For fiction I don't restrict myself by genre, though I lean toward horror, thrillers, dramas, and historical fiction. I was recently impressed by Glenn Arbery's novel Boundaries of Eden: it's a heritage mystery, southern Gothic, and drug-cartel thriller all rolled into one. It begins like a Faulkner classic and then slow-burns into something much more deep and disturbing.

For nonfiction, I like history, religion, science, and socio-politics, especially books that challenge popular ideas. In the list below, for example, Cynical Theories explores the tension between classical liberalism and woke theories, and argues that the former is the true path to social justice. The Constitution of Knowledge addresses the two-pronged assault putting falsehoods above facts, from the populist right and the woke left. And finally, Veritas is a jaw-dropping page turner, the true story of a pornographer who conned Harvard into believing that a forged gospel of "Jesus's wife" was genuine; this book was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime