Top Reads of 2014

My personal favourites of the past year (but not necessarily released this year) with a one line review/recommendation.

Tinkers —Paul Harding. Short, moving novel on family, time and death.
The Orenda — Joseph Boyden. One of Canada’s best authors, and one of the few with concern for and knowlege of First Nations history, nails it once again with this character-driven novel.

The Second Machine Age — Erik Brynholfsson & Andrew McAfee. Will technology liberate us, driving ever-faster quality of life improvements, or steal all the jobs, driving increasing inequality and economic dislocation?
Paying for the Party — Elizabeth Armstrong & Laura T. Hamilton. A fascinating longitudinal study evaluating the inequality-exacerbating effects of the party culture at colleges and univerities.
The Longer I’m Prime Minister — Paul Wells. The most insightful take to date on Canada’s current Prime Minister, Steven Harper.
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies — Nick Bostrom. The question is not when artificial intelligence will arrive, but whether we will be prepared when it does.
Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason and the Gap Between Us and Them — Joshua Greene. A sharp moral philosophy thesis that brilliantly weaves cutting edge neuroscience to generate challenging prescriptions for individual and collective ethical questions — so good I read it twice.

The Case for Reparations — Ta-Nehisi Coates. The exhaustively researched and challenging account of the “compounding moral debts” of America’s 350+ years of racism against African Americans.
The Story behind the Rob Ford Story — Ivor Tossell. A unique perspective on the most sordid, depressing and frustrating political story in Canada this year.