These are some of the books I’ve most enjoyed over the past few years. I’ve listed them in alphabetical order and have added asterisks next to those I thought were especially good (the more asterisks, the better).
This is not an exhaustive list, and I’m sure that I’ll add to it as more books read come to mind. I’ve also kept it limited to non-fiction.
I’m always on the lookout for new book recommendations, especially if they’re biographies and over 10-years old.
- 10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less
- Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
- Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life
- Anarchy, State, and Utopia
- Am I Being Too Subtle?*: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel
- Antifragile*: Things That Gain from Disorder
- Architect of Prosperity: Sir John Cowperthwaite and the Making of Hong Kong
- The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
- The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong with Banking and What to Do About It
- Bitcoin Is Venice: Essays on the Past and Future of Capitalism
- The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking
- Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making
- Building Tall: My Life and the Invention of Construction Management
- The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
- Clash of the Titans: How the Unbridled Ambition of Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch Has Created Global Empires that Control What We Read and Watch Each Day
- Come and Take It: The Gun Printer’s Guide to Thinking Free
- Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010
- Conspiracy*: A True Story of Power, Sex, and a Billionaire’s Plot to Destroy a Media Empire
- The Dao of Capital: Austrian Investing in a Distorted World
- Death and Life of Great American Cities
- The Devil in the White City*: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
- The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
- Elon Musk*: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
- The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life
- The End of History and the Last Man
- The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn’t What It Used to Be
- The Essential Hirschman
- The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
- Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States
- Finite and Infinite Games
- The Fish That Ate the Whale***: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King
- The Fixer: My Adventures Saving Startups from Death by Politics
- Fooled by Randomness***: The Hidden Role of Change in Life and in the Markets
- Fortune’s Formula**: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street
- The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters
- Free to Choose: A Personal Statement
- From Third World to First: Singapore and the Asian Economic Boom
- The Gambler: How Penniless Dropout Kirk Kerkorian Became the Greatest Deal Maker in Capitalist History*
- The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low-hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better
- The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History
- Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious
- HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business: Think Big, Buy Small, Own Your Own Company
- High Output Management
- The History of the Future**: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution that Swept Virtual Reality
- Hive Mind: How Your Nation’s IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own
- Hoover*: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times
- House Divided: How the Missing Middle Will Solve Toronto’s Affordability Crisis
- How Asia Works
- Intellectuals and Society
- Just in Time: Inside The Thatcher Revolution
- The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich
- Little Black Stretchy Pants*
- Lee Kuan Yew**: The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States, and the World
- Lobbying and Policy Change: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why
- The Logic Of Scientific Discovery
- A Man for All Markets*: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market
- The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution
- The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal.
- Mastery
- Max Beaverbrook: Not Quite a Gentleman
- Maximum Canada: Toward a Country of 100 Million
- The New Geography of Jobs
- The new Kings of New York*
- No More Champagne*: Churchill and His Money
- Ogilvy on Advertising
- Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration
- Order without Design**: How Markets Shape Cities
- The Outsiders*: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success
- The Oxford Handbook of Megaproject Management
- Perfect City: An Urban Fixer’s Global Search for Magic in the Modern Metropolis
- Persecution and the Art of Writing
- Poor Charlie’s Almanack**: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
- The Power Broker***: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
- A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing
- Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice
- The Reichmanns*: Family, Faith, Fortune, and the Empire of Olympia & York
- The Rent Is Too Damn High: What To Do About It, and Why It Matters More Than You Think
- Rework
- Right Here, Right Now: Politics and Leadership in the Age of Disruption
- The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War
- Risk Game: Self Portrait of an Entrepreneur
- Robert Maxwell, Israel’s Superspy: The Life and Murder of a Media Mogul
- Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies
- Seeing like a State*: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
- Shoe Dog*: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
- Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
- Skyscraper Dreams*: The Great Real Estate Dynasties of New York
- The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
- Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty
- The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age
- The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
- “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”: Adventures of a Curious Character
- Titan*: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- Thinking, Fast and Slow
- Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier
- Trump: The Art of the Deal
- Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography
- The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It
- Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination
- What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars
- Where Is My Flying Car?**: A Memoir of Future Past
- The Will to Power
- Zero to One**: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future