Books

The Ragman’s Son Kirk Douglas The actor's own account of his rise from a Russian-Jewish immigrant childhood, including his part in breaking the blacklist. 1 recommender The Rainbow Comes and Goes Anderson Cooper, Gloria Vanderbilt When his mother turned 91, Cooper started a year-long correspondence with her. The letters become a frank, tender reckoning between mother and son. The Rape of Nanking Iris Chang The 1937 massacre much of the world managed to forget, documented before the last witnesses died 1 recommender The Rapture of Canaan Sheri Reynolds Sheri Reynolds's novel follows a teenage girl in a strict backwoods religious sect as faith, first love, and pregnancy collide. 1 recommender The Rational Male Rollo Tomassi The manosphere's founding text, and the reference point for a body of writing built on it. The Rational Optimist Matt Ridley Prosperity comes from exchange and specialisation, Ridley argues, and the pessimists have been wrong for two centuries. 1 recommender The Raven and Other Favorite Poems Edgar Allan Poe A Dover Thrift collection of 41 poems by Edgar Allan Poe, led by the title poem, which first ran in the New York Evening Mirror in 1845. 1 recommender The Reader Bernhard Schlink Bernhard Schlink's novel follows a German teenager's affair with an older woman, whose wartime secret surfaces years later at a trial. 1 recommender The Real Crash Peter Schiff Schiff's argument that 2008 was a symptom and the real reckoning, a debt-and-dollar crash, still looms unless America embraces radical fixes. The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China Lu Xun Julia Lovell's translation of the complete fiction of Lu Xun, including the novella The Real Story of Ah Q. 1 recommender The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Life of Frantz Fanon Adam Shatz The Martinican psychiatrist who treated torturers and their victims in Algeria, then wrote the century most influential account of colonial violence. 1 recommender The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam Muhammad Iqbal 1 recommender The Redbreast Jo Nesbø Jo Nesbø's 2000 crime novel, third in the Harry Hole series, moving between modern Oslo and the Second World War. The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church Matthew Barrett A long argument that the Reformers were retrieving the catholic tradition rather than breaking it. 1 recommender The Reformer Stephen F. Williams The story of Vasily Maklakov, the liberal lawyer who fought to steer late imperial Russia toward reform before revolution closed the door. 1 recommender The Relationship Handbook George Pransky Most arguments are a mood, not an issue. A short guide to telling which one you are in. 1 recommender The Religion of Abraham and the State of Israel Imran N. Hosein A view from the Qur'an of Abraham's covenant and of the modern state that claims it. The Reluctant Fundamentalist Mohsin Hamid 1 recommender The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro An aging English butler reflects on a life of dignified service and quiet regret in Ishiguro's Booker Prize-winning novel. 3 recommenders The Responsibility to Protect Gareth Evans The former Australian foreign minister on the doctrine adopted at the 2005 World Summit, and why it has not held. 1 recommender The Rest of Our Lives Benjamin Markovits 1 recommender The Revolution: A Manifesto Ron Paul Paul's 2008 bestseller distilling his creed, constitutional limits, sound money, non-intervention, and civil liberties, into an unlikely movement manifesto. The Rhetoric of Religion Kenneth Burke Burke reads Augustine and Genesis to show how theological language builds itself out of metaphor. 1 recommender The Ride of a Lifetime Robert Iger Fifteen years leading Disney, from steadying a troubled business to acquiring Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Fox. 1 recommender The Right Stuff Tom Wolfe Test pilots and the first astronauts, and the unnamed quality they were all measured against. 1 recommender The Righteous Mind Jonathan Haidt Why decent people disagree so bitterly about politics and religion. Intuition comes first, and reasoning mostly arrives to justify it. 3 recommenders The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success, and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline Yasheng Huang Exams and stability made China successful for a thousand years, and may now be the problem. 1 recommender The Rise of Modern Chinese Thought Wang Hui A landmark Chinese work of intellectual history, arguing modernity was not simply imported from the West. 1 recommender The Rise of the Meritocracy Michael Young 1 recommender The Rithmatist Brandon Sanderson At a school where chalk drawings fight for their lives, a talentless student is the only one paying attention when Rithmatists start disappearing. The River Is Waiting Wally Lamb Wally Lamb's novel follows a young father whose life collapses after a terrible accident sends him to prison. 1 recommender The River of Consciousness Oliver Sacks The essays Sacks chose two weeks before he died: Darwin flowers, Freud as neurologist, memory and plagiarism, and the speed at which perception actually runs. 1 recommender The Road Cormac McCarthy A father and son walk through a burned, lifeless America, carrying the fire of their bond, in McCarthy's stark Pulitzer-winning novel. 3 recommenders The Road from Damascus Robin Yassin-Kassab A militantly secular academic goes to Damascus for family heroism and comes home to find his wife has covered her hair. 1 recommender The Road to Wigan Pier George Orwell Orwell's documentary of poverty in England's industrial north, paired with a candid argument about socialism and class. The Rock Says… Dwayne Johnson, Joe Layden The wrestler's bestselling autobiography, tracing his path from a struggling third-generation grappler to WWE's most electrifying superstar.