2021
What I read in 2021
17 books, 4,598 pages. Newest first.
A Promised Land
Barack Obama · 2020 · read Nov 2021The first volume of Barack Obama's presidential memoir — covering his early political career, the 2008 campaign, and roughly the…
The 4-Hour Workweek
Timothy Ferriss · 2007 · read Jun 2021Tim Ferriss's 2007 lifestyle-design manifesto — the book that popularized "lifestyle entrepreneurship," remote-work optimization,…
The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever
Michael Bungay Stanier · 2016 · read May 2021A compact playbook arguing that managers default to advice-giving when they should be asking, organized around seven specific…
The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy
Peter Temin · 2017 · read Mar 2021MIT economist Peter Temin's application of W.
Liminal Thinking
Dave Gray · 2016 · read Mar 2021Dave Gray's compact framework book on "liminal thinking" — the practice of recognizing that beliefs are constructions built on…
The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win
Jocko Willink · 2018 · read Mar 2021Jocko Willink and Leif Babin's follow-up to Extreme Ownership — the corrective book addressing the failure modes that emerge when…
How to Train Your Mind: Exploring the Productivity Benefits of Meditation
Chris Bailey · 2021 · read Mar 2021Productivity writer Chris Bailey's short Audible-original treatment of meditation as a productivity practice — focused on the…
Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates · 2015 · read Feb 2021Ta-Nehisi Coates's 2015 National Book Award-winning letter to his teenage son — about race, the body, American history, and the…
White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America
Joan C. Williams · 2017 · read Feb 2021Law professor Joan C.
The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person
Frederick Joseph · 2020 · read Feb 2021Frederick Joseph's 2020 collection of letters and essays addressed to white friends and family — written for young-adult-adjacent…
Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877
Eric Foner · 1988 · read Jan 2021Foner's canonical 1988 history of the Reconstruction era, treating it as a genuinely revolutionary moment — a serious attempt at…
The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits
Judson Brewer · 2017 · read Jan 2021An addiction psychiatrist's argument that all habits — from smoking to scrolling to romantic obsession — run on the same…
Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day
Jay Shetty · 2020 · read Jan 2021Former monk Jay Shetty's translation of three years of ashram training into a Western self-help framework organized around…
Leveraged Learning: How the Disruption of Education Helps Lifelong Learners, and Experts with Something to Teach
Danny Iny · 2018 · read Jan 2021Danny Iny's framework book on the online-education economy — for both lifelong learners navigating the proliferation of courses…
Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter & Organize to Make More Room for Happiness
Gretchen Rubin · 2019 · read Jan 2021Gretchen Rubin's compact, aphoristic book on physical decluttering as a happiness practice — built around 150 short observations…
How to Be an Antiracist
Ibram X. Kendi · 2019 · read Jan 2021Ibram X.
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
Robin DiAngelo · 2018 · read Jan 2021Robin DiAngelo's 2018 framework book on "white fragility" — the defensive emotional and rhetorical reactions she observes in…