Autobiography of Malcolm X. Read it when I was 18 and it was awakening. I've re-read it every few years since then.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Malcolm X and Alex Haley
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
5 readers recommend it across 5 discussions
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The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Especially interesting read in today's political climate - pivotal nonetheless
Ludwig Wittgenstein: Duty of Genius was a great ride, as well as a fantastic introduction to powerful ideas about communication and non-scientific disciplines' wish to imitate science. The Autobiography of Malcolm X makes a brilliant case for angry speech, making the mainstream portrayal of figures like Gandhi and MLK Jr. seem like straight-up whitewashed propaganda. Delusions of Gender is a fierce analysis of the nature/nurture discussion that rears its head over and over, explaining various mistakes people when interpreting results, both at the research level and at the journalistic level. Marx's Inferno reinvents Marx in a super clever way.
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The Autobiography of Malcolm X It's a deep dive in understanding and empathizing with another human being, and reflecting and finding the things one is grateful for in their own life.
I'll skip some mentioned already by others. Books I really enjoyed this year: The Wright Brothers, David McCullough - wonderful book on the Wright Brothers, easy to read, shows that persistence and logic thinking pays out. 5/5 The autobiography of Malcom X, Malcolm X - Nice bio, a bit repetitive sometimes. 3/5 Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand - Although the book has more than 1200 pages it really kept me going. I read this book to get a better understanding of the ideology of some republicans. Fun read. 4.5/5 Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt - Levitt studies all kind of different everyday questions using economics. 4/5, short, easy to read Guantanamo Diary, Mohamedou Ould Slahi - Diary of a Guantanamo prisoner who has been imprisoned since 2002. The US has never charged him with a crime. Profound and disturbing. 5/5 No place to hide, Glenn Greenwald - Story on Edward Snowden, probably read by most of HN. Enjoyed it, that's it. 4/5 How to lie with statistics, Darrel Huff - Short book on statistics, easy to read and fun. 4/5
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