Nonfiction Essentials
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In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
by Gabor MateThis book is transformative. Even if your life isn’t directly affected by addiction, this book might change the way you see the world and other people.
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Chip War
by Chris MillerThis is kind of two books. The first half is basically the post-WWII history of computers, full of colourful characters and rich (if too brief) stories. It reads like an abridged version of Isaacson’s The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution – there are even several sections which could make…
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The Shallows
Probably the most useful thing I’ve read this year. If you work in any creative field, this is essential reading. Don’t let the subtitle fool you. This isn’t an anti-technology book, longing for the good old days of ink and paper. (there’s some of that, but it doesn’t matter). This book exists kind of at…
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The Hospital
This reminded me a lot of Dopesick and Evicted, in that it dissects a whole lot about America through a seemingly simple lens.
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My Fourth Time We Drowned
by Sally HaydenWhat debt do first-world, colonialist nations owe to nations that they victimized in the past? Whose interests should the UN, the ICC, and other NGOs represent? How does the media shape our perception of humanitarian crises though language, and accepting the narrative that governments and well-funded aid groups hire expensive PR firms to write and…
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The Stranger Beside Me
by Ann RuleThis is astounding and unforgettable. Rule, an ex-cop and struggling crime writer, gets contracted to write a book about a serial killer, and it turns out that the killer is a friend and former coworker. The book is a grind – Rule is meticulous and spares no detail, but it’s stunning. She doesn’t glamorize anything…
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When McKinsey Comes to Town
This was excellent but somewhere I imagine a room of lawyers and McKinsey execs were somewhat relieved to read it. It lacked a real knockout blow, and some of the content was almost discrediting to the authors. There’s a fair amount of late-capitalism, bad corporation stuff. Companies hire McKinsey to help them deliver more value…
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The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Probably too long, and some of the last section leans too hard into historical references and cherry-picking — so much that it feels almost hyperbolic. Doesn’t matter. This changed the way I think about tech and the lenses that I interpret the world with. There’s a reason that most tech criticism written after this book,…
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Technopoly
by Neil PostmanTimeless. This book isn’t about the perils of technology. Postman isn’t arguing against progress. He is arguing against the loss of context, and the risk of modern thought turning everything into a measurable, quantifiable and rankable object. And the 30 years since the publication of this book have certainly validated his concerns. This is essential…
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The Soul of a New Machine
by Tracy KidderIt’s pretty overwritten, but it’s worth it. This book is fascinating in how banal it seems. The work culture described here is so common now, so the book is often inadvertently funny. As exploitative as it is, it reminded me of some of my fondest work memories and some of my favourite people – lifelong…
