This was a busy but fun year for me and for our family. We took our kid, 15 months old at the time, on a trip to Italy to visit Padua, Venice, and Rome. We also had a relaxing summer break with her in Portland, Maine in July and in between I was traveling all over the place for work including trips to Austin, Los Angeles, NYC, and several trips to DC…among other places. I played a lot of chess this year. I did a pretty good bit of reading as well, and this is not counting all the stuff I listened to on Audible. I decided to limit my annual list to books I read only. The archivist in me was tempted to do lists for music and audiobooks as well but I just don’t have the time to add more work if I don’t need it. I hope you check out this list and find something you like. And please for those who trade book tips with me, keep it up and hit me up if you want to add me on Goodreads so we can keep track throughout the year too. See you next year!

Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro): Sometimes Alexa doesn’t hear what I said the first time, or it hears me incorrectly and does the wrong thing and I get frustrated and yell at Alexa. This book made me realize that I should be kinder to our robot friends.

Surrounded by Idiots (Thomas Erikson): A helpful guide to better communication by recognizing the behavior patterns of people around you and communicating accordingly. It’s worked well for me and I implemented it heavily in 2024. I share stuff like this with others I interact with hoping it might inspire some positive change in their communication style. It rarely works. Maybe if I read this a few more times, I’ll be able to learn what I am doing wrong in my inability to properly recognize their behavior patterns.

Negative Space (B.R. Yeager): This kind of reminded me of Black Hole by Charles Burns but like the Gen Z version and it was super dark and a very creepy kind of psychedelic and a little psychotic. This was my second Yeager novel after Amygdalatropolis and I loved it.

After Dark (Haruki Murakami): A quick read and a nice palate (or maybe soul) cleanser after reading Negative Space. This one tells the story of a book nerd introvert who has a wild night that starts at a Denny’s in Japan and involves a love hotel, a pro wrestler, and jazz. Also, vivid descriptions of music and meals because it is Murakami.

A Wild Sheep Chase (Haruki Murakami): The third and final installment in the Rat Trilogy from Murakami. There’s an ex-escort with perfect ears, lots of meals and music described in great detail, and “The Sheep Man”…this book is nuts. And it’s fun to read whether or not you read the first two in the series (but definitely read them!).

Suicide Blonde (Darcey Steinke): Right around 25 years ago I read Steinke’s book Jesus Saves and remembered it forever. I don’t know why I never got around to reading more from her. On a whim, I looked her up and found this book that came out a few years before Jesus Saves. It’s your typical woman in love with a man who is in love with a bunch of other men and he’s also addicted to heroin. Lots of eccentric early 90’s San Francisco characters and situations. Loads of fun and sorrow.

Elon Musk (Walter Isaacson): This could be one of the oddest works of fiction to be released in the last few years. But apparently it’s based on a true story.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Jared Diamond): I read Guns, Germs, and Steel and liked it. But I liked this one a lot more. It’s a bit of a cautionary tale but I don’t think anyone in power in our society really gives those types of stories much credibility. But I’m sure we are different and won’t end up crumbling like the other cultures discussed in this book….

Just Money: Mission Driven Banks and the Future of Finance (Katrin Kaufer): I had the honor of attending the Global Alliance for Banking on Values Leadership Academy this year in Padua, Italy and Katrin who wrote this book and is a professor at MIT was one of my instructors. This is a must-read for anyone who is in the finance industry and wondering if there is a way to do more and create greater impact through our work. The book shares many case studies on mission driven finance ventures cross the world.

Dance Dance Dance (Haruki Murakami): A nice way to follow up a book on impact banking was this novel from Murakami about the wackiness that can ensue in a late stage capitalist society.

The Infamous Jersey Shore Pickpocket Ring of 1979 (Craig W Turner): I was born in 1979 and this book takes place like 2 towns over from where I grew up so I had to read it. I spent lots of summers on that boardwalk. The book was fun, not mind blowing literature but enjoyable and probably more so for someone from the area.

Modern Hysteria (Aron Beauregard): If a movie like Hostile was a book. This was lots of gore and shock. The story itself was a little goofy and predictable…total revenge shock horror.

Kasher In the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16 (Moshe Kasher): I loved this biography from comedian Moshe Kasher and related to way too many parts of it way more than I care to admit.

Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We’ll Win The Climate War (Tom Steyer): Steyer is inspiring without being overly optimistic or unrealistic in this book that talks about climate change and what we can do about it.

Writing for Busy Readers (Todd Rogers): I read this really early in 2024 and thought “Wow , this is really useful.” Then, all my email apps added AI and now I can do this without remembering anything Todd talked about in the book. But it was still a good book when I read it!

Journey to the End of the Night (Louis-Ferdinand Celine): This book came out in 1932 and was followed by his novel Death On The Installment Plan in 1938 which is sort of a prequel. I read the prequel in high school in the late 90’s and wrote a crappy book report about it…then I re-read it again in my early 20s and remember enjoying it. I’d never read Journey but ran across an article talking about how it was one of the early examples of dark comedy as a literary genre. It was really entertaining! It is not an easy read at nearly 500 pages and written in a stream of consciousness style at times but it takes you all over Europe, parts of Africa, and America telling the story of a Frenchman who enlisted in WW1 (and immediately regretted it) then ends up a physician in Paris to the sickest, poorest, and least appreciative patients any doctor could hope for. So yeah, the recipe for a real laugh riot.

World Domination: The Sub Pop Records Story (Gillian G Gaar): If you are a late 80’s/early 90’s kid in America, you know who Sub Pop Records is. This book tells the whole story and has tons of great photos of cool record label memorabilia, live shows, and behind the scenes photos from the label synonymous with the Seattle scene.

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (Haruki Murakami): Even when I don’t love a Murakami story, the writing is so good that I enjoy reading the book. This is one of those for me. It’s the story of a guy all grown up who spends the book figuring out why his best friends from high school all shunned him when they reached adulthood.

Piercing (Ryu Murakami): Creepy, dark horror novel from Ryu Murakami (no relation to Haruki). I won’t spoil it but if you are triggered by the darkest of dark horror themes, then stay away from this one.

Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business (Jack Mackey, Raj Sisodia): Founders from Whole Foods and Conscious Capitalism Inc get together to teach us why business doesn’t JUST have to be about making lots of money…you can do good stuff for society as well.

The Story of Britain: From the Romans to the Present: A Narrative History (Rebecca Fraser): Nearly 900 pages of the smallest font telling the story of the British Isle during occupancy by the Roman Empire all the way up until the year 2003. It took me a few years to read this because I’d read about one monarch and then have to go down a rabbit hole reading more details about her or his reign and all the stuff that happened around it. Britain is so interesting to me, how this little island has been such a significant part of history for so long and how it developed over time is always a subject of great fascination for me. This book tells the story well but since it covers such a vast timespan, it skims on the details understandably and requires additional reading to get the whole story.

Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess (Bobby Fischer): I got really into chess again around summer this year. I read this book and others hoping to get better at chess. Books help but playing and analyzing my games helps the most. I’ve played over 700 matches in 2024. Hoping to play more (and win more) in 2025.

Breeder (Douglas Clegg): I was traveling to DC for work a lot this year. And I have a young baby in the house. So reading this horror story about a family with a young baby in DC, lots of voodoo, and some really creepy imagery was hitting close to home at times but really enjoyable for a fan of horror. This book takes place in DC in the late 80s and it was fun to read something that was modern enough to feel familiar but still enough of a departure from our current smartphone-centric reality to feel distant.

Driftology (Martin Kalungu-Banda): Martin who wrote this was one of my other instructors at the GABV Leadership Academy. This book uses stories from his life to share his personal philosophy for living to your greatest potential. It’s an inspiring read and encouraged me to consider a less egotistical approach to aspiring for success in life.

Mister Magic (Kiersten White): Lot’s of 90’s Nickelodeon kids show nostalgia vibes in this mystery that was written by a former Mormon. I didn’t know that about the author until after I read the book but it totally made sense. I liked this one but more for the lead up than for the ending.

An Artist of the Floating World (Kazuo Ishiguro): The story of an old man in post WW2 Japan coming to terms with all that has changed in his life and his culture before vs after the war. His daughters and his grandchild are embracing the culture he fought against and he’s having to say goodbye to the world he knew. Extremely well-written, I got attached to the characters and could see the town in great detail as he wrote about it.

How to Win At Chess (Levy Rozman): My favorite chess YouTuber’s book on the topic. I am still not winning all the time but I am winning a lot more than I used to. Learn all the basics of openings, midgame, tactics to checkmate and more.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami): This is considered one of Murakami’s greatest works…up there with Kafka On the Shore. It’s a very different type of book than Kafka. Way more dreamlike and still just as abstract at moments. I loved it. It had all the usual tropes and it was the first time I noticed Murakami mentioning his affinity for ears outside of A Wild Sheep Chase.

Inventing the Future: Stories from a Techno-Optimist (Corinna Lathan): I saw Corinna speak and really loved what she had to say. We were both guest speakers at the same conference this past summer in DC. I read this hoping to go deeper on her subject matter – objective achieved. If you’re looking for something informative and inspiring in the world of technology as a force for good, check it out.

Bunny (Mona Awad): If Mean Girls took place at a liberal arts college in an all-female masters course for creative writing and then turned into an occultist bloodbath halfway through the book, it would be this. Fun to read, great writing, and a nice twist ending.

Dungeon Crawler Carl (Matt Dinniman): I ended the year with a fun, easy read. A pacific northwest punk rocker wrote this novel which has little hints of Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker series in a story that is basically D&D or Skyrim meets The Running Man. Funny, over the top gore, lots of inside jokes for gamers, and you fly right through this one. It doesn’t really have an ending so you are forced to read the 2nd book. There are 7 in the series and I’m guessing that I’ll read them all in time.

That’s it for 2024. I hope 2025 is an excellent year for all. Remember to have fun and I’ll share more books around this time next year.