My 2017 Reading List and Reviews

I had a goal of reading more books in 2017 and as I now look back on the year, I can say I was quite successful, completing 26!

The following list is all 26 of those, with the best books towards the top. The highest rating I give is “WRA” — would read again!

1. AntiFragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb— WRA! If things that break when exposed to stress are fragile, and those which can withstand stress for some duration are robust, then those which strengthen when exposed to stressors are antifragile. Taleb does an incredibly thorough job of exploring this concept, from the human muscular system and healthcare to financial technology and the airline industry. While I can’t say I agreed with every example, he frequently presents thought-provoking or perspective shifting evidence- and with a good sense of humor!
2. Medieval Technology and Social Change by Lynn White Jr. — WRA! How did the conversion to horse-mounted warfare rearchitect society, wealth, farming, and lead to inventions ranging from crop-rotation to guns to clocks? This is truly an academic text, with footnotes which sometimes take up more than half the page — confession, I didn’t read those. While dense, it is an incredible exploration of so many aspects of modern life that can be taken for granted.
3. Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol — WRA! An exploration of education in America in the late 1980s and early 90s, as told through the lens of some of the poorest districts in America. This is a gutting read. Starting with the perspective of children, Kozol explores everything from classroom dynamics to how corporations can dodge paying taxes into the neediest of school districts, to court cases and parents doing everything in their power for their child’s education.
4. Option B by Sheryl Sandberg — WRA! This book covers many topics, both quantitatively and anecdotally, but for me, to put it simply, it is the best book I have ever read on death in the modern world. It is sad and beautiful and triumphant and honest and real.
5. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert — WRA! Gilbert fully explores creativity, her own and others, and asks many incredible questions along the way. My absolute favorite, about figuring out if you love a thing enough to create it whether or not you ‘succeed’, is if you’re willing to eat the shit sandwich that goes with it.
6. Letters to a Young Chef by Daniel Boulud. While this book is obviously all about food, it is also very much about mentorship and how to be successful, which is applicable across any discipline. I can’t recommend this as a before-bed read, as it will make you quite hungry.
7. Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. An incredible memoir about the journey of being a female in academia, inter-spliced with incredible information on the lives of trees and the history of dirt (sounds boring- it’s not). This memoir also contained an incredibly honest and open look at the author’s depression.
8. Family Life by Akhil Sharma. This novel explores a coming to America/ coming of age tale with a dark twist. Beautifully written and definitely sad.
9. Tap Dancing to Work by Carol J. Loomis. This is a master work on Warren Buffett, mostly through the eyes of long-time friend, investor, and editor at “Fortune” magazine- Carol Loomis. It is a mostly chronological assemblage of articles published in Fortune on Buffett, his letters to investors, and any other relevant pieces. The editor notes detailing how investments turned out with 20–20 hindsight are incredible.
10. Methland by Nick Reding. Reding traces the meth epidemic and all of it’s impacts by focusing primarily on one midwestern town. This book is not for the faint of heart. It is graphic and tragic and eye opening. It explores the epidemic from the perspective of the drug companies, the dealers, the cartels, the politicians, and the physical impact to small towns.
11. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. This novel won the Pulitzer Prize- and for good reason. It is gripping and sad and funny, a coming of age tale laced with tragedy and triumph.
12. Originals by Adam Grant. Grant explores many different facets of originality and successful ideas; is first mover advantage real? Does procrastination help creativity? How does an organization build strong culture? This is a Malcolm Gladwell style exploration, well written with delightful twists and turns.
13. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. Ehrenreich explores minimum wage jobs in average cities, fully taking on a job in a few different cities, attempting to get housing and survive on minimum wage. It is gutting to see how even hard working, well-intentioned persons cannot make enough to afford a shirt at Walmart while working at Walmart.
14. Born Standing Up by Steve Martin. This memoir by Martin looks at his early life and introduction into comedy. Both hysterical and sad, it contains many slices of raw creativity (jokes, situations, iterations) and was a delight to read.
15. The Half Life of Facts by Samuel Arbesman. The subtitle here- “Why Everything We Know Has An Expiration Date” is indicative of the topics covered. There are a few layers here which are unexpected and enlightening; fact phase transitions, measurement errors, and human biases (“scientometrics is the science of science”).
16. Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb. I picked up this book because I was traveling to Sicily and thought that this would be great to put my mind in the right frame. It turns out this book is less about the food or the land and more about the mafia, politics, corruption, and murder. It is as intense and jaw-dropping as “Methland” and while I think it was excellent I cannot say that I’d recommend this as a pre-trip-to-Italy book.
17. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. Knight is the cofounder of Nike; the majority of the book is his early life and the early days of Nike. It is an incredible tale and it is surprising how a company that currently looks invincible was so fragile at so many stages. I was quite sad the book didn’t tackle or describe the Jordan era, but despite that the last chapter remains especially powerful.
18. Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. Liu’s sci-fi universe is wild and amazing, set during and after the Cultural Revolution in China. It is wild and inventive and the first in a trilogy (I’m aiming to read #2 this year).
19. The Knockoff Economy by Kal Raustiala and Christopher Sprigman. Raustiala and Sprigman explore how innovation and industries thrive despite imitation. They focus on fashion, chefs and food, football plays, and a few others. There is much discussion on legal recourse concerning copyright and intellectual property and how in many industries those tools are not used by practitioners despite rampant copying (and that said copying is often beneficial for all businesses participating, even those that are copied).
20. Who Gets What and Why by Alvin Roth. Roth has been instrumental in implementing systems and processes related to matching- the NYC public school lottery, how residency matching occurs, etc. While I think this was a pretty good read and informative (especially about incentive structures), it lacked a certain punch after reading “Savage Inequalities.” I might have had too high of an expectation based on the title.
21. Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. The subtitle of this book is “Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx” and that pretty much says it all.
22. Leadership and Self-Deception by The Arbinger Institute. A look at leadership and management via virtue, avoiding self-betrayal, and honoring commitments. Stay attuned to your true motivations and don’t sabotage your effectiveness.
23. Essentialism by Greg McKeown. Prioritization, elimination, and execution for all aspects of your life; as the subtitle accurately indicates, “The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.”
24. Humble Inquiry by Edgar H. Schein. The art of asking questions in a constructive manner.
25. The End of Absence by Michael Harris. An exploration into the fact that cell phones/ wifi are erasing are ability to be ‘absent’ and what we lose because of this. Wikipedia isn’t always correct, but we trust the internet. The first reaction isn’t always right, but it’s often the only one we remember. If you’re interested in this topic, I recommend this article by Andrew Sullivan — “I Used to Be a Human Being” — in NY Mag.
26. The Master Algorithm by Pedro Domingos. An interesting book, but I think there are a few that are much better on algorithms. It is admittedly difficult to walk the line between academic exploration and practical application for a topic like this.