JR'S Free Thought Pages
            No Gods  ~ No Masters   

                                            Recent Favorite Books

    Favorite Books of 2000:

Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ - Jose Saramago

Skeptics and True Believers - Chet Raymo

History as Mystery - Michael Parenti

Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell

American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World - David E Stannard

Dangerous Patriots: Canada's Unknown Prisoners of War - William and Kathleen Repka (shocking story of Canadian leftists, activists, labor and union leaders who were victims of the War Measures Act during World War II, locked up without any charges or access to legal counsel - some for as long as two years)

   Favorite Books of 2001:

 A Language Older Than Words - Derrick Jensen

The Gallant Cause: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War - Mark Zuehlke

The Poisonwood Bible -Barbara Kingsolver

Truth by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell

A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas 1492 to the Present - Ward Churchill (The hidden history of the genocide of indigenous peoples by the "good Christian white man from the time of Columbus) Interview with Ward Churchill

   Favorite Books of 2002:

'Tis - Frank McCourt

White Oleander - Janet Fitch

Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson

The Future of Moral Values - A. C. Grayling

The Meaning of Things - A.C. Grayling

A People's History of The United States - Howard Zinn (Updated Version).

   Favorite books of 2003:

The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy - Howard Zinn

You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train (Autobiography) - Howard Zinn

Another Century of War - Gabriel Kolko

The Reason of Things - A.C. Grayling

The Christ Conspiracy - Acharya S

Understanding Power - Noam Chomsky

Anarchism - Daniel Guerin

   Favorite books of 2004:

Meditations for the Humanist - A.C. Grayling

Nickle and Dimed  - Barbara Ehrenreich

What is Good? - A Search for the best way to live by A C Grayling

Idiot Proof: Deluded Celebrities, Irrational Power Brokers, Media Morons and The Erosion of Common Sense -  Francis Wheen

Under the Banner of Heaven - John Krakauer ( A well researched scathing indictment of Mormon fundamentalism)

The Philosophy Gym - Stephen Law

Life, Sex and Ideas - A C Grayling (An Anthology (2004) of short essays by one of the best public writers of philosophy since Russell)

The Corporation (The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power) - Joel Bakan (Based on Bakan's Documentary)

   Favorite books of 2005:

On Bullshit - Harry Frankfurt

Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism - Susan Jacoby

How the Scots Invented the Modern World - Arthur Herman

King Leopold's Ghost - Adam Hochschild

The Heart of Things - A C Grayling

Without Guilt and Justice - Walter Kaufmann

On Anarchism - Noam Chomsky

Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements - George Woodcock

A Short History of Progress - Ronald Wright (2004 Massey Lecture)

   Favorite books of 2006:

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason - Sam Harris [Sam Harris has a PhD in Philosophy from Stanford who is presently studying for his doctorate in Neuroscience. He has written a long overdue riveting indictment of the absurdities and malignancies of faith and faith based religions, launching a "no holds barred"   frontal attack on both Christianity and Islam. You can read the Epilogue to the recent paperback edition here.]

Citizens of Empire, The Struggle to claim our Humanity - Robert Jensen

Jesusland [Formerly The United States of America}  by The Staff of www.landoverbaptist.org

(Outrageous satire of evangelism in the USA---this will have you laughing at every page)

Teacher Man - Frank McCourt

The Pig That Wants to be Eaten: 100 Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher - Julian Baggini

Antonio Gramsci - Steve Jones

Why Truth Matters - Ophelia Benson & Jeremy Strangroom

Failed States - Noam Chomsky

   Favorite books of 2007:

 The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

 The Culture of Make Believe - Derrick Jensen

The Spanish Civil War - Helen Graham

Anarchism - Colin Ward

Autobiography - David Suzuki

God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything - Christopher Hitchens

Deer Hunting With Jesus - Joe Bageant

The Battle for Spain (The Spanish Civil War) - Antony Beevor

Orwell's Message - George Woodcock

American Fascists : The Christian Right and the War on America - Chris Hedges (a must read)

   Favorite books of 2008:

Contrary Notions - Michael Parenti

The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge - Paul Preston

Irreligion - John Allen Paulos

The Atheist Manifesto - Michel Onfray (translated from the French by Jeremy Leggatt)

Neither Wolf nor Dog - Kent Nerburn

The Form of Things: Essays on Life and Liberty in the 21st Century - A C Grayling

The Happiness Myth - Jennifer Michael Hecht

The Reason Driven Life - Robert M Price (skewering of the preposterous Purpose Driven Life by fundamentalist Baptist Pastor Rick Warren. By "purpose", Warren means "accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and savior").

Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism - Susan Jacoby

Age of American Unreason - Susan Jacoby

Renegades: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War - Michael Petrou (New (2008) scholarly book on Canadian participation in the "great cause" of the Spanish Civil War - fascinating read!)

   Favorite books of 2009:

Undercover Philosopher - Michael Philips

Philosophers Without Gods - Louise M. Antony, ed.

Empire of Illusion - Chris Hedges

Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life - John Lee Anderson

Don't Get Fooled Again: A Skeptics Handbook - Richard Wilson

Real Band of Brothers: British Survivors of the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War - Max Arthur

Bullshit and Philosophy - Gary L Hardcastle & George A Reisch, eds.

The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America - James Wilson

Journey to the End of the Night - Louis Ferdinand Celine

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - John Perkins

   Favorite books of 2010:

A Fair Country - John Ralston Saul

Endgame - Derrick Jensen

Native American History - Judith Nies

Columbus and other Cannibals - Jack C Forbes

The Philosophy of Bumper Stickers - Jack Bowen

Survival at Auschwitz - Primo Levi

First Tragedy, Then Farce - Slavoj Zizek

God's Problem - Bart Ehrman

More Money than Brains - Laura Penny

Rainbow Pie - Joe Bageant

We Saw Spain Die - Paul Preston

Fighters Against Fascism - Max Arthur

Hopes and Prospects - Noam Chomsky

Heroic Voices of the Spanish Civil War - Peter Darman

The Duck that Won the Lottery - Julian Baggini

   Favorite books of 2011:

Fifty Voices of Disbelief: Why we are Atheists - Russell Blackford & Udo Schuklenk, eds.

How to be a Good Atheist - Nick Harding

Drawing the Line Again: The Anarchist Writings of Paul Goodman - Paul Goodman

God and his Demons - Michael Parenti

Bright Sided - Barbara Ehrenreich

Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian Hating - Richard Drinnon

The Anti-American Manifesto - Ted Rall

The Atheist Camel Chronicles and The Atheist Camel Rants Again - Dromedary Hump (aka Bart Centre)

The Anatomy of Fascism - Robert O Paxton

Not a Conspiracy Theory (How Business Propaganda Hijacks Democracy) - Donald Gutstein

What Does the Ruling Class do When it Rules?- Goran Therborn

Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class - Owen Jones

In Defense of Lost Causes - Slavoj Zizek

Living in the End Times - Slavoj Zizek

Griftopia - Matt Taibbi

Econned - Yves Smith

Ill Fares the Land - Tony Judt

Why America Failed - Morris Berman

The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin - Corey Robin

The Trouble with Billionaires - Linda McQuaig

The Face of Imperialism - Michael Parenti

Favorite books of 2012:

How are we to Live - Peter Singer

Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century - Tony Judt

Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary - Bernard M. Patenude

Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology - David Graeber

Revolutions in Reverse - David Graeber

The Spanish Civil War - Francisco J. Romero Salvado

To End all Wars - Adam Hochschild

Thieves of Bay Street - Bruce Livesey

Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World - Nicholas Shaxson

The Great Depression - Pierre Berton (a must read for all Canadians)

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt - Chris Hedges

Fidel Castro - Volker Skierka

A People's History of Sports - Dave Zirin

Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists - Dan Barker

Thinking of Answers: Questions in the Philosophy of Everyday Life - A C Grayling

God and the Folly of Faith - Victor J Stenger

Why Marx was Right - Terry Eagleton

Speed of Light - Javier Cercas

Soldiers of Salamis - Javier Cercas

The Tenant and The Motive - Javier Cercas

Anatomy of a Moment - Javier Cercas

Favorite books of 2013:

Natural Atheism & Atheism Advanced - David Eller

Indian Country & In the Spirit of Crazy Horse - Peter Mattheissen

Empire of the Summer Moon - S. C. Gwynne

Zombie Capitalism - Chris Harman

Devil in the White City - Erik Larson

In the Garden of Beasts - Erik Larson

Red Scare: Memories of the American Inquisition - Griffin Fariello (Read this book and the one below for accounts of a very dark period of American History a country that lovingly refers to itself as a "democracy")

Being Red - Howard Fast

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