Friday, January 15, 2016

The 15 best books I read in 2015 (and a few other noteworthy ones)


In all categories, presented unranked and without commentary:

• Clarice Lispector, The Complete Stories

• Johann Hari, Chasing the Scream

• Tim Whitmarsh, Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World

• Robert A. Williams, Jr., Savage Anxieties: The Invention of Western Civilization

• Ali Abunimah, The Battle for Justice in Palestine

• Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric

• Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

• Caroline Gage, Harriet Tubman Visits a Therapist

• Alice Miller, For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence

• Valentin Voloshinov, Freudianism: A Marxist Critique

• Carol Tavris, The Mismeasure of Woman

• Arun Kundnani, The Muslims Are Coming!: Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror

• Nathalie Sarraute, The Planetarium

• Jean-Paul Sartre, Nekrassov: A Farce

• Alice Miller, The Untouched Key: Tracing Childhood Trauma in Creativity and Destructiveness

And a few more noteworthy books:

• Katha Pollitt, Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights

• Marnia Lazreg, Torture and the Twilight of Empire: From Algiers to Baghdad

• Stephen Kinzer, The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

• Lisa Cosgrove and Robert Whitaker, Psychiatry Under the Influence: Institutional Corruption, Social Injury, and Prescriptions for Reform

• Lance and Zachary Dodes, The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry (this included a few irritating and incongruous claims about the biopsychiatric model of “mental illness,” which was enough to keep it off my list of recommended critical works on the subject, but otherwise is solid and informative)

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