Ezra Klein Show's Most Recommended Books

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Ezra Klein Show, 177 Books

This is a collation of all the books recommended by every guest that came on The Ezra Klein Show organized by most recommended and by guest appearances. It is one of the best long form interview shows when it comes to the depth of the topics discussed, the diversity and expertise of the lineup of guests and the very thoughtful interview questions that had yielded such nuanced and insightful responses.

The guests were not just nobodies - we have CEOs, ex presidents, famous writers, politicians, scientists... The list is therefore a combination of classics and those works that have caught the attention of the great and the good.
The total number of books recommended is over 1500, this list is only those that were mentioned by at least 2 show guests

Who voted:
528 guests voted. All their names are listed on the website

This list was originally published in 2024 and was added to this site almost 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
7577 The Racial Contract Charles W. Mills 1997 American English
2527 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Ocean Vuong 2019 American English
1433 Random Family Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 2003 American English
6954 Kindly Inquisitors Jonathan Rauch 1993 American English
1634 The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros 1984 American English
5724 Politics And The English Language George Orwell 1946 British English
557 The Souls of Black Folk W. E. B. Du Bois 1903 American English
1328 Parable Of The Sower Octavia E. Butler 1993 American English
1971 Parable of the Talents Octavia E. Butler 1998 American English
5273 Uncanny Valley Anna Wiener 2020 American English
217 The House of Mirth Edith Wharton 1905 American English
743 On Liberty John Stuart Mill 1859 British English
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
2327 The Three-Body Problem Cixin Liu 2006 Chinese Chinese
7148 Atomic Habits James Clear 2018 American English
5263 The Great Influenza John Barry 2004 American English
2736 Severance Ling Ma 2018 American English
1686 The Lorax Dr. Seuss 1971 American English
8725 The Uninhabitable Earth David Wallace-Wells 2019 American English
7094 The Color Of Law Richard Rothstein 2017 American English
10513 The Deficit Myth Stephanie Kelton 2020 American English
2182 Far From the Tree Andrew Solomon 2012 American English
417 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas Kuhn 1962 American English
8061 The Anarchy William Dalrymple 2019 British English
1873 And the Band Played On Randy Shilts 1987 American English
6957 The Field Of Blood Joanne B. Freeman 2018 American English
5588 Caste Isabel Wilkerson 2020 American English
1110 The Overstory Richard Powers 2018 American English
5780 Entangled Life Merlin Sheldrake 2020 British English
102 Charlotte's Web E. B. White 1952 American English
320 Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak 1963 American English
7024 Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers Robert Sapolsky 1994 American English
1901 The Power Broker Robert Caro 1974 American English
4978 Klara And The Sun Kazuo Ishiguro 2021 British English
8938 Memorial Drive Natasha Trethewey 2020 American English
10771 Halfway Home Reuben Jonathan Miller 2021 American English
10771 Career And Family Claudia Goldin 2021 American English
10236 Race For Profit Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor 2019 American English
10236 The Apology Eve Ensler 2019 American English
3194 The Best And The Brightest David Halberstam 1972 American English
8068 All That She Carried Tiya Miles 2021 American English
6832 Rights Talk Mary Ann Glendon 1991 American English
10236 Biased Jennifer Eberhardt 2019 American English
10918 The Economic Weapon Nicholas Mulder 2022 American English
10771 Not One Inch M. E. Sarotte 2021 American English
10236 Putin's World Angela Stent 2019 American English
8101 The Gates Of Europe Serhii Plokhy 2015 Ukrainian English
10513 Postcolonial Love Poem Natalie Diaz 2020 American English
10918 Classified David E. Bernstein 2022 American English
3205 When We Cease To Understand The World Adrian Nathan West, Benjamin Labatut 2020 Chilean Spanish
2480 The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich William L. Shirer 1960 American English
5283 Strangers To Ourselves Rachel Aviv 2022 American English
9146 The World For Sale Jack Farchy, Javier Blas 2021 British English
4604 Babel R. F. Kuang 2022 American English
3206 The Prize Daniel Yergin 1991 American English
6926 The Hundred Years’ War On Palestine Rashid Khalidi 2020 American English
9252 Arabs And Israelis Abdel Monem Said Aly, Shai Feldman, Khalil Shikaki 2013 Multiple English