Category: Books

In my last post, I explained why I don’t buy new books until the end of October 2019. Making a reading list for 2019 was easy because I already have the books I am going to read at home 🙂

Sociology/Psychology/Science

I love learning about how our brain and mind works. How our bodies function and why we do the things we do. In the past three years, I started to read more and more books about topics such as the paradox of choice, forming habits etc.

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 1. Evicted by Matthew Desmond   

Blurb: ” Monumental and vivid. Matthew Desmond spent years living among tenants in trailer parks and tumbledown houses in Milwaukee. His narrative weaves together the stories of a handful of character struggling, and often failing, to keep a roof over their heads. Evicted demands attention.” Ed Caesar
ISBN: 978-0-141-98331-8 

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2. The Memory Illusion by Dr Julia Shaw

Blurb: We rely on our memories every day of our lives. They make us who we are. And yet the truth is, they are far from being the accurate record of the past we like to think they are. In The Memory Illusion, criminal psychologist and memory expert Dr Julia Shaw draws on the latest research to show why our memories so often play tricks on us – and how, if we understand their fallibility, we can actually improve their accuracy. The result is an exploration of our minds that is both fascinating and unnerving, and that will make you question how much you can ever truly know about yourself. Think you have a good memory? Think again.
ISBN: 978-1-847-94761-1

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3. The Story of the Human Body by Daniel Lieberman

Blurb: “An epic voyage that reveals how the past six million years shaped every part of us … evolutionary history not only comes alive, it also becomes the means to understand, and ultimately influence, our body’s future.” Neil Shubin
ISBN: 978-0-141-39995-9

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4. This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein

Blurb: “Naomi Klein applies her fine, fierce and meticulous mind to the greatest, most urgent questions of our times.”
ISBN: 978-0-241-95618-2 

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5. Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

Blurb: “A neuroscientist shows how a good night’s shut-eye can make us cleverer, more attractive, slimmer, happier, healthier and ward off cancer … It’s probably a little to soon to tell you that it saved my life, but it’s been an eye-opener.” Mark O’Connell
ISBN: 978-0-141-98376-9

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6. Everybody  Lies. What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

Blurb: Everybody lies, to friends, lovers, doctors, pollsters – and to themselves. In Internet searches, however, people confess the truth. Insightful, funny and always surprising, Everybody Lies explores how this huge collection of data, unprecedented in human history, could just be the most important ever collected. It offers astonishing insights into the human psyche, revealing the biases deeply embedded within us, the questions we’re afraid to ask that might be essential to our well-being, and the information we can use to change our culture for the better.
ISBN: 978-1-4088-9473-6

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7. Occupy by Noam Chomsky

Blurb: Since its appearance in Zuccotti Park, New York, in September 2011, the Occupy movement has spread to hundreds of towns and cities across the world. No longer occupying small tent camps, the movement now occupies the global conscience as its messages spread from street protest to op-ed pages to the highest seats of power. From the movement’s onset, Noam Chomsky has supported its critique of corporate corruption and encouraged its efforts to increase civic participation, economic equality, democracy and freedom.
ISBN: 978-0-241-96401-9 

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8. From Bacteria to Bach and Back. The Evolution of Minds by Daniel C. Dennett

Blurb: What is human consciousness? And how did it become possible for our minds to even ask this question? This landmark work is Daniel C. Dennett’s brilliant answer, drawing on decades of philosophical and scientific insights to show our minds evolved and created the thinking tools that make us who we are.
ISBN: 978-0-141-97804-8

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True Crime

Let’s face it: I love watching and reading documentaries about serial killers or killers in general. It fascinates me, it scares me sometimes, and it is a huge part of my life. So, of course I have to read some books this year on this topic.

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9. Talking with Serial Killers by Christopher Berry-Dee

Blurb: Christopher Berry-Dee is the man who talks to serial killers. A world-renowned investigative criminologist, he has gained the trust of murderers across the world, entered their high-security prisons, and discussed in detail their shocking crimes. (…) Christoper Berry-Dee has collated these interviews into this astounding, disturbing book, which, since its first publication has gone on to become a true-crime classic. Not only does he describe his meetings with some of the world’s most evil men and women, he also reproduces, verbatim, their very words as they describe their crimes. In doing so, he allows his reader a glimpse into the inner workings of the people who have committed the worst crime possible – to mercilessly take the life of another human being.
ISBN: 978-1-78606-974-0

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10. Forensics. The Anatomy of Crime by Val McDermid

Blurb: In her novels, Val McDermid has been solving complex crimes and confronting unimaginable evil for years. Now, she’s taking a look at the people who do it for real: the forensic scientists who can unlock apparent mysteries and help deliver justice, thanks to their ability to read the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene or the faintest of human traces.
Drawing on interviews with top-level professionals, ground-breaking research and her own experience, McDermid lays bare the secrets of these fascinating specialists. We learn how maggots can point to the time of death. We discover how a DNA trace a millionth the size of a grain of salt can be used to convict a killer. We realise how hard it is to erase our digital footprints.
It’s a journey that will take us to war zones, fire scenes and autopsy suits, and bring us into contact with extraordinary bravery and wickedness, as McDermid traces the history of forensics from its earliest beginnings to the cutting-edge science of tomorrow.
ISBN: 978-17812517

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History

When I was in school, I wanted to study history but my teacher was so boring and not organised that I lost interest for while. Since two years I get back into the topic and especially the time of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I and the history of literature and text is super interesting to me, so I cannot wait to read the books.

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11. The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake by Samuel Bawlf

Blurb: In 1577, Sir Francis Drake set out on his three-year expedition to circumnavigate the globe. His journey is one of the most amazing of all human adventures, as he devastated Spanish treasure ships and charted unknown lands – yet six months of his explorations have remained shrouded in mystery. Was there another side to his travels?
In The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, a masterpiece of detective work, Samuel Bawlf provides persuasive and compelling evidence that he was on a secret mission for Queen Elizabeth I – concealed from the Court and from Spain. It was a quest that sent Drake and the crew of the Golden Hinde into unmapped territory and made him, two hundred years before Cook, one of the greatest explorers the world has ever known.
ISBN: 978-0-141-005911

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12. Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts by Christopher De Hamel

Blurb: “Rich and dazzling … a tribute to some of the most exquisite creations ever made by human hand. I can’t think of many books that have brought the past to life with such learning, beauty and wonderfully boyish gusto.” Dominic Sandbrook
ISBN: 978-0-141-97749-2

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13. The Written Word. How Literature Shapes History by Martin Puchner

Blurb: From clay tablets to the printing press, from the pencil to the Internet, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Harry Potter, The Written Word tells the riveting story of literature – of how great texts and technologies have shaped cultures and civilizations, and altered human history.
ISBN: 978-1-78378-314-4

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Others

The first book is a book I am going to read for one of my book clubs. I already read it years ago and remember it to be very interesting and funny, but not so much more.

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14. The Year of Living Biblically by A.J.Jacobs

Blurb: Avoiding shellfish was easy.  The stoning of adulterers proved a little more difficult – and potentially controversial. Was it enough to walk up to an adulterer and gently touch them with a stone? Even that could be grounds for accusations of assault, especially with female adulterers in Manhattan. So what’s a good Bible-reading boy to do?
Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J.Jacobs decides to dive in head-first and attempt to obey the hundreds of less-publicised rules. The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal, and will make you see history’s most influential book with new eyes.
ISBN: 978-0-0995-0979-0

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15. “They Can’t Kill Us All” The Story of Black Lives Matter by Wesley Lowery

Blurb: This is the story of the birth of a movement,  from the award-winning journalist who reported at the heart of it. Based on over a year of on-the-ground reporting, it is an unprecedented portrait of the reality of police violence and endemic racism in America, and those trying to combat it.
ISBN: 978-0-141-98614-2

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Which books do you want to read this year? Do you like reading non-fiction books?