TOP TEN (or more) IN ALL CATEGORIES:

•  Dumbing Us Down by Gatto (education)

• 12 Rules for LIfe by Peterson (self-help)

• The True Believer by Eric Hoffer (philosophy)

• Ishmael by Quinn (novel)

• When Breath Becomes Air by Kalanithi (memoir)

• Hillbilly Elegy by Vance (memoir)

• The Black Swan by Taleb (philosophy)

• Skin in the Game by Taleb (philosophy)

• Boy’s Life by McCammon (sci-fi / coming of age novel)

• The 4-Hour Workweek by Ferriss (business)

•  The Underground History of American Education by Gatto (education)

• Shop Class as Soulcraft by Crawford (education / philosophy)

• The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives by Mlodinow (math / philosophy)

• Trust Me I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday (memoir)- THE BEST BOOK EVER THAT MAKES YOU UNDERSTAND HOW THE MEDIA WORKS AND WHY YOU SHOULD IGNORE IT.

Memoirs

1. Hillbilly Elegy by Vance

2. When Breath Becomes Air by Kalanithi

3. The Pursuit of Happyness by Gardner

4. The Color of Water by McBride

5. The Other Wes Moore by Moore

6. Colors of the Mountain by Chen

7. The Red Scarf Girl (YA book)

8. The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace

9. American Pilgrim by Roosh V

Biography / Autobiography

1. Into the Wild by Krakauer

2. Open by Andre Agassi

3. A Walk in the Woods by Bryson

Education Books

1. Focus by Schmoker

2. Dumbing Us Down by Gatto 

3. The Underground History of American Education by Gatto

4. Weapons of Mass Instruction by Gatto

5. (every book written by John Taylor Gatto- I read them all.)

6. Getting What You Came For by Peters

7. Worthless by Clarey

8. Teachers Have It Easy by Eggers

Self-Help

1. 12 Rules for LIfe by Peterson

2. Bachelor Pad Economics by Clarey

3. Wild Problems by Russ Roberts

Philosophy and / or Religion

1. The Black Swan by Taleb (and pretty much everything else he wrote)

2. The True Believer by Hoffer (and pretty much everything else he wrote)

3. Shop Class as Soulcraft by Crawford (could also be filed under Education Books)

4. The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives by Mlodinow

5. The Spirit of Disobedience by White (and pretty much everything else he wrote- I haven’t read his novels)

6. Blue Like Jazz by Miller

7. Skin in the Game by Taleb

Novels

1. Ishmael by Quinn (I read all his novels and loved them all.)

2. Boy’s Life by McCammon 

3. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Hosseini

4. A Disgrace to the Profession by Kaufmann and Newton (could also be classified under “education”).

5. The Brothers K by James Duncan

6. Enon by Paul Harding

7. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

Business

1. The 4-Hour Workweek by Ferriss

2. Think and Grow Rich by Hill

3. Steal Like an Artist by Kleon

4. As a Man Thinketh

5. The Richest Man in Babylon

Other Nonfiction

1. Prisoners of Geography by Marshall

2. Quotable Hitchens (quotes of Hitchens)

Favorite Books to Read in English 9 and/or 10 Class

1. The Road

2. Of Mice and Men

3. Tuesdays with Morrie

4. The House on Mango Street

5. The Circuit

6. A Long Walk to Water