2024 Reading List

• Elon Musk - Walter Isaacson

• River of the Gods - Candice Millard

• Quit - Annie Duke

• Meditations - Marcus Aurelius

• Eli & The Octopus - Matt Garcia

• A Village in the Third Reich - Julia Boyd & Angelika Patel

• Dinners with Joseph Johnson - Daisy Hay

• The Little Book of Aliens - Adam Frank

• Bad Therapy - Abigail Shrier

• Thinking In Systems - Donella Meadows

• Blitzed - Norman Ohler

• Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck - Mark Manson

• The Odyssey - Homer (Emily Wilson Translation)

• Into The Magic Shop - James Doty

• The Demon Of Unrest - Erik Larson

• Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain

• The Living Great Lakes - Jerry Dennis

• Still The Mind - Alan Watts

• In The Kingdom Of Ice - Hampton Sides

• The King Of Confidence - Miles Harvey

2023 Reading List

• The Body Keeps The Score

• The Tools - Phil Stutz

• Coming Alive - Phil Stutz

• Talking To Strangers - Malcom Gladwell

• Influence - Robert Cialdini

• A Man’s Search For Meaning - Victor Frankel

• Think Again - Adam Grant

2022 Reading List

• The Splendid And The Vile - Erik Larson

• Robert E. Lee: A Life - Allen Guelzo

• The Unseen Body - Jonathan Reisman

• Courage Is Calling - Ryan Holiday

• The Obstacle Is The Way - Ryan Holiday

• Demand Side Sales - Bob Moesta

• How To Tell A Story - The Moth

• Happy Go Lucky - David Sedaris

• 4,000 Weeks - Oliver Burkeman

• The Control of Nature - John McPhee

2021 Reading List

• Siddhartha - Herman Hesse

  How have I gone this long in life without reading this book? Wow. Such a great parable on finding the self.

• Revelations In Air - Jude Stewart

  This was a really interesting book I learned about in the WSJ. It’s a historical and scientific look at smells and our olfactory system. More than anything, it goes through the most famous “smells” of history. This was a super easy read and interesting.

• Into The Forest - Rebecca Frankel

  This was a really well written book. This type of book shows how crazy real life can be, so much that it reads like fiction. It’s the story of the Jewish people during the Holocaust that hid out in the Belarusian woods. While it is focused on one family, it tells the awful story of the whole thing from a different angle.

• The Practice of Groundedness - Brad Stulberg

• Drunk, How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way To Civilization - Edward Singerland

  This was a really interesting look at intoxicants and how they were the social lubricants that allowed us to become the civilization we are.

• The Premonition (A Pandemic Story) Michael Lewis

  I didn’t think I wanted to read a book relating to the pandemic given that we just lived through one. Michael Lewis is such a talented writer and weaves the narrative together in such a compelling way. This is more about how and who tried to get us prepared for a pandemic like the one we just slogged through and the failures along the way. Fascinating and sad at the same time.

• Unwinding Anxiety - Jud Brewer

• Cattle Kingdom - Christopher Knowlton

  I really enjoyed this book as well. If you are into history, then you’ll enjoy the way the author weaves the story of a few main characters to tell the entire history of the open range cattle era, Old West and the America that made it. It was so interesting how many things we take for granted today, sprang out of this era and industry.

• The Bomber Mafia - Malcolm Gladwell

  This book started as an episode of his podcast Revisionist History. Turns out there was a whole book in the story. It’s a fascinating story about how the airplane was once an afterthought in the military campaigns and how bombing changed everything. The book was exclusively written for audiobook, so the production level is off the charts. Highly recommend.

• Pappyland - Wright Thompsen

  I listened to this book on our drive through Kentucky, since this book is all about bourbon and Pappy Van Winkle. I loved the way he weaved his family journey with that of the Van Winkle family.

• How To Avoid A Climate Disaster - Bill Gates

  This book should really be required reading, as well. The way Gates breaks down incredibly complex challenges into understandable pieces, while at the same time, not overly simplifying it is a credit to the way he thinks and writes. This is the first book I’ve read that truly understands the enormity of the situation, yet puts forth an actual plan. It doesn’t matter what political persuasion you are for this book to matter. He comes at it straight down the middle, more like a scientist than anything

• Think Again - Adam Grant

  This is my book of the year so far. It should be required reading for everyone this year. The book is extremely well written and a thoughtful instruction on how to re-think our preconceived notions and our approach toward debates with others.

• The Empathy Edge - Maria Ross

  I don’t score well on the empathy scales apparently, so I am trying to read and learn to be better…

• Dumb Luck & The Kindness of Strangers - John Gierach

  What a great book. I have been getting into fly fishing lately and this book is great. It’s like a memoir to fly fishing as told through the beautiful stories of his various fishing trips through life.

• Finding Your Best - Michael Gervais & Pete Carroll

  An Audible original by Gervais and Carroll. I took their class Compete To Create with my leadership team a couple of years ago and this was a nice recap of that class.

• Pee Wees - Rich Cohen

  Fun book about the life and times of a hockey parent. Incredible lessons told in a hilarious way. People are crazy.

• The Weather Detective - Peter Wohlleben

  Love this guys books. Hidden Life of Trees is one of my favorite ever. This one wasn’t as great, but still a good read.

• A Promised Land - Barack Obama

  You not agree with his politics or his decision making, but we can all agree that he writes very well. Book is written in a way that weaves the themes of his first term as president into a personal narrative that is both detailed and critical of oneself. It’s fun to read the memoir of a living president, especially one that was president when you were a young adult. It was super interesting to get a behind the scenes look at how the sausage was made.

2020 Reading List

• The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

  Meh.

• Is This Anything - Jerry Seinfeld

  So funny. Broken down by decade. I think his 2000’s jokes were the funniest.

• Demand Side Sales - Bob Moesta

• Decision Making - Annie Duke

  Both books that I’ve read by Annie Duke this year have probably been the most useful books I’ve read this year.

• Caffeine - Michael Pollan

• Greenlights - Matthew McConaughey

• Herbie - Rich Cohen

• Thinking In Bets - Annie Duke

• The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Ben Horowitz

  This book couldn’t have come at a better time. Such a different type of business book. Definitely not written by a “consultant”.

• Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It - Kamal Ravikant

  Listened to the Audible version of this book. I found the book somewhat cheesy in parts, but overall, it had some profound thoughts that I have already started implementing personally.

• Kingdom Of Nauvoo - Benjamin Park

  I don’t know what my fascination with Mormons is from, but I found this a perfect combination of a great topic and history. To see how this group of people were treated in that time really gives you a different perspective on things and is applicable today. That’s the best part of history, just continues to repeat itself.

• Them: Why We Hate Each Other & How We Heal - Ben Sasse

  Such an important book right now. This is my favorite book I’ve read this year so far.

• Rising From The Plains - John McPhee

  I just love John McPhee. Again, he takes a seemingly boring topic like stratification of rocks and sediments and tells an amazing story that keeps you riveted and teaches you something.

• Why We Swim - Bonnie Tsui

  A really interesting look into humans and our desire to be in and near water. She weaves the story line of her life with the impact that being and swimming in water has made on her.

• The Hot Hand - Ben Cohen

  This was a really good read. Very well written in a very Gladwell type way. I love when authors dive deep into our preconceived notions.

• The Infinite Game - Simon Sinek

• 21 Rules For The 21st Century - Yuval Noah Harari

  This was another gifted book and I really enjoyed it. Super timely with all that we have going on in the world. It was very interesting how he wove it all into mindfulness.

• Edison - Edmund Morris

  I loved this book. Such a great biography of Thomas Edison. Biggest takeaway was that he lived a life of huge success and huge failure, almost no in between. He was also a pretty terrible parent from today’s standards. That was a lesson in what not to be from a parenting standpoint. Question I keep walking away with from books like these is can you be a genius, as well as a good spouse or parent. Let’s just say I’m glad I’m not a genius.

• Food Routes

  This book was a Christmas gift and not one I would normally pick out, which make the best gifts. It was a good look at the different routes and logistic systems that our food take to reach our plate.

• The Pioneers - David McCullough

  I actually found this book riveting and super easy read. I think I enjoyed it because the area of the country that the book delves into is where I am from.

Here’s a list of my favorite books.

Not necessarily in particular order of enjoyment.

• The Fish That Ate The Whale

• The Hidden Life Of Trees - amazing look into the nature of trees and what it can tell us about our own lives.

• The Obstacle Is The Way - this is an annual read for me. Great gateway drug into stoicism.

• Ego Is The Enemy - just so good.

• The Passion Paradox - I needed this book at the time I read it. Passion isn’t everything.

• Range - Possibly my book of the year for 2019. Completely goes against everything we’ve been taught.

• Everything Is Fucked - Let this book slap you in the face.

• Superpower

• The Great Mental Models

• Draft No. 4