Abr. Book List

Chance’s Reading List

Philosophy & Ethics

• Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals — Immanuel Kant

• Critique of Practical Reason — Immanuel Kant

• Nicomachean Ethics — Aristotle

• The Republic — Plato

• Utilitarianism — John Stuart Mill

• Second Treatise of Government — John Locke

• The Norton Introduction to Philosophy (2nd Ed.)

• Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? — Michael J. Sandel

• The Dialogues: Conversations About the Nature of the Universe

• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — Robert Pirsig

• Walden; or, Life in the Woods — Henry David Thoreau

Political Science & Social Issues

• The Common Good — Robert Reich

• The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It — Robert Reich

• Saving Capitalism — Robert Reich

• Aftershock — Robert Reich

• Stamped — Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi

Memoir & Biography

• A Promised Land — Barack Obama

• My Beloved World — Sonia Sotomayor

• Romney — McKay Coppins

• We Were Dreamers — Simu Liu

• Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center — Ray Monk

Self-Help & Personal Development

• Atomic Habits — James Clear

• Ultralearning — Scott Young

• Courage is Calling — Ryan Holiday

• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals — Oliver Burkeman

Science & Ideas

• The Pleasure of Finding Things Out — Richard P. Feynman

• The Science of Interstellar — Kip Thorne

• AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future — Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan

• Who Says You’re Dead? — Jacob M. Appel

• God is Not Great — Christopher Hitchens

• The God Delusion — Richard Dawkins

• And Yet…: Essays — Christopher Hitchens

History & True Crime

• Killers of the Flower Moon — David Grann

• The Wager — David Grann

• Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb — Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

• All American Boys — Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely

Literature & Classics

• Don Quixote — Miguel de Cervantes

• Les Misérables — Victor Hugo

• The Brothers Karamazov — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

• The Idiot — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

• Crime and Punishment — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

• Macbeth — William Shakespeare

• Animal Farm — George Orwell

• The Picture of Dorian Gray — Oscar Wilde

• The Outsiders — S.E. Hinton

Contemporary Fiction

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow — Gabrielle Zevin

• Martyr! — Kaveh Akbar

• Remarkably Bright Creatures — Shelby Van Pelt

Thriller & Popular Fiction

• The Dead Zone — Stephen King

• Fairytale — Stephen King

• The Green Mile — Stephen King

• You Like It Darker — Stephen King

• Prey — Michael Crichton

• Timeline — Michael Crichton

• Micro — Michael Crichton & Richard Preston

• Pirate Latitudes — Michael Crichton

• The Rainmaker — John Grisham

• The Partner — John Grisham

• The Whistler — John Grisham

• The Confession — John Grisham

• The Appeal — John Grisham

Young Adult Fiction

• Let the Circle Be Unbroken — Mildred D. Taylor

• Lu — Jason Reynolds

• When I Was the Greatest — Jason Reynolds

Science Fiction & Fantasy

• Foundation (series) — Isaac Asimov

• I, Robot — Isaac Asimov

• The Caves of Steel — Isaac Asimov

• The Naked Sun — Isaac Asimov

• The Robots of Dawn — Isaac Asimov

• Robot Dreams — Isaac Asimov

• Second Foundation — Isaac Asimov

• Ender’s Game — Orson Scott Card

• Children of the Mind — Orson Scott Card

• Shadow of the Hegemon — Orson Scott Card

• Speaker for the Dead — Orson Scott Card

• The Martian — Andy Weir

• Project Hail Mary — Andy Weir

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (series) — Douglas Adams

Course Readings & Excerpts

(from Harvard’s Justice & MIT’s Problems of Philosophy)

• Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics & Politics (excerpts)

• Kant: Groundwork & Critique (excerpts)

• Mill: Utilitarianism & On Liberty (excerpts)

• Rawls: A Theory of Justice (excerpts)

• Landmark Cases: Roe v. Wade (1973), Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

• Essays: Affirmative Action, Market Ethics, Same-Sex Marriage, Sandel’s essays

• MITx Lectures: Ontological Argument, Problem of Evil, Analysis of Knowledge, Free Will debates, Race & Gender, Consciousness, The Absurdity of Life, The Afterlife