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

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Cutting for Stone

A story of love, loss, and medicine in Ethiopia. As close as it gets to a perfect story.

Read in 2019

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The Sun is a Compass

One couple’s 4000-mile human-powered adventure across Alaska. It’s quickly become one of my favourite adventure books.

Into the Magic Shop

A fantastic celebration of the magic of aligning our hearts, brains, and goals to live a compassionate life – and my most-gifted book this year.

Read in 2018

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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