A friend once told me: “Books saved my life.”
I love this idea, and have adopted it as my own. Books are like a $10 coach that you carry around in your pocket, ready to give you a quick pick-me-up or new way of seeing things, at the flick of a finger. They have been an indescribably important source of inspiration and perspective for me in my life.
Here, I share my top list of impactful reads with you.
Completed Books: 134
Fitness, Health, & Resilience
Finding Ultra — Rich Roll (2025)
Salt Sugar Fat — Michael Moss (2025)
Do Hard Things — Steve Magness (2025)
Leadership, Relationships, and Productivity
Let Them Theory — Mel Robbins (2024)
Getting the Love You Want — Harville Hendrix & Helen LaKelly Hunt (2024)
The McKinsey Mind — Ethan Rasiel (2024)
The McKinsey Way — Ethan Rasiel (2024)
Empowered — Marty Cagan (2023)
Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader — Herminia Ibarra (2022)
So Good They Can’t Ignore You — Cal Newport (2022)
Multipliers — Liz Wiseman (2020)
Leadership — Doris Kearns Goodwin (2020)
Creative Selection — Ken Kocienda (2019)
Extreme Ownership — Jocko Willink (2019)
HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leadership (2019)
The Magic of Tiny Business — Sharon Rowe (2019)
The Charisma Myth — Olivia Fox Cabane (2018)
Emotional Intelligence 2.0 — Travis Bradberry (2018)
Thanks for the Feedback — Sheila Heen (2018)
I Hear You — Michael Sorensen (2018)
Never Split the Difference — Chris Voss (2018)
The Virgin Way — Richard Branson (2018)
The Hard Thing About Hard Things — Ben Horowitz (2017)
Getting More — Stuart Diamond (2017)
The 4-Hour Workweek — Tim Ferriss (2016)
Crucial Conversations — Kerry Patterson (2015)
Biographies
Shoe Dog — Phil Knight (2024)
A Long Walk to Freedom — Nelson Mandela (2021)
Hard Choices — Hilary Rodham Clinton (2021)
A Promised Land — Barack Obama (2020)
North — Scott Jurek (2020)
Becoming — Michelle Obama (2019)
Steve Jobs — Walter Isaacson (2018)
Snowball — Warren Buffett (2018)
Born a Crime — Trevor Noah (2017)
Kitchen Confidential — Anthony Bourdain (2017)
Screw it, Let’s Do it — Richard Branson (2013)
Jackie Chan — Long Cheng (2013)
Productivity & Mindset
Be Useful — Arnold Schwarzenegger (2024)
Slow Productivity — Cal Newport (2024)
Digital Minimalism — Cal Newport (2022)
A World Without E-mail — Cal Newport (2022)
Never Eat Alone — Keith Ferrazzi (2020)
Eat That Frog! — Brian Tracy (2020)
Indistractable — Nir Eyal (2020)
Deep Work — Cal Newport (2020)
Your Brain at Work — Davi Rock (2017)
Grit — Angela Duckworth (2017)
Smarter Faster Better — Charles Duhigg (2016)
Algorithms to Live By — Brian Christian (2016)
Mindset — Carol Dweck (2016)
Principles — Ray Dalio (2016)
The Power of Habit — Charles Duhigg (2016)
Willpower — Roy Baumeister (2014)
How to Win Friends & Influence People — Dale Carnegie (2011)
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People — Stephen Covey (2009)
The Day That Turns Your Life Around — Jim Rohn (2009)
Spirituality & Philosophy
The Wisdom of the Shamans — Don Jose Ruiz (2024)
Self-Compassion — Kristin Neff (2021)
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind — Shunryu Suzuki (2020)
The Power of Now — Eckhard Tolle (2020)
The Obstacle is the Way — Ryan Holiday (2019)
Ego is the Enemy — Ryan Holiday (2019)
Unfu*k Yourself — Gary John Bishop (2019)
When to Jump — Mike Lewis (2018)
How Will You Measure Your Life? — Clayton Christensen (2017)
Living With a SEAL — Jesse Itzler (2017)
Big Magic — Elizabeth Gilbert (2017)
Eat, Pray, Love — Elizabeth Gilbert (2017)
The Four Agreements — Don Miguel Ruiz (2017)
The Mastery of Love — Don Miguel Ruiz (2017)
Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance — Robert Pirsig (2014)
The Tao of Pooh — Benjamin Hoff (2011)
Tuesdays with Morrie — Mitch Albom (2011)
The Alchemist — Paulo Coelho (2010)
Man’s Search for Meaning — Viktor Frankl (2005)
Culture & Arts
Maybe You Should talk to Someone — Lori Gottlieb (2021)
The World Until Yesterday — Jared Diamond (2020)
Prisoners of Geography — Tim Marshall (2019)
A Short History of Nearly Everything — Bill Bryson (2019)
What the Dog Saw — Malcolm Gladwell (2017)
Born to Run — Christopher McDougall (2016)
Stones into Schools — Greg Mortenson (2010)
Freakonomics — Steven Levitt (2009)
The Tipping Point — Malcolm Gladwell (2009)
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down — Anne Fadiman (2008)
The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2008)
Into Thin Air — Jon Krakauer (2008)
Parenting
License to Parent — Christina & Ryan Hillsberg (2022)
Good Inside — Becky Kennedy (2022)
How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen — Joanna Farber (2021)
Bringing up Bebe — Pamela Druckerman (2020)
Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids — Dr. Laura Markham (2020)
Teach Your Children Well — Madeline Levine (2020)
Cribsheet — Emily Oster (2019)
Literary Fiction
When You Are Engulfed in Flames — David Sedaris (2019)
Me Talk Pretty One Day — David Sedaris (2011)
Writing
Long Story Short — Margot Leitman (2017)
Writing down the Bones — Natalie Goldberg (2014)
The Elements of Style — William & Strunk (2013)
Fiction
The Rosie Project, The Rosie Effect, The Rosie Result — Graeme Simsion (2020)
The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass — Phillip Pullman (2017)
The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay — Suzanne Collins (2017)
Life of Pi — Yann Martel (2014)
Joy Luck Club — Amy Tan (2006)
Harry Potter Series — J.K. Rowling (2003) (7 books)
Redwall Series — Brian Jacques (2000) (7 books)
Classics
East of Eden — John Steinbeck (2019)
A Movable Feast — Ernest Hemingway (2012)
A Brave New World — Alex Huxley (2010)
Siddhartha — Herman Hesse (2010)
The Cat’s Cradle — Kurt Vonnegut (2009)
Les Miserables — Victor Hugo (2007)
The Good Earth — Pearl S. Buck (2007)
The Count of Montecristo — Alexandre Dumas (2006)
Fahrenheit 451 — Ray Bradbury (2006)
Reference
A Guide to Book Genres — BookRiot.com