VICTOR JOECKS: Book recommendations for Black Friday
Longtime readers may remember that, while I’m not much of a shopper, Black Friday is a yearly highlight. As you consider Christmas gifts, here are some personal book recommendations.
The book I’m most excited to read — hint, hint, honey — is Thomas Sowell’s latest, “Social Justice Fallacies.” Sowell is unmatched at explaining an issue and then detailing both the theory and real-world data involved. And he does it in a way that’s easy to understand. I also cannot recommend highly enough his 2019 book “Discrimination and Disparities.” It’s a thorough debunking of the critical race theory notion that the mere existence of a racial disparity proves racial discrimination.
There are a couple of other books on that topic that are worth a look. One is Christopher Rufo’s “America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything.” Rufo has done incredible work documenting how CRT, once a fringe academic theory, wormed its way into most major American institutions. Another is Heather Mac Donald’s “When Race Trumps Merit: How the Pursuit of Equity Sacrifices Excellence, Destroys Beauty, and Threatens Lives.” The title says it all.
Another book I’m excited to read is Brad Wilcox’s “Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization.” It’s not out until next February but is available for pre-order. Wilcox does great work documenting how important marriage is both for individuals and society, more broadly. I’ve written several times this past year that “traditions are the solutions to problems we’ve forgotten about.” Marriage is one tradition that needs a comeback.
If you want to give your kids or grandkids a small taste of free-market principles, check out the Foundation of Economic Education. Leonard Read’s “I, Pencil” shows how the free market connects people to make products that they can’t make alone. Lawrence Reed’s “Great Myths of the Great Depression” shows how government, not capitalism, caused that economic calamity. They’re both short, more pamphlets than books. Slip one on top of your grandchild’s gift.
For kids, I’ve really liked “The Tuttle Twins” books by Connor Boyack. The books are for 5- to 11-year-olds. They have lots of pictures and introduce kids to pro-liberty and anti-socialism concepts as the title characters head off on various adventures.
Believe it or not, I do enjoy nonpolitical books. My older kids and I loved reading “The Wingfeather Saga” by Andrew Peterson. The characters are well-developed. The writing is beautiful. And the adventure makes it hard to put down. Trust me. My wife kept urging me to get the kids to bed, instead of reading them one more chapter.
Now, she keeps the kids up late reading the “Adventures of the Northwoods” series by Lois Walfrid Johnson. They’re older books from her childhood. My kids from early elementary to pre-teen enjoy listening to it together.
If you have any book recommendations, please send them my way. I’ve particularly enjoyed biographies, including those of lesser known figures. If you have any mystery or adventure authors you like, let me know.
Enjoy your shopping and leftovers. And Merry Christmas.
Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.