re: Top 5 Books that have changed your life.

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You wouldn’t happen to be a generic, middle aged conservative dad with no imagination would you?

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Peepdip

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Cringe as hell

1. Catcher in the Rye (JD Sallinger)- first book I ever read on my own (not so great on re-reads)
2. On the Road (Jack Kerouac)- first book I enjoyed reading on my own
3. Pet Cemetery (Stephen King)- got me going on horror/sci-fi
4. A Game of Thrones (George RR Martin)- the book that got me started in Fantasy
5. The Blade Itself (Joe Abercrombie)- the book that made me a grimdark fantasy junkie

No particular order:

Battle of Britain by Quentin Reynolds - was my dads favorite book growing up and read it constantly when I was younger.

Mossflower By Brian Jacques - helped really kick my love of reading in to the next gear by finding the fantasy genre, still remember where I was when my dad bought me the book. Can't thank the owner or manager who recommended it enough. me with a love of reading at a young age.

Malazan Book of the Fallen: Taking liberty by including this entire series, but it is called the "book" of the fallen. I come back to this all the time and confirmed my thoughts that fantasy / sci fi has tons to offer in literature despite some people's belief. Also has helped me really dive in and analyze the writing craft in books I read.

Old Wine New Wineskins by my grandmother: I helped her edit and put out a second edition of this book, her take on history and its timeline. In addition to that connection, it also inspired me that writing a book was achievable - working on it very slowly, but I know it is possible.

I'm going to think about #5 a bit, lots could go here.

Also, to answer your question - I would recommend looking in to Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning. It makes you confront your human nature by showing how a normal group of middle class men in a reserve unit in Poland during WW2 and became either murderers or stood by and facilitated what happened. They weren't coerced and normal societal pressure and norms allowed the worst part of our humanity to rear its head.

It is pretty chilling, but makes you confront head on just what you are likely capable of in those kind of situations. I think it is important to recognize that and fight against allowing those kind of pressures to turn you into something you aren't. Absolutely this is an extreme example, but can be applied to all kinds of lesser behaviors which we are susceptible to.

Atlas Shrugged
Anatomy of the State
Economics in One Lesson
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World

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maybe both parties have far too many extremists that they tolerate.

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This

Both of the parties are enormously corrupted. Often by the same stakeholders implementing the same laws

There are specific and reprehensible characteristics of both but underlying systems of governance are shared and that's the biggest problem

Knowledge and Decisions (Thomas Sowell)
Nudge (Richard Thaler)
Rational Optimist (Matt Ridley)
Blacklisted by History (M Stanton Evans)
The Real Lincoln (Thomas DiLorenzo)

Easily in the conversation: Fooled By Randomness (Nassim Taleb)

Five Years to Freedom by James N. Rowe

About Face: Odyssey Of An American Warrior
by David H. Hackworth

Hazardous Duty by John K. Singlaub

The Bridge at Andau by James Michener

Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Bible
Atlas Shrugged
How to win friends and influence people
Witness by Whitaker Chambers
Liars Poker