What to Read Next if You Liked Think Like a Freak, Wonder, All Fall Down, The Heist or No Place to Hide
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, the authors of Freakonomics, are back with more unusual insights into the way our brains operate with Think Like a Freak. If you’re addicted to their brand of social science analysis, you’ll eat up Drunk Tank Pink, by Adam Alter, which will tell you the hidden reasons you think the way you do, and make you wonder if your mind is really your own.
Wonder, by R.J. Palacio, has taken the middle-grade reading world by storm with its sensitive account of the life of a disfigured young boy making his way in a world that would rather look away than face him. Firegirl, by Tony Abbott, also won acclaim for its portrayal of the tentative friendship between narrator Tom, a middle school–aged boy, and Jessica, survivor of a fire that left her terribly scarred. Both books offer important perspectives on looking beyond surface details to find the beauty in all of us.
In All Fall Down, Jennifer Weiner once again strives to throw off the condescending mantle of “escapist chick lit author” with a character-based take on a serious subject—living with addiction. She’s not the first writer to do so, however; while you wait for Weiner’s book to come out, check out Rachel’s Holiday, by Marian Keyes, a first-person account of a chick-lit-esque protagonist brought low by an out-of-control lifestyle.
The Heist, by Daniel Silva, promises to be another excellent entry in his long-running Gabriel Allon series of spy thrillers. The plot this time around involves a search for a missing masterpiece by Caravaggio, but we have to wait a month to see how the case plays out. While you wait, read Gorky Park, the first in Robert Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko series. Set in Russia during the height of the Cold War, it offers a similarly oddball, endearing protagonist caught up in an investigation involving the finer things in life—in this case, the trade in ultra-expensive mink clothing.
No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State, by Glenn Greenwald, offers a fascinating account of the single most scrutinized act of espionage to occur in decades. If you’re looking for yet more perspective on living life like you’re being watched (because you probably are), Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Endless Surveillance, by Julia Angwin, is another essential read.