-
Isabel Allende,
House of the Spirits. A
stunning epic novel.
-
Raymond Carver,
What We Talk About When We Talk About
Love. The best collection of
short stories by the great American master of the
genre.
-
Dante Alighieri,
Inferno. Dating back to
the thirteenth century, this epic poem is nothing less than one of
the world's greatest masterpieces.
-
Joan Didion,
Slouching Towards Bethlehem.
A collection of piercing essays about Southern California, and an
example of the best prose writing I have ever read.
-
Ralph Ellison,
Invisible Man. One of the
greatest American novels. An absolute masterpiece, painful and
thrilling to read.
-
Ernest J. Gaines.
A Lesson Before Dying.
Understated and powerful novel of Southern racism, but even more
about human dignity.
-
James Gleick,
Chaos. An introduction to
the revolutionary, new view of order and randomness in
nature.
-
Maxine Hong
Kingston, The Woman Warrior.
This "memoir" of a Chinese American woman is full of magic. If you
like it, you should also read Kingston's novel, Tripmaster
Monkey, which is wickedly irreverent and funny.
-
Thomas S. Kuhn,
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
Kuhn's concept of the "paradigm shift" which suddenly and
irrevocably changes how scientists look at the universe applies to
other disciplines -- and life in general.
-
Desmond Morris,
The Naked Ape. A
zoologist's revealing examination of the animal known as Homo
sapiens.
-
Toni Morrison,
Beloved. The best novel
by the 1993 Nobel Prize winner. A deeply moving story about
slavery and ghosts. Also read her National Book Critics Circle
Award-winning novel, Song of Solomon.
-
Alan Paton, Cry
the Beloved Country. A
gorgeous masterpiece about the effects of South Africa's apartheid
on both whites and blacks. Writing that is beautiful beyond any
singing of it.
-
William
Shakespeare, Othello.
What did you expect from an English major? Iago is a world-class
bad guy -- evil personified.
-
Hedrick Smith,
The Power Game: How Washington Works.
A veteran political reporter describes how national politics
really happen.
-
Michael Pollan,
The Omnivore's Dilemma. A fascinating, life-changing
book for any American who eats food.
-
Jonathan Safran
Foer, Everything Is Illuminated. An epic novel that is both laugh-aloud funny and
heart-rendingly poignant.
