Jamie McHale

Book Reading List

2019

Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, Francis Fukuyama
Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin
Deschooling Society, Ivan Illich
Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Benedict Anderson
The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind, Raghuram G. Rajan
The Anxious Triumph: A Global History of Capitalism, 1860-1914, Donald Sassoon
The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History, David Hackett Fischer
The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity, Kwame Anthony Appiah
Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career, Scott H. Young
All That Remains: A Life in Death, Sue Black
The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium, Martin Gurri
An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management, Will Larson
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, David Epstein
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Alison Bechdel
Normal People, Sally Rooney
Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, Caroline Criado-Pérez
Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities, Eric Kaufmann
Digital Minimalism: On Living Better with Less Technology, Cal Newport
Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, Afua Hirsch
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, Jenny Odell
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, Joseph J. Ellis
National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy, Roger Eatwell
The Chinese Machiavelli: 3000 Years of Chinese Statecraft, Dennis Bloodworth
Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business, Paul Jarvis
It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work, Jason Fried
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, Kai-Fu Lee
Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff
The Park Bench, Christophe Chabouté
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking, Samin Nosrat
Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders
Singapore, Singapura: From Miracle to Complacency, Nicholas Walton
Belt and Road: The Sinews of Chinese Power, Bruno Maçães
The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future, Ryder Carroll

2018

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
The Gene: An Intimate History, Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, Siddhartha Mukherjee
Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy, Tim Harford
This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor, Adam Kay
The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1), Liu Cixin
Capitalism Without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy, Jonathan Haskel
Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation, Serhii Plokhy
Arbitrary Stupid Goal, Tamara Shopsin
Notes on a Nervous Planet, Matt Haig
Notes of a Native Son, James Baldwin
The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook, Niall Ferguson
On Directing Film, David Mamet
The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy, Mariana Mazzucato
Closely Watched Trains, Bohumil Hrabal
Mr. Kafka: And Other Tales from the Time of the Cult, Bohumil Hrabal
Blood and Silk: Power and Conflict in Modern Southeast Asia, Michael Vatikiotis
The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken, The Secret Barrister
A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen, David Hockney
The Dawn of Eurasia: On the Trail of the New World Order, Bruno Maçães
The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, Oliver Burkeman
So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love, Cal Newport
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, Gordon S. Wood
Equal Power: A Handbook for Men and Women, Jo Swinson
The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam, Douglas Murray
Pachinko, Min Jin Lee
Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman
Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia, Peter Pomerantsev
Rewire Your Brain: Think Your Way to a Better Life, John B. Arden
Principles: Life and Work, Ray Dalio

2017

The Penguin History of New Zealand, Michael King
The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding, Robert Hughes
Down Under, Bill Bryson
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, Colin Woodard
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values, Robert M. Pirsig
Making Sense of the Troubles: The Story of the Conflict in Northern Ireland, David McKittrick
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge
How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, Lisa Feldman Barrett
The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, Daniel J. Levitin
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari
Micromastery: Learn Small, Learn Fast, and Find the Hidden Path to Happiness, Robert Twigger
If This Is a Man • The Truce, Primo Levi
The Age of Revolution, 1789-1848, Eric Hobsbawm
Brexit: What the Hell Happens Now?, Ian Dunt
Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow, Yuval Noah Harari
Prisoners of Geography, Tim Marshall
World Order, Henry Kissinger
The Case Against Sugar, Gary Taubes
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Cal Newport
Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers, Timothy Ferriss

2016

Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, James C. Scott
Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution, Nathaniel Philbrick
Who Governs Britain?, Anthony King
The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time, Alex Korb
Politics: Between the Extremes, Nick Clegg
The Two-State Delusion: Israel and Palestine – A Tale of Two Narratives, Padraig O'Malley
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman--Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual, Yvon Chouinard
The Wealth of Humans: Work and its Absence in the Twenty-First Century, Ryan Avent
Against the Double Blackmail: Refugees, Terror and Other Troubles with the Neighbours, Slavoj Žižek
When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, J.D. Vance
What's Left?, Nick Cohen
Ruling The Void: The Hollowing Of Western Democracy, Peter Mair
Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World, Don Tapscott
Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value, William Poundstone
The Accidental Superpower: The Next Generation of American Preeminence and the Coming Global Disorder, Peter Zeihan
Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays, Christopher Hitchens
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Eric Hoffer
What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful, Marshall Goldsmith
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami

2015

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, Peter M. Senge
Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time, Jeff Sutherland
Leading from the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies, C. Otto Scharmer
Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami
The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves, Stephen Grosz
Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Empathy Exams, Leslie Jamison
Become What You Are, Alan W. Watts
A Death in the Family (My Struggle Book 1), Karl Ove Knausgård
The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business, Clayton M. Christensen
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Raymond Carver
John Adams, David McCullough
The Art of Negotiation: How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World, Michael A. Wheeler
The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-term Health, Justin Sonnenburg
Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino
Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, David Eagleman
Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World, Donald Sull
Political Realism: How Hacks, Machines, Big Money, and Back-Room Deals Can Strengthen American Democracy, Jonathan Rauch
Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, A.G. Lafley
Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It, Dorie Clark
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, Dava Sobel
Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel García Márquez
The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy, David Graeber
Joy at Work, Dennis Bakke
Germany: Memories of a Nation, Neil MacGregor
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality, Brian Greene
Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking), Christian Rudder
The Martian, Andy Weir
The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America, Mike McIntyre
Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life, Karen E. Fields
The Scientist as Rebel (New York Review Books), Freeman Dyson
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond

2014

The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Astra Taylor
How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness, Russ Roberts
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, Atul Gawande
1491: The Americas Before Columbus, Charles C. Mann
Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery, Henry Marsh
How We Got to Now: Six Innovations that Made the Modern World, Steven Johnson
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, Marie Kondō
Sam Walton: Made In America, Sam Walton
The Art of Profitability, Adrian J. Slywotzky
The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age, Reid Hoffman
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
The Call of the Wild, Jack London
The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage, Ryan Holiday
Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life: Collected Talks 1960-1969, Alan W. Watts
How Google Works, Eric Schmidt
The Tao of Leadership: Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching Adapted for a New Age, John Heider
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, Peter Thiel
Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success, Shane Snow
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration, Ed Catmull
Everyday Sexism, Laura Bates
My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, Ari Shavit
On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City, Alice Goffman
Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
At the Loch of the Green Corrie, Andrew Greig
Twelve Years a Slave, Solomon Northup
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers, Ben Horowitz
My Share of the Task: A Memoir, Stanley McChrystal
A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, William B. Irvine
The Outsider, Albert Camus
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, Paul Tough
Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time, Keith Ferrazzi
The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, Erik Brynjolfsson
The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
It's Not All About Me: The Top Ten Techniques for Building Quick Rapport with Anyone, Robin Dreeke
Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, Daniel Goleman
The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer
Poor White, Sherwood Anderson
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life, Marshall B. Rosenberg
The Motivation Hacker, Nick Winter

2013

Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes, Alexandra Horowitz
Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, Maria Konnikova
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, Cheryl Strayed
Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, David Bayles
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, Brad Stone
Average Is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation, Tyler Cowen
Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman
Love's Executioner, Irvin D. Yalom
Consider the Lobster and Other Essays, David Foster Wallace
The Yankee Tea-party Or, Boston in 1773, Henry Clay Watson
Mindset: How You Can Fulfil Your Potential, Carol S. Dweck
Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier, Terry Laughlin
Cancer Ward, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain's Favourite Fetish, Christopher Hitchens
Making Great Decisions in Business and Life, David R. Henderson
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque