Reading List

*I don’t keep this updated anymore, but you can find my book recommendations at Tolstoy Therapy.*

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

Visual Portfolio, Posts & Image Gallery for WordPress

Chillpreneur

If you’re a gal who wants to earn more and do less, read Denise Duffield-Thomas.

Read in 2019

Visual Portfolio, Posts & Image Gallery for WordPress

Freedom Seeker

Read this and you’ll want to start a business, book a round-world trip, and change how you live.

Book of Ideas

A beautifully put-together and inspiring book about design and building a business.

Wild Signs and Star Paths

For all you fellow nature nerds. Finally learn to sense direction from stars and plants, forecast weather from sounds, and predict the next action of an animal.

Read in 2018

Visual Portfolio, Posts & Image Gallery for WordPress

From a Low and Quiet Sea

One of my all-time favourite books, with echoes of James Joyce and a 99% chance you’ll cry.

Goodbye, Things

Read this and reconsider everything you own, buy, and cherish from then on.

Read in 2017

  1. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats – Jan-Philipp Sendker (4.25) | Amazon
  2. How to Be Interesting (In 10 Simple Steps) – Jessica Hagy (4.25) | Amazon
  3. Books for Living – Will Schwalbe (4.00) | Amazon
  4. The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well – Meik Wiking (3.75) | Amazon
  5. Elephant Moon – John Sweeney (4.00) | Amazon
  6. The North Water – Ian McGuire (4.50) | Amazon
  7. See Jane Lead: 99 Ways for Women to Take Charge at Work – Lois P. Frankel (3.75) | Amazon
  8. ROAR: How to Match Your Food and Fitness to Your Unique Female Physiology – Stacy Sims (3.75) | Amazon
  9. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less – Greg McKeown (4.00) | Amazon
  10. The Art of War – Sun Tzu (4.00) | Amazon
  11. The Road to Character – David Brooks (3.75) | Amazon
  12. Ego is the Enemy – Ryan Holiday (4.25) | Amazon
  13. A Life Without Limits: A World Champion’s Journey – Chrissie Wellington (3.75) | Amazon
  14. The Consolations of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin on the Siberian Taiga – Sylvain Tesson (3.75) | Amazon
  15. True North: Travels in Arctic Europe – Gavin Francis (3.25) | Amazon
  16. The Course of Love – Alain de Botton (3.50) | Amazon
  17. When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times – Pema Chödrön (3.00) | Amazon
  18. Night Sky With Exit Wounds – Ocean Vuong (3.75) | Amazon
  19. Career of Evil – Robert Galbraith (3.50) | Amazon
  20. Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel – Rolf Potts (4.00) | Amazon
  21. 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
  22. Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative – Austin Kleon (4.50) | Amazon
  23. What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength – Scott Carney (4.00) | Amazon
  24. The Signature of All Things – Elizabeth Gilbert (3.75) | Amazon
  25. The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land In Between – Hisham Matar (4.00) | Amazon
  26. Queen of the Desert: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell – Georgina Howell (4.25) | Amazon
  27. Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life – Bill Burnett and Dave Evans (3.50) | Amazon
  28. Milk and Honey – Rupi Kaur (3.75) | Amazon
  29. How to Love – Thich Nhat Hanh (4.50) | Amazon
  30. Mind of a Survivor: What the Wild Has Taught Me about Survival and Success – Megan Hine (4.25) | Amazon
  31. Set Free: A Life-Changing Journey from Banking to Buddhism in Bhutan – Emma Slade (3.75) | Amazon
  32. How to Relax – Thich Nhat Hanh (3.75) | Amazon
  33. Wind, Sand and Stars – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (4.50, re-read) | Amazon
  34. All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr (4.50) | Amazon
  35. A Whole Life – Robert Seethaler (4.50) | Amazon
  36. The Sun and Her Flowers – Rupi Kaur (3.75) | Amazon
  37. Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (4.25) | Amazon
  38. Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World – Tim Ferriss (4.25) | Amazon
  39. Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone – Brené Brown (3.50) | Amazon
  40. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! – Richard Feynman (4.50) | Amazon
  41. 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

  1. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World – Cal Newport (4.5) | Amazon
  2. Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur – Derek Sivers (5.0) | Amazon
  3. The Four-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life – Tim Ferriss (3.5)
  4. A Place Called Winter – Patrick Gale (4.0) | Amazon
  5. Gratitude – Oliver Sacks (5.0) | Amazon
  6. A God in Ruins – Kate Atkinson (4.0) | Amazon
  7. Bodies of Light – Sarah Moss (4.25) | Amazon
  8. When Breath Becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi (5.0) this book is incredible… read it! | Amazon
  9. Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break – Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall (4.0) | Amazon
  10. Modern Romance – Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg (4.5) | Amazon
  11. Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office – Lois P. Frankel (4.0) | Amazon
  12. Aeneid Book VI: A New Verse Translation – Seamus Heaney (4.0) | Amazon
  13. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End – Atul Gawande (4.0) | Amazon
  14. The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country – Helen Russell (3.75) | Amazon
  15. #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness – Gary Vaynerchuck (4.0) | Amazon
  16. Content Machine: Use Content Marketing to Build a 7-Figure Business with Zero Advertising – Dan Norris (4.0) | Amazon
  17. Business for Punks: Break All The Rules – The BrewDog Way – James Watt (4.0) | Amazon
  18. Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising – Ryan Holiday (3.25) | Amazon
  19. We Should All Be Feminists – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (4.0) | Amazon
  20. Land of the Midnight Sun: My Arctic Adventures – Alexander Armstrong (4.0) | Amazon
  21. The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure – Caroline Paul (4.25) | Amazon
  22. Brave Enough – Cheryl Strayed (4.25) | Amazon
  23. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail – Cheryl Strayed (4.0) | Amazon
  24. Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar – Cheryl Strayed (4.25) | Amazon
  25. #LifeChanger: They did it, so now you can too – Chris Ward (3) | Amazon
  26. Life in the Slow Lane: A Patient Quest for Adventure by Dave Cornthwaite (3.75) | Amazon
  27. Welcome to the Funnel: Proven Tactics to Turn Your Social and Content Marketing up to 11 – Jason Miller (3.75) | Amazon
  28. The Girl in the Spider’s Web – David Lagercrantz (4.25) | Amazon
  29. #GIRLBOSS – Sophia Amoruso (3.5) | Amazon
  30. The Obstacle is the Way – Ryan Holiday (4.25) | Amazon
  31. Nerdy, Shy, and Socially Inappropriate – Cynthia Kim (3.5)| Amazon
  32. On the Move – Oliver Sacks (4.0) | Amazon
  33. Gut: the inside story of our body’s most under-rated organ – Giulia Enders (4.0) | Amazon
  34. The Kind Worth Killing – Peter Swanson (3.0) | Amazon
  35. Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future – Ashlee Vance (3.5) | Amazon
  36. West with the Night – Beryl Markham (4.0) | Amazon
  37. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running – Haruki Murakami (3.5 ) | Amazon
  38. Transfer of Power – Vince Flynn (3.5) | Amazon
  39. The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results – Gary Keller and Jay Papasan (4.5) | Amazon
  40. Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet – Jesse Itzler (3.5) | Amazon
  41. A Well-tempered Heart – Jan-Philipp Sendker (4.25) | Amazon
  42. The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever – Michael Bungay Stanier (3.0) | Amazon
  43. On Becoming Fearless…in Love, Work, and Life – Arianna Huffington (3.5) | Amazon
  44. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear – Elizabeth Gilbert (4.0)| Amazon
  45. Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers – Tim Ferriss (4.5) | Amazon
  46. Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace) – Chade-Meng Tan (4.0) | Amazon
  47. Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why – Laurence Gonzales (3.5) | Amazon

Read in 2015

  1. A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara
  2. A Wild Sheep Chase – Haruki Murakami
  3. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage – Haruki Murakami
  4. South of the Border, West of the Sun – Haruki Murakami
  5. Everything I Never Told You – Celene Ng
  6. Life and Other Near-Death Experiences – Camille Pagán
  7. Adventures in Human Being – Gavin Francis
  8. Do Story – Bobette Buster
  9. The Reason I Jump – Naoki Higashida
  10. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work – Mason Currey
  11. Flight to Arras – Antoine de Saint-Exupèry
  12. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running – Haruki Murakami
  13. The Places That Scare You – Pema Chödrön
  14. Out Stealing Horses – Per Petterson
  15. Nora Webster – Colm Tóibín
  16. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
  17. Niebla – Miguel de Unamuno
  18. The Little Friend – Donna Tartt
  19. The Lover’s Dictionary: A Love Story in 185 Definitions – David Levithan
  20. Amongst Women – John McGahern
  21. The Hedgehog and the Fox – Isiah Berlin
  22. Understanding Tolstoy – Andrew D. Kaufman
  23. Focus – Jürgen Wolff
  24. The Art of Being Brilliant – Andy Cope
  25. Thrive – Arianna Huffington
  26. Everybody Writes – Ann Handley
  27. Manage Your Day-to-Day – Jocelyn Glei
  28. Leave Your Mark – Aliza Licht
  29. The Start-up of You – Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha
  30. Developing Talents – Temple Grandin
  31. Marketing: A Love Story: How to Matter to Your Customers – Bernadette Jiwa
  32. Camino de perfección – Pío Baroja
  33. El trovador – Antonio García Gutiérrez
  34. Don Juan Tenorio – Jose Zorrilla
  35. Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino – Duque de Rivas
  36. Los amantes de Teruel – Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch

Read in 2014

  1. The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories – Marina Keegan
  2. The South – Colm Tóibín
  3. Brooklyn – Colm Tóibín
  4. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves – Karen Joy Fowler
  5. Shadow of a Gunman – Seán O’Casey
  6. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce (re-read)
  7. The Collected Poems – W. B. Yeats
  8. A Brief Guide to World Domination – Chris Guillebeau
  9. The Rosie Effect – Graeme Simsion
  10. Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It – Gabriel Wyner
  11. Dead Poets Society – N. H. Kleinbaum
  12. I Am Pilgrim – Terry Hayes
  13. Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything – Joshua Foer
  14. A Study in Scarlet – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  15. Poems That Make Grown Men Cry – Anthony and Ben Holden
  16. The Silkworm – Robert Galbraith
  17. The Cossacks – Leo Tolstoy
  18. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
  19. Hacking Your Education – Dale J. Stephens
  20. Perfect – Joyce, Rachel
  21. Such Stuff as Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction – Oatley, Keith
  22. Hadji Murad – Tolstoy, Leo
  23. The Grace of Crows – Shawn, Tracy
  24. Resurrection – Tolstoy, Leo
  25. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) – Rowling, J.K.
  26. The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden – Jonasson, Jonas
  27. The Almost Nearly Perfect People – Booth, Michael
  28. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: A Story from Different Seasons – King, Stephen
  29. A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold (A Song of Ice and Fire #3, Part 2 of 2) – Martin, George R.R.
  30. A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3 part 1) – Martin, George R.R.
  31. In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed – Honoré, Carl
  32. Maximize Your Potential: Grow Your Expertise, Take Bold Risks & Build an Incredible Career – Glei, Jocelyn K.
  33. A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2) – Martin, George R.R.
  34. The Five Orange Pips and Other Cases – Doyle, Arthur Conan
  35. Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes – Konnikova, Maria
  36. Wind, Sand and Stars – Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de
  37. The Fry Chronicles – Fry, Stephen
  38. The Girl with All the Gifts – Carey, M.R.
  39. The Goldfinch – Tartt, Donna
  40. The Rosie Project – Simsion, Graeme
  41. The Luminaries – Catton, Eleanor
  42. The 4-Hour Work Week – Ferriss, Timothy
  43. Names for the Sea – Moss, Sarah
  44. A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul – Tolstoy, Leo