What I read in 2024

On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service Anthony Fauci · 2024 · read Dec 2024Anthony Fauci's memoir spanning his entire NIAID directorship from 1984 through 2022 — HIV/AIDS, anthrax, SARS, Ebola, Zika, and… The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business Duff McDonald · 2013 · read Dec 2024Duff McDonald's institutional history of McKinsey & Company — from its founding through its 21st-century controversies (Enron,… The Showman Simon Shuster · 2024 · read Dec 2024Time correspondent Simon Shuster's biography of Volodymyr Zelensky — from his Servant of the People comedy origins through the… The Death of Truth: How Social Media and the Internet Gave Snake Oil Salesmen and Demagogues the Weapons They Needed to Destroy Trust and Polarize the World – and What We Can Do About It Steven Brill · 2024 · read Dec 2024Court TV founder and NewsGuard founder Steven Brill's argument that the collapse of trust in shared information is the… Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic Ben Westhoff · 2019 · read Dec 2024Ben Westhoff's investigative journalism on the fentanyl supply chain — Chinese chemists synthesizing analogues, dark-web… A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times Mark T. Esper · 2022 · read Dec 2024Mark Esper's memoir from his year-plus as Trump's last Senate-confirmed Secretary of Defense — covering the Soleimani strike, the… The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness Jonathan Haidt · 2024 · read Dec 2024Jonathan Haidt's argument — built from cross-national mental-health data — that smartphones and social media starting around… Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing Peter Robison · 2021 · read Dec 2024Peter Robison's institutional history of Boeing's transformation from engineer-led aerospace company into a financialized firm —… Impeachment: An American History Jeffrey A. Engel · 2018 · read Dec 2024Jeffrey Engel, Jon Meacham, Timothy Naftali, and Peter Baker's joint historical treatment of the four impeachments preceding the… The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis George Stephanopoulos · 2024 · read Nov 2024George Stephanopoulos's history of the White House Situation Room from JFK's establishment of it through every subsequent… Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Adam Higginbotham · 2019 · read Nov 2024Higginbotham's reconstruction of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster — the reactor's design flaws, the night of the explosion, the heroic… Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space Adam Higginbotham · 2024 · read Nov 2024Adam Higginbotham's reconstruction of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster — the engineering, the institutional dynamics,… At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House H.R. McMaster · 2024 · read Nov 2024H.R. The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet Jeff Goodell · 2023 · read Oct 2024Climate journalist Jeff Goodell's argument that heat — not sea-level rise or storms — is the most underappreciated immediate… Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church Hahrie Han · 2024 · read Oct 2024Johns Hopkins political scientist Hahrie Han's case study of "Undivided" — a years-long racial-solidarity program inside a… True Gretch: What I've Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between Gretchen Whitmer · 2024 · read Oct 2024Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's short, accessible leadership memoir — built around the major stress tests of her tenure… Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Michael Cohen · 2020 · read Oct 2024Michael Cohen's memoir from his vantage as Trump's longtime "fixer" — through the 2016 campaign, the Stormy Daniels payment that… Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty Daron Acemoğlu · 2012 · read Oct 2024Daron Acemoğlu and James Robinson's argument — for which Acemoğlu later shared the 2024 Nobel — that the central determinant of… War Bob Woodward · 2024 · read Oct 2024Woodward's 2024 book — his fourth in the Trump-and-aftermath series — covering the Biden administration's handling of two… War for Eternity: Inside Bannon's Far-Right Circle of Global Powerbrokers Benjamin R. Teitelbaum · 2020 · read Oct 2024Ethnomusicologist-turned-political-anthropologist Benjamin Teitelbaum's strange and well-sourced book on Steve Bannon's… Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI Yuval Noah Harari · 2024 · read Oct 2024Harari's 2024 book — his first major work since 21 Lessons — reframing human history as a sequence of information networks, with… Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success Russ Buettner · 2024 · read Sep 2024NYT investigative reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig's definitive financial biography — the Pulitzer-winning tax-records… Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America Maggie Haberman · 2022 · read Sep 2024Maggie Haberman's 2022 biography of Trump — built on three decades of covering him for the New York tabloids and then the NYT —… The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and his Spies are Undermining America and Dismantling the West Malcolm W. Nance · 2018 · read Sep 2024Former Navy intelligence officer Malcolm Nance's 2018 case that Russia is running a coordinated, decades-old influence operation… White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy Thomas F. Schaller · 2024 · read Sep 2024Political scientists Thomas Schaller and Paul Waldman's argument that rural white Americans hold attitudes — racial, religious,… The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal Mary L. Trump · 2021 · read Sep 2024Mary Trump's follow-up to Too Much and Never Enough — moving from her uncle's family pathology to the national trauma she argues… Fascism: A Warning Madeleine K. Albright · 2018 · read Sep 2024Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's 2018 part-memoir, part-comparative-history of fascism — drawing on her childhood… The Big Lie: Election Chaos, Political Opportunism, and the State of American Politics After 2020 Jonathan Lemire · 2022 · read Sep 2024Politico's Jonathan Lemire on the "Big Lie" — the claim that the 2020 election was stolen — as the load-bearing organizing… Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America Barbara McQuade · 2024 · read Sep 2024Former US Attorney Barbara McQuade's argument that disinformation is not just a media problem but a structural legal and… What Happened Hillary Rodham Clinton · 2017 · read Sep 2024Hillary Clinton's 2017 memoir of the 2016 presidential campaign — what she thinks she did wrong, what she thinks others did… Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House Omarosa Manigault Newman · 2018 · read Aug 2024Omarosa Manigault Newman's memoir of her years in Trump's orbit — The Apprentice, the campaign, her White House role, and her… A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership James B. Comey · 2018 · read Aug 2024James Comey's memoir spanning his career — Mafia prosecution, the Stellar Wind hospital-bed confrontation with the Bush… American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power Andrea Bernstein · 2020 · read Aug 2024WNYC's Andrea Bernstein on the parallel rise of the Trump and Kushner families — both real-estate dynasties with… The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump Andrew G. McCabe · 2019 · read Aug 2024Former FBI Deputy Director (and briefly Acting Director) Andrew McCabe's memoir spanning his career — counter-terrorism, the… The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It Robert B. Reich · 2020 · read Aug 2024Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich's compact argument that American political economy has been deliberately rigged for… How Did We Get Here?: From Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trump Robert Dallek · 2020 · read Aug 2024Veteran presidential historian Robert Dallek's structural narrative of the presidency from TR through Trump — treating the… They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency Malcolm W. Nance · 2022 · read Aug 2024Former Navy counter-terrorism instructor Malcolm Nance's argument that the post-2020 American radical right — Oath Keepers, Three… Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency Michael Wolff · 2021 · read Aug 2024Wolff's third Trump book, covering the post-election months through January 6 and beyond, with extensive direct access to Trump… Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House Michael Wolff · 2018 · read Aug 2024Michael Wolff's 2018 first Trump book — the Bannon-era, first-year, Mooch-and-Scaramucci White House — built on what Wolff… Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers Andy Greenberg · 2019 · read Aug 2024Wired's Andy Greenberg on Sandworm — the GRU Unit 74455 hacking group — responsible for the Ukraine power-grid attacks, the… The Art of Power: My Story as America's First Woman Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi · 2024 · read Aug 2024Nancy Pelosi's memoir spanning her decades in Democratic leadership — the votes she counted, the bills she passed (ACA,… Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service Carol Leonnig · 2021 · read Aug 2024Carol Leonnig's institutional history of the US Secret Service from JFK through Obama-Trump-Biden — focused on the agency's… I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year Carol Leonnig · 2021 · read Aug 2024The second Rucker-Leonnig Trump book, focused on 2020 — COVID, the racial-justice protests, the election denial campaign, and… Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America Heather Cox Richardson · 2023 · read Jul 2024Heather Cox Richardson's synthesis of her Letters from an American newsletter into a structural history of American democracy… A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America Philip Rucker · 2020 · read Jul 2024Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig's first Trump book — a comprehensive Washington Post account of the Trump presidency's first… Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis J.D. Vance · 2016 · read Jul 2024J.D. When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s John Ganz · 2024 · read Jul 2024John Ganz's argument that the early 1990s — Pat Buchanan's campaign, David Duke's near-success, the LA riots, the rise of… Mindfulness: HBR Emotional Intelligence Series Harvard Business Review · 2017 · read Jun 2024A compact HBR essay collection on mindfulness in the workplace — attention training, stress regulation, decision-making —… Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty Patrick Radden Keefe · 2021 · read Jun 2024Patrick Radden Keefe's investigative history of the Sackler family — from Arthur Sackler's mid-20th-century pharmaceutical… Trillion Dollar Triage: How Jay Powell and the Fed Battled a President and a Pandemic---and Prevented Economic Disaster Nick Timiraos · 2022 · read Jun 2024WSJ Fed reporter Nick Timiraos's narrative of Jay Powell's Federal Reserve response to the COVID economic shock — the emergency… Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things Adam M. Grant · 2023 · read Jun 2024Adam Grant's argument that achievement is more determined by character skills, learning practices, and opportunity scaffolding… Sandy Hook Elizabeth Williamson · 2022 · read Jun 2024NYT writer Elizabeth Williamson's account of the Sandy Hook massacre, the conspiracy theorists who claimed it was staged, and the… World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century Dmitri Alperovitch · 2024 · read Jun 2024Crowdstrike co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch's hawkish strategic argument that the US is in a contest with China for the 21st… First Platoon: A Story of Modern War in the Age of Identity Dominance Annie Jacobsen · 2021 · read May 2024Jacobsen's narrative of an Army platoon's deployment in Afghanistan — a court-martial story interwoven with the technology of… Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America Annie Jacobsen · 2014 · read May 2024Jacobsen's history of the postwar US program that brought more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians — many of… Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base Annie Jacobsen · 2011 · read May 2024Jacobsen's history of the Nevada Test Site / Groom Lake — the U-2, A-12, SR-71, F-117, drone-development programs — built on… Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History Of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, And Assassins Annie Jacobsen · 2019 · read May 2024Jacobsen's history of CIA paramilitary operations — from OSS founder William Donovan through Ground Branch through post-9/11… The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery Brianna Wiest · 2020 · read May 2024Brianna Wiest's compact self-help framework on self-sabotage as a coherent — if maladaptive — protective response, and the… Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis Annie Jacobsen · 2017 · read May 2024Jacobsen's history of the US government's serious, decades-long investment in psychic-research programs — remote viewing at SRI… The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency Annie Jacobsen · 2015 · read Apr 2024Annie Jacobsen's comprehensive history of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, from its 1958 Sputnik-shock founding… Nuclear War: A Scenario Annie Jacobsen · 2024 · read Apr 2024Annie Jacobsen's minute-by-minute scenario of a North Korean nuclear strike on the United States and the resulting full exchange… Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works A.G. Lafley · 2013 · read Apr 2024Former P&G CEO A.G. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout Cal Newport · 2024 · read Apr 2024Cal Newport's follow-up to Deep Work — a slower, longer-horizon model of knowledge-work productivity built around three… Permanent Record Edward Snowden · 2019 · read Mar 2024Edward Snowden's memoir tracing his path from middle-American patriotism through CIA and NSA contracting to the 2013 disclosures… Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World Cal Newport · 2016 · read Mar 2024Cal Newport's argument that the ability to focus without distraction on cognitively demanding tasks ("deep work") is becoming… Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism Jeffrey Toobin · 2023 · read Mar 2024Jeffrey Toobin's retelling of the Oklahoma City bombing and Timothy McVeigh's biography as a prequel to contemporary right-wing… How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities John Cassidy · 2009 · read Mar 2024New Yorker writer John Cassidy's history-and-analysis of how efficient-markets theory captured economics, blinded regulators to… A Little History of Economics Niall Kishtainy · 2017 · read Feb 2024Kishtainy's contribution to the Yale "Little Histories" series — a friendly, chronological tour of economic thought from… Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence Anna Lembke · 2021 · read Jan 2024Stanford addiction psychiatrist Anna Lembke's argument that modern abundance — of food, drugs, porn, screens, shopping — has… Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy Jamie Raskin · 2022 · read Jan 2024Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin's memoir interlacing two traumas — the suicide of his son Tommy on December 31, 2020, and his…