My ratings: 5 – Incredible, ask me to talk about the book and I’ll fill your afternoon. 4 – I’ve probably recommended this to one or two people already. 3 – Worth a read, but not particularly life-changing. 2 – More bad than good. 1 – Utterly and painfully terrible. Just to say, this page contains affiliate links.
Read in 2020
Read in 2019
Read in 2018
Read in 2017
- The Art of Hearing Heartbeats – Jan-Philipp Sendker (4.25) | Amazon
- How to Be Interesting (In 10 Simple Steps) – Jessica Hagy (4.25) | Amazon
- Books for Living – Will Schwalbe (4.00) | Amazon
- The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well – Meik Wiking (3.75) | Amazon
- Elephant Moon – John Sweeney (4.00) | Amazon
- The North Water – Ian McGuire (4.50) | Amazon
- See Jane Lead: 99 Ways for Women to Take Charge at Work – Lois P. Frankel (3.75) | Amazon
- ROAR: How to Match Your Food and Fitness to Your Unique Female Physiology – Stacy Sims (3.75) | Amazon
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less – Greg McKeown (4.00) | Amazon
- The Art of War – Sun Tzu (4.00) | Amazon
- The Road to Character – David Brooks (3.75) | Amazon
- Ego is the Enemy – Ryan Holiday (4.25) | Amazon
- A Life Without Limits: A World Champion’s Journey – Chrissie Wellington (3.75) | Amazon
- The Consolations of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin on the Siberian Taiga – Sylvain Tesson (3.75) | Amazon
- True North: Travels in Arctic Europe – Gavin Francis (3.25) | Amazon
- The Course of Love – Alain de Botton (3.50) | Amazon
- When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times – Pema Chödrön (3.00) | Amazon
- Night Sky With Exit Wounds – Ocean Vuong (3.75) | Amazon
- Career of Evil – Robert Galbraith (3.50) | Amazon
- Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel – Rolf Potts (4.00) | Amazon
- The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down: How to Be Calm and Mindful in a Fast-Paced World – Haemin Sunim (4.00) | Amazon
- Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative – Austin Kleon (4.50) | Amazon
- What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength – Scott Carney (4.00) | Amazon
- The Signature of All Things – Elizabeth Gilbert (3.75) | Amazon
- The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land In Between – Hisham Matar (4.00) | Amazon
- Queen of the Desert: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell – Georgina Howell (4.25) | Amazon
- Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life – Bill Burnett and Dave Evans (3.50) | Amazon
- Milk and Honey – Rupi Kaur (3.75) | Amazon
- How to Love – Thich Nhat Hanh (4.50) | Amazon
- Mind of a Survivor: What the Wild Has Taught Me about Survival and Success – Megan Hine (4.25) | Amazon
- Set Free: A Life-Changing Journey from Banking to Buddhism in Bhutan – Emma Slade (3.75) | Amazon
- How to Relax – Thich Nhat Hanh (3.75) | Amazon
- Wind, Sand and Stars – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (4.50, re-read) | Amazon
- All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr (4.50) | Amazon
- A Whole Life – Robert Seethaler (4.50) | Amazon
- The Sun and Her Flowers – Rupi Kaur (3.75) | Amazon
- Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (4.25) | Amazon
- Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World – Tim Ferriss (4.25) | Amazon
- Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone – Brené Brown (3.50) | Amazon
- Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! – Richard Feynman (4.50) | Amazon
- Awaken The Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Life – Tony Robbins (4.75) | Amazon
Read in 2016
- Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World – Cal Newport (4.5) | Amazon
- Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur – Derek Sivers (5.0) | Amazon
- The Four-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life – Tim Ferriss (3.5)
- A Place Called Winter – Patrick Gale (4.0) | Amazon
- Gratitude – Oliver Sacks (5.0) | Amazon
- A God in Ruins – Kate Atkinson (4.0) | Amazon
- Bodies of Light – Sarah Moss (4.25) | Amazon
- When Breath Becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi (5.0) this book is incredible… read it! | Amazon
- Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break – Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall (4.0) | Amazon
- Modern Romance – Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg (4.5) | Amazon
- Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office – Lois P. Frankel (4.0) | Amazon
- Aeneid Book VI: A New Verse Translation – Seamus Heaney (4.0) | Amazon
- Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End – Atul Gawande (4.0) | Amazon
- The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country – Helen Russell (3.75) | Amazon
- #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness – Gary Vaynerchuck (4.0) | Amazon
- Content Machine: Use Content Marketing to Build a 7-Figure Business with Zero Advertising – Dan Norris (4.0) | Amazon
- Business for Punks: Break All The Rules – The BrewDog Way – James Watt (4.0) | Amazon
- Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising – Ryan Holiday (3.25) | Amazon
- We Should All Be Feminists – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (4.0) | Amazon
- Land of the Midnight Sun: My Arctic Adventures – Alexander Armstrong (4.0) | Amazon
- The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure – Caroline Paul (4.25) | Amazon
- Brave Enough – Cheryl Strayed (4.25) | Amazon
- Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail – Cheryl Strayed (4.0) | Amazon
- Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar – Cheryl Strayed (4.25) | Amazon
- #LifeChanger: They did it, so now you can too – Chris Ward (3) | Amazon
- Life in the Slow Lane: A Patient Quest for Adventure by Dave Cornthwaite (3.75) | Amazon
- Welcome to the Funnel: Proven Tactics to Turn Your Social and Content Marketing up to 11 – Jason Miller (3.75) | Amazon
- The Girl in the Spider’s Web – David Lagercrantz (4.25) | Amazon
- #GIRLBOSS – Sophia Amoruso (3.5) | Amazon
- The Obstacle is the Way – Ryan Holiday (4.25) | Amazon
- Nerdy, Shy, and Socially Inappropriate – Cynthia Kim (3.5)| Amazon
- On the Move – Oliver Sacks (4.0) | Amazon
- Gut: the inside story of our body’s most under-rated organ – Giulia Enders (4.0) | Amazon
- The Kind Worth Killing – Peter Swanson (3.0) | Amazon
- Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future – Ashlee Vance (3.5) | Amazon
- West with the Night – Beryl Markham (4.0) | Amazon
- What I Talk About When I Talk About Running – Haruki Murakami (3.5 ) | Amazon
- Transfer of Power – Vince Flynn (3.5) | Amazon
- The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results – Gary Keller and Jay Papasan (4.5) | Amazon
- Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet – Jesse Itzler (3.5) | Amazon
- A Well-tempered Heart – Jan-Philipp Sendker (4.25) | Amazon
- The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever – Michael Bungay Stanier (3.0) | Amazon
- On Becoming Fearless…in Love, Work, and Life – Arianna Huffington (3.5) | Amazon
- Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear – Elizabeth Gilbert (4.0)| Amazon
- Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers – Tim Ferriss (4.5) | Amazon
- Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace) – Chade-Meng Tan (4.0) | Amazon
- Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why – Laurence Gonzales (3.5) | Amazon
Read in 2015
- A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara
- A Wild Sheep Chase – Haruki Murakami
- Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage – Haruki Murakami
- South of the Border, West of the Sun – Haruki Murakami
- Everything I Never Told You – Celene Ng
- Life and Other Near-Death Experiences – Camille Pagán
- Adventures in Human Being – Gavin Francis
- Do Story – Bobette Buster
- The Reason I Jump – Naoki Higashida
- Daily Rituals: How Artists Work – Mason Currey
- Flight to Arras – Antoine de Saint-Exupèry
- What I Talk About When I Talk About Running – Haruki Murakami
- The Places That Scare You – Pema Chödrön
- Out Stealing Horses – Per Petterson
- Nora Webster – Colm Tóibín
- War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
- Niebla – Miguel de Unamuno
- The Little Friend – Donna Tartt
- The Lover’s Dictionary: A Love Story in 185 Definitions – David Levithan
- Amongst Women – John McGahern
- The Hedgehog and the Fox – Isiah Berlin
- Understanding Tolstoy – Andrew D. Kaufman
- Focus – Jürgen Wolff
- The Art of Being Brilliant – Andy Cope
- Thrive – Arianna Huffington
- Everybody Writes – Ann Handley
- Manage Your Day-to-Day – Jocelyn Glei
- Leave Your Mark – Aliza Licht
- The Start-up of You – Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha
- Developing Talents – Temple Grandin
- Marketing: A Love Story: How to Matter to Your Customers – Bernadette Jiwa
- Camino de perfección – Pío Baroja
- El trovador – Antonio García Gutiérrez
- Don Juan Tenorio – Jose Zorrilla
- Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino – Duque de Rivas
- Los amantes de Teruel – Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch
Read in 2014
- The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories – Marina Keegan
- The South – Colm Tóibín
- Brooklyn – Colm Tóibín
- We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves – Karen Joy Fowler
- Shadow of a Gunman – Seán O’Casey
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce (re-read)
- The Collected Poems – W. B. Yeats
- A Brief Guide to World Domination – Chris Guillebeau
- The Rosie Effect – Graeme Simsion
- Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It – Gabriel Wyner
- Dead Poets Society – N. H. Kleinbaum
- I Am Pilgrim – Terry Hayes
- Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything – Joshua Foer
- A Study in Scarlet – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Poems That Make Grown Men Cry – Anthony and Ben Holden
- The Silkworm – Robert Galbraith
- The Cossacks – Leo Tolstoy
- The Secret History – Donna Tartt
- Hacking Your Education – Dale J. Stephens
- Perfect – Joyce, Rachel
- Such Stuff as Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction – Oatley, Keith
- Hadji Murad – Tolstoy, Leo
- The Grace of Crows – Shawn, Tracy
- Resurrection – Tolstoy, Leo
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) – Rowling, J.K.
- The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden – Jonasson, Jonas
- The Almost Nearly Perfect People – Booth, Michael
- Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: A Story from Different Seasons – King, Stephen
- A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold (A Song of Ice and Fire #3, Part 2 of 2) – Martin, George R.R.
- A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3 part 1) – Martin, George R.R.
- In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed – Honoré, Carl
- Maximize Your Potential: Grow Your Expertise, Take Bold Risks & Build an Incredible Career – Glei, Jocelyn K.
- A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2) – Martin, George R.R.
- The Five Orange Pips and Other Cases – Doyle, Arthur Conan
- Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes – Konnikova, Maria
- Wind, Sand and Stars – Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de
- The Fry Chronicles – Fry, Stephen
- The Girl with All the Gifts – Carey, M.R.
- The Goldfinch – Tartt, Donna
- The Rosie Project – Simsion, Graeme
- The Luminaries – Catton, Eleanor
- The 4-Hour Work Week – Ferriss, Timothy
- Names for the Sea – Moss, Sarah
- A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul – Tolstoy, Leo