What I read in 2023

Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country Adam Kinzinger · 2023 · read Dec 2023Former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger's memoir of his decision to vote for Trump's second impeachment and serve on the… Peril Bob Woodward · 2021 · read Dec 2023Woodward and Robert Costa's third book — covering the final months of the Trump presidency through Biden's first months — built… Rage Bob Woodward · 2020 · read Dec 2023The second Woodward Trump book — built around 17 on-the-record interviews with Trump himself across 2019-2020, including the… Fear: Trump in the White House Bob Woodward · 2018 · read Dec 2023Bob Woodward's first Trump book, covering the early administration through mid-2018 — focused on the staff effort to contain… The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism Tim Alberta · 2023 · read Dec 2023Tim Alberta's follow-up to American Carnage — a son-of-an-evangelical-pastor's reckoning with what the movement his father served… Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning Liz Cheney · 2023 · read Dec 2023Liz Cheney's memoir from her vantage as vice-chair of the House Select Committee on January 6 — built around her decision to… The Fabulist: The Lying, Hustling, Grifting, Stealing, and Very American Legend of George Santos Mark Chiusano · 2023 · read Dec 2023Mark Chiusano's biography of George Santos — the congressman who fabricated essentially every biographical claim he ever made —… Pipeline to Power: The 40-Year Plan to Capture the Supreme Court Vicky Ward · 2023 · read Nov 2023Investigative reporter Vicky Ward's history of the four-decade conservative legal movement — Federalist Society founding, Leonard… Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show Jonathan Karl · 2021 · read Nov 2023The second Karl book, covering the final year of the Trump presidency — the COVID collapse, the 2020 campaign, the post-election… Front Row at the Trump Show Jonathan Karl · 2020 · read Nov 2023Jonathan Karl's first Trump book — covering the 2016 campaign through 2019 — from his vantage as ABC's chief White House… Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party Jonathan Karl · 2023 · read Nov 2023ABC News's Jonathan Karl on the post-presidency Trump — the Mar-a-Lago years, the comeback, the indictments, and the GOP's… The Future of Work: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review (HBR Insights) Harvard Business Review · 2021 · read Nov 2023An HBR Insights collection of short essays on the changing nature of work — automation, AI, remote and hybrid arrangements, skill… Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism Rachel Maddow · 2023 · read Nov 2023Rachel Maddow's history of the 1930s-40s American fascist movement — German-American Bund, America First, Charles Lindbergh,… Happiness (HBR Emotional Intelligence Series) Harvard Business Review · 2017 · read Nov 2023A compact HBR essay collection drawing together short pieces on happiness, well-being, and engagement at work — built for… Romney: A Reckoning McKay Coppins · 2023 · read Nov 2023Atlantic writer McKay Coppins's biography of Mitt Romney, built on extensive interviews and unprecedented access to Romney's… Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better Jennifer Pahlka · 2023 · read Nov 2023Code for America founder Jennifer Pahlka's argument that the chronic failure of US government technology — healthcare.gov,… Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation Jon Ward · 2023 · read Nov 2023Yahoo News political reporter Jon Ward's memoir-journalism hybrid on his own evangelical upbringing in DC-area megachurch… Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment Robert Wright · 2017 · read Oct 2023Robert Wright's argument — built from evolutionary psychology and his own retreat practice — that Buddhist claims about the self… The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement Eliyahu M. Goldratt · 2004 · read Oct 2023Eli Goldratt's 1984 business novel — a struggling plant manager learns the Theory of Constraints from a mysterious mentor — that… Elon Musk Walter Isaacson · 2023 · read Oct 2023Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Elon Musk, based on two years of shadowing him across Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter (the… American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15 Cameron McWhirter · 2023 · read Oct 2023Wall Street Journal reporters Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson's history of the AR-15 — from Eugene Stoner's 1950s design… Counting the Cost Jill Duggar · 2023 · read Sep 2023Jill Duggar's memoir of growing up in the family of 19 Kids and Counting, her separation from her parents and the IBLP (Bill… White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity Robert P. Jones · 2020 · read Sep 2023PRRI founder Robert P. A Warning Anonymous · 2019 · read Sep 2023The book-length expansion of the 2018 New York Times "Anonymous" op-ed by a senior Trump administration official — later revealed… Blowback A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump Miles Taylor · 2023 · read Sep 2023Miles Taylor's named follow-up to A Warning — written to anticipate and describe what a second Trump term would look like,… On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century Timothy Snyder · 2017 · read Sep 2023Yale historian Timothy Snyder's pocket-sized 2017 distillation of twentieth-century lessons on how democracies fall and how… The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer—The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb James W. Kunetka · 2015 · read Sep 2023A dual biography of Leslie Groves (the Army engineer who ran the Manhattan Project) and J. The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness Morgan Housel · 2020 · read Aug 2023Morgan Housel's collection of 20 short essays arguing that financial outcomes are mostly behavior, not intelligence — and that… Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could Adam Schiff · 2021 · read Aug 2023Adam Schiff's memoir-and-account from his vantage as House Intelligence Committee chair through the Mueller probe, first Trump… End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration Peter Turchin · 2023 · read Aug 2023Peter Turchin's argument from his "cliodynamics" project — a quantitative, predictive social science of historical cycles — that… American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America's Deadliest Drug Epidemic John Temple · 2015 · read Aug 2023John Temple's narrative of the Chris and Jeff George brothers' South Florida pill-mill operation — among the largest in the… Trump / Russia: A Definitive History Seth Hettena · 2018 · read Aug 2023Seth Hettena's account — written before the Mueller Report — of the Trump organization's decades-long entanglement with Russian… It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump Stuart Stevens · 2020 · read Jul 2023Stuart Stevens — Romney's 2012 chief strategist, lifelong Republican consultant — argues from inside the wreckage that the GOP's… Debt: The First 5,000 Years David Graeber · 2011 · read Jul 2023Anthropologist David Graeber's sweeping argument that the standard economic origin story (barter → money → credit) is exactly… Little Black Book of Entrepreneurship Fernando Trías de Bes · 2008 · read Jun 2023Spanish business writer Trías de Bes's compact, unsentimental field guide to entrepreneurship — focused on the predictable… Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency Andy Greenberg · 2022 · read Jun 2023Wired's Andy Greenberg on the rise of blockchain forensics — Chainalysis, federal investigators, academic cryptographers — and… The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion Jonathan Haidt · 2012 · read Jun 2023Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt's synthesis of moral foundations theory — the argument that humans navigate moral life via six… The Lords of Creation: The History of America's 1 Percent (Forbidden Bookshelf) Frederick Lewis Allen · 1935 · read Jun 2023Frederick Lewis Allen's 1935 history of American finance from roughly 1900 through the 1929 crash — a contemporaneous account by… The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward Daniel H. Pink · 2022 · read May 2023Daniel Pink's argument — built from a 16,000-person regret survey — that the cultural injunction to live "no regrets" is bad… Christianity Made Me Talk Like an Idiot Seth Andrews · 2022 · read May 2023Former Christian radio personality Seth Andrews (now host of "The Thinking Atheist") on the specific verbal and conceptual habits… The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America's Top Secrets Matthew Connelly · 2023 · read May 2023Columbia historian Matthew Connelly's argument — built from a massive computational analysis of declassified documents — that the… How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics Michael Pollan · 2018 · read May 2023Michael Pollan's mainstream-respectable tour of the psychedelic research renaissance — its history, science, therapeutic… Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us Brian Klaas · 2021 · read May 2023Political scientist Brian Klaas's investigation of two competing theories about power and bad behavior — does power corrupt… Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice David Enrich · 2022 · read Apr 2023NYT business editor David Enrich's investigation of Jones Day — and Big Law more broadly — and its role in normalizing and… The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America Richard Rothstein · 2017 · read Apr 2023Richard Rothstein's documentary case that American residential segregation is de jure — created and maintained by federal, state,… Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge Terence McKenna · 1992 · read Apr 2023Terence McKenna's argument that psychoactive plants — particularly psilocybin mushrooms — played a central role in human… Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City Matthew Desmond · 2016 · read Apr 2023Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond's Pulitzer-winning ethnography of eviction in Milwaukee — eight families and two landlords,… Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving Pete Walker · 2013 · read Apr 2023Therapist Pete Walker's foundational text distinguishing complex (chronic, developmental, relational) PTSD from single-incident… The Creative Act: A Way of Being Rick Rubin · 2023 · read Mar 2023Music producer Rick Rubin's loose, aphoristic meditation on creativity — written as a series of short chapters that treat… Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness Steve Magness · 2022 · read Mar 2023Performance coach Steve Magness's argument that the dominant "embrace the suck" model of toughness — drill-sergeant,… The Lost Bank: The Story of Washington Mutual-The Biggest Bank Failure in American History Kirsten Grind · 2012 · read Mar 2023A Wall Street Journal reporter's inside narrative of Washington Mutual's rise from Seattle thrift to national mortgage giant and… Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free Linda Kay Klein · 2018 · read Feb 2023Klein's hybrid memoir-and-journalism on evangelical "purity culture" of the 1990s and 2000s — True Love Waits, purity rings,… The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin Steven Lee Myers · 2014 · read Feb 2023A New York Times Moscow correspondent's comprehensive biography of Vladimir Putin — KGB officer, deputy mayor, prime minister,… The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth Beth Allison Barr · 2021 · read Feb 2023A Baylor historian (and Southern Baptist pastor's wife) argues that "biblical womanhood" — the complementarian package of… Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention— and How to Think Deeply Again Johann Hari · 2022 · read Feb 2023Hari's argument — built from interviews with attention researchers worldwide — that the collapse of attention isn't individual… Men Without Work: America's Invisible Crisis (New Threats to Freedom Series) Nicholas Eberstadt · 2016 · read Feb 2023AEI demographer Eberstadt's data-driven case that the collapse in prime-age male labor force participation — masked by the… Drift Rachel Maddow · 2012 · read Feb 2023Maddow's first book, arguing that the United States has gradually decoupled the use of military force from democratic… How to Do the Work: Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self Nicole LePera · 2021 · read Feb 2023"The Holistic Psychologist" LePera's synthesis of trauma theory, conditioning, inner-child work, and nervous system regulation… Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology Chris Miller · 2022 · read Feb 2023Miller's history of the semiconductor industry from postwar invention to present-day US-China conflict — argued as the central… The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy Philip S. Gorski · 2022 · read Feb 2023Sociologist Philip Gorski (with Samuel Perry) on white Christian nationalism as a distinct ideological tradition — measurable,… How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future Steven Levitsky · 2018 · read Jan 2023Levitsky and Ziblatt's comparative argument that contemporary democracies don't fall to coups; they're hollowed out from within… How Clients Buy: A Practical Guide to Business Development for Consulting and Professional Services Tom McMakin · 2018 · read Jan 2023McMakin and Fletcher's research-based framework for what actually drives consulting and professional-services buyers — built from… What Happened To You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing Bruce D. Perry · 2021 · read Jan 2023A conversational book between child psychiatrist and trauma researcher Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey, organized around the title… How to Win Client Business When You Don't Know Where to Start: A Rainmaking Guide for Consulting and Professional Services Doug Fletcher · 2021 · read Jan 2023Fletcher's companion to How Clients Buy (his co-authored book with McMakin), aimed specifically at consultants who deliver well… Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life Nir Eyal · 2019 · read Jan 2023Eyal's argument — interesting given he also wrote Hooked, the playbook for building habit-forming products — that distraction is… Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future - and What to Do About It Tien Tzuo · 2018 · read Jan 2023Zuora founder Tien Tzuo's case for the subscription economy as a structural business-model shift — not a pricing tactic but a… Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life Eugene O'Kelly · 2005 · read Jan 2023KPMG's CEO, given a brain cancer diagnosis with months to live, writes a final book in his remaining time — treating the dying… I Moved Your Cheese: For Those Who Refuse to Live as Mice in Someone Else's Maze (Bk Business) Deepak Malhotra · 2011 · read Jan 2023A short parable written as a direct response/rebuttal to Who Moved My Cheese? The Snowball System: How to Win More Business and Turn Clients into Raving Fans Mo Bunnell · 2018 · read Jan 2023Bunnell's framework for systematic business development in professional services, organized around the idea that BD is a… The January 6th Report Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol · 2022 · read Jan 2023The final report of the House Select Committee, documenting the multi-front effort by Trump and allies to overturn the 2020…