0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings

3.83 avg rating — 3,190 ratings

4.18 avg rating — 2,446 ratings

""I thought of books that I have enjoyed reading in the past which were unrelated to my field of study or which I did not use in my classes, and one author which occurred to me was Stephen Jay Gould, who wrote many books on topics related to evolution and natural history. One title is The Panda’s Thumb, and another is The Flamingo’s Smile—but I think virtually any one of his books is fascinating and would be well worth anyone’s time in reading.""

4.13 avg rating — 6,917 ratings

""I thought of books that I have enjoyed reading in the past which were unrelated to my field of study or which I did not use in my classes, and one author which occurred to me was Stephen Jay Gould, who wrote many books on topics related to evolution and natural history. One title is The Panda’s Thumb, and another is The Flamingo’s Smile—but I think virtually any one of his books is fascinating and would be well worth anyone’s time in reading.""

4.34 avg rating — 318,185 ratings

""I can't seem to get my mind off that, so it's a really good read. It's not really within his genre, but it's really good.""

4.16 avg rating — 822,190 ratings

4.26 avg rating — 332,420 ratings

3.96 avg rating — 15,174 ratings

""I don't assign this book for my courses, but I think it is a really fun way to read about and ponder the importance of statistics.""

4.31 avg rating — 1,976,514 ratings

""There are, of course, many wonderful books that might be of interest to you. My tastes are eclectic and I seem to be attracted to whatever I have read recently. The following book is one I have enjoyed so much that I am reading it for a second time. It is beautifully written (much care lavished in the use of the language and in the subtle shaping of plot and character). Beyond this, it is rich in content, sufficiently rich to offer many different people things to which each is likely to resonate...I commend it to you.""

4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings

""Letters between two friends, both of whom turned out to be very distinguished in their respective fields, from the time they were 17 until old age. The trajectory of two 20th century lives reported in real time.""

4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings

""Well, the book I just read was by Phil Roessler on Africa's Great War. It is a page turner and covers a war most students don't know much about...""

4.04 avg rating — 457,781 ratings

""...in terms of a book that everyone should read before they graduate. I guess I would go with...Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel."

[Note: this book was recommended by two separate professors.] "

4.04 avg rating — 10,586 ratings

""I read for an anthropology course in college, and picked up again 27 years later. Enjoyed them at both times, but definitely discovered different things the second time around, reading for myself.""

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9,240 ratings

""I read for an anthropology course in college, and picked up again 27 years later. Enjoyed them at both times, but definitely discovered different things the second time around, reading for myself.""

4.23 avg rating — 2,168 ratings

""...I engaged to be a better and more inclusive scientist teaching psychological psychology.""

4.29 avg rating — 242,845 ratings

""For Christmas, my daughter-in-law gave me Brene Brown's Daring Greatly. I am almost finished reading it and have enjoyed thinking in new ways about vulnerability."

[Note: Another professor in addition to this one recommended Brene Brown's writing overall.] "

4.26 avg rating — 102,432 ratings

""How nice to hear from you and to receive such an interesting request. I have given your question quite a bit of thought. I read for pleasure and for intellectual reasons and I have so many book that I "could" choose to recommend to you. That said I have selected Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee because the book has a major impact on my decision to pursue anthropology as a graduate student. In Brown's telling of the impact of colonialism and failed treaty negotiations on North America's tribes I realized that I knew nothing about this and therefore made it my life's work. There are many copies of this book around. I think it was originally published in 1970 and it was a best seller at the time.""

4.66 avg rating — 2,349 ratings

""The one book I think every graduating student could benefit from reading, hands down, is James Baldwin’s Collected Essays. They’re incredible. They’re as relevant as ever. His prose is exquisite, his mind is incomparable, and he understands more about America than just about anyone ever has. (Watch the documentary I Am Not Your Negro, or just find clips of Baldwin on YouTube, for gripping supplementary material.) I can’t imagine a better book to enter your independent adult life with. They bear reading and re-reading; it’s a book that will be a companion for life.""

4.02 avg rating — 56,405 ratings

""The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson, a breathtakingly intellectual, poetic, and moving memoir of gender, family-building, love.""

4.25 avg rating — 51,915 ratings

""...if you want a much quicker but just as gorgeous and meaningful read.""

4.17 avg rating — 589,023 ratings

""I like it because it forces you to think about all the ways we bias our thinking without even realizing it." "

4.17 avg rating — 17,240 ratings

""When I was in college, a very dear friend sent me the book Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, by Robert Sapolsky. If you are interested in "pop science" written by very well-respected and renowned scientists, this would be a good choice. The reason I like this book is because it is a reminder that we are animals and that we can't escape the fact that the pressures driving evolution have contributed to physiological responses that can be maladaptive in our modern world." "

3.89 avg rating — 298,215 ratings

""I don't know your sense of humor well enough to be sure, but you might enjoy the absurdity of it. I did." "

4.25 avg rating — 101,516 ratings

""I finally read it for the first time last summer, and it was more than fantastic. There are lots of books that I love (both fiction and nonfiction), but there was just something incredibly powerful and moving about Infinite Jest. It is overwhelmingly zany in parts, yet there is something deeply tragic about it as well, and the way Wallace weaves together these two threads is unparalleled. And at its core, it is a novel about trying to find meaning and human connection in a world that (at least in Wallace's imagination) attempts to distract us into entertaining ourselves to death. It is massive (~ 1,000 pages with a couple of hundred pages of footnotes - yes, footnotes in a novel), but it is worth it.""

3.82 avg rating — 38 ratings

3.94 avg rating — 2,003 ratings

3.93 avg rating — 2,336 ratings

3.96 avg rating — 325,533 ratings

""Both have been out for a few years (. . . probably since before you were born :), but they both really changed my thinking when I encountered them as an undergrad/early graduate student.""

4.35 avg rating — 3,345 ratings

""Both have been out for a few years (. . . probably since before you were born :), but they both really changed my thinking when I encountered them as an undergrad/early graduate student.""

3.53 avg rating — 278,509 ratings

""It's kind of a cheat for your project since I'm recommending three books! Of the three, I found the second one to be most wonderful and heart breaking. But, of course, you can't read the second without reading the first. (If you already read these, let me know!)" "

3.93 avg rating — 105,495 ratings

4.14 avg rating — 82,294 ratings

3.99 avg rating — 4,403 ratings

""So many things to choose from! Here is a list of books (mostly not in my field) that have shaped/altered my broader thinking, or that I think are just great." "

4.28 avg rating — 55,656 ratings

""So many things to choose from! Here is a list of books (mostly not in my field) that have shaped/altered my broader thinking, or that I think are just great." "

4.03 avg rating — 123 ratings

""So many things to choose from! Here is a list of books (mostly not in my field) that have shaped/altered my broader thinking, or that I think are just great." "

3.85 avg rating — 7,999 ratings

""So many things to choose from! Here is a list of books (mostly not in my field) that have shaped/altered my broader thinking, or that I think are just great." "

3.34 avg rating — 311 ratings

""So many things to choose from! Here is a list of books (mostly not in my field) that have shaped/altered my broader thinking, or that I think are just great." "

4.10 avg rating — 15,883 ratings

""Something out of left field (certainly "niche", but great)." "

4.04 avg rating — 663,583 ratings

""Finally, some good novels, if you are into that (they are certainly many others, but these are the first that pops into my head.)""

3.98 avg rating — 43,854 ratings

""Finally, some good novels, if you are into that (they are certainly many others, but these are the first that pops into my head.)""

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 28,085 ratings

""Finally, some good novels, if you are into that (they are certainly many others, but these are the first that pops into my head.)""

4.11 avg rating — 793,787 ratings

""Finally, some good novels, if you are into that (they are certainly many others, but these are the first that pops into my head.)""

4.38 avg rating — 160,003 ratings

""Finally, some good novels, if you are into that (they are certainly many others, but these are the first that pops into my head.)""

3.97 avg rating — 132,966 ratings

""Finally, some good novels, if you are into that (they are certainly many others, but these are the first that pops into my head.)""

3.84 avg rating — 147,686 ratings

""Finally, some good novels, if you are into that (they are certainly many others, but these are the first that pops into my head.)""

4.03 avg rating — 994,613 ratings

""Finally, some good novels, if you are into that (they are certainly many others, but these are the first that pops into my head.)""

4.12 avg rating — 7,740 ratings

""This is a challenge, because it really involves personal preference and an “of the moment” kind of feeling – where you were and how a particular work hits you. Anyway, for what it’s worth, I would recommend “The Sot-weed Factor” by John Barth. It is an epic piece of literature.""

3.87 avg rating — 23 ratings

""I am listing three books about America that I think everybody should read. It's possible that you will have read one or more of them, so I listed three:""

4.17 avg rating — 10,153 ratings

""I am listing three books about America that I think everybody should read. It's possible that you will have read one or more of them, so I listed three:""

3.87 avg rating — 945,956 ratings

""I am listing three books about America that I think everybody should read. It's possible that you will have read one or more of them, so I listed three:""

4.21 avg rating — 5,329 ratings

""A powerful and relevant economic anthropology that provides a brilliant critique of the notion of a free market.""

4.53 avg rating — 40,931 ratings

""Brilliant and thoughtful brief essays on manifold and intersecting forms of oppression.""

4.05 avg rating — 1,136 ratings

""Beautifully, beautifully written and translated Caribbean novel about living through and sustaining hope amidst the tragedies of slavery and its aftermath.""

3.79 avg rating — 1,883 ratings

""
Smart and funny feminist Palestinian-American novel."
"

3.92 avg rating — 3,595 ratings

""Chesnutt was from North Carolina and wrote a fictional account of what some people call a "race riot," and others a "coup" that took place in Wilmington, NC, there in post-Reconstruction. It's an amazing, amazing novel. About the past, but much to teach us still about the present.""

3.82 avg rating — 3,951 ratings

""Like most of her work, Armstrong’s book is wonderfully intelligent and well-written. I find myself re-reading it often and have other similar suggestions if you like the book.""

4.20 avg rating — 5,464,599 ratings

""Should you want some politically inspired suggestions, I think these three are must reads for every citizen in a democratic society.""

4.22 avg rating — 5,360 ratings

""Should you want some politically inspired suggestions, I think these three are must reads for every citizen in a democratic society.""

4.23 avg rating — 148,388 ratings

""Should you want some politically inspired suggestions, I think these three are must reads for every citizen in a democratic society.""

4.21 avg rating — 6,879 ratings

""Here is one of my favorite academic books, that I don’t assign but has shaped my thinking." "

4.17 avg rating — 3,586 ratings

""Here are two fun ones that I’ve read more than once each—which is saying something, there are so many good books yet to read." "

3.90 avg rating — 84,450 ratings

""Here are two fun ones that I’ve read more than once each—which is saying something, there are so many good books yet to read." "

3.94 avg rating — 436,344 ratings

4.16 avg rating — 2,324,339 ratings

""I would like to encourage everyone to read the classic novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. I think it is inspiring for women in particular since it features a strong female character who sticks by her principles and overcomes many challenges. It is also beautifully written.""

3.89 avg rating — 56,304 ratings

4.05 avg rating — 19 ratings

4.02 avg rating — 578 ratings

3.98 avg rating — 82,022 ratings

""The one book that has made the biggest impression on me in the last 5 years is actually a short story collection by George Saunders called The Tenth of December." "

3.96 avg rating — 43,187 ratings

4.06 avg rating — 9,315 ratings

3.91 avg rating — 47,065 ratings

""... was quite influential in my life when I first read it :)""

4.47 avg rating — 403,302 ratings

""
My first thought is Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. I think everyone, period, should read this, but especially anyone who wants to understand the United States.""

3.74 avg rating — 6,302 ratings

""Another (very different!) recommendation is Intruder in Dust, by Faulkner. It certainly fits your category of reading different stuff, and will perhaps annoy you at times (I have taught it, and it sometimes does.) But I think it also has lessons to teach about our relationship with the legal process and race relations in the U.S. South.""