My 21 Top Reads in 2021

Not all of these books came out this year. In fact, I didn’t even read all of these books for the first time in 2021 (though I did intentionally exclude books I reread every single year, namely Meditations and The Tao Te Ching). That being said, below are the 21 (with a bonus/cheat because Ryan Holiday is publishing too prolifically at the moment) that I enjoyed the most this year.

Since I can’t get started on my 2022 list too early, what were your top reads of 2021? Please share in the comments.

1.    The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 by Paul Reid – This is the third volume of a trilogy. I read the first two at the end of 2020 and finished this one just as 2021 got started. While I understand the “great individual” theory of history is out of favor in most circles, but what a an individual! What a story! What a life!

2.    Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant – Adam is one of a few people on this list where I will buy everything he puts out, and I will never regret it. In a world with far too many Politicians and Preachers, he makes a great (evidence-based) case why all of us should instead aspire to be more like Scientists.

3.    Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life by Ozan Varol – How many times I we heard “Well, I’m no rocket scientist, but…”? Now you can at least learn to think (more) like one, you know, without the decades of school and technical training.

4.    How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius by Donald Robertson – Are we starting to see a trend in the titles I choose? I am of course drawn to creative takes on Stoicism, and Donald Robertson does a masterful job of taking us through the story behind the man who authored what we now know as Meditations, as well as how to put the wisdom into practice in our own lives.

5.    The War of Art by Steven Pressfield– This was recommended to me by my friend, Simon Tam, when I was just starting to write Get Out of My Head. The timing, and the recommendation, were perfect.

6.    Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee by Shannon Lee – I admittedly did not know much about Bruce Lee before reading this book. I of course knew he made some pretty famous films, and that he died tragically young. What I learned, however, in this sharing and unpacking of a seriously thoughtful and introspective genius by his daughter, was a complete revelation.

7.    The Attributes: 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance by Rich Diviney – What does it take to become a Navy SEAL? What does it take to lead and succeed as a Navy SEAL? The creator of the “Mind Gym” shares his lessons from selecting and training Navy SEAL teams, as well as the lessons for individual and team optimal performance in civilian life.

8.    Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi – I was never a tennis player, and I never really followed the sport terribly closely. However, when I learned from the Tim Ferriss podcast that Andre Agassi’s memoir had the same ghost writer as Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog, I was all in. It more than lived up to the hype.

9.    Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius and Courage is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave both by Ryan Holiday – Maybe it is unfair to fold these together, but that is the price you pay for putting out brilliant works at a pace to rival Taylor Swift. There are only so many awards each season!

10. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh – My first introduction to Evelyn Waugh was not great. I am not sure if I just didn’t have the sense of humor or the sophistication yet, but when I read The Loved One in my high school junior year, I was less than impressed. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised given how much I later enjoyed Decline and Fall, Brideshead Revisited, and the Sword of Honour trilogy, but Waugh’s take down of the newspaper establishment is an absolute delight.

11. Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box by The Arbinger Institute – This was a reread for me. Some lessons I have to learn more than once. The ones in this book are worth relearning for life.

12. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman – This selection is perhaps too sappy for some people, but Backman’s books (he is also the author of A Man Called Ove and many other great works) give me ALL the feels. Literally, all of them. Page to page I go from laughing out loud and to ugly crying.

13. Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski – I first heard the Nagoskis on Brené Brown’s podcast and was smitten. Getting to hear them speak in person and being able to ask next level questions at the Vacation Rental Women’s Summit was a treat. Yes, I understand this was meant for women, but reading it, man, I feel like a women.

14. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro – Can Artificial Intelligence get to the point where a robot is our best friend? Could such a thing ever replace a loved one we have lost? The author of Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day again addresses incredibly difficult personal and societal questions, all in the guise of a masterfully crafted work of fiction.

15. Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark – Interesting when paired with the above, this is a far more head-on, and scientific look at the problems we will ALL soon be faced with, whether we are ready for them or not.

16. How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger – This was recommended to me by my friend, Lisa Calhoun, with no color or commentary. I trust her so read it without checking what it was about, and COMPLETELY changed what and how I eat (much to my wife’s chagrin) as soon as I finished it. Wow.

17. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman – In a world saturated with advice on how to get even more done in less time, Burkeman takes an almost heretical approach to time “management” that is well worth considering, and implementing.

18. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari – Harari is another one of those authors (like Adam Grant and Ryan Holiday) where I will read everything he puts out and will always be the richer for it. Struggling with some of the same AI questions referenced above, and much more besides, like Sapiens and his other works, Yuval takes a sprawling and difficult subject, and makes it enthralling to read and learn about.

19. Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard – Having read and adored Richard Powers’ The Overstory in 2020, I of course had to go back and read the “mother tree” source of inspiration for that brilliant book. Not all heroes are fictional, as this compelling story by Simard demonstrates.

20. Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen – Yet another author where I will read everything he puts out. I am not sure if this was intentional, but it is kind of like a modern, and dare I say it, improved take on Updike’s Rabbit series. I enjoyed it thoroughly. This is the first in a planned trilogy and I can’t wait for the others.

21. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum – When I took Talulla to the bookstore to pick something out to read together once we finished The Faraway Tree series, this is what she came up with. It was only after buying it that I learned this it is just the first of 15(!) in the series. We have also finished the second (The Marvelous Land of Oz) and started the third (Ozma of Oz). With 12 more after that, this might take a while .