Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Spiegel & Grau, New York, 2015. 

This is a letter from the national correspondent of The Atlantic to his black 15 year old son. It is an intimate look into a father’s concerns for his son’s future. The letter covers, bodies exploited, slavery, segregation, and an empire built on the idea of race. Between the World and Me can help you understand the black experience from their point of view in a predominately white culture. A must read for understanding. Highly recommended.

Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution by Amy Coney Barrett, Sentinel, New York, 2025.

From Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a glimpse of her journey to the Court and an account of her approach to the Constitution

Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America's Justice System by Carol Leoning and Aaron C. David, Penguin Press, New York, 2025.

From Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis, a shocking investigation of unparalleled depth into the subversion of the Justice Department over the last decade, culminating in President Donald Trump upending this cornerstone of democracy and threatening America’s rule of law as we have long known it.

Hearing Bach’s Passions [Updated Edition] by Daniel R. Melamed, Oxford University Press, 2005.

Johann Sebastian Bach's two surviving passions--St. John and St. Matthew--are an essential part of the modern repertory. These large, complex pieces are well loved, but due to our distance from the original context in which they were performed, questions and problems emerge. Bach scholar Daniel Melamed examines the issues we encounter when we hear the passions performed today, and offers unique insight into Bach's passion settings.

The disappearance of ritual by Byung-chul Han, Polity Press, 2020.

Philosopher Byung-Chul Han diagnoses modern social pathologies through the loss of shared ritualistic practices.