Reading List
John McWhorter
Linguist and Columnist
John McWhorter teaches linguistics at Columbia and writes a column for The New York Times, having built an academic career on creole languages before becoming one of the more argued-about public commentators in America. His books range from the technical to the popular, among them The Power of Babel, Talking Back, Talking Black and Woke Racism, and he presents the Lexicon Valley podcast. He reads widely outside his field, and his recommendations tend to favour writers who make a large historical idea feel like a story.
G-Man
by Beverly Gage · 2022 · Biography
“biography of J. Edgar Hoover is a page-turner I could barely put down. Hoover was a closeted obsessive, spending a career on an Ahab-like quest to uncover a nonexistent” — via Article
Dominion
by Tom Holland · 2019 · History
“sense of what is ordinary today, whether one is observant or not. The separation of church and state, individualism” — via Article
The Evolution of Everything
by Matt Ridley · 2015 · Nonfiction
“that complexity tends to emerge gradually from the ground up rather than being planned. A great deal of what defines our existence” — via Article
The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison · 1970 · Fiction
“I was in awe of the nuance Morrison achieves in her character portraits, singling out both men and women and understanding them deeply as they all cope with making the most of life in a small Ohio town” — via Article
Year of Wonders
by Geraldine Brooks · 2001 · Fiction
“Brooks works magic in this exquisite historically based novel about an English village enduring the bubonic plague.” — via Article
James
by Percival Everett · 2024 · Fiction
“Everett masterfully makes real the quieter agonies of slavery, including the looming threat of pitiless violence for even looking at a white person before they look at you.” — via Article