Synthencia · Curation · Academy collection 01
Required Reading
at the Academy
Some books deserve more than a place on the shelf. They deserve your time, your questions, and a conversation.
Doc’s recommended reading, organized by subject. This is the starting list; book reviews and discussion will be added later.
← Return to CurationThe reading list
Nonfiction / History
- The Story of Civilization — Will and Ariel Durant
- The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill — William Manchester; final volume with Paul Reid
- Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 — Tony Judt
- Histories by Paul Johnson — Paul Johnson
- The Crusades — Zoé Oldenbourg
Nonfiction / Philosophy
Nonfiction / Theology
- The Evolution of God — Robert Wright
- Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years — Diarmaid MacCulloch
- Epiphanies of Darkness: Deconstruction in Theology — Charles E. Winquist
- Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason — J. L. Schellenberg
- Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Religion — J. L. Schellenberg
- God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question—Why We Suffer — Bart D. Ehrman
- Creation and the Persistence of Evil — Jon D. Levenson
- Creation and the God of Abraham — David B. Burrell and coeditors
- The Human Faces of God: What Scripture Reveals When It Gets God Wrong (And Why Inerrancy Tries to Hide It) — Thom Stark
Nonfiction / Science
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind — Yuval Noah Harari
Nonfiction / Politics
- The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion — Jonathan Haidt
- The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power — Steve Fraser
Fiction / Literary
- The Glass Bead Game — Hermann Hesse
- 1Q84 — Haruki Murakami
Fiction / Historical
- River God — Wilbur Smith
- The Pillars of the Earth — Ken Follett
Fiction / General
- The Fountainhead — Ayn Rand
- Novels by Dick Francis — Dick Francis
Fiction / Science Fiction
- Revelation Space — Alastair Reynolds
- House of Suns — Alastair Reynolds
- Pushing Ice — Alastair Reynolds
- Century Rain — Alastair Reynolds
- The Void Trilogy — Peter F. Hamilton
- Pandora’s Star / Judas Unchained — Peter F. Hamilton
- Dune — Frank Herbert
- River of Gods — Ian McDonald
- The Gap Cycle — Stephen R. Donaldson
- Hyperion Cantos — Dan Simmons
- Earth Abides — George R. Stewart
- The Dark Tower — Stephen King
- Chung Kuo — David Wingrove
Fiction / Fantasy
- The Lord of the Rings — J. R. R. Tolkien
Fiction / Light Reading
- Hit Man — Lawrence Block
Fiction / Graphic Novels
- Echo — Terry Moore
- Strangers in Paradise — Terry Moore