Great Books
Devil's Game
The argument that the West spent fifty years cultivating the Islamist movements it now fears. It is a case for the prosecution, and it repays being read as one.
The Moral Arc
The claim is that the world has genuinely improved, that this is measurable, and that science did it. Shermer is making a case, not filing a report, and the book...
What It Means to Be a Libertarian
Under two hundred pages, and an argument that most of what the American government does should not exist. Agree or not, you will not find it hedged.
The 48 Laws of Power
Banned in prisons across America and read there anyway. Whatever you think of Robert Greene's book, it is describing something real.
The Art of Worldly Wisdom
A Jesuit priest published three hundred maxims on how to survive other people, and his own order punished him for it. Nietzsche thought Europe had never produced anything subtler.