The chapters about how
processed food (including food served in many restaurants) is
manipulated deserves a book of its own and lots of publicity about
it as I believe it would change public policy for the better (better
mandated disclosure if nothing else). |
|
Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All by Oran B. Hesterman |
|
Fast Carbs, Slow Carbs: The Simple Truth About Food, Weight, and Disease by David A. Kessler |
|
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser |
|
Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food by Paul Greenberg |
|
Grahame's Guide to Chocolates around the World |
|
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan |
|
Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages by David Kraemer
- Jewish law about kashrut has changed much much more than I ever
knew or would have guessed over the years. |
|
Kosher Nation: Why More and More of America's Food Answers to a Higher Authority by Sue Fishkoff
- Here's the how and why of the Kosher food industry. |
|
No Happy Cows: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Food Revolution by John Robbins |
|
Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir by Kwame Onwuachi |
|
The
Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael
Pollan - Do you think you know where your food comes from? Don't
be so sure unless you've already read Michael Pollan's book. Michael traces the path that food in America takes to
get to your plate. For a discussion of meat and corn (we learn that corn is
in almost everything around us) he actually buys one steer and follows it's
life. There is a fascinating chapter on "grass farmers". He also
discusses the organic food industry (i.e. Whole Foods) and other paths that
food takes to get to you. While I do not at all consider myself to be a
foodie, I found this book very interesting as it illuminated how a part of
our world works that I knew relatively little about (although I thought I
did before reading this book). Only someone working in
the food industry might not be surprised by what they learn in this book.
This book should be a "must read" for anyone interested in what they eat (as
well as policymakers). Eating "responsibly" takes on a whole new
dimension now that I've read this book. A very well written "food" book for foodies and
non-foodies alike. |
|
Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It by Tom Philpott |
|
Salmon Wars: The Dark Underbelly of Our Favorite Fish by Catherine Collins & Douglas Frantz |
|
Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food by Chris van Tulleken |
|
The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick - And What We Can Do About It by Robyn O'Brien
- I thought I knew a fair amount about the food I ate and I had also
always been curious as to why we have had a non-trivial increase in
the incidence of peanut allergies among people much younger than me.
Even if you have read
Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan you will not be
disappointed if you buy this book to learn more about the food you
eat (hint: read Omnivore's Dilemma first). |
|
We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer |
|
White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf by Aaron Bobrow-Strain |
|
The World According to Monsanto by Marie-Monique Robin |
| |
| History / Current Events / Current
Affairs |
|
After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made by Ben Rhodes |
|
The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War by Craig Whitlock |
|
Against
All Enemies by Richard A. Clarke - A real page turner, well
written and informative. A well written account of this
nation's war against terrorism through Richard Clarke's eyes. Richard's prose
is clear, is good at explaining how things work in Washington and the White
House and you will come away better informed. You may also, as I did, come
away with a new appreciation for how Clinton handled terrorism. If you are a
fan of President Bush then you will not like this book as it carefully
explains the illogic of the war in Iraq in regards to terrorism and other
issues. |
|
The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory by Andrew J. Bacevich |
|
American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper by Jacob S. Hacker & Paul Pierson |
|
American Made: What Happens to People When Work Disappears by Farah Stockman |
|
American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy by David Corn |
|
American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress by Wesley Lowery |
|
Among the Righteous by Robert Satloff |
|
Antidemocracy in America: Truth, Power, and the Republic at Risk by Eric Klinenberg, Sharon Marcus, & Caitlin Zaloom |
|
The Arab Winter: A Tragedy by Noah Feldman |
|
The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq by George
Packer - This book should be required reading to understand the Iraq
war. It reminds me of From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas
Friedman in that I didn't want to put it down and its 480 pages flew by. I
expect that it will also stand the test of time and also be considered a
classic. It is carefully
researched and very well written. |
|
The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in an Age of Lies by Michael V. Hayden |
|
The
Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack
Obama (Abridged audio CD) - Read by the author himself, this
book will give you an insight into Obama's basic philosophy in each of the
major policy areas as well as some autobiographical material. One
doesn't generally choose to listed to a 6.5 hour speech by a politician but
this "speech" is quite listenable and will make obvious why Obama is
currently the competitive presidential candidate that he is. |
|
The Audacity to Win: How Obama Won and How We Can Beat the Party of Limbaugh, Beck, and Palin by David Plouffe |
|
Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America by James Poniewozik |
|
The Big Break: The Gamblers, Party Animals, and True Believers Trying to Win in Washington While America Loses Its Mind by Ben Terris |
|
Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine by Anna Reid |
|
Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party by Julian E. Zelizer |
|
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson |
|
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz |
|
Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine by David Petraeus & Andrew Roberts |
|
The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman |
|
A
Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa by Howard W.
French - Maybe you remember the details of the Rwandan massacres
(genocides?), maybe you've been following the tragedy in Darfur or maybe you
went on an African safari and now think you know something about Africa.
Read this book and The Shadow of the Sun (see below), two excellent
and very enlightening books (my recommendation is to read The Shadow of
the Sun first) to see if that is really the case (maybe yes but
probably not IMHO). They certainly opened my eyes about Africa and helped to
explain to me why things are as they are there (including why some very
horrific events have happened in the past and will probably happen again). |
|
The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right by Max Boot |
|
The Cruelty Is the Point: Why Trump's America Endures by Adam Serwer |
|
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the
Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer |
|
Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic
by Eric Eyre |
|
Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism by Anne Case & Angus Deaton |
|
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean
- Excellent book to read after reading |
|
Democracy in One Book or Less: How It Works, Why It Doesn't, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think by David Litt |
|
The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party by Dana Milbank |
|
Devil's Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency by Joshua Green |
|
Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power by Rachel Maddow |
|
Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert M Gates (Audio
CD) |
|
Emancipation: How Liberating Europe's Jews from the Ghetto Led to Revolution and Renaissance by Michael Goldfarb |
|
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker |
|
Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History by Kurt Andersen |
|
Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward in the Post-Cold War World by Robert M. Gates |
|
Fascism: A Warning by Madeleine Albright |
|
Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward |
|
Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds by Paul Farmer |
|
The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis |
|
The Fighters by C. J. Chivers |
|
The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents by Ronald Kessler |
|
The Forever War by Dexter Filkins |
|
The Frontlines of Peace: An Insider's Guide to Changing the World by Severine Autesserre |
|
The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy |
|
Ghost
Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the
Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll - Ghost
Wars is a very long read. The reading is fast because it is well written but
the book is simply long in length. It is very well researched and it never
lost my attention. I now have a better understanding of the history of that
part of the world. This book should be the standard core text on this
subject. Overall a very impressive book. |
|
The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream, 2nd Edition by Jacob S. Hacker |
|
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn
- An important book for those who care about humanity. |
|
Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration by Reuben Jonathan Miller
|
|
The Hill to Die On: The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trump's America by Jake Sherman & Anna Palmer |
|
How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt |
|
How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon by Rosa Brooks |
|
How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley |
|
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith |
|
How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr |
|
Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment by Francis Fukuyama |
|
Imperium
by Ryszard Kapuscinski - Imperium gives you the gestalt of the Soviet
Union from about World War II to the early 90's. The author, a Polish
journalist, is a great observer of regular life. |
|
Information Wars: How We Lost the Global Battle Against Disinformation and What We Can Do About It by Richard Stengel |
|
The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy After Trump by Alexander Ward |
|
In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect by Ronald Kessler |
|
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson |
|
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann |
|
Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy by Adam Jentleson |
|
Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America by Dahlia Lithwick |
|
Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal by George Packer |
|
Let them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality by Jacob S. Hacker & Paul Pierson |
|
Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? by Thomas Frank |
|
Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge's View by Stephen Breyer |
|
Masters
Of Chaos: The Secret History of the Special Forces by Linda
Robinson - I read this (almost) 400 page book within one 24 hour day.
A very readable history of the U.S. Army's Special Forces. The author uses a
core of real people she met to personalize the stories. |
|
Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming by Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. M. Conway |
|
Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could by Adam Schiff |
|
The Oath: The Obama White House and The Supreme Court by
Jeffrey Toobin |
|
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder |
|
One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965 by Jia Lynn Yang |
|
One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported by E.J. Dionne Jr., Norman J. Ornstein, & Thomas E. Mann
|
|
One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy by Carol Anderson |
|
Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story That Changed the Course of World War II by Ben Macintyre |
|
Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine's War of Independence by Yaroslav Trofimov |
|
Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In by Bernie Sanders |
|
Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America by Stacey Abrams |
|
The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism by Thomas Frank |
|
The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy by Anand Giridharadas |
|
Politics Is for Power: How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change by Eitan Hersh |
|
Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow |
|
Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber by Andy Borowitz |
|
The Politics of Our Time: Populism, Nationalism, Socialism by John B. Judis |
|
The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics by John B. Judis |
|
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond |
|
The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism
by Katherine Stewart |
|
The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis |
|
Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights by Erwin Chemerinsky |
|
A Problem from Hell : America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power |
|
Public Citizens: The Attack on Big Government and the Remaking of American Liberalism by Paul Sabin |
|
Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia by Steven Stoll |
|
The Ransomware Hunting Team: A Band of Misfits' Improbable Crusade to Save the World from Cybercrime by Renee Dudley & Daniel Golden |
|
Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump by Spencer Ackerman |
|
Rescued
from the Reich: How One of Hitler's Soldiers Saved the Lubavitcher
Rebbe by Bryan Mark Rigg |
|
The Retreat of Western Liberalism by Edward Luce |
|
Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference by David Shimer |
|
The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America by Timothy Snyder |
|
Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump by Michael Isikoff & David Corn |
|
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Audiobook by Yuval Noah Harari |
|
The
Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed The Jewish
People by John Loftus & Mark Aarons - Truth is stranger than
fiction. What they tell you in history books may not be the full story. |
|
Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice by David Enrich |
|
The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski -
The gestalt of Africa. Maybe you remember the details of the Rwandan massacres (genocides?), maybe
you've been following the tragedy in Darfur or maybe you went on an African
safari and now think you know something about Africa. Read this book
and A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa (see
above), two excellent and very enlightening books (my recommendation
is to read this book first) to see if that is really the case (maybe yes but
probably not IMHO). They certainly opened my eyes about Africa and helped to
explain to me why things are as they are there (including why some very
horrific events have happened in the past and will probably happen again). |
|
Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign by Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes |
|
Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude by Robert Baer |
|
The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham |
|
A Special Mission: Hitler's Secret Plot to Seize the Vatican and Kidnap Pope Pius XII by Dan Kurzman |
|
Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence by Amy B. Zegart |
|
Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century
by Sergei Guriev & Daniel Treisman |
|
Spy Schools: How the CIA, FBI, and Foreign Intelligence Secretly Exploit America's Universities by Daniel Golden |
|
Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson
- The sequel / continuation of the story that starts in
Three Cups of Tea. Read
Three Cups of Tea before reading this book. |
|
The Storm Is Here: An American Crucible by Luke Mogelson |
|
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee |
|
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild |
|
Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court's Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America by Adam Cohen |
|
Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen |
|
The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It by Robert B. Reich |
|
Tailspin: The People and Forces Behind America's Fifty-Year Fall--and Those Fighting to Reverse It by Steven Brill |
|
This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America's Middle Class by Elizabeth Warren |
|
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race by Nicole Perlroth |
|
The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump by Andrew G. McCabe |
|
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin
- Inspiring, we're all lazy self centered shlubs (Yiddish for "a stupid,
worthless, or unattractive person") compared with Greg. The world is
a better place because of his work. |
|
Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn |
|
Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the Decline of the American Dream by Nicholas Lemann |
|
The Trouble with Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time by Brooke Gladstone |
|
Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy by David Frum |
|
Trust: America's Best Chance by Pete Buttigieg |
|
Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum |
|
Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt |
|
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio |
|
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer |
|
Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory by Claudio Saunt |
|
A Warning by Anonymous |
|
War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East by Gershom Gorenberg |
|
What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton |
|
What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party by Michael Kazin |
|
Where Have All the Democrats Gone?: The Soul of the Party in the Age of Extremes by Ruy Teixeira & John B. Judis |
|
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg |
|
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson |
|
White Evangelicals and Right-Wing Populism by Marcia Pally |
|
Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein |
|
Wildland: The Making of America's Fury by Evan Osnos |
|
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class
by Jacob S. Hacker & Paul Pierson |
|
A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order by Richard Haass |
|
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
by Thomas L. Friedman - A very good explanation of how technology
has impacted how business works in the last 5+ years. Good at explaining and
illustrating ideas with real world examples (and some name dropping). Best
for corporate world denizens who do not work in a large corporate IT
department. If you are very aware of technology and what it can do today in
the corporate world then a decent part of this book may be a review. There
are a couple of minor mistakes in Tom's explanations of how certain
technology works. These are small mistakes and do not at all take away from
the book enough to make a difference. Tom readily admits that his background
is not technical and seems to have tried hard to make sure he has his
technical explanations are correct. The mistakes are subtle and do not
detract much if anything from the book. I think this book will stand the
test of time for a few (5+?) years but as technology changes, it may become
dated. On the other hand, one of his earlier works, "From Beirut to Jerusalem", has
held up very well over a long period of time and I highly recommend it.
Bottom line: This is a good book if you are not a techie in the corporate world (who
then probably already knows a lot of this stuff but probably doesn't have as
many stories to tell as Tom does and can't write as well). |
|
Yes We (Still) Can: Politics in the Age of Obama, Twitter, and Trump by Dan Pfeiffer |
|
Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service by Carol Leonnig |
| |
| Israel+ |
|
The 188th Crybaby Brigade: A Skinny Jewish Kid from Chicago Fights Hezbollah by Joel Chasnoff
- A fast and entertaining read. Enlightening about Israeli
society and its army. |
|
And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East by Richard Engel |
|
Between Ruin and Restoration: An Environmental History of Israel by Daniel E. Orenstein, Alon Tal & Char Miller |
|
The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God & Other Stories by Etgar Keret
(fiction) |
|
Cain's
Field: Faith, Fratricide, and Fear in the Middle East by Matt
Rees - I had considered myself well read about the Israeli/Arab conflict
in general and then I heard Matt Rees speak in person about this (then) new
book. He told me quite a few things I never knew before (mostly about the
Palestinians). I bought this book on the spot and don't regret it. He is a
good story teller and delves into issues and people that I don't read about
in both the general and special interest media that covers this part of the
world. I now have a better understanding about the issues that each side
deals with internally (and especially about the Palestinian side). |
|
Company C: An American's Life as a Citizen-Soldier in Israel
by Haim Watzman - The author is not a famous military hero or
politician. He is sort of an "everyman". An American who emigrated to
Israel, has lived there for 20+ years going through what an average person
might go through who gets drafted into the Israeli army and after his
initial stint serves in the reserves until he reaches the mandatory
retirement age (40 ?) for people like him in the reserves. It is a well
written and interesting peek into what an average person might expect to
experience in the Israeli army and an insight into real life in Israel. The
author is good at explaining how things related to this work in Israel and I
found this book both interesting and informative. |
|
Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama by Dennis Ross |
|
Foxbats Over Dimona: The Soviets' Nuclear Gamble in the Six-Day War by Isabella Ginor & Gideon Remez |
|
From
Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman - A "classic" that has
stood the test of time. |
|
The Hebrew Republic: How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace At Last by Bernard Avishai
- Strongest in illuminating some key internal sociological,
demographic, historical and political problems and worth reading for
this part alone. Author lays out a positive vision for the
future but has no real plan for getting there. |
|
Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict by Amy Dockser Marcus |
|
Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel by Dan Ephron |
|
The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel's Battle for Its Inner Soul by Isabel Kershner |
|
Let There Be Water: Israel's Solution for a Water-Starved World by Seth M. Siegel |
|
My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel (Audio CD) by Ari Shavit |
|
A Path to Peace: A Brief History of Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations and a Way Forward in the Middle East by George J. Mitchell & Alon Sachar |
|
Pollution in a Promised Land: An Environmental History of Israel by Alon Tal
- The most complete environmental history of Israel in English that
I am aware of. It has great breadth and depth. |
|
Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier's Story by Matti Friedman |
|
Six
Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East by
Michael Oren - Awesome! I read about half of this book in the course of 24
hours of traveling on a multiple of airplanes and almost couldn't put it
down (I finished it a few weeks later). While a serious work of scholarship,
history never read so easily as the book moves quickly (basically because the
writing is excellent and a pleasure to read). I have been a (amateur) student of the history of Israel and have read
many things on it and even with a lifetime of doing this, I learned an awful
lot about the area from this book and in a very enjoyable way.
Subsequently, I had the good fortune to be at a social
function in NYC where the author also happened to coincidently be. He
mentioned that his next book was a two volume series on a subject regarding
the Middle East that only sounded
mildly interesting to me. If it were another author then I might easily pass on it
but if it lives up to the standard set by the Six Day War book then I will
seriously consider it.
|
|
Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices by Mosab Hassan Yousef
- The story of a son of one of the seven founders of Hamas. How
he decides that Hamas's methods didn't square with his values, how
he ends up becoming a spy for Israel within Hamas for about 10
years, and then (and he was still under 30) decides to settle
in California. Oh, and by the way, he secretly converts to
Christianity at some point while acting as a spy for Israel. |
|
Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel by Matti Friedman |
|
Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle by Dan Senor & Saul Singer |
|
Teenagers Educated The Village Way by Chaim Peri |
|
Thou Shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World by Avi Jorisch |
|
Walking Israel by Martin Fletcher |
|
The Weapon Wizards: How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower by Yaakov Katz & Amir Bohbot |
|
Zionism: The Birth and Transformation of an Ideal by Milton Viorst |
| |
|
Journalism, Photojournalism & Media |
|
And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East by Richard Engel |
|
Associated Press Guide to News Writing: The Resource for Professional Journalists 3rd Edition by René J. Cappon |
|
Associated Press Guide to Photojournalism 2nd Edition by Brian Horton |
|
The 2016 Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law |
|
Bending the Frame: Photojournalism, Documentary, and the Citizen by Fred Ritchin |
|
Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now by Alan Rusbridger |
|
Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling by Amy Chozick
- What it was like to cover Hillary for the NY Times in the 2016
election. |
|
The Elements of Journalism, Revised and Updated 3rd Edition: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect by Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel |
|
The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America by Jim Acosta |
|
Enemy of the People: Trump's War on the Press, the New McCarthyism, and the Threat to American Democracy by Marvin Kalb |
|
Free the Press: The Death of American Journalism and How to Revive It by Brian J. Karem |
|
From
Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman - A "classic" that has
stood the test of time. |
|
Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy by Margaret Sullivan |
|
Here I Am: The Story of Tim Hetherington, War Photographer by Alan Huffman |
|
Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth by Brian Stelter |
|
It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War by Lynsey Addario |
|
I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad by Souad Mekhennet |
|
Journalism After Snowden: The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State by Emily Bell & Taylor Owen |
|
Journalistic Writing: Building the Skills, Honing the Craft by Robert M. Knight |
|
Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts by Jill Abramson |
|
Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics by Nicole Hemmer |
|
Network of Lies: The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for American Democracy by Brian Stelter |
|
No Ordinary Assignment: A Memoir by Jane Ferguson |
|
Off the Record: The Press, the Government, and the War over Anonymous Sources by Norman Pearlstine |
|
On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist by Clarissa Ward |
|
On Press: The Liberal Values That Shaped the News by Matthew Pressman |
|
Photojournalism: The Professionals' Approach 6th Edition by Kenneth Kobre
- Overall excellent but the technology and business sections are now
dated as things have changed quickly in these areas - buy the newer
edition (below). |
|
Photojournalism: The Professionals' Approach 7th Edition by
Kenneth Kobre - A worthy update to a classic book on this topic. |
|
A Photojournalist's Field Guide: In the trenches with combat photographer Stacy Pearsall by Stacy Pearsall |
|
A Rope and a Prayer: The Story of a Kidnapping by David Rohde & Kristen Mulvihill |
|
Saved: A War Reporter's Mission to Make It Home by Benjamin Hall |
|
Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents by Pete Souza |
|
Shooter: Combat From Behind The Camera by Stacy Pearsall |
|
Shooting Ghosts: A U.S. Marine, a Combat Photographer, and Their Journey Back from War by Brennan USMC (Ret), Thomas J.& Finbarr O'Reilly |
|
Shooting War by Anthony Feinstein |
|
Slightly Out of Focus: The Legendary Photojournalist's Illustrated Memoir of World War II by Robert Capa |
|
The Solo Video Journalist: Doing It All and Doing It Well in TV Multimedia Journalism 2nd Edition by Matt Pearl |
|
Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production by Jonathan Kern |
|
Storytelling for Photojournalists: Reportage and Documentary Photography Techniques by Enzo dal Verme |
|
This
Just in: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV by Bob Schieffer |
|
Truth in Our Times: Inside the Fight for Press Freedom in the Age of Alternative Facts by David E. McCraw |
|
Truth Needs No Ally: Inside Photojournalism by Howard Chapnick |
|
Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History by Katy Tur |
|
Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House by April Ryan |
|
Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling by Kenneth Kobre |
|
War Reporting for Cowards by Chris Ayres - It reminded me in some way of
A Walk in the Woods by Bill
Bryson. |
| |
| Judaism |
|
The Aleppo Codex: In Pursuit of One of the World’s Most Coveted, Sacred, and Mysterious Books by Matti Friedman |
|
As
a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg |
|
At Home in Exile: Why Diaspora Is Good for the Jews by Alan Wolfe |
|
Basic
Judaism by Milton Steinberg |
|
Believing and Its Tensions: A Personal Conversation about God, Torah, Suffering and Death in Jewish Thought by Rabbi Neil Gillman |
|
A Bride for One Night: Talmud Tales by Dr. Ruth Calderon |
|
Conscience: The Duty to Obey and the Duty to Disobey by Harold M. Schulweis |
|
The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World by Matthew Stewart |
|
A
Delightful Compendium of Consolation: A Fabulous Tale of Romance,
Adventure and Faith in the Medieval Mediterranean by Burton L
Visotzky |
|
Doing Jewish Theology: God, Torah & Israel in Modern Judaism by Neil Gillman
- Rabbi Gillman explores a range of topics in Jewish theology. A
good follow up for those who have already read his classic
Sacred
Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew. |
|
Empowered Judaism: What Independent Minyanim Can Teach Us about Building Vibrant Jewish Communities by Elie Kaunfer
- Rabbi Kaunfer explains the origins of Kehilat Hadar and Yeshivat Hadar
which he helped found and the Independent Minyanim movement which
has grown in recent years. His discussion of the decisions made as
to why and how to start and run Hadar and his explanation of the
ethos of Hadar (the minyan and the yeshiva) are interesting and/or
instructive to others. |
|
From Defender to Critic: The Search for a New Jewish Self by David Hartman |
|
The
Genesis of Ethics by Burton L. Visotzky |
|
Getting Our Groove Back: How to Energize American Jewry by Scott A. Shay |
|
God
and Evil: A Unified Theodicy/Theology/Philosophy by David
Birnbaum - It doesn't get much better than this, that is assuming you
can talk about a theodicy not getting much better. David Birnbaum delivers a
very very carefully thought out, consistent, organized and all encompassing
theodicy/theology such that this might be last book you will feel the need
to read on this subject. David doesn't ignore other theodicy's, he discusses
all of them while on his path to presenting his. His thesis is consistent
with the various streams of normative Jewish belief/law including the
traditional ones. |
|
The God Who Hates Lies: Confronting and Rethinking Jewish Tradition by Dr. David Hartman
- Excellent book with a poor and misleading main title (maybe it is
about lashon hara?). Mostly about halakha (Jewish law) and orthodox Judaism and issues the author has
with with how these interact. |
|
The Heart of Loneliness: How Jewish Wisdom Can Help You Cope and Find Comfort by Rabbi Marc Katz |
|
A Heart of Many Rooms: Celebrating the Many Voices Within Judaism by David Hartman |
|
Hillel: If Not Now, When? by Joseph Telushkin |
|
Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages by David Kraemer
- Jewish law about kashrut has changed much much more than I ever
knew or would have guessed over the years. |
|
Jewish Ethics & Social Justice by Shmuly Yanklowitz |
|
Jews and Power by Ruth R. Wisse |
|
Jewish Theology in Our Time: A New Generation Explores the Foundations and Future of Jewish Belief by Elliot J. Cosgrove
- I did not agree with all of the points of view expressed in all of
the essays in this anthology (I probably only agreed with a
minority). In fact, that would almost be impossible given the
differences between them. What they all had in common, and what
makes this book worthwhile, is that they are all thought provoking
(and educational at times). This is also a highly readable book that
does not assume advanced knowledge in this area. FWIW, If you are
looking for a first book on Jewish theology then this may not be
your best choice. For that I recommend some of the books by Neil
Gillman such as
Sacred
Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew. |
|
Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World by Sidney Schwarz |
|
Kosher Nation: Why More and More of America's Food Answers to a Higher Authority by Sue Fishkoff |
|
Kosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher and Other Tales of Modern Food by Roger Horowitz |
|
The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides' Thirteen Principles Reappraised by Marc B. Shapiro
- Somewhat sensationalist title for a serious scholarly work. It
discusses what traditional Jewish commentators (as well as
Maimonides in other writings) have said about the 13 Principles.
Worthwhile reading for those concerned with theology as defined by
the 13 Principles. |
|
A Living Covenant: The Innovative Spirit in Traditional Judaism by David Hartman |
|
Love
Your Neighbor And Yourself: A Jewish Approach to Modern Personal
Ethics by Elliot N. Dorff - The title of the book doesn't do it
justice. While some parts are dry and semi-obvious, many other parts
systematically explore the Jewish approach to personal morals and ethics in
ways that will give one a better understanding of the issues and the
original sources for the basis for the Jewish point(s) of view. Both
timeless and modern day issues are dealt with. |
|
Maimonides, Spinoza and Us: Toward an Intellectually Vibrant Judaism by Marc Angel
- An interesting exploration of some of the works and philosophies
of Maimonides and Spinoza and how they may be relevant for today
(which they are IMHO). |
|
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl |
|
Matters
of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Modern Medical Ethics by
Elliot N. Dorff - Everything from pregnancy to death. Elliot Dorff is
a scholar in this area and his book is modern, realistic, comprehensive and
readable by the layperson. |
|
The New American Judaism: How Jews Practice Their Religion Today by Jack Wertheimer |
|
On Being a Jewish Feminist by Susannah Heschel |
|
Putting God Second: How to Save Religion from Itself by Donniel Hartman |
|
The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch by Sue Fishkoff |
|
Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice by Rabbi Or N. Rose, Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, & Margie Klein (editors)
- A set of about 30 articles on Judaism and social justice, the environment,
Israel, public policy and the like. Thought provoking, enlightening
and worthwhile. |
|
The
Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel |
|
Sacred
Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew by Neil
Gillman |
|
Sage Tales: Wisdom and Wonder from the Rabbis of the Talmud by Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky
- Stories (or should I say "tales"), the stories behind the stories,
the historical settings for the stories and the connectedness
between the stories. Rabbi Visotzky explores various stories from
the Talmud with an expert's knowledge of them, the experience of
exploring and teaching these stories for many years and a
raconteur's ability to tell a story. Full disclosure: Rabbi
Visotzky is a friend of mine. |
|
Rav Kook's Introduction to Shabbat Ha'aretz by Rabbi Julian Sinclair |
|
Spirit of Renewal: Crisis and Response in Jewish Life by
Edward Feld |
|
Taking Hold of Torah: Jewish Commitment and Community in America by Arnold M. Eisen
- An especially interesting book given that it was written about ten
years before the author was selected to become the Chancellor of the
Jewish Theological Seminary of America. |
|
Talking about God: Exploring the Meaning of Religious Life with Kierkegaard, Buber, Tillich and Heschel by Daniel Polish |
|
There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice Through Jewish Law & Tradition by Jill Jacob
-A well written discussion of Jewish law and tradition and what it
says about important current social policy issues. The discussion
makes clear that Jewish law and tradition are relevant today in
these areas. |
|
To
Be a Jew: A Guide to Jewish Observance in Contemporary Life by Hayim
Halevy Donin |
|
To Do the Right and the Good: A Jewish Approach to Modern Social Ethics by Elliot N Dorff
- Thoughtful, knowledgeable, and reasonable. The author explores
serious issues as only someone with a large breadth and depth of
relevant knowledge and a long experience thinking and dealing with
these issues can. |
|
To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility by
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks |
|
To
Pray As a Jew: A Guide to the Prayer Book and the Synagogue Service by
Hayim Halevy Donin |
|
The
First Jewish Catalog; A Do-It-Yourself Kit by Michael Strassfeld,
Richard Siegel, & Sharon Strassfeld |
|
The
Second Jewish Catalog: Sources and Resources by Michael Strassfeld
& Sharon Strassfeld |
|
The
Third Jewish Catalog: Creating Community: With a Cumulative Index to All 3
Catalogs by by Michael Strassfeld & Sharon Strassfeld |
|
The Way Into Judaism and the Environment by Jeremy Benstein
- Most discussions of what Judaism has to say about the environment
involve pasook tossing,
quoting a few relatively well known verses from traditional Jewish
sources (i.e. the bible) and expounding on how they demonstrate that
Judaism is an environmentally friendly religion. While Jeremy's book
does discuss all of the usual verses, it doesn't stop there. It goes much much
further and creates a learned, sophisticated and nuanced connection
between Judaism and pro-environmental policies and behaviors.
(Full disclosure: I met Jeremy in 2008 when I
participated in a multi-day hike in Israel to raise money for The Heschel Center, Jeremy's NGO, which works on environmental issues in
Israel, and for another environmental group. I've written these
comments on my own volition without Jeremy's knowledge). |
|
Traces of God: Seeing God in Torah, History and Everyday Life by Rabbi Neil Gillman |
|
When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold S. Kushner |
|
Why Faith Matters by David J. Wolpe |
| |
| Non-Fiction |
|
All the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life's Work by Hayley Campbell |
|
American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer |
|
An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Elisabeth Rosenthal |
|
The Art of Intelligence: Lessons from a Life in the CIA's Clandestine Service by Henry A. Crumpton |
|
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson |
|
Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande |
|
Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris |
|
The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win by Maria Konnikova |
|
The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson |
|
Book Design by Andrew Haslam - From A to Z. |
|
Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom by Katherine Eban
- It's very rare that a single book changes a long held belief of
mine but this book did it. Highly recommended! |
|
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking |
|
Bringing
Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for
Millions by Ben Mezrich |
|
The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die by Keith Payne |
|
Calculated
Bets by Steven Skiena - Buy this book! (Disclaimer: I am a friend
of the author and he gave me a free copy of this book. He did not solicit a
review from me and he does not know that I am writing one, although I guess
he will find out sooner or later). I procrastinated in reading this book. It
did not sound very exciting. While I have degrees in Computer Science and
Business, the title sounded as if the book would be a dense technical
treatise on the subject. It was not. I read it in one (long) day. Steve has
written a lively book on Jai-Alai, mathematical modeling, probability,
statistics, gambling and betting and made it both interesting
and instructive at the same time. I enjoyed reading it and learned a lot at
the same time.
|
|
Clean: The New Science of Skin by James Hamblin |
|
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt |
|
A Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes |
|
The Common Good by Robert B. Reich
|
|
The Congressional Experience 4th Edition by David E Price |
|
Correction: Parole, Prison, and the Possibility of Change by Ben Austen |
|
Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans by Wendell Potter |
|
The Definitive Book of Body Language by Barbara Pease & Allan Pease |
|
Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America by Eyal Press |
|
Doing Justice: A Prosecutor's Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law by Preet Bharara |
|
Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (3rd Edition) by Steve Krug |
|
Don't Think of an Elephant!: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate--The Essential Guide for Progressives by George Lakoff |
|
Door to Door: The Magnificent, Maddening, Mysterious World of Transportation by Edward Humes |
|
The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst |
|
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond |
|
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Ronnlund, & Ola Rosling |
|
For Blood and Money: Billionaires, Biotech, and the Quest for a
Blockbuster Drug by Nathan Vardi |
|
The Formula: How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World's Fastest-Growing Sport by Joshua Robinson & Jonathan Clegg |
|
Fragmented: A Doctor's Quest to Piece Together American Health Care by Ilana Yurkiewicz |
|
Get the Truth: Former CIA Officers Teach You How to Persuade Anyone to Tell All by Philip Houston, Michael Floyd, Susan Carnicero, & Peter Romary |
|
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher, William Ury, & Bruce Patton |
|
The God Gene: How Faith Is Hardwired into Our Genes by Dean H. Hamer |
|
Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction by Tracy Kidder & Richard Todd |
|
The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness by Emily Anthes |
|
The HEAT Book: Hostile Environment Awareness Training - A Safety Resource for Humanitarians by R.B. Landeck
- Paperback edition does not have page numbers (Amazon says that
there are 481 pages in the book). |
|
House
by Tracy Kidder |
|
How to Avoid Being Killed in a War Zone by Rosie Garthwaite |
|
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi |
|
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie |
|
The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America by Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer, & Timothy J. Nelson |
|
Inside Sport Psychology by Costas Karageorghis & Peter Terry |
|
An Insider's Guide to the UN: Third Edition 3rd Edition by Linda Fasulo |
|
Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein |
|
The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration by Sarah Everts |
|
The Layout Book by Gavin Ambrose & Paul Harris - Lots of
breadth but no huge depth in any specific area. |
|
The Little Blue Book: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic by George Lakoff & Elisabeth Wehling |
|
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr. |
|
More New Games by New Games Foundation |
|
The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business by Jared A. Cohen & Eric Schmidt |
|
New Games Book by New Games Foundation |
|
The NFT Revolution - Crypto art edition: 2 in 1 practical guide for beginners to create, buy and sell digital artworks and collectibles as non-fungible tokens by Crypto Dukedom
- Save your money and, instead of buying this book, view the
excellent and free three-part video series on this topic by Lindsay
Adler; Part
One, Part
Two, Part
Three. |
|
Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm by Robin DiAngelo |
|
On Corruption in America: And What Is at Stake by Sarah Chayes |
|
Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary by Timothy Snyder |
|
Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs by Suzanne Gordon, Steve Early, & Jasper Craven |
|
The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier by Ian Urbina |
|
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia
- Highly recommended! |
|
A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity by Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn |
|
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain De Botton -
Interesting observations about modern work life. |
|
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
- Educational, entertaining, and worthwhile. |
|
Profit and Punishment: How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice by Tony Messenger |
|
Random Acts of Medicine: The Hidden Forces That Sway Doctors, Impact Patients, and Shape Our Health by Anupam B. Jena & Christopher Worsham |
|
Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools by Diane Ravitch |
|
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt |
|
The Road to Character by David Brooks |
|
Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O'Connell's urgent mission to bring healing to homeless people by Tracy Kidder |
|
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools by Jonathan Kozol |
|
The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life by David Brooks |
|
The
7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
by Stephen R. Covey |
|
Sicker, Fatter, Poorer: The Urgent Threat of Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals to Our Health and Future . . . and What We Can Do About It by Leonardo Trasande |
|
The
Soul Of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder |
|
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry |
|
So Why Have You Never Been Married?: 10 Insights Into Why He Hasn't Wed by Carl Weisman
- While I'm not a big believer in fate, I can’t conjure a better
explanation for what brought this book into my possession. A library
in my office building was getting rid of excess books and this book was
among them. It figuratively “had my name on it”. I’d
never seen an article or book written from this perspective (late
40's single never married male) on this topic before. If there were
other studies on this specific subject then I might be able to
compare and contrast this one but Carl has the field to himself. As
such all I will say is that I found this book interesting and fast
reading. |
|
Spy the Lie: Former CIA Officers Teach You How to Detect Deception by Philip Houston, Michael Floyd, Susan Carnicero & Don Tennant |
|
Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World by Mark Miodownik |
|
Sunday
Money: Speed! Lust! Madness! Death! A Hot Lap Around America with
NASCAR by Jeff MacGregor - Jeff MacGregor introduces us to the
world (religion?) of NASCAR. |
|
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip & Dan Heath |
|
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell |
|
Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City by Rosa Brooks |
|
The Teachers: A Year Inside America's Most Vulnerable, Important Profession by Alexandra Robbins |
|
Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows |
|
Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students by Ellen Lupton |
|
Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency by Andy Greenberg |
|
Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt
- More about traffic than you ever thought to ask. |
|
Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America's Woods by Lyndsie Bourgon |
|
The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel |
|
Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation by Linda Villarosa |
|
Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions by Temple Grandin |
|
Waiting for the Punch: Words to Live by from the WTF Podcast by Marc Maron |
|
Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret by Catherine Coleman Flowers |
|
We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights by Adam Winkler |
|
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates |
|
White Coat, Black Hat: Adventures on the Dark Side of Medicine by Carl Elliott |
|
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo |
|
Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas |
|
Words That Work, Revised, Updated Edition: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear by Frank Luntz
- This book does have some unnecessary self-promotion and name
dropping and may present certain political views you don’t agree
with. On the other hand there is a core to this book, one about how
to use language to present your ideas in a way that will have the
best chance of convincing people of them, that is very worthwhile.
While it would have been a better book without the fluff around the
core, it is still worth reading. |
|
|
| Photography,
Videography & Filmmaking
(see also
Journalism & Photojournalism) |
|
Adobe Photoshop CS4: Up to Speed by Ben Willmore |
|
The
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers
by Martin Evening - Not a "killer tips" book, not a simpleton cookbook
type book (just follow these 13 steps), just a straightforward guide to
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. It is well written, illustrated and organized.
Skip the free book that comes with Adobe Lightroom and read this instead. |
|
Adventure Photography: Capturing the World of Outdoor Sports
by Michael Clark |
|
Adventure Sports Photography: Creating Dramatic Images in Wild Places by Tom Bol |
|
Advertising Photography: A Straightforward Guide to a Complex Industry by Lou Lesko & Bobbi Lane |
|
Albert Watson: Creating Photographs (Masters of Photography) by Albert Watson |
|
Annie Leibovitz at Work by Annie Leibovitz |
|
Architectural Photography, 3rd Edition: Composition, Capture, and Digital Image Processing by Adrian Schulz |
|
The Art of Digital Wedding Photography: Professional Techniques with Style by Bambi Cantrell & Skip Cohen |
|
The Art, Science, and Craft of Great Landscape Photography by Glenn Randall |
|
ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography, 7th Edition
- Amazing breadth and a must read for any aspiring or practicing
professional photographer. |
|
Astrophotography by Thierry Legault |
|
Best Business Practices for Photographers by John Harrington
- There's a lot more to earning a living with your photography than
simply creating a great image. John's a successful pro and his
advice is very thorough, very professional and based upon actual
experience. Highly recommended! |
|
Captured by the Light: The Essential Guide to Creating Extraordinary Wedding Photography by David Ziser
- Not just for wedding photographers! Very worthwhile instruction
for those interested in shooting portraits and/or events. I bought this
book for its advice on shooting portraits and events and it did not
disappoint. |
|
Capture the Magic: Train Your Eye, Improve Your Photographic Composition by Jack Dykinga |
|
Capturing Light: The Heart of Photography by Michael Freeman |
|
Color Management & Quality Output: Working with Color from Camera to Display to Print by Tom P. Ashe |
|
The Complete Guide to Macro and Close-Up Photography by Cyrill Harnischmacher |
|
Composition: From Snapshots to Great Shots by Laurie S. Excell
- Listed a "Beginner / Intermediate" level but more beginner than
not. Spends about 40% of it going over basic technical aspects of
photography (i.e. apertures, depth of field etc), some on post
processing and the remainder on various aspects of composition. This
is probably not my first choice for a book on composition. |
|
The Creative Fight: Create Your Best Work and Live the Life You Imagine by Chris Orwig
- Much much much more about creativity than about photography. |
|
Creative Flash Photography: Great Lighting with Small Flashes: 40 Flash Workshops by Tilo Gockel |
|
The Design Aglow Posing Guide for Wedding Photography: 100 Modern Ideas for Photographing Engagements, Brides, Wedding Couples, and Wedding Parties by Lena Hyde |
|
Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters by Michael Frye |
|
The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photoshop by Jeff Schewe
|
|
Digital Portrait Photography: Art, Business & Style by Steve Sint
- This is an excellent one-book treatment of all the major aspects
of taking portraits (lighting, posing, equipment, etc etc). The
author covers a huge breadth of material with reasonable
depth in each area and with generally good illustrations and images
to illustrate his points. If you only buy one book on portraiture
then this would be a great choice. |
|
The Digital Print: Preparing Images in Lightroom and Photoshop for Printing by Jeff Schewe |
|
Digital Wedding Photography: Art, Business & Style by Steve Sint
- The author has shot thousands of weddings and his experience comes
through in the text. His text (and excellent accompanying imagery)
gives you both the breadth and depth of the field. Definitely one of
the better (best?) books you can buy on this topic (and there are
worse!). |
|
Digital Wedding Photography Photo Workshop by Kenny Kim -
Great first / beginner level book about wedding photography.
Too basic/brief on the technique side IMO. Read (especially!)
Captured by the Light: The Essential Guide to Creating Extraordinary Wedding Photography by David Ziser
and Joe McNally's three books (listed here) to probe further. |
|
The Dramatic Portrait: The Art of Crafting Light and Shadow by Chris Knight |
|
Doug Box's Guide to Posing for Portrait Photographers by Douglas Allen Box |
|
The DSLR Filmmaker's Handbook: Real-World Production Techniques 2nd Edition by Barry Andersson |
|
Dusk to Dawn: A Guide to Landscape Photography at Night by Glenn Randall |
|
The Enthusiast's Guide to DIY Photography: 77 Projects, Hacks, Techniques, and Inexpensive Solutions for Getting Great Photos by Mike Hagen |
|
Exposed: Inside the Life and Images of a Pro Photographer by Michael Clark
- Three books in one; The reality and business of becoming and
working as a professional photographer with an emphasis on adventure
photography, the techniques of adventure photography and lastly the
post-processing of images. In addition, there is about 2.5 hours of
video included on the accompanying DVD that show you how many of the
images in the book were processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.
Exposed is strong in all of these areas (or as good as a book of
only 288 pages could be). It is also well written in a very engaging
style. Most recommended for intermediate and/or advanced level
photographers. |
|
First Light: A Landscape Photographer's Journey by Joe Cornish
- Most of this book is composed of 2-page spreads with a larger
image that the author is happy with as well as smaller one that he
is less happy with. Joe discusses in good detail the background
related to the images. The quality of the imagery in this book is
quite good and I would be very very proud if I was able to claim
them as my own. I would have preferred if Joe discussed in much more
detail why he thought the smaller images didn't work as well as he
would have liked. His more detailed analysis would have added a much
greater amount of value than some of the other interesting but
less educational background information he discusses about each
image. |
|
Foundations of Posing: A Comprehensive Guide for Wedding and Portrait Photographers by Pierre Stephenson |
|
Flow Posing: Fast and Furious Posing Techniques for Wedding Photographers by Doug Gordon |
|
Flow Posing: The Practical Guide for Wedding Photographers by Johnie L Cook
- a very very (and possibly too) brief "Cliff Notes" like guide to
wedding photography. |
|
The Freelance Photographer’s Guide To Success: Business Essentials by Todd Bigelow |
|
Galen
Rowell's Inner Game of Outdoor Photography by Galen Rowell |
|
Galen
Rowell's Vision: The Art of Adventure Photography by Galen
Rowell |
|
Going Pro: How to Make the Leap from Aspiring to Professional Photographer by Scott Bourne & Skip Cohen |
|
Gregory Heisler: 50 Portraits: Stories and Techniques from a Photographer's Photographer by Gregory Heisler |
|
A Hands-on Guide to Creative Lighting (Nikon School DVD) with Bob Krist & Joe McNally
- Some instructional DVD's can put you to sleep. This one is well
organized, informative and kept interesting throughout. Bob Krist
and Joe McNally are both very clear in their explanations of what
they are doing and interesting to watch in action. Two and a half
hours goes by quicker than you expect. This DVD is a good companion
to Joe McNally's
The Hot Shoe Diaries
(see below) which I suggest you read prior to viewing this DVD
(although the DVD does stand very well on its own). |
|
HDR Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots by Tim Cooper |
|
The Headshot: The Secrets to Creating Amazing Headshot Portraits by Peter Hurley |
|
The Hidden Power of Blend Modes in Adobe Photoshop by Scott Valentine
- Beware! The cover jacket of this book states that this book is
"Beginner / Intermediate" level. While there is a small amount
of beginner level material, the vast majority of the material
in this book is either intermediate or advanced. Stating that
this book is "Intermediate / Advanced" would be much more accurate.
I would recommend that beginners stay away from this book. |
|
The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes by Joe McNally
- More similar than different in structure relative to his previous
book "The Moment it Clicks" and much of what I wrote in my review of
that book (see below) applies here. This is an excellent book to
read after reading "The Moment it Clicks" (and it also stands very
well on its own). Hot Shoe
Diaries entertains as it educates. While certainly not a straight
textbook, this book is more instructional in a formal way than his
last one. Many of his lessons are simply the stories of how he has
created each of the impressive images that are in the book. It is
fun, fast reading, educational and has lots of impressive imagery. |
|
How
Pictures Work by Molly Bang - An unusual book that discusses, with
many examples, how pictures work or "How does the structure of a picture
affect our emotional response?". |
|
Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton |
|
It's Not About the F-Stop by Jay Maisel |
|
Joel Meyerowitz: How I Make Photographs by Joel Meyerowitz |
|
John
Shaw's Landscape Photography by John Shaw - A classic and a good
place to start in learning more about landscape photography. |
|
Kevin Kubota's Lighting Notebook: 101 Lighting Styles and Setups
for Digital Photographers by Kevin Kubota |
|
The Light and the Life: Field Notes from a Photographer
by Joe McNally (ISBN-10: 013407694X, ebook, best option
is Peachpit's website which is where the hyperlink is pointing) |
|
Light, Gesture, and Color by Jay Maisel |
|
Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait: The Art of Celebrity and Editorial Photography by Michael Grecco |
|
Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver, & Paul Fuqua
- This book is quite unique. It covers light and its use as a
photographer might be concerned with it from a more scientific
viewpoint than any other photography how-to book I've ever seen (no
high-level science or advanced math involved at all!). I learned
quite a few things from this book (i.e. issues regarding shooting
white-on-white and black-on-black and issues regarding various types
of reflections) and I think most photographers, through advanced and
professional levels, will also. It might be too much for someone
just starting out in photography unless they have a strong science
or technical background (but they should probably wait until they've
mastered the basics of photography first). |
|
Lighting & Design for Portrait Photography: Direction & Quality of Light by Neil van Niekerk |
|
Lighting for Digital Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots by Syl Arena
- More beginner level than not but quite good at what it covers. |
|
Lighting for Product Photography: The Digital Photographer's Step-By-Step Guide to Sculpting with Light by Allison Earnest |
|
Location Lighting for the Outdoor Photographer by Michael
Clark - available only as an ebook from the photographer |
|
Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art by John Szarkowski |
|
Masterclass: Professional Studio Photography by Dennis Savini |
|
Master
Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers by Christopher Grey |
|
Master Posing Guide for Wedding Photographers by Bill Hurter |
|
Mastering Composition: The Definitive Guide for Photographers by Richard Garvey-Williams |
|
Mastering the Model Shoot: Everything a Photographer Needs to Know Before, During, and After the Shoot by Frank Doorhof |
|
The Moment It Clicks: Photography secrets from one of the world's top shooters by Joe McNally
- Education, entertainment and impressive imagery. Reading it feels
like going to a very interesting all-day PowerPoint based seminar.
Joe educates us with lots of advice and by giving us explanations of
how he created some of the images in the book. He entertains us
with war stories from his career and he certainly impresses us with
his imagery. This book doesn’t pretend to be a thick textbook book
on some aspect(s) of photography or a detailed autobiography. It is
however photographically inspiring and fun to read. |
|
Monte Zucker's Portrait Photography Handbook by Monte Zucker |
|
MORE Best Business Practices for Photographers by John Harrington |
|
Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape by Galen A. Rowell |
|
The Nikon Autofocus System: Mastering Focus for Sharp Images Every Time 2nd Edition by Mike Hagen |
|
Occam's Razor: An Outside-In View of Contemporary Photography by Bill Jay
- The next time you go to a gallery or museum to see a photography
exhibit and can't make heads or tails of the artist's statement or
the curator's description about the work (and you also speak the
same language that it is written in) then read this book to feel
better. Occam's Razor is a serious and well written critique of
certain aspects of the world of Fine Art Photography, certain types
of academic programs in photography and other related areas.
An unusually entertaining and fairly quick read for a book on a
subject like this. |
|
Off-Camera Flash: Techniques for Digital Photographers by Neil van Niekerk |
|
On Being a Photographer: A Practical Guide by David Hurn & Bill Jay
- Caution: Read about this book before buying it as the title could
be misleading. (new copies available from
Lulu) |
|
One Flash!: Great Photography with Just One Light by Tilo Gockel |
|
One Speedlight, 16 Looks by Robert Harrington
(available only via blurb) |
|
One Wedding: How to Photograph a Wedding from Start to Finish by Brett Florens |
|
The New Art of Photographing Nature: An Updated Guide to Composing Stunning Images of Animals, Nature, and Landscapes by Art Wolfe |
|
Night Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots by Gabriel Biderman & Tim Cooper |
|
Passenger Seat: Creating a Photographic Project from Conception through Execution in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom by Julieanne Kost |
|
The Passionate Photographer: Ten Steps Toward Becoming Great by Steve Simon |
|
Peter Read Miller on Sports Photography: A Sports Illustrated photographer's tips, tricks, and tales on shooting football, the Olympics, and portraits of athletes by Peter Read Miller |
|
Photo No-Nos: Meditations on What Not to Photograph by Jason Fulford |
|
Photographers at Work: Essential Business and Production Skills for Photographers in Editorial, Design, and Advertising by Martin Evening |
|
The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos by Michael Freeman |
|
The Photographer's Guide to Posing: Techniques to Flatter Everyone by Lindsay Adler |
|
A Photographer's Life: A Journey from Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photojournalist to Celebrated Nature Photographer by Jack Dykinga |
|
2016 Photographer's Market: How and Where to Sell Your Photography by Mary Burzlaff Bostic |
|
2017 Photographer's Market: How and Where to Sell Your Photography by Noel Rivera
- It was probably a mistake for me to buy this book two years in a
row. |
|
The Photographer's MBA: Everything You Need to Know for Your Photography Business by Sal Cincotta |
|
The Photographer's Mind: Creative Thinking for Better Digital Photos by Michael Freeman
- More thought provoking and jam-packed with ideas, information and
analytic thinking about images than any other book I've read on this
topic in recent memory. Better for
intermediate or advanced level photographers than beginners. If one
is looking for a book on improving one's images then this book
should be on your
short list. It is not a book about the technical aspects of
photography (although some are touched on), it is about what makes
images more compelling. While very different in many ways, it
reminds me of another highly recommended book; Photographing
the World Around You: A Visual Design Workshop by Freeman Patterson. |
|
Photographer's
Legal Guide by Carolyn E. Wright - A short (110 pages) and
straightforward guide to the legal and business practice issues that a
photographer should know. Written by a lawyer who is also a
professional photographer. |
|
The Photographer's Playbook: 307 Assignments and Ideas by Jason Fulford & Gregory Halpern
- The paragdigm for most of the ideas and assignments would seem to
be art school (or at least it seemed that way to me). |
|
The Photographer's Pricing System: Get paid what you're worth for portraits and weddings by Alicia Caine |
|
The Photographer's Story by Michael Freeman |
|
The
Photographer's Studio Manual by Michael Freeman |
|
The Photographer's Vision: Understanding and Appreciating Great Photography by Michael Freeman |
|
Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images by David duChemin
-The first two-thirds of this book are educational in a general
sense in discussing various aspects of a photograph, the types of
decisions that are made when capturing an image, why some options
may be better than others and in helping us to have a language /
vocabulary to critically discuss an image. The final third of this
book presents twenty images and then spends a few pages on each
analyzing them. David explains in depth how he thinks the images
work and various issues surrounding his decisions in creating the
images in the way he has. Highly recommended (a standout in the the
last third compared with other books which claim to do the same)! |
|
Photographing Men: Posing, Lighting, and Shooting Techniques for Portrait and Fashion Photography by Jeff Rojas
- Seminal book on this topic. |
|
Photographing Shadow and Light: Inside the Dramatic Lighting Techniques and Creative Vision of Portrait Photographer by Joey L. |
|
Photographing the World Around You: A Visual Design Workshop
by Freeman Patterson
- I have read both this book and Freeman Patterson's
Photography and the Art of Seeing and much prefer this book.
They are both good but this is definitely better. I bought this book
to help improve my photo's composition and I am was not
disappointed. Freeman's text is clear and easy to understand and his
photo's are generally good examples of what he writes about.
|
|
Photographing Women: 1,000 Poses by Eliot Siegel |
|
Photographing Women: Posing, Lighting, and Shooting Techniques for Portrait and Fashion Photography by Jeff Rojas |
|
Photography Business Secrets: The Savvy Photographer's Guide to Sales, Marketing, and More by Lara White |
|
Photography Careers: Finding Your True Path by Mark Jenkinson |
|
Photography Night Sky: A Field Guide for Shooting After Dark by Jennifer Wu & James Martin |
|
Photography Q&A: Real Questions. Real Answers. by Zack Arias |
|
Photoshop
Channel Chops by David Biedny, Bert Monroy, & Nathan Moody |
|
Photoshop
Color Correction by Michael Kieran - This is an excellent book on
color management and correction. From beginner to advanced,
this book will interest and educate. Very well written with many images to
illustrate the points made in the text. |
|
Picture Perfect Lighting: An Innovative Lighting System for Photographing People by Roberto Valenzuela |
|
Picture Perfect Posing: Practicing the Art of Posing for Photographers and Models by Roberto Valenzuela
- One of the very best books on posing that I have read. |
|
Picture Perfect Practice: A Self-Training Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Taking World-Class Photographs by Roberto Valenzuela |
|
The Portrait: Understanding Portrait Photography 2nd Edition by Glenn Rand & Tim Meyer
- Not recommended for a beginner and not recommended as the first
book on portraits, lighting or posing for someone at any level. |
|
The Portrait Photographer's Lighting Style Guide: Recipes for Lighting and Composing
Professional Portraits by James Cheadle & Peter Travers |
|
Posing for Portrait Photography: A Head-to-Toe Guide for Digital Photographers by Jeff Smith
- This, so far (December 2011), is the best of the three books (all
from Amherst Media) on posing that I have read. |
|
The Practice of Contemplative Photography: Seeing the World with Fresh Eyes by Andy Karr & Michael Wood
- Many books on photographic technique discuss lighting ratios,
Photoshop technique, rules of composition and/or various hardware
and/or software issues. This book is a timeout from that. After
being on the treadmill of "shot discipline" (having perfect
technical technique, this book will help you slow down and look more
carefully (perceptually in the book's terminology) at the world with
the notion that you will then be able to perceive various things
(and photographic possibilities) that you might have missed
otherwise. Not every image in the book will work for you, some in
the book did and others did not for me. Overall, this is a quick
read that will probably help you widen your perspective. IMO,
photographers need to be observant to be good at what they do and
this book will be a guided exercise in helping one to become more
observant (perceptive). |
|
Professional Model Portfolios: A Step-by-Step Guide for Photographers by Billy Pegram |
|
The Professional Photographer's Legal Handbook by Nancy Wolff
- Given the subject matter, I was expecting a dry and slow
read. What I got was an interesting, fairly quick and enjoyable ~240
page read mostly about copyrights, trademarks, rights to publicity
and privacy and defamation. This book is not an all encompassing
legal guide for professional photographers as the title might lead
one to think. One would need another book (i..e Best Business
Practices for Photographers by John Harrington or maybe the
ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography) to much
more fully cover all the legal areas that a professional
photographer may face. It does cover some important areas and does
so very well. |
|
Quavondo's Photography Lighting Techniques: With Sample Images and Light Set-Ups by Quavondo Nguyen |
|
Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS4 by Bruce Fraser and Jeff Schewe
- Bruce Fraser (now deceased), a true guru and Jeff Schewe deliver
another classic. |
|
Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition) by Bruce Fraser & Jeff Schewe
- Bruce Fraser (now deceased), a true guru and Jeff Schewe deliver
yet another classic. |
|
Real
World Color Management by Bruce Fraser, Chris Murphy & Fred
Bunting - A classic by (Bruce Fraser, now deceased) a true "guru" of
color management. |
|
Secrets of Great Portrait Photography: Photographs of the Famous and Infamous by Brian Smith
- Enjoyable read but no secrets. |
|
Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents by Pete Souza |
|
Shooting in the Wild: An Insider's Account of Making Movies in the Animal Kingdom by Chris Palmer |
|
Shoot to Thrill: Speedlight Flash Techniques for Photographers by Michael Mowbray |
|
Sketching Light: An Illustrated Tour of the Possibilities of Flash by Joe McNally
- Joe is a gifted storyteller (entertaining and educational) and if
you are interested in the topic then this book is for you. I
highly recommend that you read
The Moment It Clicks
and
The Hot Shoe Diaries
(both by Joe and in the order listed) before reading this book (all highly recommended!). |
|
Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies by Lee Varis
- Skin, The Final Frontier. Skin is neither white nor black
nor neutral grey. Lee Varis explains very clearly how to color
correct skin (in Photoshop). The one chapter on portrait lighting is
good enough IMHO to be the basis for another book. Well illustrated
and quick reading. |
|
The Speedlight Studio: Professional Portraits with Portable Flash by Michael Mowbray |
|
Stories Behind the Images: Lessons from a Life in Adventure Photography by Corey Rich |
|
Studio Anywhere: A Photographer's Guide to Shooting in Unconventional Locations by Nick Fancher |
|
Stylish Weddings: Create Dramatic Wedding Photography in Any Setting by Kevin Jairaj |
| Thom Hogan's Complete
Guide to the Nikon D70 by Thom Hogan - Thom is truly a "guru" in
all areas (Nikon cameras, photography, digital technology, etc etc)
related to the title of this book. Thom is also an excellent writer.
If you only read the owner's manual that came with the camera and
not this book then you will probably not fully understand
the camera you have or be able to take full advantage of what it can
do. |
| Thom Hogan's Complete
Guide to the Nikon D100 by Thom Hogan - see comments regarding the
Nikon D70 book. |
| Thom Hogan's Complete
Guide to the Nikon D200 by Thom Hogan - see comments regarding the
Nikon D70 book. |
|
Thom Hogan's Complete
Guide to the Nikon D300 by Thom Hogan - see comments regarding the
Nikon D70 book. |
|
Thom Hogan's Complete
Guide to the Nikon D700 by Thom Hogan - see comments regarding the
Nikon D70 book. |
|
The Ultimate Guide to Digital Nature Photography by The Mountain Trail Photo Team |
|
VisionMongers: Making a Life and a Living in Photography by David duChemin
|
|
Visual Stories: Behind the Lens with Vincent Laforet by Vincent Laforet |
|
Wedding Photojournalism: The Business of Aesthetics: A Guide for Professional Digital Photographers by Paul D. Van Hoy II |
|
What They Didn’t Teach You In Photo School: The secrets of the trade that will make you a success in the industry by Demetrius Fordham |
|
Why Photographs Work: 52 Great Images Who Made Them, What Makes Them Special and Why by George Barr
- After reading this book (and looking at the 52 images) which
includes the author's as well as the photographers thoughts about
each image, I was still somewhat mystified as to why these images
work (I didn't always agree with the opinions stated). Some
images didn't work for me at all and only a few really did. Is my
understanding of fine art photography too limited? Possibly
(probably!). I found many of the images challenging and that is the
value of this book, to present images that are not always simple in
concept (to expand one's horizons from the familiar etc), read some
opinions (including the photographer's) about why they thought they
worked and then to make one's own mind up. Only a few images
really worked for me but that is okay as the challenge to try and
analyze each image is valuable. FWIW, most of the images in
this book were captured with view cameras, did I mention this was a
book about fine art photography!? (For some, including me, it
might be a better book to have borrowed than to have bought). |
|
Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision by David duChemin |
|
Working the Light: A Photography Masterclass by Eddie Ephraums, Joe Cornish, Charlie Waite, David Ward
- A combination of excellent (landscape) images and commentary by
noted professionals and non-professionals. I would have
preferred that the commentary by the professionals about each image
be much much longer and less diplomatic. Great concept, reasonably
well done but could've have been better (but still worth reading). |
| |
| Travel, Travel Commentary, Adventure, Bicycling & Hiking |
|
The Abu Dhabi Bar Mitzvah: Fear and Love in the Modern Middle East by Adam Valen Levinson |
|
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
- A very entertaining account of one man's attempt to walk the entire length
of the Appalachian Trail. |
|
Be Expert with Map and Compass by Bjorn Kjellstrom and Carina Kjellstrom Elgin
- Has an emphasis on orienteering. |
|
Bicycling Magazine's Complete Guide to Upgrading Your Bike by Frank Berto |
|
AMC's Complete Guide to Trail Building and Maintenance |
|
AMC Guide to Outdoor Leadership: Trip Planning: Group Dynamics, Decision Making, Leading Youth & Risk Management by Alex Kosseff
- I have been leading various outdoor activities (hiking, rafting,
canoeing etc) since the mid-1980's and while I am sure that the
author of this book has far more experience than I have, everything
he says jives with my own experience. Leaders of outdoor (and other)
activities need to have both certain technical skills as well as
certain management, planning and leadership skills. This book is not
designed to teach the technical skills, it is designed to teach the
other skills and I think it excels brilliantly at this. It is an
excellent and very readable book for those new to leading groups in
outdoor activities and is also a worthwhile book on group management in
general (i.e. in a business setting). It is also a worthwhile book
for those who have been leading groups in outdoor activities for a
while as part of their continuing education. Full disclosure: I
lead hikes for AMC's NY-NJ chapter. |
|
The Complete Walker IV by Colin Fletcher & Chip Rawlins
- A unparalleled work and could accurately be titled "The Hiker's Bible".
This is possibly the longest single book I've ever read and I do not at all
regret reading it. On the contrary I enjoyed it, learned from it, and was
entertained by it. I have been a regular reader of Backpacker magazine and
plenty of other hiking related material for a long time (and I am an
experienced hiker) and IMHO this book is the best and most complete single book on
the subject in existence (at least in English - not that I
know of any other in any other language). No if, and's or but's - simply the
best. |
|
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales |
|
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains by Jon Krakauer |
|
Here is New York by E.B. White |
|
How to Travel the World on $50 a Day: Revised: Travel Cheaper, Longer, Smarter by Matt Kepnes |
|
Medicine for Mountaineering: And Other Wilderness Activities by James A. Wilkerson |
|
Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, 8th edition -
Although I didn't finish this book, it looks excellent. |
|
I
Have Seen the World Begin: Travels through China, Cambodia, and
Vietnam by Carsten Jensen - Carsten Jensen gives you the gestalt
of these countries and their people and occasionally throws in some very
illuminating history (especially about Cambodia and the "Killing Fields").
The only criticism I have is that some of the material may be dated as this
book was written in the mid-1990's and these countries are rapidly changing. |
|
My Favorite Place: Great Athletes in the Great Outdoors by Jason Paur & Corey Rich
- Makes me want to visit all of these places and do something active
(or maybe just photograph them). |
|
Outdoor Navigation With GPS: Hiking, Geocaching, Canoeing, Kayaking, Fishing, Outdoor Photography, Backpacking, Mountain Biking by Stephen W. Hinch
- I've been using a map & compass and a GPS for fair while and I
learned much more than I expected from this book. |
|
The
Places In Between by Rory Stewart - Rory Stewart did what very few
westerners have done, go out on his own among the citizens of Afghanistan
and actually talk to them in their own language. His observations should
inform policy makers (but it doesn't appear as if they have so far).
|
|
Rick
Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2004: The Travel Skills Handbook
by Rick Steves - Real world practical and intelligent advice. |
|
The Shanghai Free Taxi: Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China by Frank Langfitt |
|
The Ultimate Hiker's Gear Guide: Tools and Techniques to Hit the Trail by Andrew Skurka |
|
Walking Israel by Martin Fletcher |
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Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison |
|
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed |
Book Recommendations (a work in progress)