Ordered by most recently listened to, first.
Audiobooks
- Queued:
- Conundrum (1974) - Jan Morris
- Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1974) - Angela Davis
- Masha Gessen books
- Svetlana Alexievich books
- American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (2005) - Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
- The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters (2017) - Tom Nichols
- 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai (1985) - Roger Zelazny
- Samurai William : the Englishman who opened Japan (2003) - Giles Milton
- The Pillars of the Earth (1989) - Ken Follett
- Solar Express (2015) - L.E. Modesitt Jr. (suggested perhaps mistakenly as by David Weber)
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being (2023) - Rick Rubin
- Perfume books by Luca Turin
- The Portable Feminist Reader (2025) - Roxane Gay
- A Memory Called Empire (2019) - Arkady Martine
- In progress:
- Pageboy: A Memoir (2023) - Elliot Page, narrated by the author
- The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (1974) - Robert Caro, narrated by Robertson Dean
- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020) - Isabel Wilkerson, narrated by Robin Miles
- Americanah (2013) - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, narrated by Adjoa Andoh
Using the Libby app (via Overdrive).
Print
E-Books
- Queued:
- Schismatrix (1985) - Bruce Sterling
- True Names (1981) - Verner Vinge
- Rainbows End (2006) - Verner Vinge
- The Shockwave Rider (1975) - John Brunner
- Software (1982) - Rudy Rucker
- Wetware (1988) - Rudy Rucker
- Eclipse Trilogy (also referred to as A Song Called Youth trilogy) - John Shirley
- Eclipse (1985)
- Eclipse Penumbra (1988)
- Eclipse Corona (1990)
- Neuromancer (1984) - William Gibson
- Snow Crash (1992) - Neal Stephenson
- In progress: Twenty Five Mystery Science Theater 3000 Films That Changed My Life in No Way Whatsoever (2016) - Frank Conniff
- Dark Apnea (2024) - Frank Conniff
- Billy Gillis: 7-Year Old Screenwriter (2022) - Frank Conniff
- How to Write Cheesy Movies: The Only Screenwriting Guide You’ll Never Need! (2017) - Frank Conniff
- Detective Beans: Adventures in Cat Town (2025) - Li Chen
Suggestions
- Barack Obama's reading list
- Favorite Books of 2025:
- Paper Girl (2025) - Beth Macy
- Flashlight (2025) - Susan Choi
- We The People (2025) - Jill Lepore
- The Wilderness (2025) - Angela Flournoy
- There Is No Place For Us (2025) - Brian Goldstone
- North Sun (2025) - Ethan Rutherford
- 1929 Andrew (2025) - Ross Sorkin
- The Loneliness Of Sonia And Sunny (2025) - Kiran Desai
- Dead And Alive (2025) - Zadie Smith
- What We Can Know (2025) - Ian Mcewan
- The Look (2025) - Michelle Obama
- Summer 2025 reading list:
- Mark Twain (2025) - Ron Chernow
King Of Ashes (2025) - S. A. Cosby- A Marriage At Sea (2025) - Sophie Elmhirst
- Abundance (2025) - Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
- The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (2025) - Stephen Graham Jones
Who Is Government? (2025) - Michael LewisThe Book Of Records (2025) - Madeleine ThienRosarita (2024) - Anita DesaiAudition (2025) - Katie KitamuraThe Sirens' Call (2025) - Chris Hayes- Favorite Books of 2024:
- The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (2024) - Jonathan Haidt
Intermezzo (2024) - Sally RooneyPatriot (2024) - Alexei NavalnyOrbital (2024) - Samantha HarveyThe Anthropologists (2024) - Ayşegül Savaş- Stolen Pride (2024) - Arlie Russell Hochschild
In Ascension (2023) - Martin MacInnesGrowth (2024) - Daniel Susskind- Someone Like Us (2024) - Dinaw Mengestu
- The Work of Art: How Something Comes From Nothing (2024) - Adam Moss
- Summer 2024 reading list:
James: A Novel (2024) - Percival EverettThere's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension (2024) - Hanif AbdurraqibEveryone Who Is Gone Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis (2024) - Jonathan BlitzerReading Genesis (2024) - Marilynne RobinsonHeadshot (2024) - Rita BullwinkelThe God of the Woods (2024) - Liz MooreBeautiful Days: Stories (2024) - Zach WilliamsMartyr! (2024) - Kaveh AkbarMemory Piece (2024) - Lisa KoThe Ministry of Time (2024) - Kaliane BradleyWhen the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s (2024) - John GanzOf Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It (2022) - Richard ReevesThe Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook (2024) - Hampton SidesHelp Wanted (2024) - Adelle Waldman- 2023 Favorites, end-of-year:
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store - James McBrideThe Maniac - Benjamin LabatutPoverty, By America - Matthew DesmondHow To Say Babylon - Safiya SinclairThe Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder - David GrannChip War - Chris MillerThe Vaster Wilds - Lauren GroffHumanly Possible - Sarah BakewellKing: A Life - Jonathan EigThe Covenant Of Water - Abraham VergheseThe Best Minds - Jonathan RosenAll The Sinners Bleed: A Novel - S.A. CosbyThe Kingdom, The Power, And The Glory - Tim AlbertaSome People Need Killing - Patricia EvangelistaThis Other Eden - Paul Harding- Summer 2023 reading list:
- Small Mercies: A Detective Mystery - Dennis Lehane
- Hello Beautiful: A Novel - Ann Napolitano
- Birnam Wood: A Novel - Eleanor Cotton
- What Napoleon Could Not Do: A Novel - DK Nnuro
- Blue Hour: A Novel - Tiffany Clarke Harrison
- Dec 2019 (via):
- The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power () - Shoshana Zuboff
- The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company () - William Dalrymple (note: ebook only)
Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee () - Casey Cep- Girl, Woman, Other () - Bernardine Evaristo
- The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present () - David Treuer
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy () - Jenny Odell- Lost Children Archive () - Valeria Luiselli
Lot: Stories () - Bryan Washington- Normal People () - Sally Rooney
- The Orphan Master's Son () - Adam Johnson
- The Yellow House () - Sarah M. Broom (note: ebook only)
- Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland () - Patrick Radden Keefe b;
- Solitary () - Albert Woodfox (note: ebook only)
- The Topeka School () - Ben Lerner
- Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion () - Jia Tolentino
- Trust Exercise () - Susan Choi
We Live in Water: Stories () - Jess Walter- A Different Way to Win: Dan Rooney's Story from the Super Bowl to the Rooney Rule () - Jim Rooney (note: not on Overdrive yet; published Nov 2019)
The Sixth Man () - Andre Iguodala- Aug 2019 (via):
Toni Morrison: Beloved, Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, Sula, everything elseThe Nickel Boys by Colson WhiteheadExhalation by Ted ChiangWolf Hall, Hilary Mantel- Haruki Murakami’s Men Without Women
American Spy by Lauren WilkinsonThe Shallows by Nicholas CarrLab Girl by Hope JahrenInland by Téa ObrehtHow to Read the Air, by Dinaw MengestuMaid by Stephanie Land- Dec 2018:
Becoming by Michelle Obama (Overdrive)An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (Overdrive)Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Overdrive)The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die by Keith Payne (Overdrive)Educated by Tara Westover (Overdrive)- Factfulness by Hans Rosling
- Note: ebook only (Overdrive)
Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging by Alex Wagner (Overdrive)- A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
- Note: ebook only (Overdrive)
A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipaul (Overdrive: Recommended 01/01/2019)- How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (Overdrive)
In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu (Overdrive)Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela (Overdrive)- The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti
- Note: recommended 01/01/2019 (Northern California Public Library)
- The Return by Hisham Matar
- Note: ebook only (Overdrive)
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (read)- Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Overdrive)
- Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick Deneen
- Note: ebook only (Overdrive)
The World As It Is by Ben Rhodes (Overdrive)- American Prison by Shane Bauer (Overdrive)
Arthur Ashe: A Life by Raymond Arsenault (Overdrive)- Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday (Overdrive)
- Feel Free by Zadie Smith (Overdrive)
Florida by Lauren Groff (Overdrive)- Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight (Overdrive)
- Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar (Overdrive)
- The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson (Overdrive)
- Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark (Overdrive)
There There by Tommy Orange (Overdrive)- Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (Overdrive)
- Josh Marshall 2018 Holiday recommendations:
- Eric H. Cline: Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World. Nicholas Ostler
- 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History)
- Only History of Ancient Greece available
- Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek
- Note: ebook only (Overdrive)
- Barry Cunliffe: By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia
- Nothing as of 01/01/2019
- Felipe Fernandez-Armesto: Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration
- Note: ebook only (Overdrive)
- David Anthony: The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World
- Recommended 12/31/2018
- Roger Crowley: Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World
- City of Fortune and Conquerers recommendable as audiobooks
- David Abulafia: The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean
- Nothing as of 07/18/2018
- James Romm: Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the Bloody Fight for His Empire
- ebook only (Overdrive) as of 07/18/2018
- Peter Heather:
- The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
- Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe
- The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders
- Note: ebook only; audiobook not recommendable (Overdrive) as of 07/18/2018
- Hugh Thomas: Conquest: Cortes, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico
- Nothing available as of 07/18/2018
- Lionel Casson: Libraries in the Ancient World
- Unavailable in any format (Overdrive)
- Life in Ancient Rome recommendable as Audiobook (Overdrive)
- Josh Marshall 1066 Norman Conquest Discussion:
- Short History of the Normans (2016) - Leonie V. Hicks
- The Norman Conquest: The Battle of Hastings and the Fall of Anglo-Saxon England (2013) - Marc Morris
- The Norman Conquest: England after William the Conqueror (Critical Issues in World and International History) (2007) - Hugh M. Thomas
- Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400 to 1070 (2011) - Robin Fleming
- William, King and Conqueror (2013) - Mark Hagger
- Conquest and Colonisation: The Normans in Britain, 1066-1100 (1994) - Brian Golding
- The Normans in Europe (2000) - Elisabeth van Houts
- William the Conqueror (The English Monarchs Series) (2016) - David Bates
- 2018-01-08: David Finkel's The Good Soldiers (via)
- Note: ebook only (Overdrive)
- Mike Liebhold (via):
- Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah
- Granada: A Pomegranate in the Hand of God
- Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys Into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East
- UCSC LIT 61U - Introduction to SF (online class):
- The Left Hand of Darkness, Book I of the Lilith's Brood Trilogy (1969) - Ursula K. Le Guin
- Dawn (1987) - Octavia E. Butler (note: not on Overdrive)
- Childhood's End (1953) - Arthur C. Clarke (note: not on Overdrive)
- "The Cold Equations" (1954) - Tom Godwin (note: not on Overdrive)
- Sail On! Sail On! (1952) - Philip José Farmer (note: not on Overdrive)
- John Cole (via):
- The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic (2013) - Emily Croy Barker
- Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic (2015) - Sam Quinones
- Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World (2018) - Anand Giridharadas
- Bookshop Santa Cruz - Winter 2023 reading list:
- North Woods: A Novel - Daniel Mason
- Signal Fires: A Novel - Dani Shapiro
- Swimming Back to Trout River: A Novel - Linda Rui Feng
- Elder Race - Adrian Tchaikovsky
- More Than You'll Ever Know - Katie Gutierrez
- The Sun Is a Compass: My 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds - Caroline Van Hemert
- The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession - Michael Finkel
- Poet Warrior: A Memoir - Joy Harjo
- Ask A Manager 2023 recommendations (she bolded her favorites of the favorites):
- How Lucky - Will Leitch
- Ms. Demeanor - Elinor Lipman
- Mouth to Mouth - Antoine Wilson
- L.A. Weather - María Amparo Escandón
- Lolly Willowes - Sylvia Townsend Warner
- Silver Sparrow - Tayari Jones
- A Quiet Life - Ethan Joella
- None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive - Carolyn Prusa
- Happy All the Time - Laurie Colwin
- All Together Now - Matthew Norman
- Vintage Contemporaries - Dan Kois
- The Sweet Spot - Amy Poeppel
- Sam - Allegra Goodman
- Small Admissions - Amy Poeppel
- The Helpline - Katherine Collette
- Pineapple Street - Jenny Jackson
- Romantic Comedy - Curtis Sittenfeld
- Limelight - Amy Poeppel
- Liars and Saints - Maile Meloy
- Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers - Jesse Q. Sutanto
- Yellowface - R.F. Kuang
- Bad Summer People - Emma Rosenblum
- Games and Rituals - Katherine Heiny
- Every Heart a Doorway - Seanan McGuire
- By the Book - Jasmine Guillory
- Barbara Isn’t Dying - Alina Bronsky
- My Last Innocent Year - Daisy Alpert Florin
- The Guest - Emma Cline
- The Truth and Other Hidden Things - Lea Geller
- The Innocents - Francesca Segal
- The Appeal - Janice Hallett
- Sunshine Nails - Mai Nguyen
- Heartburn - Nora Ephron
- Maame - Jessica George
- The Connellys of County Down - Tracey Lange
- Tom Lake - Ann Patchett
- You Can’t Stay Here Forever - Katherine Lin
- Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl - Renee Rosen
- The Whispers - Ashley Audrain
- An Available Man - Hilma Wolitzer
- Daughters-in-Law - Joanna Trollope
- Flight - Lynn Steger Strong
- High Maintenance - Jennifer Belle
- Mrs. Caliban - Rachel Ingalls
- Hello Beautiful - Ann Napolitano
- A Family Daughter - Maile Meloy
- Family Happiness - Laurie Colwin
- The Man I Never Met - Elle Cook
- Bill Gates 2023 reading list:
- The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human - Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet - Hannah Ritchie
- Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure - Vaclav Smil
Previously
Previously (2025), Previously (2024), Previously (2023), Previously (2022), Note: No books list 2021, Previously (2020), Previously (2019), Previously (2018), Previously (2017)
