There is a storm threatening the Queen City as I write this blog post that could truncate the workweek by a day or, as I would prefer to see it, extend the holiday week. Well, in any case, the calm before the storm is the ideal time to sip some hot apple cider and consider the books you managed to read the whole year. So, here are 16 books I enjoyed reading this year, with audio excerpts attached to the caption of each book (make sure you click it); they are not ranked by quality or preference.
Is there a book on this list that you would like to read? Let me know in the comment section. If you would like to discuss any of these books, we can also start a discussion in the comment box.
An absorbing book about the settlement of the ‘Northwest’ hints at an alternative America that never came to pass.
An original and persuasive analysis of how economic warfare aggravated the tensions of the 1930s, encouraging austerity against smaller states but backfiring against the larger authoritarian ones, such as Italy.
3. Some delight in words; others retreat from them. Some welcome jurisprudential pushback; others resist it. Some view ideas as canonical, others as heretical. Justice Scalia had the ability to provoke this hardy to-and-fro in American legal thinking.
In a world where philosophy has become "global" and yet is mainly written by scholars educated and/or writing in "top" universities, where syllabi must become more "inclusive" yet conform to the same academic style, Daya Krishna's philosophy is distinctively refreshing and thought-provoking.
Here is evidence of a first-rate mind that has surveyed a seemingly familiar landscape and found not only new contours but patches of genuine and enduring wisdom.
In Rearming Hinduism, the desire is to disarm the ignorance that causes harm in this world. Vamsee Juluri’s book is an intellectual tour de force, a contemplative work where you are likely to go back and re-read pages to derive a greater appreciation.
American political discourse has become poisonous to a frightening degree — and it shows no signs of getting more civil anytime soon. Sasse's book aims to figure out what has made American politics so tribalistic and vicious and to offer suggestions for reconciliation.
This book is a must-read for every PhD-track grad student and postdoc, but it can also serve as a tool to help academicians understand the aspirations of their lab members and better mentor them.
Billy Wilder’s sardonic sensibility marked his cinematic voice from the beginning and was ahead of its time: the prostitutes, masqueraders, and antiheroes that permeate Wilder's best-known work presaged the shift in consciousness that swept America decades later.
Pekka Hamalainen’s impressive history is also a quarrel with the field, with how history — especially the history of indigenous Americans — has been told and sold.
To the dispassionate and perceptive academic, America is a paradox, defined by its conflicts and contradictions. One revealing example that piques Wang Huning’s interest is the eternal tension between freedom and equality, the two pillars of the American creed.
Pandita’s book exposes the hypocrisy of ‘secular’ democracy, its intellectual class, its candlelight brigade, its bleeding heart activists, and, above all, its silent (Hindu) majority.
Scalia and Garner use a conversational tone that is effortless for readers to understand and turns information about a particularly complex skill into a pleasurable read.
"Far beyond a classic, this small book unleashed the ongoing explosion of interest in social choice and voting theory. A half-century later, the book remains full of profound insight: its central message, ‘Arrow’s Theorem,’ has changed the way we think.”—Donald G. Saari, author of Decisions and Elections: Explaining the Unexpected
In illuminating the stories of people and their communities, Younge provides us with a beautifully told and empathic account that wrenches at the heart even as it continues to engage the brain.
This diary by Devaraja Mudaliar records conversations and events that took place in the Maharshi's hall during the years 1945 to 1947. Interesting insights into Sage's personal life, his relations with devotees, habits, and interests, along with many unique dialogues, all recorded in a manner that is easy to read.
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