J's Recommended Reads

As I have stated many times, we all have our biases, mine will be pretty clear based on the following book recommendations. I read a lot, it is probably my favorite past-time. And since I'm a "super nerd", most of what I read is non-fiction. What follows is a list (that is, of course, not all inclusive), of the books that I have read that have been the most influential, informative, or enjoyable to me. If any of you read (or have read) any of these books, please do let me know what you thought of them. This list will be updated anytime I read something I feel is worth adding.

Non-Fiction

1. A Cook's Tour - Anthony Bourdain
2. A Green History of the World: The Environment and the Collapse of Great Civilizations - Clive Ponting (The editor for this book was horrible, long paragraphs, poor sentence structure, etc., but it is a very good book nonetheless.)
3. A Return to Common Sense - John Ikerd
4. American Facists: The Christian Right and the War on America - Chris Hedges
5. An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire - Arundhati Roy
6. Better Off - Eric Brende
7. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed - Jared Diamond
8. Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures of Politics of Local Foods - Gary Paul Nabhan
9. Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins
10. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things - William McDonough & Michael Braungart
11. Earth Odyssey: Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future - Mark Hertsgaard
12. Epicurean Simplicity - Stephanie Mills
13. Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health - Marion Nestle
14. Food Wars: The Battle for Mouths, Minds, and Markets - Tim Lang & Michael Heasman
15. Freedom Next Time: Resisting the Empire - John Pilger
16. Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World - Alan Weisman
17. Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age - Michael H. Shuman
18. Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany - Bill Buford
19. How to Be Idle: A Loafer's Manifesto - Tom Hodgkinson
20. In Praise of Slowness: Challenge the Cult of Speed - Carl Honore
21. It Must Have Been Something I Ate - Jeffrey Steingarten
22. People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present - Howard Zinn
23. Perilous Power: The Middle East & U.S. Foreign Policy: Dialogues on Terror, Democracy, War, and Justice - Noam Chomsky and Gilbert Achcar
24. Permaculture - Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability - David Holmgren
25. Radical Simplicity - Jim Merkel
26. Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism - Marion Nestle
27. Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply - Vandana Shiva
28. Stuff White People Like - Christian Lander
29. Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System - Raj Patel
30. Suburban Safari: A Year on the Lawn - Hannah Holmes
31. Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security - James X. Dempsey and David Cole
32. The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World - Michael Pollan
33. The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power - Joel Bakan
34. The Edible Container Garden – Michael Guerra
35. The Empty Tank: Oil, Gas, Hot Air, and the Coming Global Financial Catastrophe - Jeremy Leggett
36. The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot - Naomi Wolf
37. The Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update - Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, and Jorgen Randers
38. The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century - James Howard Kunstler
39. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals - Michael Pollan
40. The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less - Barry Schwartz
41. The Party's Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies - Richard Heinberg
42. The Places That Scare You - Pema Chodron
43. The Secret History of the American Empire - John Perkins
44. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - Naomi Klein
45. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference - Malcolm Gladwell
46. The Ungarnished Truth - Ellie Matthews
47. Trail of Crumbs - Kim Sunee
48. Under the Table: Saucy Tales from Culinary School - Katherine Darling
49. Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky - Noam Chomsky
50. Undertanding Our Mind - Thich Nhat Hanh
51. War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning - Chris Hedges
52. What to Eat - Marion Nestle

Fiction

1. 1984 - George Orwell
2. A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon
3. Addition - Toni Jordan
4. Baby Proof - Emily Giffin
5. Behaving Like Adults - Anna Maxted
6. Being Committed - Anna Maxted
7. Better Than Chocolate - Susan Waggoner
8. Comfort Food - Kate Jacobs
9. Company - Max Barry
10. Eating Crow - Jay Rayner
11. Ecotopia Emerging - Ernest Callenbach
12. Eleanor Rigby: A Novel - Douglas Coupland
13. Everything She Thought She Wanted - Elizabeth Buchan
14. Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins
15. Girl's Who Gossip - Theresa Alan
16. How (not) To Have A Perfect Wedding - Arliss Ryan
17. Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit - Daniel Quinn
18. Life on the Refrigerator Door - Alice Kuipers
19. Me vs Me - Sarah Mlynowski
20. Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
21. Miranda's Big Mistake - Jill Mansell
22. Nadia Knows Best - Jill Mansell
23. Notes from the Backseat - Jody Gehrman
24. Once Upon A Nervous Breakdown - Patrick Sanchez
25. Personal Days - Ed Park
26. Room for Improvement - Stacey Ballis
27. Schooled - Anisha Lakhani
28. Second Chance - Jane Green
29. Secrets of the Tsil Cafe - Thomas Fox Averill
30. Something Blue - Emily Giffin
31. Something Borrowed - Emily Giffin
32. Swapping Lives - Jane Green
33. The Blue Bistro - Elin Hilderbrand
34. The Cinderella Pact - Sarah Strohmeyer
35. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon
36. The Flawless Skin of Ugly People - Doug Crandell
37. The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death - Laurie Notaro
38. The Last Chinese Chef - Nicole Mones
39. The Smart One - Ellen Meister
40. The Ten Best Days of My Life - Adena Halpern
41. Then We Came To the End - Joshua Ferris
42. There Is A (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going To Hell - Laurie Notaro
43. Trophies - Heather Thomas
44. Twenties Girl - Sophie Kinsella
45. Wake Up, Sir! - Jonathan Ames