80+ Book Recommendations by Morgan Housel
Soul in the Game
Vitaliy Katsenelson
Soul in the Game is a book of inspiring stories and hard-won lessons on how to live a meaningful life, crafted by investor and writer Vitaliy Katsenelson. Drawing from the lives of classical composers, ancient Stoics, and contemporary thinkers, Katsenelson weaves together a tapestry of practical wisdom that has helped him overcome his greatest challenges: in work, family, identity, health--and in dealing with success, failure, and more. Part autobiography, part philosophy, part creativity manual, Soul in the Game is a unique and vulnerable exploration of what works, and what doesn't, in the attempt to shape a fulfilling and happy life.Really enjoyed @vitaliyk's new book. https://t.co/8BoBlVkVsJ
The Bond King
Mary Childs
From the host of NPR’s Planet Money, the deeply-investigated story of how one visionary, ruthless investor changed American finance forever. Before Bill Gross was known among investors as the Bond King, he was a gambler. In 1966, a fresh college grad, he went to Vegas armed with his net worth ($200) and a knack for counting cards. $10,000 and countless casino bans later, he was hooked: so he enrolled in business school. The Bond King is the story of how that whiz kid made American finance his casino. Over the course of decades, Bill Gross turned the sleepy bond market into a destabilized game of high risk, high reward; founded Pimco, one of today’s most powerful, secretive, and cutthroat investment firms; helped to reshape our financial system in the aftermath of the Great Recession—to his own advantage; and gained legions of admirers, and enemies, along the way. Like every American antihero, his ambition would also be his undoing. To understand the winners and losers of today’s money game, journalist Mary Childs argues, is to understand the bond market—and to understand the bond market is to understand the Bond King.This was so good. Great job @mdc. https://t.co/bl0VNrcJUl
The Great Depression
Benjamin Roth
@AlexAndBooks_ https://t.co/UiIjfQQ3Qd
A History of the Twentieth Century
Martin Gilbert
The world was still reeling from the ravages of the century's first Great War when a dramatic and inexorable chain of events set it afire once again. In the Second World War, forty-six million people would lost their lives, and deep and lasting upheavals would cast the world's social and political life into turmoil for decades to come. Martin Gilbert's three-volume history of the century continues with an enthralling narrative that documents the attempts to preserve human values, to maintain the rule of law, and to uphold the rights and dignity of the individual. Gilbert shows how the conflicts of nations and the aspirations of their rulers served both to threaten humankind through war and civil war, in many regions of the globe, and to create a fairer and more fulfilling life for hundreds, even thousands, of millions of people. For more than four decades, the United States and the Soviet Union -- joint victors in the struggle against Germany and Japan--struggled to establish the primacy of their respective systems, while the specter of nuclear war threatened to become a terrible reality. The world was still reeling from the ravages of the century's first Great War when a dramatic and inexorable chain of events set it afire once again. In the Second World War, forty-six million people would lost their lives, and deep and lasting upheavals would cast the world's social and political life into turmoil for decades to come. Martin Gilbert's three-volume history of the century continues with an enthralling narrative that documents the attempts to preserve human values, to maintain the rule of law, and to uphold the rights and dignity of the individual. Gilbert shows how the conflicts of nations and the aspirations of their rulers served both to threaten humankind through war and civil war, in many regions of the globe, and to create a fairer and more fulfilling life for hundreds, even thousands, of millions of people. For more than four decades, the United States and the Soviet Union--joint victors in the struggle against Germany and Japan--struggled to establish the primacy of their respective systems, while the specter of nuclear war threatened to become a terrible reality.@SuperMugatu https://t.co/nbxLCfhNlo
Just Keep Buying
Nick Maggiulli
Everyone faces big questions when it comes to money: questions about saving, investing, and whether you're getting it right with your finances. Unfortunately, many of the answers provided by the financial industry have been based on belief and conjecture rather than data and evidence--until now. In Just Keep Buying, hugely popular finance blogger Nick Maggiulli crunches the numbers to answer the biggest questions in personal finance and investing, while providing you with proven ways to build your wealth right away. You will learn why you need to save less than you think; why saving up cash to buy market dips isn't a good idea; how to survive (and thrive) during a market crash; and much more. By following the strategies revealed here, you can act smarter and live richer each and every day. It's time to take the next step in your wealth-building journey. It's time to Just Keep Buying.Highly recommend @dollarsanddata's new (and first) book, it's great. https://t.co/x27sPjL6Cy https://t.co/eQGffan3rS
Wanting
Luke Burgis
Really enjoyed this book by @lukeburgis. "When a person’s identity becomes completely tied to a mimetic model, they can never truly escape that model because doing so would mean destroying their own reason for being." https://t.co/WJafDcZiof
Expectations Investing
Michael Mauboussin
"Expectations investing is a stock-selection process that uses the market's own pricing model, the discounted cash flow model, with an important twist. Rather than forecast cash flows, expectations investing starts by reading the expectations implied by a company's stock price. This work builds on chapter 7 in coauthor Al Rappaport's seminal book, Creating Shareholder Value, called "Stock Market Signals to Management." That chapter told executives that they needed to be able to read the expectations built into the stock price of their company in order to understand how to generate superior stock price performance. Expectations Investing tailors that message to investors. The book is unique because rather than calculating a value for a business, as most investment books and textbooks suggest, expectations investing provides the tools to understand the expectations embedded in share price and to judge whether those expectations are reasonable. Gaps between fundamentals and expectations create opportunities to buy or sell a stock. This revised and updated edition will contain new frameworks, data, and case studies that reflect how these ideas still apply in today's investing world, which has changed greatly since the first edition's publication in 2001"--I loved this book when I first read it years ago and the updated version is even better -- congrats @mjmauboussin! https://t.co/0TKXZ5lAkQ https://t.co/QTl1G0lNQx
Numbers Don't Lie
Vaclav Smil
"Vaclav Smil's mission is to make facts matter. An environmental scientist, policy analyst, and a hugely prolific author, he is Bill Gates' go-to guy for making sense of our world. In Numbers Don't Lie, Smil answers questions such as: What's worse for the environment--your car or your phone? How much do the world's cows weigh (and what does it matter)? And what makes people happy?"--This was good. https://t.co/BiZX8V4qXR https://t.co/3XeSECU3lq
Freedom
Sebastian Junger
"A profound rumination on the concept of freedom from the New York Times bestselling author of Tribe"--Loved this new book by @sebastianjunger. It's insightful but short, to the point, and anyone can read it in a day. More books should copy this format. https://t.co/ejyb0Nusv7
The Premonition
Michael Lewis
For those who could read between the lines, the censored news out of China was terrifying. But the president insisted there was nothing to worry about.Going in. https://t.co/IJsKLSXGfk
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
"The premise of this book is that it is easier to recognize other people's mistakes than your own." -Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow.
- Jim Paul's meteoric rise took him from a small town in Northern Kentucky to governor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, yet he lost it all--his fortune, his reputation, and his job--in one fatal attack of excessive economic hubris. In this honest, frank analysis, Paul and Brendan Moynihan revisit the events that led to Paul's disastrous decision and examine the psychological factors behind bad financial practices in several economic sectors. This book--winner of a 2014 Axiom Business Book award gold medal--begins with the unbroken string of successes that helped Paul achieve a jet-setting lifestyle and land a key spot with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. It then describes the circumstances leading up to Paul's $1.6 million loss and the essential lessons he learned from it--primarily that, although there are as many ways to make money in the markets as there are people participating in them, all losses come from the same few sources. Investors lose money in the markets either because of errors in their analysis or because of psychological barriers preventing the application of analysis. While all analytical methods have some validity and make allowances for instances in which they do not work, psychological factors can keep an investor in a losing position, causing him to abandon one method for another in order to rationalize the decisions already made. Paul and Moynihan's cautionary tale includes strategies for avoiding loss tied to a simple framework for understanding, accepting, and dodging the dangers of investing, trading, and speculating.
@nntaleb The best/most underrated investing book I've read is "What I Learned Losing A Million Dollars." https://t.co/9heZzsN9Hw
Confessions of a Sociopath
M.E. Thomas
An account of the author's life as a diagnosed non-criminal sociopath explains how her charisma and penchant for convincing lies enables her to influence and seduce others, offering insight into her system of ethics while advising readers on how to manage a relationship with a sociopath.From the book Confessions of a Sociopath: https://t.co/0ez4rF425m
Capital Allocators
Ted Seides
The chief investment officers (CIOs) at endowments, foundations, family offices, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds are the leaders in the world of finance. They marshal trillions of dollars on behalf of their institutions and influence how capital flows throughout the world. But these elite investors live outside of the public eye. Across the entire investment industry, few participants understand how these holders of the keys to the kingdom allocate their time and their capital. What’s more, there is no formal training for how to do their work. So how do these influential leaders practice their craft? What skills do they require? What frameworks do they employ? How do they make investment decisions on everything from hiring managers to portfolio construction? For the first time, CAPITAL ALLOCATORS lifts the lid on this opaque corner of the investment landscape. Drawing on interviews from the first 150 episodes of the Capital Allocators podcast, Ted Seides presents the best of the knowledge, practical insights, and advice of the world’s top professional investors. These insights include: - The best practices for interviewing, decision-making, negotiations, leadership, and management. - Investment frameworks across governance, strategy, process, technological innovation, and uncertainty. - The wisest and most impactful quotes from guests on the Capital Allocators podcast. Learn from the likes of the CIOs at the endowments of Princeton and Notre Dame, family offices of Michael Bloomberg and George Soros, pension funds from the State of Florida, CalSTRS, and Canadian CDPQ, sovereign wealth funds of New Zealand and Australia, and many more. CAPITAL ALLOCATORS is the essential new reference manual for current and aspiring CIOs, the money managers that work with them, and everyone allocating a pool of capital.Congrats to @tseides on his new book. It's really good -- the snippets of the smartest things people have said on his podcast is a goldmine. https://t.co/B9OtCBClNK https://t.co/yTF5FT0EnA
The Delusions Of Crowds
William J. Bernstein
From the award-winning author of A Splendid Exchange, a fascinating new history of financial and religious mass manias over the past five centuriesThis looks good. https://t.co/1PGrzE6Hp7
Bull
Maggie Mahar
In 1982, the Dow hovered below 1000. Then, the market rose and rapidly gained speed until it peaked above 11,000. Noted journalist and financial reporter Maggie Mahar has written the first book on the remarkable bull market that began in 1982 and ended just in the early 2000s. For almost two decades, a colorful cast of characters such as Abby Joseph Cohen, Mary Meeker, Henry Blodget, and Alan Greenspan came to dominate the market news. This inside look at that 17-year cycle of growth, built upon interviews and unparalleled access to the most important analysts, market observers, and fund managers who eagerly tell the tales of excesses, presents the period with a historical perspective and explains what really happened and why.@anveshreddyj This, by far: https://t.co/otWMR1ulkA
American Moonshot
Douglas Brinkley
As the fiftieth anniversary of the first lunar landing approaches, the award winning historian and perennial New York Times bestselling author takes a fresh look at the space program, President John F. Kennedy’s inspiring challenge, and America’s race to the moon. “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.”—President John F. Kennedy On May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing, fast-paced epic, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in the history of humankind. American Moonshot brings together the extraordinary political, cultural, and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, which shot the United States to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Drawing on new primary source material and major interviews with many of the surviving figures who were key to America’s success, Brinkley brings this fascinating history to life as never before. American Moonshot is a portrait of the brilliant men and women who made this giant leap possible, the technology that enabled us to propel men beyond earth’s orbit to the moon and return them safely, and the geopolitical tensions that spurred Kennedy to commit himself fully to this audacious dream. Brinkley’s ensemble cast of New Frontier characters include rocketeer Wernher von Braun, astronaut John Glenn and space booster Lyndon Johnson. A vivid and enthralling chronicle of one of the most thrilling, hopeful, and turbulent eras in the nation’s history, American Moonshot is an homage to scientific ingenuity, human curiosity, and the boundless American spirit.This book on the space race was very good. Putting a man on the moon seemed so implausible in the early 1960s that the only equivalent today is probably achieving something like time travel. https://t.co/tZclAEmLxB
The Body
Bill Bryson
"From the bestselling author of A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING, a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body"--The Body is probably the best book I read in the last year: https://t.co/3VpKJeZSAv
Where the Money Was
Willie Sutton
A few underrated books: 1. Where The Money Was: Memoirs of a Bank Robber (Willie Sutton) https://t.co/G8u0Usobut 2. Crashing Through: The Story of the Man Who Dared to See https://t.co/lm10CNaWiT 3. One Summer: America in 1927 https://t.co/AX2hx2hU04
Crashing Through
Robert Kurson
Blinded at age three, Mike May overcame his disability to become a competitive downhill skiier and a member of the CIA, and in 1999 undertook an experimental surgery in an attempt to restore his sight.A few underrated books: 1. Where The Money Was: Memoirs of a Bank Robber (Willie Sutton) https://t.co/G8u0Usobut 2. Crashing Through: The Story of the Man Who Dared to See https://t.co/lm10CNaWiT 3. One Summer: America in 1927 https://t.co/AX2hx2hU04
A few underrated books: 1. Where The Money Was: Memoirs of a Bank Robber (Willie Sutton) https://t.co/G8u0Usobut 2. Crashing Through: The Story of the Man Who Dared to See https://t.co/lm10CNaWiT 3. One Summer: America in 1927 https://t.co/AX2hx2hU04
How I Invest My Money
Joshua Brown
The world of investing normally sees experts telling us the 'right' way to manage our money. How often do these experts pull back the curtain and tell us how they invest their own money? Never. How I Invest My Money changes that. In this unprecedented collection, 25 financial experts share how they navigate markets with their own capital. In this honest rendering of how they invest, save, spend, give, and borrow, this group of portfolio managers, financial advisors, venture capitalists and other experts detail the 'how' and the 'why' of their investments. They share stories about their childhood, their families, the struggles they face and the aspirations they hold. Sometimes raw, always revealing, these stories detail the indelible relationship between our money and our values. Taken as a whole, these essays powerfully demonstrate that there is no single 'right' way to save, spend, and invest. We see a kaleidoscope of perspectives on stocks, bonds, real assets, funds, charity, and other means of achieving the life one desires. With engaging illustrations throughout by Carl Richards, How I Invest My Money inspires readers to think creatively about their financial decisions and how money figures in the broader quest for a contented life. With contributions from: Morgan Housel, Christine Benz, Brian Portnoy, Joshua Brown, Bob Seawright, Carolyn McClanahan, Tyrone Ross, Dasarte Yarnway, Nina O'Neal, Debbie Freeman, Shirl Penney, Ted Seides, Ashby Daniels, Blair duQuesnay, Leighann Miko, Perth Tolle, Josh Rogers, Jenny Harrington, Mike Underhill, Dan Egan, Howard Lindzon, Ryan Krueger, Lazetta Rainey Braxton, Rita Cheng, Alex ChalekianHow I Invest My Money: Finance experts reveal how they save, spend, and invest. This was a cool project and I was glad to be a part of it. Congrats @ReformedBroker and @brianportnoy, this turned out great. https://t.co/O2FRI15x6k
The Rise and Fall of American Growth
Robert J. Gordon
The history of chicken: "The fact that red meat was rationed but fish and poultry were not was a harbinger of the steady shift to poultry in the postwar diet." https://t.co/y81k0Uz5PC
These Truths
Jill Lepore
The challenge of retelling five hundred years of American history in a single volume has been so daunting that hardly any historian has attempted it in decades. When Jill Lepore's New York Times best-selling These Truths appeared in 2018, critics quickly hailed it as a classic--appealing not only to academics, but to thousands of astonished general readers. Picking up the book out of a feeling of civic duty, they opened its pages to discover a different kind of writing, and what the Washington Post called "an honest reckoning with America's past"--a story filled with women and men and people of every color and religion, one that wrestles with the state of American politics, the legacy of slavery, the persistence of inequality, and the nature of technological change. With These Truths, Harvard historian and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore has produced a book that will shape our view of American history for decades to come.Loved, and recommend, this book on U.S. history by Jill Lepore: These Truths: A History of the United States https://t.co/STNYXwmrcg
Risk Savvy
Gerd Gigerenzer
"First published in United States of America by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 2014."--Title page verso.From his book Risk Savvy: https://t.co/BpWkTZunqD
The British Are Coming
Rick Atkinson
The paperback edition of the New York Times bestseller that the Wall Street Journal said was “chock full of momentous events and larger-than-life characters.” Rick Atkinson, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning An Army at Dawn and two other superb books about World War II, has long been admired for his deeply researched, stunningly vivid narrative histories. Now he turns his attention to a new war, and in the initial volume of the Revolution Trilogy he recounts the first twenty-one months of America’s violent war for independence. From the battles at Lexington and Concord in spring 1775 to those at Trenton and Princeton in winter 1777, American militiamen and then the ragged Continental Army take on the world’s most formidable fighting force. It is a gripping saga alive with astonishing characters: Henry Knox, the former bookseller with an uncanny understanding of artillery; Nathanael Greene, the blue-eyed bumpkin who becomes a brilliant battle captain; Benjamin Franklin, the self-made man who proves to be the wiliest of diplomats; George Washington, the commander in chief who learns the difficult art of leadership when the war seems all but lost. The story is also told from the British perspective, making the mortal conflict between the redcoats and the rebels all the more compelling. Full of riveting details and untold stories, The British Are Coming is a tale of heroes and knaves, of sacrifice and blunder, of redemption and profound suffering. Rick Atkinson has given stirring new life to the first act of our country’s creation drama.@BullandBaird @billsweet I think Rick Atkinson is the best military historian: https://t.co/oGZE2nfg0R
The Guns at Last Light
Rick Atkinson
From the book Guns at Last Light, probably the best WW2 in Europe book. https://t.co/56a5zxhQFe
Sapiens
Yuval Noah Harari
**THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLER** 'Interesting and provocative... It gives you a sense of how briefly we've been on this Earth' Barack Obama What makes us brilliant? What makes us deadly? What makes us Sapiens? Yuval Noah Harari challenges everything we know about being human in the perfect read for these unprecedented times. Earth is 4.5 billion years old. In just a fraction of that time, one species among countless others has conquered it: us. In this bold and provocative book, Yuval Noah Harari explores who we are, how we got here and where we're going. 'I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who's interested in the history and future of our species' Bill Gates **ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY**@SuperMugatu Good example is the book Sapiens selling 10 million copies. Drove historians/anthropologists crazy. "He didn't say anything new!" Sure, but he said it well.
The Psychology of Money
Morgan Housel
Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people. Money—investing, personal finance, and business decisions—is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.@WAguilar78 @FriszKevin https://t.co/b8C050J6Cg
@JamesClear The Quest of The Simple Life https://t.co/ERT8e2NHy0
John F. Kennedy
Michael O'Brien
A portrait of the thirty-fifth president draws on newly released government archive material and the JFK library to offer insights into both his strengths and character flaws.Joe Kennedy giving JFK the painful truth. https://t.co/YNVOvGIxJG https://t.co/SevXRo5QXr
Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t
Steven Pressfield
@ShafiqueGajdhar This is a good one: https://t.co/eTVptusYFE
The End Is Always Near
Dan Carlin
A journey back in time that explores what happened—and what could have happened—from creator of the wildly-popular podcast Hardcore History and 2019 winner of the iHeartRadio Best History Podcast Award. Dan Carlin has created a new way to think about the past. His mega-hit podcast, Hardcore History, is revered for its unique blend of high drama, enthralling narration, and Twilight Zone-style twists. Carlin humanizes the past, wondering about things that didn’t happen but might have, and compels his listeners to “walk a mile in that other guy’s historical moccasins.” A political commentator, Carlin approaches history like a magician, employing completely unorthodox and always entertaining ways of re-looking at what we think we know about wars, empires, and leaders across centuries and millennia. But what happens to the everyman caught in the gears of history? Carlin asks the questions, poses the arguments, and explores the facts to find out. Inspired by his podcast, Hardcore History challenges the way we look at the past and ourselves. In this absorbing compendium, Carlin embarks on a whole new set of stories and major cliffhangers that will keep readers enthralled. Idiosyncratic and erudite, offbeat yet profound, Hardcore History examines issues that are rarely presented, and makes the past immediately relevant to our very turbulent present.This Dan Carlin book on times when it felt like the world was coming to an end is *extremely* good. Was written last year but has a great chapter on pandemics. https://t.co/HqwjxpJ4VX
Since Yesterday
Frederick Lewis Allen
@markbrooks Broken record but I'll always recommend this for anything related to the 1930s in America: https://t.co/8yolmuV51h
The Great Depression
Benjamin Roth
@russmonk Unbeatable: https://t.co/VkFlILxgTJ https://t.co/VKD0CbcQ2D
Since Yesterday
Frederick L Allen
"Vividly and with great skills he marshals the men, the mountebanks, the measures, and the events of ten years of American life and causes them to march before us in orderly panathenaic procession."--Saturday Review@russmonk Unbeatable: https://t.co/VkFlILxgTJ https://t.co/VKD0CbcQ2D
The Psychology of Money
Morgan Housel
Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people. Money—investing, personal finance, and business decisions—is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.Pre-sale of my book The Psychology of Money is now available: https://t.co/oYBzS3Bd9S https://t.co/TTlS0Ncpj1
Billion Dollar Whale
Bradley Hope
Named a Best Book of 2018 by the Financial Times and Fortune, this New York Times bestseller about the 1MDB scandal exposes how a "modern Gatsby" swindled over $5 billion with the aid of Goldman Sachs in "the heist of the century" (Axios). Now a #1 international bestseller, BILLION DOLLAR WHALE is "an epic tale of white-collar crime on a global scale" (Publishers Weekly, starred review), revealing how a young social climber from Malaysia pulled off one of the biggest heists in history. In 2009, a chubby, mild-mannered graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business named Jho Low set in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude--one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system. Over a decade, Low, with the aid of Goldman Sachs and others, siphoned billions of dollars from an investment fund--right under the nose of global financial industry watchdogs. Low used the money to finance elections, purchase luxury real estate, throw champagne-drenched parties, and even to finance Hollywood films like The Wolf of Wall Street. By early 2019, with his yacht and private jet reportedly seized by authorities and facing criminal charges in Malaysia and in the United States, Low had become an international fugitive, even as the U.S. Department of Justice continued its investigation. BILLION DOLLAR WHALE has joined the ranks of Liar's Poker, Den of Thieves, and Bad Blood as a classic harrowing parable of hubris and greed in the financial world.This book on the 1MDB scandal was great, hard to put down. Low sophistication + huge brazenness is a powerful fraud combo. https://t.co/nYpIJffcb5
The Alchemy of Finance
George Soros
New chapter by Soros on the secrets to his success along with a new Preface and Introduction. New Foreword by renowned economist Paul Volcker "An extraordinary . . . inside look into the decision-making process of the most successful money manager of our time. Fantastic." —The Wall Street Journal George Soros is unquestionably one of the most powerful and profitable investors in the world today. Dubbed by BusinessWeek as "the Man who Moves Markets," Soros made a fortune competing with the British pound and remains active today in the global financial community. Now, in this special edition of the classic investment book, The Alchemy of Finance, Soros presents a theoretical and practical account of current financial trends and a new paradigm by which to understand the financial market today. This edition's expanded and revised Introduction details Soros's innovative investment practices along with his views of the world and world order. He also describes a new paradigm for the "theory of reflexivity" which underlies his unique investment strategies. Filled with expert advice and valuable business lessons, The Alchemy of Finance reveals the timeless principles of an investing legend. This special edition will feature a new chapter by Soros on the secrets of his success and a new Foreword by the Honorable Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve. George Soros (New York, NY) is President of Soros Fund Management and Chief Investment Advisor to Quantum Fund N.V., a $12 billion international investment fund. Besides his numerous ventures in finance, Soros is also extremely active in the worlds of education, culture, and economic aid and development through his Open Society Fund and the Soros Foundation.It's not easy reading but Soros's writes a lot about this: https://t.co/ilHerle3v9
Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh!t
Steven Pressfield
FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE WAR OF ART ...There's a mantra that real writers know that wannabe writers don't. And the secret phrase is this: NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*TRecognizing that painful truth is the first step in the writer's transformation from amateur to professional. "When you understand that nobody wants to read your shit, you develop empathy. You acquire the skill that is indispensable to all artists and entrepreneurs--the ability to switch back and forth in your imagination from your own point of view as writer/painter/seller to the point of view of your reader/gallery-goer/customer. You learn to ask yourself with every sentence and every phrase: Is this interesting? Is it fun or challenging or inventive? Am I giving the reader enough? Is she bored? Is she following where I want to lead her?"@CindyBiSV @ganeumann Unbeatable: https://t.co/4nhCpRz1Ii
Don't Fall For It
Ben Carlson
Finished @awealthofcs's new book, which is excellent as you'd expect. https://t.co/f3Xmue9IgN
Dignity
Chris Arnade
Once or twice a generation, an author reveals what life is like for the truly needy and disenfranchised. Like Jacob Riis in the 1890s, Walker Evans in the 1930s, or Michael Harrington in the 1960s, Chris Arnade cuts through the jargon and abstractions to expose the reality of our current class divide in stark pictures and unforgettable true stories. After abandoning his Wall Street career, Arnade decided to document poverty and addiction in the Bronx, spending years interviewing, photographing, and becoming close friends with homeless addicts, hanging out in drug dens and McDonald's in the South Bronx. Then he started driving across America to see how the rest of the country compared. He found the same types of stories everywhere, across lines of race, ethnicity, religion, and geography. The people he got to know, from Alabama to California and Maine to Nevada, gave Arnade a new respect for the dignity and resilience of what he calls America's Back Row-those who lack the credentials and advantages of the Front Row. The strivers in the Front Row, with their advanced degrees and upward mobility, see the Back Row's forms of meaningas worthless, and then tell them they are wasting their time staying in dying towns or cities. Why not move for better jobs? The responses from the Back Row-about the comforts of faith, community, family, and tradition-are seen as backward. But the Back Row finds love, companionship, and dignity in surprising places-in drug dens, community colleges, churches, and even in McDonald's. In Arnade's pictures and writings, the suffering and flawed are also seen searching for dignity in the midst of loss and humiliation. As Takeesha, a woman in Hunts Point, told Arnade, she wants the secular elites to see her as she sees herself- "a prostitute, a mother of six, and a child of God." This book is his attempt to help the rest of us truly see, hear, and respect millions of people who've been left behind.This by @Chris_arnade is excellent. https://t.co/xykUfYy6o6 https://t.co/bDPdaPI8xk
The Body
Bill Bryson
"From the bestselling author of A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING, a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body"--Bill Bryson's new book on how the body works is as good as you'd expect. https://t.co/74sGSZ6l4l
The Ride of a Lifetime
Robert Iger
Robert Iger became CEO of The Walt Disney Company in 2005, during a difficult time. Competition was more intense than ever and technology was changing faster than at any time in the company’s history. His vision came down to three clear ideas: Recommit to the concept that quality matters, embrace technology instead of fighting it, and think bigger—think global—and turn Disney into a stronger brand in international markets. Twelve years later, Disney is the largest, most respected media company in the world, counting Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox among its properties. Its value is nearly five times what it was when Iger took over, and he is recognized as one of the most innovative and successful CEOs of our era. In "The ride of a lifetime," Robert Iger shares the lessons he’s learned while running Disney and leading its 200,000 employees, and he explores the principles that are necessary for true leadership.Lots of people said read this book by Robert Iger for the first chapter (which is very good), but I thought the whole book was interesting. Fits @michaelbatnick's definition of a book about business vs. a business book. https://t.co/YJOCtv5dOn
The Rational Optimist
Matt Ridley
For two hundred years the pessimists have dominated public discourse, insisting that things will soon be getting much worse. But in fact, life is getting better—and at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down all across the globe. Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people's lives as never before. In his bold and bracing exploration into how human culture evolves positively through exchange and specialization, bestselling author Matt Ridley does more than describe how things are getting better. He explains why. An astute, refreshing, and revelatory work that covers the entire sweep of human history—from the Stone Age to the Internet—The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.@SuperMugatu Rational Optimist + Better Angels of Our Nature
The Better Angels of Our Nature
Steven Pinker
Presents a controversial history of violence which argues that today's world is the most peaceful time in human existence, drawing on psychological insights into intrinsic values that are causing people to condemn violence as an acceptable measure.@SuperMugatu Rational Optimist + Better Angels of Our Nature
The Man Who Solved the Market
Gregory Zuckerman
Bestselling author and veteran Wall Street Journal reporter Zuckerman answers the question investors have been asking for decades: How did Jim Simons do it? Simons is the greatest money maker in modern financial history. His track record bests those of legendary investors including Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Ray Dalio, and George Soros..Reading @GZuckerman's new book on the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, "The Man Who Solved The Market," and it is *good.* https://t.co/3EnbgLOB9I
The Lords of Creation
Frederick Lewis Allen
"The story of the immense financial and corporate expansion which took place in the United States between the depression of the eighteen-nineties and the crisis of the nineteen-thirties."--Preface.I'm writing a very long piece on common economic plot lines, and the boom bust cycle causing people to overdose on good ideas pops up a lot. 1880s railroads, from the book Lords of Creation: https://t.co/MHnDeNxJgH
Polio
David M. Oshinsky
A history of the 1950s polio epidemic that caused panic in the United States examines the competition between Salk and Sabin to find the first vaccine and its implications for such issues as government testing of new drugs and manufacturers' liability.Stories about how successful FDR was at keeping his paralysis out of public view are wild. This could never happen today with any politician. https://t.co/VldlHsWOzQ https://t.co/OtLn6ZVD8N
A History of the Twentieth Century
Martin Gilbert
Martin Gilbert, author of the multivolume biography of Winston Churchill and other brilliant works of history, chronicles world events year by year, from the dawn of aviation to the flourishing technology age, taking us through World War I to the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt as president of the United States and Hider as chancellor of Germany. He continues on to document wars in South Africa, China, Ethiopia, Spain, Korea, Vietnam, and Bosnia, as well as apartheid, the arms race, the moon landing, and the beginnings of the computer age, while interspersing the influence of art, literature, music, and religion throughout this vivid work. A rich, textured look at war, celebration, suffering, life, death, and renewal in the century gone by, this volume is nothing less than extraordinary.@a_ray88 This is probably the most complete telling. https://t.co/blhQ0tWTPU
What to Expect when No One's Expecting
Jonathan V. Last
Challenges mainstream beliefs about overpopulation and cites the consequences of a rapidly depopulating world.Fertility by education (from the book What to Expect When No One's Expecting) https://t.co/3Pbr8p7UHm
Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber
Mike Isaac
Reading Super Pumped, the Uber book. I’ve heard this story many times but it’s still amazing: https://t.co/g1B5xwcsKB
Robin
Dave Itzkoff
"From New York Times reporter Dave Itzkoff comes the definitive biography of Robin Williams-- a compelling portrait of one of America's most beloved and misunderstood entertainers. From his rapid-fire stand-up comedy riffs to his breakout role in Mork & Mindy and his powerful Academy Award-winning performance in Good Will Hunting, Robin Williams was a singularly innovative actor and comedian. He often came across as a man possessed, holding forth on culture, politics, and personal revelation-- all with mercurial, tongue-twisting intensity as he inhabited and shed one character after another. But as Dave Itzkoff shows in this revelatory biography, Williams's comic brilliance masked a deep well of conflicting emotions and self-doubt. In his comedy and in celebrated films like Dead Poets Society; Good Morning, Vietnam; The Fisher King; Aladdin; and Mrs. Doubtfire, he showcased his limitless gift for improvisation, bringing his characters to life and using humor to seek deeper truths. Itzkoff also shows how Williams struggled mightily with addiction and depression and with a debilitating condition at the end of his life that affected him in ways his fans never knew. Drawing on more than a hundred original interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, as well as extensive archival research, Robin is a fresh and original look at a performer whose work touched so many of our lives"--Book jacket.Two great books: Biography of Robin Williams. Amazing dude: https://t.co/LmwLh7WpJh Memoir by Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut. Craziest things humans have ever done: https://t.co/k6mxpYAPSY
Two great books: Biography of Robin Williams. Amazing dude: https://t.co/LmwLh7WpJh Memoir by Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut. Craziest things humans have ever done: https://t.co/k6mxpYAPSY
Alchemy
Rory Sutherland
The legendary advertising guru—Ogilvy UK’s vice chairman—and star of three massively popular TED Talks, blends the science of human behavior with his vast experience in the art of persuasion in this incomparable book that decodes successful branding and marketing in the vein of Freakonomics, Thinking Fast and Slow, and The Power of Habit. When Rory Sutherland was a trainee working on a direct mail campaign at the famed advertising firm OgilvyOne, he noticed that very small changes in design often had immense effects on the number of consumer responses. Yet no one he worked with knew why. Sutherland began taking stock of each effective yet nebulous trick—”the thing which has no name”—he discovered. As he rose in the advertising industry, he began to understand why these things had no name: no one was interested in quantifying them, cataloguing them, or really investigating them. So, he did it himself. Like classic behavioral economists Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler, Sutherland peels away hidden, often irrational human behaviors that explain how the world around us functions. In How to Be an Alchemist he examines why certain ads work and the broader truths they tell us about who we are. Why do people prefer stripy toothpaste, and how might that help us design retirement plans that young people would actually buy? Why do we think orange juice is healthy, and how does the same principle guide our feelings about nuclear reactors? Why do budget airlines advertise services they don’t offer—and what might insurance companies learn from them about keeping healthcare costs low? Filled with startling and profound conclusions, Sutherland’s journey through the world of advertising and its surprising lessons for human behavior is insightful, brilliant, eye-opening, and irresistibly fun.This book by @rorysutherland is as good as everyone else says it is. https://t.co/TTksRK0prP
Loonshots
Safi Bahcall
*Wall Street Journal bestseller *Next Big Idea Club selection—chosen by Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Dan Pink, and Adam Grant as one of the "two most groundbreaking new nonfiction reads of the season" *Washington Post's "10 Leadership Books to Watch for in 2019" *Inc.com's "10 Business Books You Need to Read in 2019" *Business Insider's "14 Books Everyone Will Be Reading in 2019" “This book has everything: new ideas, bold insights, entertaining history and convincing analysis. Not to be missed by anyone who wants to understand how ideas change the world.” —Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow What do James Bond and Lipitor have in common? What can we learn about human nature and world history from a glass of water? In Loonshots, physicist and entrepreneur Safi Bahcall reveals a surprising new way of thinking about the mysteries of group behavior that challenges everything we thought we knew about nurturing radical breakthroughs. Drawing on the science of phase transitions, Bahcall shows why teams, companies, or any group with a mission will suddenly change from embracing wild new ideas to rigidly rejecting them, just as flowing water will suddenly change into brittle ice. Mountains of print have been written about culture. Loonshots identifies the small shifts in structure that control this transition, the same way that temperature controls the change from water to ice. Using examples that range from the spread of fires in forests to the hunt for terrorists online, and stories of thieves and geniuses and kings, Bahcall shows how this new kind of science helps us understand the behavior of companies and the fate of empires. Loonshots distills these insights into lessons for creatives, entrepreneurs, and visionaries everywhere. Over the past decade, researchers have been applying the tools and techniques of phase transitions to understand how birds flock, fish swim, brains work, people vote, criminals behave, ideas spread, diseases erupt, and ecosystems collapse. If twentieth-century science was shaped by the search for fundamental laws, like quantum mechanics and gravity, the twenty-first will be shaped by this new kind of science. Loonshots is the first to apply these tools to help all of us unlock our potential to create and nurture the crazy ideas that change the world.Had breakfast with the great @SafiBahcall, whose book Loonshots is the best thing you'll read this year. Follow him and check out the book if you haven't. https://t.co/vkhmsfIRpK
A truly great book, basically the intersection of microeconomics and sociology: https://t.co/EJdXyFj6C1
City of Dreams
Tyler Anbinder
ANew York TimesTop 100 Book of 2016 "Told brilliantly, even unforgettably . . . with fascinating details . . . While this is a New York story, it really is an American story, one that belongs to all of us." --Boston Globe "Anbinder's sweepingCity of Dreamsscores big . . . Richly textured." --New York Times Book Review New York has been America's city of immigrants for nearly four centuries. Growing from Peter Minuit's tiny settlement of 1626 to one with more than 3 million immigrants today, the city has always been a magnet for transplants from all over the globe.City of Dreams is the long-overdue, inspiring, and defining account of New York's both famous and forgotten immigrants: the young man from the Caribbean who relocated to New York and became a founding father; Russian-born Emma Goldman, who condoned the murder of American industrialists as a means of aiding downtrodden workers; Dominican immigrant Oscar de la Renta, who dressed first ladies from Jackie Kennedy to Michelle Obama. Over ten years in the making, Tyler Anbinder's story is one of innovators and artists, revolutionaries and rioters, staggering deprivation and soaring triumphs. In so many ways, today's immigrants are just like those who came to America in centuries past--and their stories have never before been told with such breadth of scope, lavish research, and resounding spirit.@colby__donovan Ha, a few people asked. I couldn't remember the name on the podcast, so you're right, I didn't mention it. It's this one: https://t.co/1nmudgEAW6
The Moral Animal
Robert Wright
Can't recommend this book on evolutionary psychology enough: The Moral Animal: Why We Are The Way We Are https://t.co/U5CzC8Yt6J
Only Yesterday
Frederick L. Allen
Only Yesterday deals with that delightful decade from the Armistice in November 1918 to the panic and depression of 1929-30. Here is the story of Woodrow Wilson's defeat, the Harding scandals, the Coolidge prosperity, the revolution in manners and morals, the bull market and its smash-up. Allen's lively narrative brings back an endless variety of half-forgotten events, fashions, crazes, and absurdities. Deftly written, with a humorous touch, Only Yesterday traces, beneath the excitements of day-to-day life in the 20s, those currents in national life and thought which are the essence of true history.@willgriffith16 https://t.co/pHt2MyoDnc
Making Money Simple
Peter Lazaroff
Simplify your financial life and ensure financial success into the future Feeling paralyzed by the overwhelming number of complex decisions you need to make with your money? You don’t need to be an expert to achieve financial freedom. You just need a framework that makes the right choices simple and easy to make. Making Money Simple provides that much-needed process so you can get on the right track to long-term financial security. This valuable resource provides a solid foundation for all the nuanced personal finance decisions you need to make as you go through your career, hit major life milestones, and look to grow wealth. It’s a blueprint for financial achievement—even through tough-to-navigate situations where there are no clear-cut rules. After you read Making Money Simple, you’ll be able to create your personal plan for success using proven wealth management methods and real-world financial strategies. From basic financial principles to advanced investing techniques, you’ll get comprehensive coverage of fundamental financial topics with easy-to-follow advice from author Peter Lazaroff, who draws from his expertise as the Chief Investment Officer of a multi-billion-dollar wealth management firm to give you the tools you need to simplify your financial situation and make the right moves at every opportunity. Getting your finances in order doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t require fancy, convoluted investment strategies. Nor does it require keeping track of detailed spreadsheets. You just need this step-by-step process to get your financial house in order and keep it that way forever. It doesn’t matter what your specific situation is. We all need to understand our money—and what to do with it. Making Money Simple shows you how to: ● Develop clear financial goals and plan for your future ● Understand the three crucial elements of building a strong financial house ● Implement effective investment strategies to grow your wealth and avoid costly mistakes ● Learn ten smart questions to ask when hiring financial professionals For those seeking to secure a solid financial future, Making Money Simple: A Complete Guide to Getting Your Financial House in Order and Keeping It That Way Forever is the roadmap to get you there.My friend @PeterLazaroff has a new book out today about keeping things simple in investing -- rare but so important these days. Check it out. https://t.co/VNT6lQmmAd
Here Is Real Magic
Nate Staniforth
An extraordinary memoir about finding wonder in everyday life, from magician Nate Staniforth. Nate Staniforth has spent most of his life and all of his professional career trying to understand wonder--what it is, where to find it, and how to share it with others. He became a magician because he learned at a young age that magic tricks don't have to be frivolous. Magic doesn't have to be about sequins and smoke machines--rather, it can create a moment of genuine astonishment. But after years on the road as a professional magician, crisscrossing the country and performing four or five nights a week, every week, Nate was disillusioned, burned out, and ready to quit. Instead, he went to India in search of magic. Here Is Real Magic follows Nate Staniforth's evolution from an obsessed young magician to a broken wanderer and back again. It tells the story of his rediscovery of astonishment--and the importance of wonder in everyday life--during his trip to the slums of India, where he infiltrated a three-thousand-year-old clan of street magicians. Here Is Real Magic is a call to all of us--to welcome awe back into our lives, to marvel in the everyday, and to seek magic all around us.Two good books: Crashing Through (man blinded at age 3, regains vision at age 46 after experimental surgery) https://t.co/cAkTkThuya Here is Real Magic (life of a traveling magician) https://t.co/0jWIzlQDsN
Crashing Through
Robert Kurson
Blinded at age three, Mike May overcame his disability to become a competitive downhill skiier and a member of the CIA, and in 1999 undertook an experimental surgery in an attempt to restore his sight.Two good books: Crashing Through (man blinded at age 3, regains vision at age 46 after experimental surgery) https://t.co/cAkTkThuya Here is Real Magic (life of a traveling magician) https://t.co/0jWIzlQDsN
@dkimerling https://t.co/koSbeSmLDj
City of Dreams
Tyler Anbinder
ANew York TimesTop 100 Book of 2016 "Told brilliantly, even unforgettably . . . with fascinating details . . . While this is a New York story, it really is an American story, one that belongs to all of us." --Boston Globe "Anbinder's sweepingCity of Dreamsscores big . . . Richly textured." --New York Times Book Review New York has been America's city of immigrants for nearly four centuries. Growing from Peter Minuit's tiny settlement of 1626 to one with more than 3 million immigrants today, the city has always been a magnet for transplants from all over the globe.City of Dreams is the long-overdue, inspiring, and defining account of New York's both famous and forgotten immigrants: the young man from the Caribbean who relocated to New York and became a founding father; Russian-born Emma Goldman, who condoned the murder of American industrialists as a means of aiding downtrodden workers; Dominican immigrant Oscar de la Renta, who dressed first ladies from Jackie Kennedy to Michelle Obama. Over ten years in the making, Tyler Anbinder's story is one of innovators and artists, revolutionaries and rioters, staggering deprivation and soaring triumphs. In so many ways, today's immigrants are just like those who came to America in centuries past--and their stories have never before been told with such breadth of scope, lavish research, and resounding spirit.The best book I've read in a while is this one on the 400-year history of immigration to New York City. Economics/politics/sociology/culture/history, and good storytelling. https://t.co/3ai4BQcFS3
Jesse Livermore - Boy Plunger
Tom Rubython
Jesse Livermore, was the most successful stock trader that ever operated. Singlehandedly he caused the two great Wall Street crashes of 1907 and 1929, making millions from both. Briefly in the early 1930s he was one of the world s richest men with a personal fortune believed to be worth over $150 million. It was too extreme a change of fortunes and Livermore shot himself in a New York hotel lobby in 1940 aged just 63."@ReformedBroker This one: https://t.co/PNG6lWYWBG
Tribe
Sebastian Junger
We have a strong instinct to belong to small groups defined by clear purpose and understanding--"tribes." This tribal connection has been largely lost in modern society, but regaining it may be the key to our psychological survival. Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians-but Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society has been exerting an almost gravitational pull on Westerners for hundreds of years, and the reason lies deep in our evolutionary past as a communal species. The most recent example of that attraction is combat veterans who come home to find themselves missing the incredibly intimate bonds of platoon life. The loss of closeness that comes at the end of deployment may explain the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military veterans today. Combining history, psychology, and anthropology, TRIBE explores what we can learn from tribal societies about loyalty, belonging, and the eternal human quest for meaning. It explains the irony that-for many veterans as well as civilians-war feels better than peace, adversity can turn out to be a blessing, and disasters are sometimes remembered more fondly than weddings or tropical vacations. TRIBE explains why we are stronger when we come together, and how that can be achieved even in today's divided world.Loved this short book by @sebastianjunger https://t.co/IHurLVlGMu
This book on everything that happened in 1927 is really good. Crazy how much important stuff happened in a year. https://t.co/iF3Zk5v7qR
Shaky Ground
Bethany McLean
In a way, the situation is ironic: housing was at the root of the financial crisis, and six years after the meltdown, housing finance is still the greatest unsolved issue. The U.S. housing market is roughly $10 trillion, making it one of the largest segments of the bond market. Roughly 70 percent of the American population has a mortgage, and for most people, the mortgage is the most important financial instrument in their lives. But until the financial crisis, few people knew the essential role that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play in their mortgages. Given the $188 billion government bailout of the two firms the most expensive bailout in history the politics surrounding housing are worse than they've ever been, and the two gigantic firms sit in limbo. Best-selling investigative journalist Bethany McLean, the coauthor of The Smartest Guys in the Room andAll the Devils Are Here, explains why the situation is dangerous and unsustainable, and proposes a few solutions from the perfect, but politically unfeasible to the doable, but ugly.@adamploni This by @bethanymac12 https://t.co/QvLjteYS8H
Amusing Ourselves to Death
Neil Postman
Examines the ways in which television has transformed public discourse--in politics, education, religion, science, and elsewhere--into a form of entertainment that undermines exposition, explanation and knowledge, in a special anniversary edition of the classic critique of the influence of the mass media on a democratic society. Reprint.@TheStalwart I'm in the middle of this book on the modern evolution of media and it's good. https://t.co/ckthUtPE7A
Risk Savvy
Gerd Gigerenzer
Revealing that most of us misunderstand statistics much more often than we think, this must-have resource helps us to make better decisions for our health, finances, family and business without needing to consult an expert or Big Data.Luck and chance: https://t.co/qtJGM8OyLu https://t.co/kd1vqO6W2H
The Great Upheaval
Jay Winik
It is an era that redefined history. As the 1790s began, a fragile America teetered on the brink of oblivion, Russia towered as a vast imperial power, and France plunged into revolution. But in contrast to the way conventional histories tell it, none of these remarkable events occurred in isolation. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian Jay Winik masterfully illuminates how their fates combined in one extraordinary moment to change the course of civilization. A sweeping, magisterial drama featuring the richest cast of characters ever to walk upon the world stage, including Washington, Jefferson, Louis XVI, Robespierre, and Catherine the Great, The Great Upheaval is a gripping, epic portrait of this tumultuous decade that will forever transform the way we see America's beginnings and our worldI just finished the last of Jay Winik's three books, and he is probably the best U.S. historian I've read. Amazing storyteller. Highly recommended. https://t.co/WyZ9R2AhRG https://t.co/zH2BkhXOjw https://t.co/nLNCpv2Znq
April 1865
Jay Winik
One month in 1865 witnessed the frenzied fall of Richmond, a daring last-ditch Southern plan for guerrilla warfare, Lee's harrowing retreat, and then, Appomattox. It saw Lincoln's assassination just five days later and a near-successful plot to decapitate the Union government, followed by chaos and coup fears in the North, collapsed negotiations and continued bloodshed in the South, and finally, the start of national reconciliation. In the end, April 1865 emerged as not just the tale of the war's denouement, but the story of the making of our nation. Jay Winik offers a brilliant new look at the Civil War's final days that will forever change the way we see the war's end and the nation's new beginning. Uniquely set within the larger sweep of history and filled with rich profiles of outsize figures, fresh iconoclastic scholarship, and a gripping narrative, this is a masterful account of the thirty most pivotal days in the life of the United States.I just finished the last of Jay Winik's three books, and he is probably the best U.S. historian I've read. Amazing storyteller. Highly recommended. https://t.co/WyZ9R2AhRG https://t.co/zH2BkhXOjw https://t.co/nLNCpv2Znq
1944
Jay Winik
It was not inevitable that World War II would end as it did, or that it would even end well. 1944 was a year that could have stymied the Allies and cemented Hitler's waning power. Instead, it saved those democracies-but with a fateful cost. 1944 witnessed a series of titanic events: FDR at the pinnacle of his wartime leadership as well as his re-election, the planning of Operation Overlord with Churchill and Stalin, the unprecedented D-Day invasion, the liberation of Paris and the horrific Battle of the Bulge, and the tumultuous conferences that finally shaped the coming peace. But on the way, millions of more lives were still at stake as President Roosevelt was exposed to mounting evidence of the most grotesque crime in history, the Final Solution. Just as the Allies were landing in Normandy, the Nazis were accelerating the killing of millions of European Jews. Winik shows how escalating pressures fell on an all but dying Roosevelt, whose rapidly deteriorating health was a closely guarded secret. Here then, as with D-Day, was a momentous decision for the president. Was winning the war the best way to rescue the Jews? Was a rescue even possible? Or would it get in the way of defeating Hitler? In a year when even the most audacious undertakings were within the world's reach, including the liberation of Europe, one challenge-saving Europe's Jews-seemed to remain beyond Roosevelt's grasp. Winik provides a stunningly fresh look at the twentieth century's most pivotal year. 1944: FDR and the Year that Changed Historyis the first book to tell these events with such moral clarity and unprecedented sweep, and a moving appreciation of the extraordinary struggles of the era's outsized figures.Best books I read this year: 1944 https://t.co/ApigFBQxxR Rocket Men https://t.co/FtSLdWpzbr Seinfeldia https://t.co/hiM1exhMMI Born Standing Up https://t.co/dMvs2CDocd Fantasyland https://t.co/sn7JhTry8L
Fantasyland
Kurt Andersen
A razor-sharp thinker offers a new understanding of our post-truth world and explains the American instinct to believe in make-believe, from the Pilgrims to P. T. Barnum to Disneyland to zealots of every stripe . . . to Donald Trump. In this sweeping, eloquent history of America, Kurt Andersen demonstrates that what's happening in our country today--this strange, post-factual, "fake news" moment we're all living through--is not something entirely new, but rather the ultimate expression of our national character and path. America was founded by wishful dreamers, magical thinkers, and true believers, by impresarios and their audiences, by hucksters and their suckers. Believe-whatever-you-want fantasy is deeply embedded in our DNA. Over the course of five centuries--from the Salem witch trials to Scientology to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, from P. T. Barnum to Hollywood and the anything-goes, wild-and-crazy sixties, from conspiracy theories to our fetish for guns and obsession with extraterrestrials--our peculiar love of the fantastic has made America exceptional in a way that we've never fully acknowledged. With the gleeful erudition and tell-it-like-it-is ferocity of a Christopher Hitchens, Andersen explores whether the great American experiment in liberty has gone off the rails. From the start, our ultra-individualism was attached to epic dreams and epic fantasies--every citizen was free to believe absolutely anything, or to pretend to be absolutely anybody. Little by little, and then more quickly in the last several decades, the American invent-your-own-reality legacy of the Enlightenment superseded its more sober, rational, and empirical parts. We gave ourselves over to all manner of crackpot ideas and make-believe lifestyles designed to console or thrill or terrify us. In Fantasyland, Andersen brilliantly connects the dots that define this condition, portrays its scale and scope, and offers a fresh, bracing explanation of how our American journey has deposited us here. Fantasyland could not appear at a more perfect moment. If you want to understand the politics and culture of twenty-first-century America, if you want to know how the lines between reality and illusion have become dangerously blurred, you must read this book. "This is an important book--the indispensable book--for understanding America in the age of Trump. It's an eye-opening history filled with brilliant insights, a saga of how we were always susceptible to fantasy, from the Puritan fanatics to the talk-radio and Internet wackos who mix show business, hucksterism, and conspiracy theories."--Walter IsaacsonBest books I read this year: 1944 https://t.co/ApigFBQxxR Rocket Men https://t.co/FtSLdWpzbr Seinfeldia https://t.co/hiM1exhMMI Born Standing Up https://t.co/dMvs2CDocd Fantasyland https://t.co/sn7JhTry8L
Skunk Works
Ben R. Rich
This classic history of America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies is "a gripping technothriller in which the technology is real" (New York Times Book Review). From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, Skunk Works is the true story of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. As recounted by Ben Rich, the operation's brilliant boss for nearly two decades, the chronicle of Lockheed's legendary Skunk Works is a drama of cold war confrontations and Gulf War air combat, of extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement against fantastic odds. Here are up-close portraits of the maverick band of scientists and engineers who made the Skunk Works so renowned. Filled with telling personal anecdotes and high adventure, with narratives from the CIA and from Air Force pilots who flew the many classified, risky missions, this book is a riveting portrait of the most spectacular aviation triumphs of the twentieth century. "Thoroughly engrossing." --Los Angeles Times Book Review.@michaelbatnick gave me this book a while ago and I just got around to reading it. Highly recommended. It's a fascinating story of how we built some of the most secretive and advanced military airplanes. https://t.co/pzqLv3iLnz
@rhughesjones Another excellent one: https://t.co/P9Jm2o7iVH
Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh!t
Steven Pressfield
FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE WAR OF ART ...There's a mantra that real writers know that wannabe writers don't. And the secret phrase is this: NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*TRecognizing that painful truth is the first step in the writer's transformation from amateur to professional. "When you understand that nobody wants to read your shit, you develop empathy. You acquire the skill that is indispensable to all artists and entrepreneurs--the ability to switch back and forth in your imagination from your own point of view as writer/painter/seller to the point of view of your reader/gallery-goer/customer. You learn to ask yourself with every sentence and every phrase: Is this interesting? Is it fun or challenging or inventive? Am I giving the reader enough? Is she bored? Is she following where I want to lead her?"@DanielsAshby @dollarsanddata @patrick_oshag My favorite: https://t.co/Z0Xolk1Jlv
John F. Kennedy
Michael O'Brien
A portrait of the thirty-fifth president draws on newly released government archive material and the JFK library to offer insights into both his strengths and character flaws.@patrick_oshag This JFK bio is probably the longest book I've read and pretty sure I was just as engaged on the last page as the first. Very well written: https://t.co/BexdpVvgRl
Bird by Bird
Anne Lamott
A step-by-step guide to writing and managing the writer's life covers each portion of a written project, addresses such concerns as writer's block and getting published, and offers awareness and survival tips. Reprint. Tour.This is a great book on becoming a better writer: https://t.co/3Fhxgr9N3O
Seinfeldia
Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
The hilarious behind-the-scenes story of two guys who went out for coffee and dreamed up Seinfeld—the cultural sensation that changed television and bled into the real world, altering the lives of everyone it touched. Comedians Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld never thought anyone would watch their silly little sitcom about a New York comedian sitting around talking to his friends. NBC executives didn’t think anyone would watch either, but they bought it anyway, hiding it away in the TV dead zone of summer. But against all odds, viewers began to watch, first a few and then many, until nine years later nearly forty million Americans were tuning in weekly. In Seinfeldia, acclaimed TV historian and entertainment writer Jennifer Keishin Armstrong celebrates the creators and fans of this American television phenomenon, bringing readers behind-the-scenes of the show while it was on the air and into the world of devotees for whom it never stopped being relevant, a world where the Soup Nazi still spends his days saying “No soup for you!”, Joe Davola gets questioned every day about his sanity, Kenny Kramer makes his living giving tours of New York sights from the show, and fans dress up in Jerry’s famous puffy shirt, dance like Elaine, and imagine plotlines for Seinfeld if it were still on TV.Two good recent reads: Seinfeldia (The early idea, production, and cultural impact of Seinfeld) https://t.co/bERzcTRr6O Born Standing Up (Steve Martin's biography on his early standup days) https://t.co/KuVnYq2sSr Showbusiness has to be one of the hardest businesses.
Born Standing Up
Steve Martin
The riveting, mega-bestselling, beloved and highly acclaimed memoir of a man, a vocation, and an era named one of the ten best nonfiction titles of the year by Time and Entertainment Weekly. In the mid-seventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of “why I did stand-up and why I walked away.” Emmy and Grammy Award–winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been a writer. His memoir of his years in stand-up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written. At age ten Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott’s Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory. The dedication to excellence and innovation is formed at an astonishingly early age and never wavers or wanes. Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times—the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late sixties, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the seventies. Throughout the text, Martin has placed photographs, many never seen before. Born Standing Up is a superb testament to the sheer tenacity, focus, and daring of one of the greatest and most iconoclastic comedians of all time.Two good recent reads: Seinfeldia (The early idea, production, and cultural impact of Seinfeld) https://t.co/bERzcTRr6O Born Standing Up (Steve Martin's biography on his early standup days) https://t.co/KuVnYq2sSr Showbusiness has to be one of the hardest businesses.
Atomic Habits
James Clear
James Clear presents strategies to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that help lead to an improved life..@JamesClear thanks for sending this! Congrats, and looking forward to reading. https://t.co/UR7vPjN9g0
Fortune's Children
Arthur T. Vanderbilt
Rereading parts of this book on how the Vanderbilt heirs blew the family's fortune, and it has to be one of the best business/finance books I've read. Just an amazing piece of work. https://t.co/G5xcii0NSs
The Interpretation of Financial Statements
Benjamin Graham
"All investors, from beginners to old hands, should gain from the use of this guide, as I have." From the Introduction by Michael F. Price, president, Franklin Mutual Advisors, Inc. Benjamin Graham has been called the most important investment thinker of the twentieth century. As a master investor, pioneering stock analyst, and mentor to investment superstars, he has no peer. The volume you hold in your hands is Graham's timeless guide to interpreting and understanding financial statements. It has long been out of print, but now joins Graham's other masterpieces, The Intelligent Investor and Security Analysis, as the three priceless keys to understanding Graham and value investing. The advice he offers in this book is as useful and prescient today as it was sixty years ago. As he writes in the preface, "if you have precise information as to a company's present financial position and its past earnings record, you are better equipped to gauge its future possibilities. And this is the essential function and value of security analysis." Written just three years after his landmark Security Analysis, The Interpretation of Financial Statements gets to the heart of the master's ideas on value investing in astonishingly few pages. Readers will learn to analyze a company's balance sheets and income statements and arrive at a true understanding of its financial position and earnings record. Graham provides simple tests any reader can apply to determine the financial health and well-being of any company. This volume is an exact text replica of the first edition of The Interpretation of Financial Statements, published by Harper & Brothers in 1937. Graham's original language has been restored, and readers can be assured that every idea and technique presented here appears exactly as Graham intended. Highly practical and accessible, it is an essential guide for all business people--and makes the perfect companion volume to Graham's investment masterpiece The Intelligent Investor.@TheStalwart Ben Graham's least-known book is The Interpretation of Financial Statements. Obviously not forensic accounting but it's pretty good and even people who think they know accounting will learn a lot. https://t.co/zIeQC0YL4R
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In an age of startups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all startups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, in a memoir that is candid, humble, gutsy, and wry, he tells his story, beginning with his crossroads moment. At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path, to start his own business—a business that would be dynamic, different. Knight details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream—along with his early triumphs. Above all, he recalls the formative relationships with his first partners and employees, a ragtag group of misfits and seekers who became a tight-knit band of brothers. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission, and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything.Nike wanted a shoe called Aztec, but Adidas already had the name. Phil Knight and his vp: “Who was the guy who kicked the shit out of the Aztecs?” he asked. “Cortez,” I said. He grunted. “Okay. Let’s call it the Cortez.” One of the best biz books ever: https://t.co/FianQLuYG1
Where the money was
Willie Sutton
Willie Sutton is credited with saying, "I robbed banks because that's where the money was." In his biography he says he never said that. Here's why he did it (btw, highly, highly underestimated book.) https://t.co/qDTGDxMnQ9 https://t.co/nUUaueK1Ho