These are four books I am currently working through and recommend as 2018 draws to a close. They are all excellent and very different:
1. Politics – “The Righteous Mind” by Jonathan Haidt is an academic treatise through the lens of moral psychology, in understanding the minds of liberals and conservatives. It is eye-opening but intellectually taxing and I get a couple chapters in between other books.
2. Music – “Sophisticated Giant” is about the life of the late great Dexter Gordon, written by his wife. It’s written to fill in important highlights and not to be a linear biography. He was one of my early tenor influences so I’m really enjoying this read!
3. Spirituality – “Outrageous Openness” by Tosha Silver is a spiritual joy ride. It’s light-hearted, easy to read and I’ve been taking copious notes to live by.
4. Lifestyle – “Primal Blueprint” by Mark Sisson is a well-written and well-researched tour de force on living a full, healthy life by following the basic lifestyle components of our hunter gatherer ancestors. He purports that we are genetically still very similar and what differentiates us is more how epigenetics plays out through our environment and diets to make us weaker and sicker than our preagricultural, preindustrial forebears.
Wishing you all a fulfilling 2019!