The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed
by Shea Serrano
More than even I needed to know about hip hop, but captures each moment perfectly. 1998-2005 are my dark ages, and I didn't even know many of the featured songs. The Girls got me back in the game.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
Agonizingly hard to be poor in India; harder still when all the government actors are unapologetically corrupt. Amazing reporting.
The Three Sisters
Life sucks. It seems so much better over there. But maybe not. Gets a pass for being novel at the time, but hasn't aged well.
Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics
Not a lot new here if you've read Nudge and Kahnemann, but the narrative is interesting, especially the unwillingness of economists to accept that people often don't act rationally, despite so much evidence to the contrary.
Mindfulness in Plain English
Overlong, but with some good tips on meditation, which I'll try.
The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath
After the first 100 pages, I couldn't figure out why I had disliked this so much in high school. The remaining 2/3 reminded me.
