Some favourite non-fiction:
Love & Limerence: The Experience of Being in Love – Dorothy Tennov
This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution – David Sloan Wilson
Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind – Kevin L. Laland
The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life – Kevin Simler & Robin Hanson
The Secret of our Success: How Culture is Driving Human Evolution – Joseph Henrich
Convergence: The Deepest Idea in the Universe - Peter Watson
The Prehistory of Autism – Penny Spikins
Ideas: A History – Peter Watson
Contingency, Irony & Solidarity - Richard Rorty
Philosophy & Social Hope - Richard Rorty
Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism - Richard Rorty
A Companion to Rorty - Alan Malachowski
Facing the Shadow: Starting Sexual & Relationship Recovery – Patrick Carnes
The Case Formulation Approach to Cognitive-Behavior Therapy – Jacqueline B. Persons
Collaborative Case Conceptualization: Working Effectively with Clients in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy – Willem Kuyken, Christine A. Padesky & Robert Dudley
Listening to Their Voices: The Person-Centred Approach to Autistic Spectrum Disorder – Jan Hawkin
Developing Person-Centred Counselling - Dave Mearns
A Clinician’s Guide to Mental Health Conditions in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders – Eddie Chaplin, Debbie Spain & Jane McCarthy
Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change – William Miller & Stephen Rollnick
The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome - Tony Attwood
Overcoming Low Self-Esteem: A Self-help Guide Using Cognitive Behavioural Techniques – Melanie Fennell
Climbing Mount Improbable – Richard Dawkins
The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene – Richard Dawkins
Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution & the Meanings of Life – Daniel Dennett
Intuition Pumps & Other Tools for Thinking – Daniel Dennett
The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind & the Myth of the Self – Thomas Metzinger
Being No One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity – Thomas Metzinger
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature – Steven Pinker
The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature – Steven Pinker
Philosophy of Mind: The Key Thinkers – Andrew Bailey
Philosophy of Mind: A Contemporary Introduction – John Heil
Philosophy of Mind: Contemporary Readings – Timothy O’Connor & David Robb
Philosophy of Mind: Classical & Contemporary Readings – David Chalmers
Cognitive Therapy & the Emotional Disorders – Aaron T. Beck
Brain-Wise: Studies in Neurophilosophy – Patricia S. Churchland
Matter & Consciousness – Paul M. Churchland
The Mating Mind – Geoffrey Miller
How to Be Animal: A New History of What it Means to be Human - Melanie Challenger
Grooming, Gossip & the Evolution of Language – Robin Dunbar
Mind Make Societies: How Cognition Explains the World Humans Create – Pascal Boyer
Neurodiversity: The Birth of an Idea – Judy Singer
Cognitive Therapy for Personality Disorders: A Schema-focused Approach – Jeffrey Young
Evolutionary Theory & Cognitive Therapy – Paul Gilbert
Depression: The Evolution of Powerlessness – Paul Gilbert
Nature Via Nurture – Matt Ridley
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge – Edward O. Wilson
On Human Nature – Edward O. Wilson
The Skilled Helper: A Problem-Management & Opportunity-Development Approach to Helping – Gerard Egan
The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology & the Generation of Culture – Barkow, Cosmides, Tooby
The Moral Animal: Why we are the Way we are - Robert Wright
Genes on the couch: Explorations in Evolutionary Psychotherapy – Paul Gilbert & Kent G. Bailey
Autism: A New Introduction to Psychological Theory and Current Practice – Fletcher-Watson & Happe
Human Nature After Darwin: A Philosophical Introduction – Janet Radcliffe Richards
The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating – David M. Buss
The Trouble with Testosterone: And Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament – Robert M. Sapolsky
What is Addiction – Ross, Kincaid, Spurrett & Collins
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World - David Deutsch
What’s Wrong with Us?: The Anthropathology Thesis – Colin Feltham
Darwin’s Bridge: Uniting the Humanities & Sciences – Joseph Carroll, Dan P. McAdams, Edward O. Wilson
Doubt: A History – Jennifer Michael Hecht
No Two Alike: Human Nature & Human Individuality - Judith Rich Harris
The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do - Judith Rich Harris
Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry – Randolph M. Nesse
Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason & the Human Brain – Antonio Damasio
The Mental Life of Modernism: Why Poetry, Painting, and Music Changed at the Turn of the Twentieth Century – Samuel Jay Keyser
The Art Instinct – Dennis Dutton
Myths of Childhood – Joel Paris
Strong Feelings: Emotions, Addiction, & Human Behavior – Jon Elster
Straw Dogs – John Gray
The Mind is Flat – Nick Chater
How History Gets Things Wrong: The Neuroscience of our Addiction to Stories – Alex Rosenberg
Perv: The Sexual Deviant in all of Us - Jesse Bering
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – Yuval Noah Harari
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind – Shunryu Suzuki
The Philosophy of Autism – Jami L. Anderso
The Unfolding of Language - Guy Deutscher
Through the Language Glass - Guy Deutscher
We Don't Know Ourselves - Fintan O'Toole
2022:
Crystal, D. (2007) How Language Works. London: Penguin.
Everett, D. (2012) Language: The Cultural Tool. London: Profile Books.
Rorty, R. (2007) Philosophy as Cultural Politics. Cambridge: CUP.
Rorty, R. (2016) Philosophy as Poetry. Virginia: UV Press.
Wharmby, P. (2022) What I Want to Talk About: How Autistic Special Interests Shape a Life. London: JKP.
Some favourite fiction:
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Leo Tolstoy
Pride & Prejudice – Jane Austen
Possession - AS Byatt
The Brothers Karamazov -Fyodor Dostoevsky
1984 – George Orwell
Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
The Glass Bead Game – Hermann Hesse
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
The Heart of the Matter – Graham Greene
The End of the Affair – Graham Greene
Sword of Honour – Evelyn Waugh
A Handful of Dust – Evelyn Waugh
Of Human Bondage – W. Somerset Maugham
The Razor’s Edge - W. Somerset Maugham
A Room with a View – E.M. Forster
Howard’s End – E.M. Forster
Lolita – Vladimar Nabakov
Dangerous Liaisons – Choderlos de Laclos
The Riddle of the Sands – Erskine Childers
The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkein
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking-Glass & what Alice Found There - Lewis Carroll
The Innocence of Father Brown – G.K. Chesterton
The Complete Yes Minister – Jonathan Lynn & Antony Jay
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell – Susanna Clarke
A Perfect Spy – John Le Carre
Small Gods – Terry Pratchett
Lords & Ladies - Terry Pratchett
Right Ho, Jeeves – P.G. Wodehouse
The Once & Future King – T.H. White