Not much of this seems like it would be particularly helpful to you. Evan Osnos and Jonathan Spence* (not Spencer) are good, though. I would avoid Martin Jacques until you have developed a less partial understanding of things. Okay, so I know that this is WAY too much, but I figure this is something you can keep and dig into when you want. With that said, here you go:
Domestic Politics and Governance:
Andrew Nathan, David Shambaugh, Cheng Li, Elizabeth J. Perry, Kenneth Lieberthal, and Kevin J. O'Brien
Specifically: * 1.) China's Communist Party: Atrophy & Adaptation * 2.) China Goes Global: The Partial Power * 3.) Governing China: From Revolution Through Reform * 4.) The Great Wall and the Empty Fortress * 5.) The Tiananmen Papers
Economy:
Arthur Kroeber, Barry Naughton, and Nicholas Lardy
Specifically: * 1.) China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know * 2.) China's Rise: Challenges and Opportunities * 3.) Growing Out of the Plan: Chinese Economic Reform, 1978-1993 * 4.) Markets over Mao: The Rise of Private Business in China * 5.) The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth
Foreign Policy, International Relations, and Military Affairs:
Alastair Ian Johnson, , Andrew s. Erickson, Bonnie Glaser, Chen Jian, David Lampton, M. Taylor Fravel, Jessica Chen Weiss, Michael D. Swaine, Susan Shirk
Specifically: * 1.) China: Fragile Superpower: How China's Internal Politics Could Derail Its Peaceful Rise * 2.) Mao's China and the Cold War * 3.) Powerful Patriots: Nationalist Protest in China's Foreign Relations * 4.) Same Bed, Different Dreams: Managing U.S.-China Relations * 5.) Strong Borders, Secure Nation: Cooperation and Conflict in China’s Territorial Disputes
General and/or Journalism:
Evan Osnos, Ian Johnson, Leslie Chang, Orville Schell, Peter Hessler, and Richard McGregor
Specifically: * 1.) Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China * 2.) Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present * 3.) River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze * 4.) The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers * 5.) Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-first Century
History:
Evelyn Rawski, Frank Dikötter, James Millward, Jeffrey Wasserstrom, John K. Fairbank, Jonothan Spence, Joseph W. Esherick, Madeleine Zelin, Mark C. Elliot, Philip A. Kuhn, and Roderick MacFarquhar
Specifically: - Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958–62 - Mao's Last Revolution - The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China - The Origins of the Cultural Revolution (a series of books) - The Search for Modern China
Law: Albert Chen, Benjamin Liebman, Carl Minzner, Donald Clarke, Jerome A. Cohen, Rachel Stern, Randall Peerenboom, and Stanley Lubman
Specifically: * 1.) An Introduction to the Legal System of the People's Republic of China * 2.) Bird in a Cage: Legal Reform in China after Mao * 3.) China's Long March toward Rule of Law