IN MY LIBRARY

Geoffrey Canada

Before he became president and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, leading the drive toward getting more underprivileged kids into and through college, Geoffrey Canada was the son of a divorced mother who was, and still is, “a voracious reader.” He’s one, too, and it’s what he devoutly wishes of his students. “What educators have failed at, I think, is finding books that children really like to read,” says the subject of the documentary “Waiting for ‘Superman.’ ” Canada will receive his latest honor Thursday at the National Salute to Black Achievers in Industry. One wonders: Did Mayor Bloomberg really offer him the school chancellor’s job? Canada laughs and says that’s confidential. But he’s happy to talk about a few of his favorite books. — Barbara Hoffman

Manchild in the Promised Land

by Claude Brown

Growing up in the South Bronx in the late ’50s and early ’60s, I didn’t read anything about my life until I ran into this at age 12 or so. I was stunned that he was writing about the situations, frustrations, challenges and utter despair I was seeing every day. It was one of the first books I couldn’t put down.

Why Does E=MC2?

by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw

When I was in high school, I had to take physics. I hated it — I couldn’t make sense out of why we needed to know this stuff. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve fallen in love with the concepts physics deals with, like the time-space continuum. This book is totally engaging. Even novices can gain a deep understanding from it about how the world is put together.

Shogun

by James Clavell

My mother introduced me to Clavell’s “Taipan” when I was 14 or 15 or so — it was the biggest book I’d ever read! I’ve been a black belt for over 29 years, and when I read “Shogun” as an adult, I found a fascinating story about the samurai code of conduct and how closed Japan was to the rest of the world. Clavell’s a superb storyteller.

When Work Disappears

by William Julius Wilson

William Wilson is a professor at Harvard and probably the foremost black sociologist in America. He traces what happened after African-americans came to cities like Detroit and Cleveland during the industrial push, and what happened to them and their communities when those plants closed.