This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.

1. 1. Nickel And Dimed

   On (Not) Getting By in America

   

   The book is a firsthand journalistic account of the author's experiment to survive on minimum wage jobs in America. She gives up her middle-class life to understand the reality of low-wage workers, working as a waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing home aide, and a retail chain employee. The book reveals the harsh and often overlooked conditions of the working poor, highlighting the struggle to afford even basic necessities, the lack of job security, and the physical toll of such work.

   The 1204th Greatest Book of All Time

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2. 2. Bright Sided

   How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America

   

   In this insightful exploration of the pervasive culture of positive thinking, the author critiques the societal obsession with optimism and its impact on individuals and institutions. She delves into how this relentless pursuit of positivity can often overshadow reality, leading to a dismissal of genuine concerns and critical thinking. By examining various sectors, including healthcare, business, and religion, the narrative reveals how the pressure to maintain a cheerful outlook can sometimes hinder personal growth and societal progress, urging readers to embrace a more balanced and realistic perspective.

3. 3. The Hearts Of Men

   American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment

   

   Set against the backdrop of changing societal norms from the 1950s to the 1980s, this insightful narrative explores the evolving roles and expectations of men in America. Through a blend of historical analysis and cultural critique, it delves into the shifting dynamics of masculinity, examining how economic pressures, feminist movements, and changing family structures have influenced men's identities and relationships. The work offers a nuanced perspective on the challenges and transformations faced by men as they navigate the complexities of modern life, shedding light on the broader implications for society as a whole.

4. 4. For Her Own Good

   Two Centuries of the Experts' Advice to Women

   

   This insightful work delves into the historical and cultural roots of the medical and psychological advice given to women over the past two centuries, revealing how these "expert" opinions have often been more about controlling women than helping them. By examining the evolution of domestic roles, motherhood, and female health, the book uncovers the persistent patterns of paternalism and the societal pressures that have shaped women's lives. Through a critical lens, it challenges the notion of "progress" in women's rights, highlighting how the guise of benevolence has often masked underlying motives of power and control.
5. 5. The Way To The Spring

   Life and Death in Palestine

   

   The book offers a poignant exploration of the lives of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, capturing the resilience and struggles of individuals in the West Bank. Through a series of vivid narratives, the author delves into the daily realities faced by those in the region, highlighting the complex interplay of hope, resistance, and despair. The stories are woven together with a deep sense of empathy and understanding, providing a nuanced perspective on a conflict that is often oversimplified. The work serves as a testament to the enduring spirit of a people striving for dignity and justice amidst adversity.

6. 6. Witches, Midwives, & Nurses

   A History of Women Healers

   

   This insightful work delves into the historical roles of women in healthcare, exploring how female healers have been systematically marginalized and demonized throughout history. It examines the transition from traditional healing practices, often led by women, to the male-dominated medical profession, highlighting the socio-political forces that contributed to this shift. By tracing the persecution of witches and the professionalization of medicine, the book sheds light on the enduring struggle for women's autonomy and authority in the medical field, offering a critical perspective on the intersection of gender, power, and healthcare.

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7. 7. Fear Of Falling

   The Inner Life of the Middle Class

   

   This insightful exploration delves into the psyche of the American middle class during the late 20th century, unraveling the pervasive anxiety and insecurity that grip this socio-economic group. It examines the cultural and economic forces that shape their identity, revealing how the fear of downward mobility influences their political and social attitudes. Through a critical lens, the narrative dissects the impact of neoliberal policies and the shifting job market, offering a compelling analysis of how these factors contribute to a collective sense of vulnerability and the relentless pursuit of stability.

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8. 8. Natural Causes

   An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer

   

   A trenchant critique of the modern wellness movement and our obsession with controlling aging, arguing that many preventive health measures are overhyped, sometimes harmful, and distract from social and environmental causes of mortality. Drawing on epidemiology, personal narrative, and cultural analysis, it challenges the assumption that lifestyle choices alone determine longevity, highlights trade-offs and uncertainties in medical interventions, and urges a more honest acceptance of death alongside collective solutions to health inequities and environmental risks.

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9. 9. Living With A Wild God

   A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything

   

   A candid memoir recounting a startling, formative mystical episode in childhood and later similar experiences that force the narrator to confront the limits of secular materialism; she combines personal narrative with research into neuroscience and religion, critiques simplistic spiritual and reductionist explanations, and tries to carve out an honest, skeptical way of living that preserves wonder in the face of unexplainable inner events.

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10. 10. Blood Rites

    Origins and History of the Passions of War

    

    An investigative cultural history that traces human enthusiasm for organized violence across time and societies, arguing that war and the passions that fuel it are produced and reinforced by rituals, myths, and social institutions rather than being solely innate. Drawing on anthropology, history and psychology, it examines initiation rites, religious sacrifices, soldierly camaraderie, and nationalist pageantry to show how group bonding, gender roles, and symbolic practices routinize aggression and sanctify killing. Challenging biological determinism, the work contends that the shapes and meanings of war are culturally constructed and therefore alterable through different social arrangements and political choices.

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11. 11. Re Making Love

    

    A provocative cultural critique tracing how shifts in gender politics, psychotherapy, and consumer culture reshaped intimacy and sexual norms; it argues that love and sex were transformed from simple erotic exchanges into therapeutic, consumer-driven practices shaped by new expectations for emotional disclosure, equality, and self-fulfillment, with significant effects on desire, power dynamics, and the medicalization and commercialization of sexual life.

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12. 12. Witches, Midwives And Nurses

    A History of Women Healers

    

    A revisionist history that traces how women's healing practices were systematically marginalized from the era of witch hunts through the professionalization of modern medicine; it argues that midwives, herbalists, and other female healers were recast as superstitious or dangerous, legally excluded, and driven out as male physicians consolidated authority over childbirth and health care. The book shows how nurses were professionalized in ways that reinforced gender hierarchies and labor exploitation rather than empowered women, and links these shifts to broader forces of patriarchy, class interests, and the rising institutional and commercial power of medicine, ultimately critiquing how technocratic, profit-driven health care undermined community-based, women-centered healing.

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13. 13. Complaints And Disorders

    The Sexual Politics of Sickness

    

    A probing collection of essays and reportage that examines how medical institutions, cultural attitudes, and gender bias have shaped the diagnosis and treatment of women’s bodies and experiences, tracing the historical roots of diagnoses like hysteria, exposing the medicalization of normal life processes, and critiquing research and clinical practices that dismiss or pathologize women’s complaints; it combines analysis and personal narrative to reveal how power, economics, and stereotypes influence health care and calls for patient advocacy, feminist critique, and more socially aware, democratic approaches to medicine.

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14. 14. Dancing In The Streets

    A History of Collective Joy

    

    A brisk cultural history that traces public celebrations, rituals and mass revelries from ancient festivals and carnivals to modern demonstrations and concerts, arguing that collective joy has long served social bonding and political expression. It shows how authorities alternately harness, criminalize or commercialize such outbursts of public exuberance, and how the erosion of communal public spaces under modern capitalism has diminished opportunities for spontaneous collective joy—though protest movements and new forms of public performance can revive it. The narrative blends historical examples, anthropological insight and political critique to reclaim the importance of shared joy in sustaining communal and democratic life.

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15. 15. Global Woman

    Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy

    

    A wide-ranging collection of essays and case studies that examines how globalization has transferred domestic and care labor onto migrant women from poorer countries, creating international care chains in which middle- and upper-class households in wealthier nations rely on nannies, maids, and sex workers from the Global South. The contributors document the economic, legal and emotional consequences for these workers and their families — including precarious legal status, exploitative work conditions, remittance dependence, and strained family ties — and analyze how gendered labor hierarchies and immigration policies produce and sustain global inequalities while arguing for greater recognition and protection of care and domestic workers.

16. 16. This Land Is Their Land

    Reports from a Divided Nation

    

    A sharp collection of essays and reportage that examines the social and political fractures laid bare by the 2016 U.S. election, arguing that corporate power, economic inequality, and a compromised political class have hollowed out democracy and left many working-class Americans vulnerable; based on on-the-ground reporting from diverse communities, it critiques both right-wing populism and Democratic complacency, explores the roles of racism, sexism, and the opioid crisis, and urges renewed grassroots solidarity and organizing to resist austerity and plutocratic rule.

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17. 17. Bait And Switch

    The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream

    

    A sharp, investigative account of the erosion of middle-class job security that follows a well-educated professional who goes undercover as a job-seeker to expose how corporations, temp agencies, headhunters, and career-consulting firms have commodified white-collar labor; through first-person reporting and research the book shows how layoff culture, contingent work, and a market for self-improvement shift blame onto individuals while employers offload risk, leaving many skilled workers trapped in precarious, low-paid, and demeaning positions.

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