Best of the Year

The book critiques how societal policies are often crafted by intellectual elites lacking direct experience in the areas they legislate. This can lead to decisions that negatively impact those they're meant to help, without accountability or real-world feedback loops. There's a focus on self-serving moral narratives…

The book is a story of a young woman who makes a deal with the devil to be fully free, and as a side effect becomes immortal. But there's a catch, she is given a curse that everyone she meets forgets her, when she leaves their sight. She lives on for hundreds of years traveling across the world and generations. It was…

An incredibly insightful book by a plastic surgeon who explores how our self-image shapes our behavior and success in life. Even if someone changes their outside appearance, real change begins with your changing your internal view and belief of yourself. Many people fail not due to a lack of ability but because their…

I LOVE books that counter my views or opinions on things and challenge my belief window. This book convincingly argues that fixed objectives and goals don’t lead to greatness as much as we believe. It argues that rigid planning stifles creativity and adaptability, which are essential for truly innovative achievements.…

Wow! What a life! (thus-far). Trevor Noah, shares stories of his childhood growing up in South Africa during the tail-end of apartheid. Being born, half black, half white, he was Born a Crime under the racist laws of apartheid. The lessons on the journey finding one's identity and cultivating craftiness and ingenuity…

Models encourages confidence through vulnerability and non-neediness, opening up yourself to share more while still holding onto your values and being self-reliant. Models is based on good intentions, as opposed to some other opportunities and manipulative dating books, so I resonated much more with Mark's principled…

It should come of no surprise that one of the founders of Pixar would be able to craft an amazing story with the book Creativity Inc. in collaboration with Amy Wallace. Halfway through, I knew this book would are my all-time favorites list. What stands out in this book compared to other business books is the…

Stories. It's our social-evolutionary trump card. In Sapiens, Harari takes us on a historical tour of our own story, that of Homo Sapiens, and why we survived compared to other Homo species. Written in a simple, focused and vibrant style, the story takes us through early homo branches and then the age of the solo homo…

A recommended read for the super curious and or Mad Scientists. Seriously though, "What if?" is packed with smart wit and humor, from the creator of the XKCD webcomics that you've probably seen somewhere on the online. The book creates an immense feeling of wonder, blending together science, creativity, and curiosity.…

Reading Poor Charlie's Almanac is like going on an adventure. Everything isn't always neatly organized. He goes on a tangent at times and later refines and re-emphasizes certain points as he revisits talks and other statements. The illustration added a lot of flavor to the book as well as the commentary and…

A plot similar to The Jungle Book and Tarzan, with the essence of a Tim Burton Movie and extravagant spooky characters like those Halloween movie specials the Disney Channel used to feature. And yet, The Graveyard book stood all on its own, with amazing writing and creativity from Gaiman. Not only did this book bring…

Deep Work is a very powerful concept and skill. It is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. This book gets bonus points for the concept, even if the book didn't meet my…

One of the most impactful book's I've read. Stoicism is the guiding philosophy of life, I never knew I was in search of. This ancient philosophy which originated out of Greece, and evangelized by the Roman's has stood the test of time with many principles and relevant pieces of life advice. Irvine summarizes the core…

In The One Thing, you learn the art of prioritization and how to train your mind to connect one goal with the next over time until you know the most important thing to do right now. If you don't have a goal in mind, great questions are a way to get you closer, by leading you to an excellent answer. The question you…

In Between the World and Me, Coates write to his fifteen-year-old son, Samori, about questions regarding the nation's history, culture, racial struggles and his experiences living in a black body in America. Forgetting about the past and the pain that comes with it is easy, but remembering and understanding is very…

The amount of wisdom packed into this small book blew my mind. I immediately knew it was making the list only halfway through. In the practicing mind, the author emphasizes the importance of process over product and results. Most of the anxiety we experience in life, and failure to finish what we start comes from this…

The Inner Game of tennis is about reaching a state of peak mental performance, through the art of relaxed concentration. The author talks about two states within us, Self 1, the teller and Self 2, the doer. The key is improving the relationship between the conscious teller and the natural capabilities of Self 2,…

Every important decision you make is influenced by an important cognitive factor many people seem to overlook, perception of time, your internal and personal time zone. In The Time Paradox, Drs. Zimbardo and Boyd draw on over thirty years of research, teaching you about the psychology of time and how you individual…

With Antifragile, Taleb gives us a roadmap for thriving in change and chaos. For something to be fragile, it cracks under stress and pressure. Something that isn't fragile but robust has a higher threshold for stresses and pressure. Taleb, presents the concept of Antifragile, something that goes beyond resiliency and…

I think this book should be required reading for any business school student. Or even if you want to be more familiar with business, in general, The Personal MBA gives a good overview without scaring you off with too much technical detail. It was a pleasant surprise that this book was more than business; it included…

Wow, what an inspirational read, in spite of all the tragedy. Dr. Frankl's story illustrates that even when one is at their weakest point they have the opportunity and a choice to be at their strongest. Reading this book has greatly impacted my life.

The world is a complex system made up of many smaller systems all interacting, and we can benefit from viewing things from a bigger picture; seeing the connections. With that knowledge, we can design better systems and adapt and influence the systems in our communities and the world as a whole. This book was an…

"Grit is that mix of passion, perseverance, and self-discipline that keeps us moving forward in spite of obstacles." If you want to get better at getting better, The Little Book of Talent is a good start. This was a very fun read. I felt so excited to implement a good portion of the tips from the book of talent. It's…

The Blank Slate, by Dr. Pinker, will have you think about and question how the human identity and intelligence forms at the point of birth going through the experiences of life. The idea of human nature or lack of has been debated throughout history and has had profound implications on laws, religion, politics,…

A major theme was that ambitious people should create a company that doesn't just have a small incremental improvement, but a 5x-10x+ shift that has the potential to move humanity a bit forward. Thiel made many bold statements and some other contrarian views, and I loved it. Zero to One was an audaciously brilliant…

The Art of Learning is an engaging autobiography of someone who reached a world-class level in two highly competitive sports both mentally, as a world class Chess grandmaster and physically, through Push Hands Martial Arts. Even in these solo-sports, Josh did a good job showing the benefits of a great advisor, coach…

This timeless book by Dale Carnegie is a story about respect and empathy. We all should take notice of the little things, showing our appreciation for others and commitment towards building a relationship. The lessons from this book are simple one's that we sometimes forget, if made awarer, we could have many more…

The lessons of history are your tools to use today. There are many forms of power and it is your responsibility to understand them, as to not fall victim to abuse or manipulation of power. When I was done, I felt like I now acquired 48 shields. The insights from this book are practical and will aid you in your freedom…

Pragmatic Thinking and Learning was an insightful journey into better understanding how the brain works and then using that knowledge to extend and get the most out of our minds. Although, the book it marketed towards programmers and uses some technical analogies, it still is a very engaging read for a wide range of…

The core message of turning adversity into strength was something that truly resonated with me as I grew up in disadvantaged circumstances. David & Goliath is a very well written book, although I can see how people can get with Gladwell's style of writing as his books seem to rhyme with each other. Regardless, the…

Sometimes our minds are anchored to thoughts of the past or pulled toward worries of the future. The Power of Now helped me to get to the next level of mindfulness in the present moment. It's been a very influential book and has brought meditation into my life on a more consistent basis.

One common reason our ideas don't connect to the potential audience is due to the problem of the "Curse of Knowledge" where we communicate an idea where we have all the insider and domain knowledge, and we mistakenly assume the person on the other side has context and prior information into what you're are talking…