13 Summer Reads That Will Make You (Seem) Smarter

If you make it a goal to read at least a book or two in the warmest months, whether on the beach, on a plane, or in the hot midsummer evenings, don't let the rest of the season slip by before you make your picks.

Need some help? Here are some challenging and provocative reads that are sure to keep you thinking this summer:

1. The Almost Nearly Perfect People: The Truth about the Nordic Miracle by Michael Booth

Year after year, Denmark finds itself at the top of the list of the world’s happiest countries, alongside several other Nordic countries. Michael Booth, a British journalist who resides in Denmark, starts his book with a simple question: what makes those pesky Danes so darn happy?

Answering this question, and providing some nuance to a sometimes all-too-rosy image of Scandinavian societies, takes Booth on a tour of the colder and more egalitarian European states. He explains the complex topic of a society’s well-being with humor and argument, anecdotes and data, optimism and sobriety, and through the overlapping lenses of politics, economics and culture.

2. How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg

If you weren’t thrilled by your math classes while growing up, your teachers did you a great disservice. As Jordan Ellenberg shows in his delightful exploration of math and its history, learning to use concepts of statistics, geometry, algebra and calculus can be engrossing when they’re framed in the right way.

Ellenberg argues all the mathematical concepts we come to fear are really the best ways of grappling with our reality and the things we care about, whether it’s winning the lottery, getting to the airport on time, creating a painting, electing a president or protecting fighter jets. His playful and engaging prose will keep you entertained and, with any luck, help you avoiding being wrong. What more could you ask for?

3. The Prize: Who’s In Charge of America’s Schools? By Dale Russakoff

When Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, decided to donate $100 million to the Newark public school system and partner with government officials to improve outcomes for struggling students, it was his first experiment in philanthropy. Russakoff’s book examines the results of this experiment and casts a critical eye on the initiative's embrace of charter schools, buying out of teacher contracts, and the imposition of top-down reforms.

Governor Chris Christie and then Mayor Cory Booker, both of whom were rumored as possible vice presidential picks for the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, feature centrally in the story and take a fair share of the blame.

But Russakoff isn’t solely interested in pointing fingers; her narrative underscores the depth of the problems facing many American schools and the myriad obstacles to progress. She shows the importance of earning the trust and support of all interest groups involved in education.

4. Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence, and the Rules that Run the World by Leif Wenar

Leif Wenar argues for a bold change in foreign policy while relying on a relatively conservative fundamental principle: a nation’s people should have a decisive say in the use of sovereign natural resources. If we take this principle seriously, Wemar weaves historical, philosophical, economic and legal analysis into a provocative yet grounded thesis, then we should stop purchasing oil and similar goods from authoritarian regimes.

While there may be some costs to sticking by this principle in the short-term, Wemar believes that embracing this principle would, in addition to being the right thing to do, lead to a more prosperous and peaceful world.

5. Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer

While PACs and super PACs have become a mainstream part of political debates, long-time investigative journalist Jane Mayer dives into the deepest parts of the conservative political movement’s financing in this book, with a particular focus on the influential and divisive Koch brothers.

She shows how the connections between money and politics are much more intricate and deep-rooted than even many of the cynics suppose, driving funding for political attack ads, under-the-radar lobbying, partisan think tanks, as well as scholarly research and universities.

For those who think the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC was the epicenter the issue, Mayer reveals it to be the mere tip of the iceberg.

6. The Innocent Have Nothing To Fear by Stuart Stevens

If you’re looking for political drama that departs from (while echoing) the real world, Stuart Stevens’s highly praised novel couldn’t be timelier. Penned by a key stalwart of Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, the book provides the clear-eyed perspective of a one-time party insider now with a healthy distance from the machinations of a GOP in turmoil.

It tells the story of a contested Republican presidential nomination fight in the throes of major ideological fractures as a raucous candidate rises on an anti-immigration platform. Perfect for those who want to escape from the political present — if only just barely.

7. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Michelle Alexander’s 2012 bestseller about the racial injustices that persist in our law enforcement and penitentiary systems continues to resonate in current debates. Her provocative thesis that Jim Crow-era policies were replaced by a formally color blind, but factually discriminatory, system of racial oppression in the form of mass incarceration certainly deserves more discussion with a wider audience.

As protests calling for police reform take the streets, and thinkers of both parties decry bloated American prisons, Alexander’s perspective is well worth understanding.

8. Beating Hearts: Abortion and Animal Rights by Sherry Colb and Michael Dorf

Sherry Colb and Michael Dorf wrote a challenging and incisive work in "Beating Hearts," which touches on two of the hottest live wires in moral debate: animal rights and abortion. Though not everyone will agree with their views — almost certainly, a majority will not — their careful articulation of how we should treat those with debated moral status, be they embryos, fetuses or chickens, should be illuminating to all.

The authors fall strongly in favor of the the rights of animals and strongly against any restrictions on abortions, but whether you agree or disagree, the clarity of their arguments is sure to be engaging.

9. On Inequality by Harry Frankfurt

Harry Frankfurt argues that the issue Barack Obama has called the “defining challenge of our time” — inequality — has been somewhat overblown. While many prominent figures decry growing inequality, Frankfurt, one of the most influential living philosophers, contends that there is nothing inherently wrong with an unequal distribution of resources. He agrees that inequality can have bad effects and that we have an obligation to support those living in poverty, but he doubts there’s much reason to regret that some people have more than others, as long as everyone has enough.

Whether Frankfurt’s arguments are airtight is contentious, but his book is sure to leave its mark on a debate that’s as fraught in the academic world as it is in the public sphere.

10. Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy

Journalist Jill Leovy tells the story of an investigation into a young black man's murder in Los Angeles, who just happened to be the son of a police detective. But her story here is also about why these murders are allowed to continue, and how the killing of poor black kids on the wrong side of the city — "Ghettoside" killings — are treated very differently than other homicide cases.

She argues that much of the gun violence our country faces is the result of a form of anarchy in these areas created by apathy, a lawlessness that persists because homicide in certain communities is treated as the status quo.

11. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker

Is the world getting more violent or less? While many observers assume the world faces an unprecedented level of strife and conflict at the beginning of the 21st century, Steven Pinker argues we’re living at the most peaceful moment in our species’ history. This counterintuitive and pleasantly upbeat view is supported by more than 800 pages of history, argument and data.

Though it’s certainly reassuring to hear that there’s less violence now than many might assume, the more troubling half of the argument focuses on showing how much more brutal the past was when compared to the present and compared to how we may imagine it.

In the end, Pinker leaves his readers with an optimistic, though measured, perspective on what’s to come.

12. Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo

Banerjee and Duflo examine global poverty, one of the world’s most complex and fraught moral challenges, through the eyes of scientists. Instead of offering a grand theory of the causes of or solutions to poverty, as many other books and thinkers attempt, they instead pose the simple yet urgent question that is too often overlooked: what's the best way to improve the lives of the world’s poorest people, according to the evidence?

They explore this question by talking to people in poor countries and then systematically testing possible solutions to concrete problems. There is, of course, no single or definitive answer, as poverty is not a monolith, and they dismiss the easy answers provided by foreign aid optimists like Jeffrey Sachs or pessimists like William Easterly.

But the authors argue there are avenues for supporting poor people to overcome the trap of global poverty, such as providing better information and access to the benefits of education and immunization. More importantly, the book models an innovative approach that further research can emulate.

13. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

A death penalty lawyer and founder of Equal Justice Initiative recounts his years defending those on the row. The central case of the book is Walter McMillian’s, an Alabama man who was eventually exonerated of the crime for which he initially received a death sentence. In this career-sprawling memoir, Stevenson passionately argues that the death penalty is too powerful a weapon to entrust to our justice system.

Perhaps the most affecting part of the book, however, is the tender friendship that develops between Stevenson and McMillian, as the pair struggle both with the flawed legal system that falsely convicted McMillian and the challenges that come after living on death row.

Photo credit: LWYang via Flickr