Books

9-A Confederacy of Dunces-John Kennedy Toole

This is a masterpiece by Toole. Ignatius' character has depth, aplomb, occasional sophistication, and often insolence. Every half page or so yields a belly laugh. Highly recommended.

8-How We Decide-Jonah Lehrer

Another one of those "brain/thinking/decisions" books. But this one beats the rest with its fantastic writing. Lehrer writes engagingly and colorfully, bringing interest to an over-written subject.

7-Outliers-Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell's third book does not disappoint. He seeks to explore how the incredibly successful and influential arise. He finds that while innate genius and skill helps, unique opportunities do much to shape a person's path in life. He thinks we should examine those opportunities and make them available to more people, enabling a larger amount of people to become highly educated and successful, benefiting those around them.

4-Savage Inequalities-Jonathan Zokol

Zokol examines the bleak state of American education, specifically urban schools. The lack of facilities, qualified teachers and administrators, and lack of incentives to improve is appalling. Zokol wrote the book in 1992, and I can only imagine how much worse schools have gotten since then. Education improvement and reform needs to be a priority for policymakers and citizens alike.