Trinity’s Top Reads & Listens of 2019

It’s officially resolution season and most of us can agree that making time to read and listen to thought-provoking content is an important goal, both personally and professionally.

Our Trinity team has you covered with the best books we read — both fiction and non-fiction — and the most memorable podcast episodes we listened to in 2019 (here’s the playlist).

What are the books and podcast episodes that stuck with you in 2019? Leave your recommendations in the comments below.

Photo by Konstantin Dyadyun on Unsplash

Best Non-Fiction Reads

BUSINESS

• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight (recommended by Noel Fenton)
• Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice by Bill Browder (recommended by Patricia Nakache)
• The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker (recommended by Kalee Fennelly)
• Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World by Tom Wright (recommended by Noel Fenton)
• Get Together: How to Build a Community With Your People by Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh and Kai Elmer Sotto (recommended by Kalee Fennelly)

PERSONAL + PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

• The Courage To Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga (recommended by Allison Baum)
• Gravitas: Communicate with Confidence, Influence and Authority by Caroline Goyder (recommended by Nina Labatt)
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss (recommended by Melody Ma)

HISTORY

• Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network by Lynne Olson (recommended by Noel Fenton)
• Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man by Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic (recommended by Noel Fenton)
• The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb by Neal Bascomb (recommended by Noel Fenton)
• The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre (recommended by Noel Fenton…clearly he loves historical non-fiction :) )
• Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown (recommended by Karan Mehandru)

MEMOIRS

• Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover (recommended by Allison Baum)
• Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah (recommended by Melody Ma)
• The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish (recommended by Allison Baum)
• Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink (recommended by Noel Fenton)
• Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb (audio only, recommended by Allison Baum)

HEALTH & WELLNESS

• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande (recommended by Kalee Fennelly)

Best Fiction Reads

HISTORICAL

• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (recommended by Patricia Nakache)
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (recommended by Noel Fenton)
• The Overstory by Richard Powers (recommended by Patricia Nakache)

ACTION & ADVENTURE / THRILLER & SUSPENSE

• The Gray Man by Mark Greaney (recommended by Nina Labatt)
• The Pendergast Series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (recommended by An Cayas)
• The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (recommended by An Cayas)

SCIENCE + DYSTOPIAN

• Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi (recommended by Nina Labatt)
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (recommended by Kalee Fennelly)

Most Memorable Podcast Episodes

Assembled for your convenience in this nifty Spotify playlist. Be sure to follow as we add new favorites.

Most Loved Podcast Episodes, a playlist by Trinity Ventures on Spotify

BUSINESS

• Exchanges at Goldman Sachs: What Can Wall Street and Silicon Valley Learn From Each Other? with Marty Chavez and Jake Siewert (recommended by Allison Baum)
• TED WorkLife: The Office Without A**holes with Adam Grant (recommended by Melody Ma)
• NYT The Daily: The Human Toll of Instant Delivery with Michael Barbaro (recommended by Kalee Fennelly)
• Inside Trader Joe’s: Why is Everyone So Nice? (recommended by Melody Ma)

ENTREPRENEURSHIP & LEADERSHIP

• NPR’S How I Built This: Stitch Fix with Guy Raz and Katrina Lake (recommended by Allison Baum)
• RISE podcast with Rachel Hollis (recommended by An Cayas)
• NPR’s How I Built This: Ben & Jerry’s with Guy Raz, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (recommended by Kalee Fennelly)
• The Dave Chang Show: The Chef as a Leader with Adam Grant (recommended by Melody Ma)

SCIENCE

• NPR’s Brain’s On! (recommended by Nina Labatt)
• RadioLab: From Tree to Shining Tree with Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich (recommended by Nina Labatt)

PARENTING

• The Birth Hour: A Birth Story Podcast with Bryn Huntpalmer (recommended by An Cayas)

What were your favorite reads and listens in 2019? Let us know in the comments.