Best Books Ever

I don't know about "of all time" but here are 5 of my current non-fiction favs in no particular order:
1. The Age of the Unthinkable by Joshua Cooper Ramo
2. A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink
3. The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner
4. Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman
5. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
and one for good luck
6. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

I would have liked to have some women authors here and look forward to seeing others' recommendations in that regard.

Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living. Mother Jones

Black Like Me. John Howard Griffin 1962

Griffin's account of his experiences, published as the book Black Like Me in 1961, is a gripping tale of degradation and cruelty — an account of a man who becomes the target of rudeness, indignities, insults, racial slurs, and violent threats, and is denied the basic necessities of life — a place to live, work, transportation, even the use of restrooms — simply because his skin is dark. Particularly revealing experiences came at the end of Griffin's investigation when he switched back and forth between his black and white identities and observed the negative reactions he received from people (both black and white) who had treated him kindly just days — or even hours — earlier.

Quote: "When all the talk, all the propaganda has been cut away, the criterion is nothing but the color of skin. My experience proved that. They judged me by no quality. My skin was dark."
- November 24, p. 115

Servant Leadership. Robert K. Greenleaf 1970

The modern servant leadership movement was launched by Robert K. Greenleaf in his 1970 with his essay, “The Servant as Leader,” in which he coined the terms “servant-leader” and “servant leadership.” Greenleaf subsequently published a number of additional essays on various aspects of servant leadership.

Quote: "This is my thesis: caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which a good society is built. Whereas, until recently, caring was largely person to person, now most of it is mediated through institutions – often large, complex, powerful, impersonal, not always competent, sometimes corrupt. If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise both the capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new regenerative forces operating within them." (p 49)
Greenleaf’s test: “The best test, and the most difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit or, at least, not be further deprived?”

Integrity In Depth John Beebe 1992

Integrity in Depth, by John Beebe, is a quiet, profound meditation on the concept of integrity. Dr. Beebe, a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst and scholar, has found a way to write effectively about a term that encompasses many qualities including authenticity, completeness, wholeness, and honesty. I found the book wise, tolerant, sophisticated but accessible, succinct, and filled with subtle compassion.
One reason why the book had an impact on me is that it contains so much evidence of Beebe's own integrity. This is manifested in many ways - the entire tone of the book, the precision of the language, the care with which ideas are attributed to others, and the author's willingness to include examples of his own experiences and feelings. In this sense, the book shows as well as tells the meaning of integrity. This is a fine book of obvious relevance to both personal life and the growing moral bewilderment of modern American society. Tom Fulton, reviewer

Quote: "The book on integrity was published in 1992. That seminar was in 1987. For me, it was part of the process of learning that integrity is more than simply being true to oneself. Even when you use “self’ as Jung uses it, in a much broader way, which includes andencompasses the reality of all the standpoints in the psyche, it tilts the balance of individuation, and particularly of integrity, in a one-sided Swiss Protestant conscience tradition direction, toward keeping one’s own counsel. I have seen that tradition misused by Jungian people who in other ways are extraordinarily developed, with strong senses of identity. But if each of us is listening to God and no one else and can’t hear each other, we’re not really in dialogue; and it seems to me that, without dialogue, finally there is no integrity in the sense that I’m using the word."

Getting a Grip Frances Lappe Moore 2007

"Getting a Grip is not an ordinary book: it's more like a new pair of glasses, allowing you to see everything around you with greater clarity. Suddenly the world is more comprehensible, more manageable, even more beautiful. You won't want to take them off." --Barbara Kingsolver

Quote: "My book’s intent is to enable us to see what is happening all around us, but is still invisible to most of us. It is about people in all walks of life who are penetrating the spiral of despair and reversing it with new ideas, ingenious innovation - and courage.”

"So this little book is about learning to see the killer ideas that trap us and letting them go. It’s about people in all walks of life interrupting the spiral of despair and reversing it with new ideas, ingenious innovation?and courage. It’s about finding that mixture of anger and hope to energize us for this do-or-die effort. Why not go for it?"

Redemption. Nathan J. Winograd 2007, 2009

Redemption is being called “powerful and inspirational,” “ground-breaking,” and “a must read for anyone who cares about animals.” Winner of USA Book News Award for Best Book (Animals/Pets), a Best Book Muse Medallion winner by the Cat Writers Association of America, a Best Book nominee by the Dog Writers Association of America, winner of a Silver Medal from the Independent Publishers Association, and a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award for Excellence, the book shatters the notion that killing animals in U.S. shelters is an act of kindness.

Quote: "We have the power to build a new consensus, which rejects killing as a method for achieving results. And we can look forward to a time when the wholesale slaughter of animals in shelters is viewed as a cruel aberration of the past. We have a choice. We can fully, completely, and without reservation embrace No Kill as our future.

Blessed Unrest. Paul Hawken 2007

Blessed Unrest explores the diversity of the movement, its brilliant ideas, innovative strategies, and hidden history, which date back many centuries. A culmination of Hawken's many years of leadership in the environmental and social justice fields, it will inspire and delight any and all who despair of the world's fate, and its conclusions will surprise even those within the movement itself. Fundamentally, it is a description of humanity's collective genius, and the unstoppable movement to reimagine our relationship to the environment and one another.

Quote: "we can either separate, become more violent, we can, you know, shrink into our bastions of ignorance, or like what we do in an emergency, in an accident, is really reach out to other and open ourselves up other and realize that the distinctions we make about what separates us are really unimportant, and what unites us are values which are universal and common and have existed here for thousands of years."

Mountains Beyond Mountains
by Tracy Kidder

I'm a bit surprised by the inclusion of Thomas Friedman on MoJo book lists.

The first two books that came to mind were Al Gore's "Assault on Reason" and Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States."

In my effort to find books that are better than this I will consider books written by:

Jeremy Scahill, Thomas Frank, Arrianna Huffington, Amy Goodman, Paul Krugman, Robert Reich, Jimmy Carter, David Brock, John Dean, Michael Moore, Jim Hightower, and others.

Other books that come to mind:

"Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser
"Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James W. Loewen
"What Happened in Ohio..." by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld, and Harvey Wasserman
"The Family..." by Jeff Sharlet
"Nickel and Dimed..." by Barbara Ehrenreich
"Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" by Al Franken

"Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice" by Prof. Bernard Lewis (Princeton). Factual history turned poetic. Prof. Lewis is a world renowned expert on Mid Eastern history. So much so that he (a British Jew and generally an advocate for Israel) is even a well respected authority in certain Muslim countries--especially among Muslim intellectuals. Very few people realize just how badly the Hebrew position has been undercut. Even most pro-Israelis have no idea of the extent of the serially-repeated inequity perpetrated against the world's Jews and in modern times, against Israel as well. Anyone endeavoring to proffer an opinion on the Mid East [read: pretty-much everyone] needs this reference. People accuse Jews of being "paranoid" when the timeline of historical facts abundantly demonstrates that "paranoia" should, rightfully be a profound UNDERreaction. People who accuse the Israel lobby of vicariously controlling the U.S. government (and media) would also be wise to read this narrative. Even if such an accusation is true, which I do not concede, such becomes justified in the light of humanities almost continuous quest to single out Jews for unwarranted blame, ridicule and punishment.
http://www.amazon.com/Semites-Anti-Semites-Inquiry-Conflict-Prejudice/dp...

By Peter Lamborn Wilson. A look into the much overlooked "Sally Rover" aspect of the age of Piracy, the "Muslim Corsair" and European Renegados who flocked to the Jihad of Islam for freedom, equality and treasure and became "A Christian Turn'd Turke"

It's a distant mirror to another world, and IMHO if Burrough's "InterZone" had a "Wild West" the golden age of the City-State of Sale was it.

KAREN ARMSTRONG'S BOOK, 'THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO WOMAN' DESCRIBES THE HISTORIC ROLE OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE ONGOING WAR ON WOMEN. THIS IS A GREAT READ.

'THE TRUE BELIEVER' BY ERIC HOFFER REVEALS HOW WE BECOME FANATICS. HIS WRITING IS LIKE A BULLET LIST AND THE POINTS ARE ALL CLEAR.

'THE PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES' BY HOWARD ZINN CHANGED HOW AMERICAN HISTORY IS WRITTEN. ZINN REVEALED THE TRUE NATURE OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT AS OF, BY AND FOR THE CORPORATION AND THE WEALTHY.

'THE PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE SUPREME COURT' BY PETER IRONS. THIS IS A CLOSE LOOK AT THE BASIS OF SUPREME COURT DECISIONS THAT ARE IN REALITY BASED ON LIES AND FRAUD.