2018 books
Books are how I procrastinate. I binge on them like some binge on Netflix shows. That’s the only explanation I have for setting a goal of reading 60 books this year and somehow getting through 125+ (Goodreads has some bugs that make it hard to get an accurate count). But the procrastination is kind of productive. I don’t just recline on the couch and read. I clean. I do laundry for the family of four, I brush the cat, I vacuum, I polish the kitchen spotless. It makes this bookworm’s procrastination more palatable to add productive but mindless busywork to the book addiction.
Before I get into the 2018 list, here’s my 2017 list and my 2016 list. And a disclaimer: this list says more about me and my preferences than about the objective quality of these books. For example, one of the books I strongly disliked this year was Larry Winget’s It’s Called Work for a Reason, which has somehow managed a 4.08 rating across 740+ reviews on Goodreads. So my tastes are just that: mine. YMMV.
Because a list of books can be boring, I’m just going to focus on the remarkable ones: remarkably good and remarkably bad. The rest of them get stacked in a disorganized pile at the end of this post for people who really like to rummage through a book bin.
Also, I am using Amazon affiliate links because I’ll get like one or two more books out of your clicks. I’m like an addict scrounging for scraps of paper that can be stitched together into another book hit.
🔥 Remarkably good
🔥 ️Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by Carreyrou — We all know the broad strokes of this story, but the details are delicious. I loved this book because Holmes is a sociopath who — unlike all the other sociopathic CEOs out there — gets what she deserves. Holmes serves as effigy for the string of 20-something founders that think they’re the next Steve Jobs and who emulate his asshole behaviors.
🔥 A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America by Miller and Armstrong — Picked this up during the Kavanaugh hearings to help me understand the issues behind under-reported and under-prosecuted sexual assault. Wasn’t disappointed. Miller tells the story of the justice system failing victims (accusing one of a false rape report) until some great detective work finally brings a serial rapist to justice.
🔥 How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Pollan — This was so much better than I had hoped it could be. Pollan’s skepticism serves the topic well. Warning: reading this book will make you want to try psychedelics. Better than most books on how the brain works. For example, after reading a half dozen descriptions of the default mode network, Pollan was the first author to finally make sense to me.
🔥 Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Hari — From past to present, this journalistic masterpiece tells the story of the criminally immoral war on drugs. Lots of great stories in here, including the one about a racist policeman whose anti-drug vendetta against Billie Holiday resulted in her death.
🔥 Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History by Andersen — A clear-eyed critic and careful journalist explains how America jumped the tracks in 2016. “The single most important explanation, and the fullest explanation, of how Donald Trump became president of the United States . . . nothing less than the most important book that I have read this year,” wrote MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.
🔥️ Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Harari — Combining insights from biology, anthropology, pre-history, culture, genetics, sociology, and science, this book helped me rethink what it means to be human.
🔥 Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Tergman — MIT professor on the future of life, intelligence, and humanity’s need to negotiate an appropriate place in the pecking order. Better than Harari’s Homo Deus as a follow-up to Sapiens.
🔥️ The Art of Roughhousing: Good Old-Fashioned Horseplay and Why Every Kid Needs It by DeBenedet — A rough-and-tumble defense of physical play, with instructions for how to bring more of it into kids’ lives. Loved it.
🔥️ American Wolf by Blakeslee — The first history of the Yosemite wolves, poignantly told. The bad guys don’t see justice in this one, unfortunately.
🔥 Fear: Trump in the White House by Woodward — The best of many books about the horrendous state of the executive branch. Ends with the memorable line: “You’re a fucking liar.”
🔥 Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Postman — “What happens when media and politics become forms of entertainment?” Written in 1985, this prophetic book sketched out the media environment we now live in, and predicts the dynamics that destabilize and undermine previously healthy institutions.
🔥 Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Noah — I didn’t know anything about Trevor Noah before hearing him narrate his life story in this audiobook (complete with very fine performances of various accents and wonderful comedic timing). This is one of those books that works even better as an audiobook. I learned more about the racist apartheid system by reading Trevor’s account of living in it than from reading the Economist for years.
🔥 The Metamorphosis by Kafka — Unlike Trevor Noah, Gregor Samsa wasn’t born a crime, but became one, overnight, waking up as a large bug. Alienation and mind-body disconnect are the themes that spoke to me. The BBC Radio 4 reading is wonderful.
🔥 Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley by Garcia Martinez — The author frequently comes across as an unlikeable, egotistical prick. But he’s smart, funny, sharp-eyed, and mostly right about the deep flaws of FANG & co. (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google).
🔥 Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life by Deresiewicz—On the rise of credentialism, the increasing narrowness of the path elites would have their children pursue, and the brokenness of way of the tiger parent.
🔥 Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Rosenberg — Gave me the tools to dissect and understand the violence that lurks in common communications between parents and children, managers and managed, and other emotionally fraught relationships. Eye opening (for me).
💩 Remarkably bad
💩 Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley by Chang — I posted a longer review here. The TLDR: some very questionable journalism.
💩 Finding My Virginity: The New Autobiography by Branson — I don’t know why Richard Branson struggles to be genuine and vulnerable in this book, but you’d think by the time someone’s a 68-year-old billionaire they’d spend less time humble-bragging, virtue signaling, and posturing and more time just being real.
💩 Crazy Rich Asians by Kwan — Better than the movie, still a despicable materialist fantasy. The entertaining plot fails to make up for the bankrupt values. It ends up worshipping the nasty people it ostensibly set out to skewer.
💩 Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 by Kaku — Some fun conjecture in here, but the occasional inaccuracies make it hard to trust, the blind optimism makes it hard to suspend disbelief, and the frequently shallow insights give off an overall scent of hucksterish futureism.
💩 Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery by Kelly — The author of this book, a respected astronaut, seems like a nice dude. But he’s so unwilling to be vulnerable, so excellent at being an emotionally stable astronaut type, that this book reads like it was written by someone who’s dead inside. Maybe NASA’s PR department scrubbed all the interesting out of it. Would be a fun read for kids who harbor space exploration dreams.
💩 It’s Called Work for a Reason!: Your Success Is Your Own Damn Fault by Winget — A right-winged boss’s rant. Garbage. The rants against unions, against sexual harassment claims, and so on. The author tells women to forgive men for thinking “with the wrong head most of the time” because boys will be boys, in his opinion. There’s lots more where that came from. A shame, really, because there are some gems of advice within as well.
💩 The Barefoot Executive: The Ultimate Guide for Being Your Own Boss and Achieving Financial Freedom by Wilkerson — A guidebook for people who would pursue not a single million-dollar idea, but a million single-dollar ideas, as the author suggests. I’m pretty sure that’s bad advice. This book offers guidance for people who want to transition from “barefoot and pregnant” to “barefoot and profitable” through some sort of work-from-home business. I think weaning oneself from the corporate salary teat is something more folks should aspire to, so I can’t disagree with the goal, I just wish the book weren’t so filled with fluffy testimonials and self-promotion. This book is just a marketing prop driving people to spend money on the author’s seminars and self-help courses.
💩 The Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want by Kerpen — Almost nothing in this book is remotely original. The construction of each chapter is in the style of those annoying as all hell LinkedIn posts that start with some attention-grabbing quote or dilemma, then go on to deliver a mundane piece of advice such as “praise in public, criticize in private” or “offer a feedback sandwich: a positive piece of feedback, a critical piece, then a positive piece of feedback.” Deep. Also found the tone distasteful because it suggests relationships are about getting “everything you want” by using others. The book suggests tactics that feel manipulative and focused on selfish goals, rather than on establishing healthy relationships.
💩💩 Think BIG and Kick Ass in Business and Life by Trump — Ugh.
The rest
With emojis denoting memorable (🧠), useful (🛠), feminism (👸🏽), pretty great (⭐️), and something like omgwtf (‽):
⭐ Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Harari — Sapiens looked at where we came from, Homo Deus looks at where we might be going. It was mostly great, but had a few areas of weakness.
⭐️️ WTF?: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us by O’Reilly — This book is as optimistic as I can handle. It addresses questions of robots, AI, etc., ultimately exhorting us (the humans building it all) to make good choices.
⭐️ The Handmaid’s Tale by Atwood — I’d read this as a teen in high school and didn’t really understand it. Much more relatable and chilling after experiencing our country’s ruling class throw theocratic tantrums. Get the audiobook, read by Claire Danes.
⭐️ Dune by Herbert —A re-reading occasioned by rumors that a new movie version is in the works. Still as good as I remembered it to be. One of the greatest sci-fi books of all time.
🛠 Thin Book of Trust by Charles Feltman — Delivers inarguable and actionable advice on building trust across a variety of situations.
🛠 Who Can You Trust?: How Technology is Rewriting the Rules of Human Relationships by Botsman — I read a lot about trust this year in an attempt to understand how it works so that I could help places I work create more lasting trust between groups, individuals, and managerial strata. This one’s more about the systems and companies that attempt to mediate public trust.
The Code of Trust: An American Counterintelligence Expert’s Five Rules to Lead and Succeed by Dreeke — Well intentioned. A decent read. But a little lightweight in terms of how deeply trust is understood and explained. Got into the neuroscience a little, but didn’t seem to be aware of other research on trust.
🛠Measure What Matters by Doerr — The best book on OKRs. Not the best book on measuring what matters. An indispensable guide for anyone implementing OKRs in an org, or working to succeed in an org where OKRs rule.
😲 Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Wolff — This book proves that the Trump Whitehouse is disorganized and in chaotic disarray. Like we needed additional proof. The details here seem well reported and reasonably accurate, even if Wolff’s sources often lied to him for the purpose of furthering their own petty agendas. The book both entertained and scared me. But it feels like a long version of the articles we’ve all been reading for a couple years now. It doesn’t feel revelatory or all that scandalous. It doesn’t, for example, significantly address topics of concern to the Mueller investigation. Dangerously, the author seems intent on inspiring some kind of orgiastic schadenfreude by preaching to the converted. It’s just another piece of bias-confirming professionalized gossip.
🛠 A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas by Berger —A practical guide to asking more and better questions for the purpose of fueling business innovation. I think this is wonderful — we could all stand to ask more questions.
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Peterson — Too much Jesus and Disney in this one for my taste. Almost ended up on my shit-list. Here are the rules in summary form (good rules, really):
Four Futures: Life After Capitalism by Frase — Too short. Great macro-view of some future themes that we see playing out the evolution of technology. I wanted more. I liked the framework and four scenarios:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7) by Rowling — Fun and fantastical. The final book in the series. Really enjoyed listening to this one with the kids during our multiple road trips between Northern and Southern California.
The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm by Kelley — Some excellent advice. But now feels dated, with references to defunct businesses, old fads, and technological dead ends. Also a little too heavy on the “hire IDEO” promotional language.
Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want by Epley — This book taught me to be less sure that I know others’ minds or even my own mind. It also gave some sound advice on how to avoid and correct for all the mistakes I make while trying to understand others’ intentions and thoughts. Good book, but my complaint is that it feels a little thin. There’s so much more to this topic and Epley’s narrow focus is both a strength and weakness of the book.
⭐️🧠The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by Perkins — Excellent book that gave me new insight on how the world works, especially with regards to capitalism’s approach to modern imperialism. Eye opening. Maybe a little too conspiratorial. The author seems to believe in a grand conspiracy, but I think he’s just seeing the natural (and unfortunate) behavior of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” at work. Corporations gonna pursue corporate until the world is a burned-out and uninhabitable husk. It’s not malicious, it’s just the natural outcome of the delusional game we’ve decided to play.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Murakami — Enjoyable autobiographical insight into the mind of an aging runner, written by an accomplished author.
Babbitt by Sinclair —This book’s flaw is that the main character is unlikeable, and that can make it hard to want to persist in reading the entire story. Babbitt, the protagonist, is an intellectually shallow slave of others’ opinions, an uncritical consumer, a crap husband, a derelict dad, a bad boss, a blathering boor, a perfect specimen of middle-class suffocation. But he’s also us. He represents the culture we’ve been born into, that we’ve bought into, and that we perpetuate. It’s embarrassing to look in the mirror, not just at our private corruptions, but at the whole stinking corruption of the American Dream.
⭐️ The Wide Lens by Adner —The central and valuable idea presented in this book is that innovation happens within systems, not inside one team at a single company. From the book jacket: “In our increasingly interdependent world, winning requires more than just delivering on your own promises. It means ensuring that a host of partners -some visible, some hidden- deliver on their promises, too.”
⭐️ The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Coyle —Really sound advice in this book for cultivating environments that are full of meaning and trust. Quote that I strongly agree with, from the book: “When we hear a fact, a few isolated areas of our brain light up, translating words and meanings. When we hear a story, however, our brain lights up like Las Vegas, tracing the chains of cause, effect, and meaning. Stories are not just stories; they are the best invention ever created for delivering mental models that drive behavior.”
As You Think by Allen —A classic, first published in 1904. I read the updated version. This quote from the book is a decent summary of the whole thing:
“You are the master of your thought, the molder of your character, and the maker and shaper of your condition, environment, and destiny.”
Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies by West — Way too deep in the weeds. The author shows his work as if it’s an academic paper. Repetitive. Not enough courage on display — would have expected at least an attempt at conjecture or forward implications. Feels at times like it was written only for urban planners, not a more general readership. Pretty interesting, but a missed opportunity.
Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing Out of Sync? by Godin — I like Seth Godin’s writing on marketing. I think he’s greatly under-appreciated.
⭐️Skin in the Game: The Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life by Taleb —I always feel dumb when I read Taleb. It’s clear the man is so much smarter than I’ll ever be. There are plenty of authors where this is the case, but reading Taleb, the feeling is particularly acute. Anyway, I loved a multitude of moments in this book. Here’s a quote that really stood out for me: ““It is no secret that large corporations prefer people with families; those with downside risk are easier to own, particularly when they are choking under a large mortgage.”
🧠 Around the World in Eighty Days by Verne — Some of this book feels racist by the sober light of 2018, but still a fun tale that the kids loved having read to them.
😴 20000 Leagues Under the Sea by Verne — A re-read. So much more boring than I remembered. The long, long lists of species … felt like a literary device from another century. Which, actually, come to think of it, it is! The audio version is terrible because the narrator gets progressively drunker as the book progresses, his speech slurring and getting slower and more soporific. Really great for putting a car full of people, driver included, to sleep.
⭐️ The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America by Snyder — How Russia strongly influenced Brexit, Trump 2016, and more. How authoritarianism has returned.
A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life by Grazer — The author, an award winning hollywoodperson, recounts his techniques for interviewing SMEs and getting them to open up. Can’t disagree with the central premise: curiosity is a really great trait.
⭐ ️The Meaning Revolution: The Power of Transcendent Leadership by Kofman — The best places to work understand that work has to be about more than a paycheck and that meaning can be designed into workplaces. From the book jacket: “Rather than salary, benefits, bonuses, or other material incentives; companies that are able to successfully focus their people, their teams, and their culture around meaning outperform their competition.” This topic is hugely important to me.
💩 Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich by Frank — An uncritical look at rich folks’ spending behaviors. The author allows himself to think that the growing concentration of wealth will result in social problems getting solved and other trickle-down fantasies getting realized. To be expected from a WSJ writer.
💩 SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Levitt — I dunno, the Freakonomics schtick is starting to wear thin. My friend Kerith wrote this review, which I agree with: “Unfortunately, there’s more sizzle than steak here. The authors think that if they toss around basic micro-econ terms and use other people’s case studies, they’ll be hailed as brilliant. Maybe I’m not the target audience, but it reminds me of the movie Bullworth — hilarious to see Warren Beatty trying to rap, but if you’re an adult and came away from the movie enlightened by the idea that politics is corrupt, what rock are you living under?”
💩🛠 Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Scott — There’s a lot of good content here. But the author’s advice isn’t always consistent with the stated ideals. For example, there are many suggestions that sound like servant leadership, and many of these are solid and awesome. But there are as many or more pieces of advice advocating for a top-down, hierarchical style of management, including the author’s frequent use of constructions such as “soandso reported to me” and “I had 100 people reporting to me,” and so on.
I found this inconsistency puzzling. Usually when someone gives lip service to a concept such as servant leadership but behaves another way, my first question is whether they understand the concept well enough. Maybe it’s an education problem. But the author appears to be highly educated and widely read, and runs a company that helps companies implement management practices, so I don’t think ignorance is the answer to the puzzle.
I don’t know the answer. I’ll never know it. But I have had the misfortune of working with executives who understand concepts like servant leadership, and use the language fluently, but who have terrible self-awareness blind spots (aided by a lack of listening skills) that keep them from seeing just how hierarchical they are. This is the most charitable interpretation. I hope it’s the case here. Because the other situation (I’ve experienced) is that the executive is a sociopath, skilled at appearing to be a culture fit, but ultimately more skilled at using people for their self-enrichment and power fantasy fulfillment.
I wish I hadn’t picked up this icky vibe, which other reviewers also noticed and commented on, because it made it difficult to suspend disbelief and judgment and really read with an open mind. The self-aggrandizement is just hard to get over.
Overall, the internal inconsistency of this book makes it a dangerous tome. The sort of “management bible” that can be used to justify many good practices and many bad ones. Already, in the short time it’s been out, I’ve seen the book used by a bullying manager to deliver obnoxiously aggressive feedback labeled as “radical candor.” I fear that this book will be a greater friend to legions of sharp-elbowed asshole managers than to the cowardly types who veer into “ruinous empathy” (which, in my experience, is usually a bigger problem with a company culture, and the individual manager isn’t the right locus of attention).
My conclusion is that I don’t think there’s nearly enough attention and thoughtfulness around the “care personally” dimension of the book’s core framework. Other writers and thinkers such as Fred Koffman, Thich Nhat Hanh, Frederic Laloux, Diana Chapman, Edgar Schein, and Marshall Rosenberg… to name just a few who are leagues above this book in terms of conscious attention to the human and humane elements of working well with others.
🛠 The 5 Second Rule: Transform Your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage by Robbins — Solid advice, but could have been 1/10th the length. This book is fluffed and stuffed cover to cover with story after story and testimonial upon testimonial. That’s a shame, because the advice is good. Ever since starting the book a few weeks ago, I’ve avoided my snooze button 100% of the time and have established a new habit of waking up when I set my alarm. The advice here is effective for little things like that, and little things can snowball into big things. So read it, but feel free to skim and skip all the fluff.
🛠 Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility by McCord — An excellent companion to the famous “Netflix Culture Deck.” I think Netflix gets some things terribly wrong, and I even had the benefit of a 1:1 conversation with Patty where I asked her about some of the downsides of the Netflix culture, but to her credit, and to this book’s credit, she’s open to debate, and is willing to admit that they didn’t get everything right. This is a thought-provoking read full of interesting ideas, but the recommendations within are merely a starting point. Woe be to the company or executive team that adopts these recommendations without careful and thoughtful consideration of the entire system that exists within a company.
🤪 A Walk in the Woods by Bryson — Hilarious. Laugh out loud funny at times. If Cheryl Strayed had been a guy, and failed to finish her hike, and were accompanied by a comic sidekick, it might come out like this.
🤪 I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons by Hart —Kevin Hart overcame the odds to become a successful comedian and actor. The audiobook version is amazing. He goes on riffs that aren’t in the script. His timing and delivery are awesome. You’re robbing yourself if you do the non-audio version of this book.
👸🏽🤪 Just the Funny Parts: … And a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking Into the Hollywood Boys’ Club by Scovell — I read this to better understand the struggles of women who succeed in boys’ clubs. It was helpful for that, and for building my understanding of how entertainment media gets made.
🤪 Black Privilege: Opportunity Comes to Those Who Create It by God — I don’t know why I read a bunch of memoirs by entertainers and comedians this year. It just happened that way. It may have something to do with the fact that this genre really shines in audiobook format. Like the others, this was a very entertaining audiobook. It’s read by the author, a radio personality. The advice dispensed is at times shallow and demonstrative of a lack of understanding. He is OK with being treated roughly, with people being really direct, confrontational, and harsh with him. But he thinks it’s ok to treat everyone else the same way. He’s got his head on straight in many other ways, so I don’t mean this one criticism to overshadow the good aspects of the book. I most liked the part about the five percenters. Didn’t know about that movement by name, but have heard many of the preachings. Now I’m a little less ignorant.
⭐ Dying for a Paycheck: How Modern Management Harms Employee Health and Company Performance and What We Can Do About It by Pfeffer —Strong book. Wasted a bit of time showing all of its work (in a very academic way). I got impatient with it — I was like, “I get it, layoffs are very unhealthy. Layoffs kill people. Get on with the rest of your point!” on a few occasions. But overall, I think the thoroughness is necessary, because the book is suggesting that we rethink the culture and policies that surround how corporations relate to labor. Also, the examples given in the book were shallow and common; I wish there could have been deeper case studies on companies that do this well and right, and not just the usual suspects.
The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World’s Happiest People by Wiking — Too short! Wanted more depth and more reaching for insight. Lovely little book, but a touch too shallow.
Mind Set!: Reset Your Thinking and See the Future by Naisbitt — A book by a well-known future prediction pundit about how to make better calls about the future. Kind of forgettable.
The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures by Damasio — I’m going to quote a Goodreads reviewer I agree with: “The Strange Order of Things is my first book by Damásio, but it was a bit of a disappointment. It tries to synthesize the entire evolutionary history from RNA-based precursors of modern life over bacterial cultures through human cultures and into the prospects of artificial intelligence through the prism of homeostasis. The word homeostasis appears 200 times in the book, and in the end it seems like a crutch, a sort of modern “soul” that is supposed to explain everything about any living substance. In the end, Damásio argues that artificial intelligence isn’t possible because a digital consciousness doesn’t have a homeostatic imperative.”
👸🏽 American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus by Wade — Horrifying and educational. Promises, “invaluable insights for students, parents, and educators,” but Peggy Orenstein’s Girls and Sex, which covers most of the same territory, is better.
👸🏽⭐️ That’s What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) about Working Together by Lipman — A great book about navigating male-female gender issues in the workplace. Loved it. I had never heard the tale of the feminist revolution in Iceland post financial meltdown and enjoyed reading about it here.
Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency by Miller —I didn’t understand half of it, and could have used better explanation of terms of art used throughout. Not all on me either, as the book’s disorganization and non-sequitur jump-cuts from story to story across the 40-year timespan make following along somewhat painful. Also, it sometimes feels like an endless litany of Hollywood name-dropping. All that said, this is an incredible book that taught me lots about the structure of Hollywood. I didn’t even think of buyside and sellside talent markets, nor of “packaging” talent before this. As a result of this book, I’m much clearer now regarding the depth of my ignorance about the entertainment business.
10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works by Harris — This is the autobiographical journey of a news anchorman’s journey into mindfulness. The author starts out as a cocaine-abusing, high-strung TV personality and mellows, over the course of the book, into something more likable, more successful, and more zen. It’s an entertaining read, and perhaps a good gift for skeptics who may doubt the value of meditation and mindfulness practice. But I found its coverage of mindfulness to be rather mundane and basic, while its coverage of the autobiographical story to be a little too polished and sanitized. Here’s a video where Dan tells the story of his on-air freak-out that led to his journey of self-discovery. If you find the video intriguing, you’ll enjoy the book.
⭐️ American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Woodard — A friend described this as Guns, Germs & Steel for the American Nation. I think that’s a good comparison. It’s a fascinating recontextualization of American history that explains a lot about how our national politics work and the cultures and sub-cultures that make the USA both diverse and maddeningly difficult to govern.
🤪 The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny by McGraw — Really enjoyable, humorous romp through the question of what makes stuff funny. They never manage to answer the core question, but come tantalizingly close to what feels like an answer now and then.
🛠👸🏽 Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brown — Not Brown’s best book, according to reviews from people who have read more of her work than I have. I enjoyed it. Some great advice here. Sample quote: “Compassionate people ask for what they need. They say no when they need to, and when they say yes, they mean it. They’re compassionate because their boundaries keep them out of resentment.”
The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America by Wartzman —Book jacket blurb: “Rick Wartzman chronicles the erosion of the relationship between American companies and their workers. Through the stories of four major employers — General Motors, General Electric, Kodak, and Coca-Cola — he shows how big businesses once took responsibility for providing their workers and retirees with an array of social benefits.” This was a history lesson for me, but I found it hard to see its relevance to today’s situation. We have lost something and nothing here gives me hope that it’s coming back.
🛠 Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work: Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles of Respect by Marciano — Decent read on how to nurture a company culture that’s engaging, respectful, and that helps people feel safe to do their best work. Good stuff in here about how to build trust, how to measure engagement, and how to fix what’s wrong in broken cultures.
Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter by Ariely — Another of those books showing how we’re not rational Homo Economicus after all. I felt like I’d heard half the anecdotes before, and (for me) the lesson on opportunity cost wasn’t necessary after having it drilled into me over and over by MBA professors. This book makes more sense for readers who don’t often venture into this genre or subject.
⭐️🧠American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road by Bilton — As a libertarian 20-something, Ross Ulbrecht created Silk Road to enable people to buy and sell drugs. So far, so good. I think the war on drugs has been racist and criminal and morally bankrupt, so I’m a fan of Ross … up to a point. Ross crosses the line when he puts hits out on people, when he allows a black market in weapons to flourish, and when he gets too big for his britches, envisioning an Amazon for everything illegal.
👸🏽⭐️ Don’t Call Me Princess: Essays on Girls, Women, Sex, and Life by Orenstein — I fell in love with Peggy’s approach to book-length journalism when I read her excellent book Girls & Sex. This book is a collection of her best essays and articles and I found it educational. It wasn’t until I read this collection that I realized she was the author of the awesome article titled “Our Feel Good War on Breast Cancer” that instantly turned me from supporter to critic of the Susan G. Komen foundation. Peggy’s awesome.
👸🏽⭐️ We Should All Be Feminists by Adichie — This is just a short (but excellent!) essay and not quite a book. Very, very similar to her TED Talk by the same name, which clocks in at 30 minutes. Save yourself some time and money and check her out on TED.
🧠The Rules Do Not Apply by Levy — I was gutted by Ariel Levy’s account of her miscarriage in a Mongolian hotel room that was published in the New Yorker some years back. As an insta-fan of her writing, I sought more, and found it in this book.
🧠 Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve by Chu — A mother’s account of what happened to her American boy when he enrolled in a Chinese school. He became much better behaved, but at what cost to his future happiness and creativity and potential? Overall, she strikes a fine balance between praising and criticizing the Chinese school system. I find myself wondering if she pulled punches because she was, at the time of publication, still living in the country.
🧠The Monk of Mokha by Eggers — A Yemeni-American ventures back to his homeland to source excellent coffee. He experiences an adventure, but ultimately succeeds, an impressive accomplishment for a kid who grew up in the Tenderloin ghetto of San Francisco. There’s more to this story than Eggers was able to cover, as evidenced by the lawsuit against the subject of the book. Reading that link, it looks like Eggers got used.
⭐ ️Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry by Olen — Olen exposes the financial advice fraudsters and hucksters in this damning account of the financial media publishing business. Loved it. If you’ve ever read or admired “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey, Jim Kramer, or any of the self-help personal finance press, this book will recalibrate your compass to a truer North Star than the hucksters will every allow. A journalistically solid take-down of a downright bogus industry, plus sharp insight into what’s really going on as Americans are gaslight into blaming the wrong people for their decades-long financial distress.
7 Steps to Fearless Speaking by Wilder — A fairly ordinary book on public speaking. Includes information on how to construct a persuasive argument, how to tap into emotional memories to be a more evocative speaker, how to warm up your voice, etc. For such a short book, it’s a bit too broad and unfocused. The advice isn’t bad, and it’s certainly coming from an experienced coach, but it feels scattershot.
⭐️🛠 The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Heath — Brilliant book about creating influential peak moments that change minds, behaviors, and feelings. Full of detailed anecdotes that illustrate the principles in the book. Even the anecdotes that are familiar (such as the tale of the Nashville sit-ins) are told with fresh language and are vibrant and emotionally impactful as a result. My favorite story has to be the section on “tripping over the truth” in which entire villages are taught shame about literally defecating everywhere (rather than in latrines). I read the book as a manual on how to manufacture messages and moments that will create rabid fans for a brand/product/service, but it could just as easily be read as how to recognize and take advantage of the defining moments in each of our lives. Really enjoyed it.
Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Miller — Very short. Pretty solid with regards to using narrative structure to architect a brand. Did not like the constant push towards his consulting / education business.
The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy by Stoute — I read this book to prepare for some conversations I was about to have with Kanye West. That’s a story for another time. Let’s talk about the book: Steve Stoute believes that great marketing must connect with and converse with culture, and that brands that fail to maintain a dialog with urban culture in particular are doomed to be uncool and unsuccessful. This book contains a few excellent case studies of brands that have managed to do that successfully, including Reebok, Sean Jean, Adidas, Jeep, and Apple’s iPod. It also discusses brands that failed to do it, including the Dell and Sony MP3 players, Gap, and others. Three stars because I agree with the Amazon reviewer who wrote, “I thought [the book] lacked focus — was it a history of hip hop? Was it Steve’s memoir? Was it a guide to incorporate tanning into your business model? The book gets SO close to being each of these, but follows through on none. Disappointing in that regard, but still full of interesting facts and anecdotes on our culture.” Also, there was just a little too much self-promotion, both of Steve himself, and also of his agency. The smell of self-interest rather than ready interest made me question the author’s intent and editorial judgment.
The CEO Next Door: The 4 Behaviours that Transform Ordinary People into World Class Leaders by Botelho — The authors suggest that there are a few core behaviors that successful CEOs exhibit. They came to this conclusion by conducting 2,600 topgrade interviews (as part of their executive recruiting firm’s efforts), analyzing the data, and correlating data to post-hire performance. Seems like a reasonable methodology, I can’t find a major flaw in it.
And yet, this book underwhelms. At times, I was annoyed by the frequent references to the authors’ consulting business. The conflict of interest got in the way of my ability to trust the book. At other times, I was annoyed by the lack of a comprehensive framework for leadership behavior. It might well be other behaviors, habits, or traits than the ones talked about here that are more primary drivers of CEO success.
And at still other times, the advice felt too shallow. The authors acknowledge that there are “whole tomes” written on culture, but they still can’t stop themselves from offering advice to CEOs on how to shape culture. They should’ve stayed away from this and other topics rather than treat them superficially.
I don’t mean to sound too negative about the book. It’s pretty good. Maybe the best on the topic to date? But the authors set out to answer two core questions and I don’t think this book will be the final and best answer with regards to the questions, specifically: what are the behaviors that can lead to getting hired as CEO, and what are the behaviors that allow one to succeed at being CEO?
I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 by Edwards — I read this before beginning a gig at Google … and found it remarkable that almost everything this author wrote about as an ailment of Google’s approach to marketing was still present and obvious in 2018. Forewarned, but not forearmed, in my case.
💩 The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google by Galloway — The author’s ideas are at times kind of retro, and disproven by modern research. E.g., he asserts that “men are wired to procreate aggressively.” He uses the insult of “[soandso] never kissed a girl” as the ultimate insult. Twice, in reference to two separate “nerds.” This sort of bro-style bullying feels completely out of date and harmfully hetero-normative. He describes certain tech firms as “the hot girl on campus” and says, “Sorry, Caitlin, you’ll always be Bruce Jenner to me.” The above stupidity and backwards thinking notwithstanding, there’s some smart stuff in this book about Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon.
Gunmetal Gray by Greaney — Found this paperback at the airport. Read and enjoyed it. An entertaining (but pulpy) tale of a spy/agent with remarkable ability to fight and figure things out.
🛠 The Innovation Book: How to Manage Ideas and Execution for Outstanding Results by McKeown —A survey of innovation-enabling methods and models including: Althshuller’s innovation pyramid; Burgelman & Seigel’s minimum winning game; Osborn & Parnes’ creative problem solving; Altshuller’s TRIZ; Osterwalder’s business model canvas for the business model generation; Amabile’s internal & external motivation; Guilford’s convergent & divergent thinking; Ries’ build-measure-learn wheel for lean startups; Christensen’s disruptive innovation; Schroeder’s innovation journey; Usher’s path of cumulative synthesis; Benyus’ biomimicry design lens; Van de Ven’s leadership rhythms; Friend’s three types of uncertainty; Teece’s win, lose, follow, innovate grid; D. School’s design thinking modes; Henderson and Clark’s four types of innovation; Rogers’ adoption & diffusion curve; Abernathy & Utterback’s three phases of innovation, Chesbrough’s open innovation; March’s exploration versus exploitation; Johnson and Johnson’s constructive controversy cycle; Powell and Grodal’s networks for innovation, and Boyd’s OODA loop.
The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy by Bailey — I don’t know that I remember any of the lessons from this book. It didn’t transform me into a productivity machine. My biggest personal projects remain undone. I can’t endorse this one strongly.
🧠 Leonardo da Vinci by Isaacson — I don’t think this is Isaacson’s best work. It’s the third book of his that I’ve read. This one’s more historical and research-oriented in approach, almost boring at times. But still, I’m glad I read about the remarkable da Vinci and loved all of the detail shared in this book. I just wish the book had more of an emotional arc. We never develop a clear sense of Leonardo’s struggles, frustrations, or humanity. He remains aloof and private, which is frustrating. It’s no fault of the biographer (if the source material isn’t there, there’s not much a historian can do about it), but it was disappointing nonetheless.
🛠 The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family: A Leadership Fable… about Restoring Sanity to the Most Important Organization in Your Life by Lencioni — A consultant’s suggestion for running your family more like a business. Walks you through creating a clarifying and aligning sense of purpose and objectives.
Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Brafman — Lots of familiar anecdotes the other books in this genre have also covered. No deep flaws, but not enough originality or depth overall. Probably would have enjoyed more if I weren’t already somewhat familiar with behavioral economics research.
The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life by Twist — Essentially a three-hour guided meditation on gratitude and on moving from a scarcity mindset to an abundance or sufficiency mindset. “Money becomes a conduit to nourish the miracle of life.” Pretty woo woo, but it’s the right mindset, I think.
⭐️👸🏽 Troublemakers: Silicon Valley’s Coming of Age by Berlin — The book did an especially good job of covering some stories I’d never heard before. The story of ASK Computer Systems, its MANMAN software, and Sandra Kurtzig, for example, should be better known, and I deeply appreciate the author’s research into this chapter of Silicon Valley history. It also tells the story of Mike Markkula’s influence on Apple better than other books on the topic of Apple’s history. On the other hand, the book provides lots of extraneous detail that bogs down some of the stories, and it repeats some details several times. It doesn’t move along as well as other contemporary business histories, but it’s not a slog either.
⭐️ Valley of Genius: The Uncensored History of Silicon Valley by Fisher — Really a great read. Love the approach of telling the story through quotes — some of the quote sequences are devious and clever, especially the sequences where people contradict each other. Some juicy bits, some profound bits, and and also some mundane detail that probably coulda/shoulda been edited out. Overall, a really nice read in SV history.
🛠 Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition by Kawasaki — Really uneven. There are some brilliant chapters. But there are also some cheap and easy listicles that could’ve been copy-pasted from the lovechild of Buzzfeed and Techcrunch. There were guest-authored chapters that felt like thinly veiled plugs for the guest authors’ businesses. And there was plenty of brilliance and wisdom interspersed throughout. Overall, really enjoyed this read. I just wish it had been more focused and better edited. Also, I got really tired of the “Bull-shiitake” euphemism after the 40th instance.
⭐️ The Common Good by Reich — A fundamentally conservative (not Fundamental Conservative) book that convincingly argues for moving from “whatever it takes to win/enrich my subgroup” to doing things for the benefit of society and the many. Really good. Very clear description of how far we are from our founding ideals.
Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Ahamed — This is a well-researched historical book, but I prefer more analysis than the author was willing to offer. I did gain new insight on how the fragile global economic system contributed to the rise of Nazi Germany, as well as a much better understanding on why the gold standard was dumb, and needed to die. But I’m not sure I needed all of the extra detail, such as which Hollywood movie stars spent their summers in the South of France in 1920-whatever. That’s a little unfair — most of the detail here isn’t extraneous or frivolous, but some of it is. What’s more, the story could have been told in half the length. I think Michael Lewis has spoiled me when it comes to economic/historical nonfiction.
The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Levinson — This book gave me perspective on an aspect of the world that powers nearly everything I touch, that fuels globalization, that undergirds the global economy … and that I had been ignorant about for my whole life until this book gave me a kind of fresh perspective that feels like economic X-ray vision. I really enjoyed this read. I wish the work were a little less dry. This book feels like it’s meant to be the authoritative history of the shipping container, but I would have liked a little conjecture about the future of shipping, or a little strategic analysis about the structural forces that will shape the next several decades of global commerce.
Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate by George — Pirates! Whales! Shipwrecks! I read this book right after reading “The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger” and was glad to have read them in that order. The Box covers the economic big picture, but lacks context on the human, environmental, and cultural impact of the shipping trade. The two together form a more complete picture.
🛠 Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done by Acuff — Humorous, helpful, short and sweet. A quote that spoke to me, “Hiding places are tricky like that. They make you feel like you’re doing well when in reality you’re not getting anywhere on your most important projects.” I think the author may be describing my reading habit.
🛠⭐️ The Road to Character by Brooks — In a year in which our supreme leader exhibited very little character, I felt the need to understand this topic better. For a flavor of what this excellent book has in store for you, check out the Goodreads quotes page.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons and an Unlikely Road to Manhood by Coates — Coates’ writing is beautiful as always. I enjoyed learning about his childhood, father, and brother. This one didn’t emotionally impact me as deeply as Between the World and Me, but it was still excellent.
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Coates — Ta-Nehisi Coates is an excellent writer and this collection of essays published during the Obama presidency are essential reading to understanding the dynamics of race and racism in America.
🛠Insight: Why We’re Not as Self-Aware as We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and in Life by Eurich — Quote: “With the right approach and a true ongoing commitment, you can foster a culture that encourages communication and feedback at all levels; one where honesty trumps hierarchy and even the lowest-ranking member feels safe putting problems on the table.” This sort of talk is catnip to me.
The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook by Ferguson — This book bored me to tears. The writing isn’t that good. But it’s full of good stuff. “Arguing that Google and Facebook should do the censoring is not just an abdication of responsibility; it is evidence of unusual naivety. As if these two companies were not already mighty enough, European politicians apparently want to give them the power to limit their citizens’ free expression.”
👸🏽Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sandberg — Sandberg’s star started falling fast in 2018, making it hard to not see this as a work of corporate PR despite the immense personal tragedy it recounts. I wish I could have read it without cynicism in 2017. Her corporate governance record infused a taint into this book.
Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Lanier — I tend to agree with the arguments made here. The book would have felt more convincing (and balanced) if it discussed beneficial approaches to social media that don’t involve deletion. The absolutist approach doesn’t work for me.
‽ 👸🏽🤪 We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Irby — Samantha Irby is a black, bi woman who suffers from a host of maladies, including some that she writes about in funny, bawdy detail. I read her books this year as a way to get into the head of someone who is not at all like me.
‽ 👸🏽🤪 Meaty by Irby — Sam Irby’s earlier book. She’s so brutal and funny and gross.
The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter by Sax — I liked David Sax’s prior book, so picked this one up. Central premise: we’re returning to analog things (Moleskine, vinyl records, etc) as we become increasingly digital.
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Pink — Half of this book felt like filler. It was surprisingly low-brow advice on how to optimize your life based on optimal times for different activities. I expected more from the guy who wrote so eloquently about purpose at work.
🧠 Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Hurston — Haunting reminiscences from a man who was captured by a warring tribe and sold into slavery. He entered the United States in 1860 and was interviewed in 1927. The book containing these lost interviews was published in 2018.
🛠 Scrum Mastery: From Good To Great Servant-Leadership by Watts — Useful guidance for scrum master work. I needed this book to help me do a better job at agile project management.
How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World by Johnson — The six innovations are glass, cold, hygiene, time, light, and sound. Some of these stories are a bit too familiar. All serious biographers of computer science have told the Ada Lovelace story, many of them better than told here. Overall very well written, but not as deep or insightful as others in the genre.
