By Robert Putnam This was my nomination for the personal development book club. It is not really a personal development book. I chose it partly because of that. Other writers/thinkers have more harshly criticized the whole genre of self-help. Putnam only mentions it briefly in a couple points but it is to highlight the swing […]
By Cal Newport I was familiar with Newport already through multiple reads of Digital Minimalism. I also listened to a recent podcast where he was a guest. I listed to this audiobook pretty quickly. I agreed with the premise and most of the ideas before I got into the book. It’s one of those where
By Mel Robbins This was another one that leans really hard into branding. The messaging wasn’t bad. It also wasn’t new such that it constitutes a new “theory.” Robbins adds a new label to ACT and stoicism. Don’t fight your emotions, accept them. Don’t fight other people, accept them. I would have enjoyed it more
By W. David Marx I read this one after having breakfast with Brad and learning that it was next on his reading list. As someone who has been mostly checked-out from popular culture for my entire adult life, it was a little weird to read history of times I lived but have the information still
by bell hooks This was identified as one of my coworker’s top reads in 2025. I listened to the audiobook in one day. I was underwhelmed. I appreciate a feminist author acknowledging where other feminists had presented an adversarial position between men and women. Instead, hooks describes patriarchal systems and thinking and causing harm to
By Patt Flynn Not much in this one. When people make fun of self help books for being money making schemes light on actual help, they describe books like this. A large portion of the book involves the author patting himself on the back for his many successes. Hooray. There is some common sense good
By Ayn Rand This one was grueling, even listening to the audiobook at double speed. It is SO LONG. It feels even longer. The same verbose interactions happen over and over. The plot and Rand’s message don’t need endless words, but they’re there anyway. It comes across as the immature ramblings of a person who
By Ramit Sethi Like my recent read of The Simple Path to Wealth, I was interested in personal finance advice. Again, there was nothing revolutionary. Some of the fine details are different in this one compared the to previous book, but they mostly agree with each other and with what I’ve already been doing. It
By George Orwell Like The Giver, this is one that many other people covered during their schooling, but somehow I missed it. I’m familiar with references to it, and I was aware that “some animals are more equal than others” but I finally consumed the book. It was a quick listen on audio book that
By Russ Harris I liked the premise. I agree that I struggle with acceptance and that causes more pain. At the beginning of the book while that was being described, I found myself appreciating the text. Defusion and expansion guidance seemed helpful. I enjoyed the book less as it went on. I didn’t care for
By Lois Lowry I’ve been hearing about this book since I was in elementary school. Somehow nearly everyone around me read it, but I never did. It was never required reading for me. Now that I’ve gotten in the habit of using Libby aggressively and really leaning into audiobooks, I decided that I should fill
By Don Miguel Ruiz The four agreements are: Those are all good enough. I have no objections to those agreements. The rest of the text around it didn’t add anything for me. Talk of “black magic”, societal expectations as a parasite, and the notion of 2 year olds as the ideal, free people didn’t sit
By JK Rowling He terminado recién el siguiente libro de la serie Harry Potter.Disfruto leer las historias, aunque hay algunas palabras que no entiendo todavía.Deseo que fuera más fácil buscar palabras en el diccionario cuando estoy leyendo, pero no me gusta interrumpir el libro. resumen breve: Harry regresa a Hogwarts para su segundo año, a
By J.L. Collins This wasn’t very long or intense. I think I listened to the whole thing in one or two days. There was nothing mind blowing in it (which of course fits with the “simple” concept). I appreciated hearing some rationale for basic financial moves and getting confirmation that I’m not missing the mark
By Helen Lewis I listened to this one on a whim. I think it was suggested to me somewhere and it sounded interesting. I enjoyed it. Essentially, “genius” is a cultural creation. Earlier societies (ancient Greeks/Romans) didn’t apply the distinction to people, but rather acts or creations of people. One would be visited by genius,
By Kurt Vonnegut I actually re-read this in July. I neglected to post about it. The current noise about AI taking over made me want to revisit it. It was published in 1952 but feels remarkably relevant now. In his bleak future world, machines have taken over most of the work. There are now a
by Keith J. Hayward This book was ok. I think there are valid concerns within it. Still, Hayward came across as a bit of a joyless curmudgeon. It felt like every simple joy was shameful and bad for not being adult enough. Further, it felt light on data. Cherry-picked extreme examples were used to represent
By Marcus Aurelius I wanted/expected to like this more than I did. That’s not to say that it was a bad thing to read, but other Stoicism resources were better. One thing that I did take away from it was the value of journaling. Perhaps more value than taking any thoughts away from Marcus Aurelius,
By J.K. Rowling Esta es la segunda novela que he leído en español.Todavía hay palabras y frases que no entiendo, pero creo que entiendo la mayoría del libro.No usé un diccionario mientras leía, pero a veces después.Es una manera divertida de practicar español.Voy a leer los próximos libros de la serie pronto.
By Ray Dalio I was introduced to the book years ago at a previous job. My manager would read random principles to the office. It seemed like bloated fluff then and I didn’t think much of Dalio’s advice. Still, the book showed up on many lists from other leaders about top leadership references. I figured