Book Category: Essential
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Owner of a Lonely Heart by Beth Nguyen
I fully loved this. I look forward to reading it again, and I’ll seek out other books by the author.
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Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon by William D. Cohan
Cohan writes with personality and it makes this 750 page corporate history an actual page turner.
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The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang
It’s similar in some aspects to Shake Hands with the Devil, and certainly as unforgettable and haunting.
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Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
There are so many quotable lines in this book. It’s no wonder that Chandler’s writing helped set the template for an entire genre
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The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway
Without exaggeration, it changed the way I think about the world around me.
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G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverley Gage
This book is not only an incredible profile of a singular historical figure, it’s a lens to help explain today’s world.
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The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
Kingsolver’s first book, published in 1988, and every bit as relevant today. She targets white privilege, racism and how society treats the poor, the racialized, women.
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8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster by Mirinae Lee
The only criticism I have for this book is that it was too short. In the hands of another author this would have been a monster 900-page generational epic.
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Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The themes are big — colonialism, racism and religion of course, but also parental responsibility, generational trauma and heredity — but the story and characters are so engaging that they don’t feel heavy.
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Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
This book is the most ambitious and layered thing I’ve read in a long, long time.