It’s that time of year where I like to share, mostly for the sake of my own personal tracking, what books I read (or re-read) this past year. The Africa Trilogy (Things Fall Apart, No Longer At Ease, and Arrow of God) from Chinua Achebe was my favorite this year but super close tie with the Maddaddam Trilogy (Oryx & Crake, The Year of the Flood, and Maddaddam) by Margaret Atwood. Although I guess kind of similar with their common “humans are the worst” theme.

Here’s the list with one my one-sentence summary/review:

Atomic Habits (James Clear): Helpful guide to getting your shit together.

The Obstacle Is The Way (re-read, Ryan Holiday): Helpful guide to a better mindset; or Stoicism for dummies.

Maddaddam Trilogy: Oryx & Crake, The Year of the Flood, Maddaddam (Margaret Atwood): Eco-dystopian fiction.

Africa Trilogy: Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, No Longer At Ease (Chinua Achebe): White colonialism ruins everything, especially Africa.

Multifamily Investors Who Dominate (Beau Beery): Apartment investor cheat sheet.

If You Get A Moment Would You Please (re-read, Lou Pepper): Cautionary tales for bankers.

The Dubliners (James Joyce): Fun tales of Irish Catholic repression for boys.

The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist’s Guide to Success In Business & Life (Avinash Dixit): I liked it but it was basically game theory for yuppies.

Foundation (re-read, Isaac Asimov): Fantasy human achievement = Encyclopedia Galactica, Actual human achievement = Wikipedia.

Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events (Robert Schiller): I always enjoy Schiller and this book delves into the impact of media narratives on the economy, addressing somewhat more of a mass market audience than you typically get from him.

Utopia For Realists: How We Can Build The Ideal World (Rutger Bregman): Good ideas that will probably never happen in America.

Or Something Like That (Bud Smith): Jersey kid telling Jersey stories about being from New Jersey.

Bartleby the Scrivener A Story of Wall Street (Herman Melville): I could share a long review of this one but I’d prefer not to.

Drawdown (Paul Hawken): Playbook for fixing the planet.

Nonviolent Communication : A language of life (Marshall Rosenberg): Playbook for having effective conversations when things get heated and words truly matter.

Pinocchio (Carlo Collodi): Boys made of wood make for really shitty sons.

Chief of Staff (Tyler Parris): The Chief of Staff is a completely ambiguous job title that means whatever the boss wants it to mean, but if you get that job title you should still read this.

Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order – Why Nations Succeed and Fail (Ray Dalio): History repeats itself…but not this time!

Hear the Wind Sing (Haruki Murakami): Murakami’s first book…a post-college guy in Japan likes to drink beer and likes women.

Pinball (re-read, Haruki Murakami): The sequel to Hear the Wind Sing and part 2 of 2 in The Rat series from Murakami continues the story of a post-college guy in Japan who likes beer and now he also likes women who are mysterious…and twins.

Everything Neon (Bud Smith): It’s a poetry book and I don’t usually read those but I’m gradually reading all of Bud Smith’s books.