Here are 66 books from the 1276 reviewed that have particularly impressed me, divided into fiction and nonfiction lists.
They can also be found in the other indices, marked with a "**".
Fiction
Non-Fiction
- Martin Aigner, Günter M. Ziegler: Proofs from THE BOOK
- mathematical results that are beautiful, accessible, and profound
- Bruce Alberts, Dennis Bray, et al.: Essential Cell Biology
An Introduction to the Molecular Biology of the Cell
- Kevin Bales: Disposable People
- a passionate but scholarly study of modern slavery
- Joel Beinin, Joe Stork: Political Islam
Essays from Middle East Report
- David Bellos: Georges Perec
A Life in Words
- Samuel Bowles: Microeconomics
Behavior, Institutions, and Evolution
- Fernand Braudel: Civilization and Capitalism 15th-18th Century
- a social and economic history of the shaping of the modern world
- Timothy Brook: The Confusions of Pleasure
Commerce and Culture in Ming China
- Dorothy L. Cheney, Robert M. Seyfarth: How Monkeys See the World
Inside the Mind of Another Species
- Robert Cribb: Historical Atlas of Indonesia
- learned and lavish
- Paul N. Edwards: A Vast Machine
Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming
- Thomas Eisner: For Love of Insects
- the grand synthesis of a veteran scientist
- Gary William Flake: The Computational Beauty of Nature
Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation
- Ronald Fraser: Blood of Spain
An Oral History of the Spanish Civil War
- Stephen Jay Gould: Ontogeny and Phylogeny
- the history of recapitulation; developmental timing and evolution
- Stewart Guthrie: Faces in the Clouds
A New Theory of Religion
- Cemal Kafadar: Between Two Worlds
The Construction of the Ottoman State
- Audrey Kahin: Regional Dynamics of the Indonesian Revolution
- an unusually appealing essay collection on 1945-50
- Steve Keen: Debunking Economics
The Naked Emperor of the Social Sciences
- Patrick Vinton Kirch: On the Road of the Winds
An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European Conquest
- Donald E. Knuth: The Art of Computer Programming
Fundamental Algorithms; Seminumerical Algorithms; Sorting and Searching
- Richard Lewontin: Human Diversity
- the realities of human biological variation
- Cecilia Lindqvist: China, Empire of the Written Symbol
- Chinese history and culture through written characters
- Jessica Litman: Digital Copyright
- intellectual property and the Internet
- Mario Liverani: Israel's History and the History of Israel
- ancient histories, normal and invented
- Nancy A. Lynch: Distributed Algorithms
- for a deep understanding of formal methods
- Harry Mathews, Alastair Brotchie: Oulipo Compendium
- people, works, and forms, with extensive examples
- John McPhee: Annals of the Former World
- travels across the United States with geologists
- Arthur Morris: The Art of Bird Photography
The Complete Guide to Professional Field Techniques
- Brian Morris: Anthropological Studies of Religion
An Introductory Text
- Jakob Nielsen: Designing Web Usability
The Practice of Simplicity
- Karl J. Niklas: The Evolutionary Biology of Plants
- evolution makes sense of otherwise unconnected areas of botany
- S. Robert Ramsey: The Languages of China
- social, cultural, and historical background as well as linguistics
- Orrin W. Robinson: Old English and its Closest Relatives
A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages
- James C. Scott: Weapons of the Weak
Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance
- Edward R. Tufte: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
- the classic work on statistical graphics
- Mary E. White: After the Greening
- a geological and botanical history of Australia