Favorite Reads of 2012 and Why
I clocked in 2012 at just over 265 books. Granted, just over 135 of them were graphic novels, so they might not count as some people might argue; but I'll still take over 125 books read in the last year as a win. So of those books that I have read in the last year, here are some of my favorites and why:
These books are engaged in the same conversation about the
ways in which social media and the wealth of information about us on the
internet can impact us. They all provide
different approaches and advocate different ways of grappling with the same
issues.
These books all have me thinking about the ways in which I
not only understand myself and my actions, but those around me. They have challenged me to think differently
and to be more hesitant with my judgments.
They have also helped me think differently about how I do things and how
I might encourage others (in the context of work, education, or even friends)
to do things. If you ever wonder why I’m
able to see or come to certain conclusions about others and their actions, much
of it stems from books like these
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NONFICTION
Education
The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every
Child by Donalyn Miller
A
fascinating book about a teacher who manages to get her students to regularly
read forty books within the school year and how she manages to do it.
The Graphic Syllabus and the Outcomes Map: Communicating
Your Course by Linda Nilson
I talked
this book on this blog. It’s a great one for thinking differently
about communicating the details of your syllabus.
The following books paint a very challenging picture about
the future of education. There are some
great ideas offered (particular with regards to the Finnish model of education)
but that requires a whole lot of effort
and revamping of our schools.
- The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch
- Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative by Sir Ken Robinson (Check out his awesome animated lecture)
- Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland? By Pasi Sahlberg
- A New Culture of Learning by Douglas Thomas
- The Global Achievement Gap: Why Our Kids Don't Have the Skills They Need for College, Careers, and Citizenship--and What We Can Do About It by Tony Wagner
- Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World by Tony Wagner
Technology
Reframing the public- private debate. |
- I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did: Social Networks and the Death of Privacy by Lori Andrews
- Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age is Revolutionizing Life, Business, and Society by Jeff Jarvis
- Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room by David Weinberger (check out my interview with the author)
These books offer creative insight in to what to do with and
how to use social media and the internet for different purposes. Each one shows the ways in which these can be
used for good, bad, and irrelevant purposes.
- Culturematic: How Reality TV, John Cheever, a Pie Lab, Julia Child, Fantasy Football . . . Will Help You Create and Execute Breakthrough Ideas by Grant McCracken
- The Smart Swarm: How Understanding Flocks, Schools, and Colonies Can Make Us Better at Communicating, Decision Making, and Getting Things Done by Peter Miller
- The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories by Frank Rose
- And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture by Bill Wasik
- Future Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age by Steven Johnson (his Where Good Ideas Come From I also read this year and recommend; check out the TED Talk!)
- Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World by Christopher Steiner
Politics, Society, People
Two books I think we all need to read and have a long
conversation about with regards to how we move through the world.
- The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brené Brown.
- Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by by Brené Brown.
- 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang
- Economix: How and Why Our Economy Works (and Doesn't Work), in Words and Pictures by Michael Goodwin and Dan E. Burr; check out the interviews with Goodwin and Burr.
- The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future by Joseph Stiglitz
- The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone--Especially Ourselves by Dan Ariely
- The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
- The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath
- On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind's Hard-Wired Habits by Wray Herbert
- Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson
- Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer (despite the issues of plagiarism and inaccuracy that haunt this book, the ideas are solid)
- Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina
- Wait: The Art and Science of Delay by Frank Partnoy
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
- Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World by Sam Sommers
The Half-life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date by Samuel Arbesman
Learning about the instability of knowledge and why that is.
As Texas Goes...: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the
American Agenda by Gail Collins
An
interesting look at the ways in which Texas has shaped elements of our country
in the last fifty years.
Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work
by Matthew Crawford
A book that
makes me want to do more things in the physical world (like gardening,
crafting, etc).
Popular Culture : A User's Guide by Susie O’Brien
A great
textbook for my course on Popular Culture.
It does really well with explaining and illustrating hard concepts.
Complete Without Kids: An Insider's Guide to Childfree
Living by Choice or Chance by Ellen Walker
A book I’ve
talked about before on this blog.
Misc.
On Writing by
Stephen King
A good book
with some solid thoughts on writing.
Mindfulness by
Ellen Langer
A good
reminder to be in the moment and to balance the internal state of mind and
external state of awareness.
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest
Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall
A solid
book about the nature of running by focusing on some of the mast amazing
runners on Earth.
The Modern Scholar: Tolkien and the West: Recovering the
Lost Tradition of Europe by Michael Drout.
His Modern
Scholar material is awesome and highly enjoyable. He’s quirky and knowledgeable about the literature
he speaks of but makes it extremely accessible.
Every time I listen to one of his lecture series, it makes me want to go
out and read (or re-read) everything he talked about.
FICTION
Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
Enjoyable
and interesting, the book is not entirely different from the movie(s), but it’s
interesting that the elements of the Wahlberg version of were more closely accurate
to the book than the Heston film.
Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going
A book that
strikes close to my heart with my teenage experience.
The Rats by James Herbert
I clearly
need to read more Herbert; he’s fun to read for horror.
Year Zero by Rob Reid
The book
had its funny moments and was truly in the tradition of Hitchhiker’s Guide to
the Galaxy.
Redshirts by John Scalzi
A
metafictional spoof on Star Trek and highly enjoyable.
DMZ Vol. 12: The Five Nations of New York by Brian Wood
The end of
an awesome series by Brian Wood. Sad to
see it end, but it was a great ending. I’m
likely to follow Wood as much as I follow Jeff Lemire (which is to say, read
everything he has!).
BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker
I’ve talked about Pinker before on this blog. This massive but accessible text is an
essential book for anyone who wants to better understand the world at large and
move into a mental space that is much saner than what the daily news
delivers. Check out his Ted Talk that's
a summary of many of his points: TheSurprising Decline of Violence.
WORST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Frankenstein Papers by Fred Saberhagen.
Oh man! I enjoyed
Saberhagen’s approach with Dracula in The Dracula Tapes, but this was an
extreme let down in all manner of speaking.
The book’s end destroyed the journey. Nuff said!
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Hi Lance,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insightful commentary on this year's best (and worst). To the best I would add the novel by Kevin Powers, _The Yellow Birds_. Absorbing story of an Iraq vet trying to deal with the death of a comrade on the battlefield. Powers served in Iraq and tells the story from an insider's point of view; his resentment at America's willingness to send people off to war and then ignore the destruction combat causes.
I plan to assign it to my students.
Cheers,
Larry
Thanks Larry!
DeleteNow, I have one more to read for next year :)
Lance
Hey Lance, one of my favorite books this year was "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined" I could listen to/read that man for hours (as long I can remain past the hair).
ReplyDeleteHi Joey!
DeleteI KNOW! There's no better book to restore faith in humanity in the big picture methinks!