What Are We Reading?

This book envisions a dystopian world in which condemned prisoners are forced to become gladiators for the enjoyment of the masses. It’s Hunger Games meets Parchman Farm inside a futuristic Colosseum. But the violence on the BattleGrounds is nothing compared to the sadistic and twisted brutality the state enacts on the imprisoned in the name of justice. By holding up this fun-house mirror to our own prison-industrial complex, Adjeh-Brenyah builds a compelling argument for abolition.

I’m currently working my way through all of the Isaac Asimov Robot, Empire and Foundation series. I’m reading them in that order, instead of the order in which they came out, because that’s the chronological order of the story in the universe he constructed. Life sometimes imitates art, and watching the AI and robotics industries evolve in our world as I read these books is a great example of that. Asimov is credited with inventing the word “robotics,” and it is fascinating to see how presciently his science fiction novels predicted the ethical, legal, and technological questions we would face as AI-powered machines became a bigger part of our day-to-day lives. Many would argue that AI developers were inspired by his writing to achieve what was at the time extremely far-fetched, and even I am somewhat excited (and concerned?) about how close we might be getting. So far, I’m only five books in, and I enjoyed the first two more than the last three. At my current pace, I’ll probably be able to let you know which of the remaining 10 I recommend when this list comes out for 2024.

This novel is about the trial of the deposed leader of a Soviet satellite country (based on Bulgaria, I believe). The story is focused on the interaction of two characters—the deposed leader and his head prosecutor—presenting them both as fully human characters, while laying bare the dysfunction of both the former communist state and the new post-communist state. It presents the challenge of practicing law in such a place and time, and the difficulty of applying general laws to extraordinary crimes.

This book is the Washington Post Executive Editor’s account of how he led that newspaper through the Trump candidacy and presidency, Jeff Bezos’s acquisition of the Post, the pandemic, #MeToo, and so much else. Baron is as good of a writer as he was an editor, and the story he tells is gripping, fascinating, and timely. It’s an essential read if you want to understand what’s happening in contemporary politics and journalism, and it sheds new light on stories we all remember following in real time. I’m reading the print version, but those who prefer audio books can enjoy Liev Schreiber’s narration. Schreiber played Baron (then the Boston Globe’s Executive Editor) in Spotlight, which won the academy award for Best Picture in 2015.

The book describes the different visions that three major powers—the United States, Europe, and China—have on how to regulate technology and the internet, and tells the story of their current battle to impose those visions on the world. The stakes of that battle have become even higher over the last year as emerging technologies, like AI, have the potential to dramatically reshape a large number of sectors of the economy. And although the book is written with academic rigor, it should be accessible and of interest to anyone interested in technology, regulation, or globalization.

Reignite your childhood obsession with dinosaurs with this tour de force by a UChicago-trained palentologist. It’s very U of C. (This is a compliment.)

Best known for If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller and Invisible Cities, Calvino wrote a trilogy of historical ‘fictions’ characterized by a lightness of touch and a delight in ideas. The Baron in the Trees, the best of the trilogy, tells the story of the Enlightenment from the perspective of a young Italian noble who decides to live without touching the ground.

Legal academics and social scientists have long conducted empirical examinations of the operation of United States courts, especially the US Supreme Court. They have less often given attention to the courts, even the highest courts, of other countries. This study is an important step in correcting this omission. Drawing on extensive data about the Indian Supreme Court, the book analyzes the Chief Justice’s use of discretion in assigning cases, the influence of the Court’s bar, the impact of diversity in the Court, the extent and causes of backlog in decision-making, and more. The findings are revealing and fascinating. The book is certain to influence studies of other courts.

Edgeworth was a contemporary of Jane Austen, a favorite author of Justice Joseph Story (who raved about her “matchless wit” and “fine character painting”), and one of the bestselling novelists of the early nineteenth century in Britain, Ireland (her native country), and America. Ormond is a humorous but heartfelt tale of the adventures of young Harry Ormond, who must find his way among rival families, social classes, and national identities.

Another novel by Edgeworth, The Absentee is a pointed critique of the many absentee English landlords who held—and often wasted—vast Irish estates. Hard to find, but well worth reading.

A breezy, one-volume history that draws straight lines from the policies of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great to Stalin and Putin. I’ve been obsessed with Russian history since I thumbed through my dad’s library of books in Russian, and this book gave me a new perspective.

I first read it some 65 years ago, but the current situation in the Middle East called it to mind, and I read it again. It is deeply moving. I highly recommend it.

Betsy Gaines Quammen first explored what might be called the real west in American Zion: Cliven Bundy, God and Public Lands in the West (2020). In her new work, she explores what she calls the classic myths about the American west—myths that shape assumptions about identity, autonomy, and destiny of those who live in the barren vistas and demanding mountains of a third of the country. A patient interrogator, she finds how myths generate frustration and polarization among those who inhabit the region.

This collection of essays by scholars from across the globe examines the relationship between Buddhist ideas and constitutional concepts. It persuasively combines the study of religion with comparative constitutional analysis and brings together investigations of specific countries with broader theorizing. The absorbing book blazes a new path for understanding constitutional development and evolution.

Louise Glück, who died this fall, won every literary award imaginable including the Nobel Prize in 2020. Her free verse poetry is easily accessible, like a face-to-face conversation, although often the conversation seems also internal. She writes of emotions, longing, and the dissonance between image and fact. Myth and classical antiquity are frequent vehicles for the sharp reflections on intimate contemporary human interactions.

Although described as “the chronicle of an African boy’s coming of age…[amid] the corruption of African tradition by European colonialism,” in fact, European colonialism plays a very small role in the book. It is more about the destruction of the African tradition by Arab colonization and economic domination, and the corrosive effects of that domination on African societies and people. At the very end, the Europeans are on their way to pushing the Arabs out, but it is far from clear (at that point the book ends) that the Africans will be worse off for it—for those who know the history of the German colonization of East Africa, they will be. The book, however, makes clear that the earlier colonization was massively destructive in its own right. Not exactly a “paradise!”

Hämäläinen’s first two books—Commanche Empire and Lakota America—were outstanding, and this one-volume summary of the history of American Indians is as well. If you want an overview of this history, this is the book to read.

Anyone who talked to me for more than 15 minutes this summer will know what I recommend, because I couldn't stop talking about it. Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell, captures the many adventures and achievements and challenges of an extraordinary woman whose name I didn't know at all until I saw the book set aside in a local bookshop. She was born in 1868 to a wealthy family in England, in a time and place where people worried that rigorous studies might make a girl ill. Nonetheless, she went on to become an expert horsewoman (and camelwoman?), mountaineer, linguist, translator of poetry, archaeologist, mapmaker, sociologist, bureaucrat, and policy engineer. She loved the desert of what we now call the Middle East and came to know the leaders and customs of the many peoples she encountered on her expeditions. She was Britain's lead advisor on policy for the new Iraq after World War I. Maybe I should have given a spoiler alert, but the details of the story are remarkable and surprising in this account, even if the outline of her biography is already known.

Jones's book is a fascinating history of Soviet Whaling and the industry's mixture of greed and politics with growing sympathy.

Life in deep oceans and deep caves is the stuff of this book. I learned so much and at the same time got a sense of the life of a modern-day explorer of physical spaces and phenomena and the people encountered in these risky ventures.

This is the story of a former British spy called back out of retirement for one more assignment. This time he is trying to determine which of three women in a small Spanish town is an IRA-trained terrorist. He develops relationships with all three women but is not convinced that any of them is the terrorist the British are seeking. His handler, however, threatens to take drastic action that could destroy them all if the spy doesn’t decide and act. Although this sounds like a typical spy novel, it is not—it is far less about action than about inaction and the interior thoughts of this conflicted man. (I should note it is a follow-up novel to the author’s earlier novel Berta Isla, which is told from the perspective of the spy’s wife during the time of his active deployment in the field. But it is not at all necessary to have read the first book to enjoy this one.)

Moore discusses the harms done to right whales (critically endangered) by lobster fishing lines.

Nickum describes a variety of threats to the "resident orcas" of the Salish Sea. All are hopeful, proposing urgently needed reforms.

This is the fictionalized account of the life of the Belgian author’s father, who was a diplomat. This novella traces the story of his life and the events that built his character from childhood to his diplomatic career and his eventual posting to The Republic of the Congo, where he finds himself negotiating with revolutionaries. The longer he can engage them, the more Congolese lives might be saved. As his character says in the book, he is a “modern-day Scheherazade.”

Jonathan Rauch’s The Constitution of Knowledge is a sophisticated defense of why we need to protect liberal, Popperian approaches to knowledge generation, and why we are having such a hard time doing this. It's now a couple years old but alas just as relevant as ever.

For those who feel like their inner hippie is quashed by their corporate job, I recommend The Creative Act: A Way of Being by prolific music producer and founder of Def Jam Recordings, Rick Rubin. Rubin is undoubtedly one of the most influential, forward-thinking, decorated producers of our time, having worked with artists in every genre from the Beastie Boys to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Adele to the Dixie Chicks to Shakira to Jay-Z, just to name a few. The book is fascinating purely as a dive into the process of a genius, particularly one that is so flexible, and his reflections on creation, what it means to create something great, and how to create it are a unique window into a singular talent. He intends the book, though, not as an exploration of his process, but as guidance in tapping one’s own creative path. He says that any pursuit is a creative pursuit if conceived of properly and that the book has some actionable advice for everyone, regardless of career path. I found his techniques for understanding each of his artists and bringing out the best version of the artist, modulating his production approach to figure out what works for the artist, to be particularly valuable in my teaching.

This collection of short stories explores dystopian themes and the human condition with wit and empathy. Like other work by Saunders, it is wildly inventive and thought-provoking, funny and devastating.

Fermi mastered everything that was known about physics at the very last moment it was possible for a single person to master it. In addition to giving a sense of the enormous strides in our understanding of physics that took place in the first half of the last century, the book also paints a vivid picture of the world in which Fermi lived, including the University of Chicago in the 1940s.

The book is a real-life version of Succession that follows the personal and legal battles for control of Viacom and CBS as it unfolds among Sumner Redstone, Shari Redstone, Les Moonves, and others. The story contains lessons in corporate governance, but the personal drama is the fascinating core of the book and certainly falls into the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction category.

Panics, bubbles, railroad speculation, and a pack of young toffs drinking and roistering at a club called the Beargarden. Plus a lady novelist, a clutch of unscrupulous newspapermen, and a mysterious American woman who might be traveling with a sidearm. It’s Trollope’s 1875 masterpiece, and the 816 pages fly by.

This book was all rage when it came out in the 1980s, and, yes, I am old enough to have read it then. Earlier this year I stumbled upon Tom Wolfe’s short satire The Painted Word which brilliantly exposes some of the pretentiousness in the modern art movement. I so thoroughly enjoyed it that I went back to reread some of Wolfe’s great novels, none greater than Bonfire—an epic story about social class and race in America.

I enjoyed Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe. It’s a coming-of-age novel set in the now-demolished Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago. The novel is centered on a group of girls who are navigating their friendships, their community, and the city around them as they become teenagers. The book packs no punches—there’s sadness and tragedy—but there’s also laughter and light, and Ms. Wolfe paints the lives of the girls and their community with empathy and nuance.

Zevin weaves a brilliant story about life-long friendship, loss, ambition, identity, and different types of love. The main characters design video games over the course of several decades and surely the games Zevin imagines them creating are as wonderfully imaginative as anything that artistic form has ever produced.

Right now I am not reading books, rather, with the world as it is, I am trying to read the news, in English, from the US, UK, France, and Israel from publications on the left and the right. In a world that appears to be post-facts, my goal is to come as close to the truth as possible by reading diverse sources every day.