Here are some of my favorite books with ★★★★ ratings.

Scroll down through the annual lists. If a book is on this list, you can safely assume it will serve you well.

Anything below a 9 doesn’t make it.

You can check my full reading list here.

2019

10/10★

The Order of Time

The Accidental Superpower: The Next Generation of American Preeminence and the Coming Global Disorder

American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment

Ogilvy on Advertising

Shoe Dog

 Total Recall

9/10★

The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin

The Absent Superpower: The Shale Revolution and a World Without America

Game Over, Press Start to Continue: How Nintendo Conquered the World

Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture

Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s

2018

10/10★

George Lucas: A Life

Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable

Turning Pro

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

Total Focus: Make Better Decisions Under Pressure

Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money

9/10★

Scientific Advertising

Leonardo da Vinci

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires

How Money Got Free: Bitcoin and the Fight for the Future of Finance

Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads

Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires

2017

10/10★

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

 Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination

 Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow

 Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America

 Undisputed Truth

 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

9/10★

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

 Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice

American War

How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes

Travels with Charley: In Search of America

2016

10/10★

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

Principles

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us

Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West

The Big Payback

American Desperado: My Life–From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset

9/10★

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America

Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing

Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy and the New Science of Desire

10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear