Book Report : 2024

This year brought a lot of inspiration, provoked and fed by some impactful books. I finished my year of green business school, spent a week at the Mind & Life Summer Research Institute at the Garrison Institute, went to Sweden to be part of the first cohort of Inner Development Goals ambassadors, had my first real experience submitting academic writing for a book (which I’ll share more about as it’s released), submitted another big grad school application, journaled a lot, continued my Zen practice (including taking the Buddhist precepts), continued working with an excellent therapist, started working with a life/career coach, and stumbled into a lot of really exciting inspiration for what to do next.

Reflecting on the books I read in a year has become a beautiful way to mark the time, see patterns in my intellectual and emotional growth, and find interesting connections between ideas I might not have seen before. I always encourage others to explore similar exercises, whether with books, films, art, podcasts, conversations, or just the themes that have meant the most to them.

Okay, here’s the 2024 bookshelf.

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think (Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Roennlund)

I picked up Factfulness because Richard Reeves wrote in Of Boys and Men (see last year’s book report) that while at The Brookings Institution he has all his incoming researchers read it. Factfulness had a tremendous influence on my thinking this year, especially while in the midst of sustainability-focused business school. It offers some really important principles for how to make sense of where the world is going, which are often counterintuitive to the messages we live in every day.

Rather than try to summarize, let me refer you to this short quiz, which I suggest you take. If you’re surprised by how you do on it, definitely consider reading the book (or at least looking at the many awesome charts in it).

Also please look at the amazing data-visualization site Gapminder and Dollar Street.

(I read this one in paper, which I recommend given the graphs)

Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

Just absolutely astonishing. This is required reading for political and social organizers, and probably just for anyone anywhere. Not only is it so educational, moving, and inspiring, it is one heck of an epic life story.

(I alternated between the excellently-narrated audiobook and a paperback copy)

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine (Rashid Khalidi)

Written by the great-great-nephew of Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi who was the mayor of Jerusalem in the late 19th-century, this is a sweeping and heart-wrenching history through a deeply Palestinian lens. An important read for anyone trying to understand the conflicts, horrors, and injustices of the past century up until the present.

(I read as ebook and paperback)

Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from Our Culture of Contempt (Arthur Brooks)

Arthur Brooks has become something of a hero of mine for his dedication to researching and teaching about deep happiness, and for his mission to help people resist the “culture of contempt” that is the hallmark of our current hyper-divided arena of ideas. Love Your Enemies is a sincere treatise on building a culture of love, tolerance, and unity in the United States, and is supported with thought-provoking research and storylines.

I read one of his newer books recently, From Strength to Strength, and also picked up The Conservative Heart, in an attempt to better understand conservative thinking, and not just through my typical liberal news/academia lens. Part of my admiration for Brooks is that he’s from the “other side of the aisle” from me, both personally and professionally, and was the president of the conservative American Enterprise Institute free market think tank. But I find his passion for spreading real happiness to be genuine, even if not a facsimile of my beliefs. These days he heads the Happiness and Leadership Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School and his latest book on happiness is with Oprah (which they audio narrate together).

(I listened as an audiobook, not read by the author, but not bad)

The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma (Mustafa Suleyman)

I got turned on to this one after hearing Suleyman interviewed by Sam Harris. Suleyman co-founded DeepMind (the breakthrough AI company that was bought by Google) and is now CEO of Microsoft AI. The Coming Wave is a readable and reflective survey of artificial intelligence and synthetic biology and what these revolutionary fields may very well mean for life as we know it. An important accessible read on some of the most critical stuff of the centiry.

(I listened to the audiobook, very well read by the author)

The Life You Can Save: How to do your Part to End World Poverty (Peter Singer)

I was strangely overdue to read this book. I think I originally thought it was dated and that the vanguard of Effective Altruism had eclipsed it, but not true. This is a book and line of thinking that has inspired countless people to take charitable giving seriously and consider how much good they can do with what they have, from regular folks to multi-billionaires. Singer writes a lot about the Giving What We Can Pledge, started by philosopher Toby Ord, which inspired me to give 10% of my annual income to high impact organizations. Honestly, I challenges you to read this book and contemplate what the implications could be in your life.

(I listened to the audiobook and read the ebook, both of which are available for free at thelifeyoucansave.org – the audiobook is read by a cast of cool folks including Paul Simon)

Is This Autism?: A Guide for Clinicians and Everyone Else (Donna Henderson, Sarah Wayland, Jamell White)

Autism is fascinating, subtle, and multi-faceted. It’s believed that about 1% of the world population is autistic, but there’s still so much we don’t know. This book is a great way to get a better understanding of the many ways autism can manifest in people, including in women (where it is believed to be under-diagnosed) and BIPOC people. It’s written by clinicians but readable for a general audience. There is also a companion volume more focused on diagnosis.

(I read the ebook)

Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges (Otto Scharmer)

I met someone at the Mind & Life Summer Research Institute who had taken one of Otto Scharmer’s courses at The Presencing Institute at MIT where Scharmer is a professor. Theory U is method of thinking meant to tap into deep human potential to help envision and pull towards bright, positive futures. I read it with fascination, and am keen to participate in some of these practices, but I’ll say that for me, just reading about it left the whole thing rather esoteric and cerebral. If you have first-hand experience with these techniques and disciplines I’d love to ask you some questions.

(I read the ebook)

The Buddhist and the Ethicist: Conversations on Effective Altruism, Engaged Buddhism, and How to Build a Better World (Peter Singer and Shih Chao-Hwei)

This book is based on a public conversation between Peter Singer (the Australian moral philosopher, author of The Life You can Save, and pretty much the founding thinker of what has grown into the Effective Altruism movement) and Shih Chao-Hwei (a Taiwanese Buddhist nun, social activist, and outspoken changemaker). The dialog covers strong territory including animal rights, same sex relationships and marriage, sex and different sexual preferences and practices, and the intersections and divergences of Eastern and Western philosophies. It’s beautiful to see such thinkers publishing their explorations together, as I’ve been craving to see contemplative spiritual practices discussed more in the context of pragmatic positive-impact communities such as Effective Altruism.

(I listened to the audiobook, which is read by voice actors approximating Singer and Chao-Hwei, which is cool but not outstanding, and I read from a paper copy as well)

Meditation Is Not What You Think: Mindfulness and Why It Is So Important (Jon Kabat-Zinn)

Oddly I had never read any of Kabat-Zinn’s books, despite his status as the creator of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) framework and really the most notable popularizer of mindfulness in the West. Maybe I thought it was cliche or “first generation.” I had an opportunity to write a piece for a book this year on the links between mindfulness and sustainability and so had to read some Zinn. I must say I find his approach to mindfulness to be straightforward, credible, and infused with delight, direct experience, and a beautiful earnestness. I see why he has had such an influence on people and would recommend his works to anyone. He’s written many books and it can be hard to know where to start but this one is probably as good as any.

(I listened to the audiobook read by Zinn)

The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America (Coleman Hughes)

Not an easy book to talk about and definitely controversial. Hughes is a young thinker who has made a name as a Black intellectual directly challenging the ideas of Ibram X. Kendi, Robin DiAngelo, and others we has named the “neo-racists.” His TED Talk (which I believe was almost never aired) is an intro to his line of thinking, and his writings can be found across the web. You can’t read this book and not ask yourself: what would MLK and other Civil Rights leaders make of today’s antiracism movement?

(I listened to the audiobook read by Hughes)

Healing America: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Recapture the American Spirit (Rep. Tim Ryan)

I first picked up this book by its original title: A Mindful Nation, and then switched over to the updated version that Ryan gave a more stealth title. This book had me fairly transfixed, reading the words of a 20-year Ohio Congressman who, chapter after chapter, makes the case for mindfulness in schools, healthcare, the military, government, and American civil society at large. He argues how the American dream can be revived, our economy energized, our veterans more cared for, and our values renewed by giving mindfulness a place in the American experiment.

(I read the ebook)

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing (Burton G. Malkiel)

This was assigned for my business school Finance course and is a classic of rational, steady, boring, successful investing. It covers the basics of personal stock market investing as well as more complex topics and concepts from the deeper reaches of portfolio strategy, etc.

A book that should be on the shelf of anyone who has or wants to have a stake in the public markets.

(Listened to the audio and got the paperback)

Altruism: The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and the World (Matthieu Ricard)

This book gets an honorary mention because I haven’t finished, and unfortunately probably won’t. Matthieu Ricard is a fascinating and important thinker, a Frenchman and son of an acclaimed philosopher with a PhD in molecular genetics who became a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Altruism is an epically researched thesis on the place and potential of compassion and altruism to shape society, which I found very, very inspiring to see laid out in such a rigorous way. Sadly, I think the translation from the French language is badly done, and so I found the book really hard to read. I’ll continue dipping into the book, but won’t make it to the back cover.

(Got the paperback)

Emptiness Dancing (Adyashanti)

The simple, subtle, and sincere meditation teachings of Adyashanti brought a lot to my personal Zen practice this year, both through listening to recorded dharma talks and reading his books (which are mostly transcribed talks). Adyashanti is an American teacher who practiced in the Zen tradition until his awakening experiences led him to teach a more universal and ‘non-religious’ approach. The result is a refreshingly simple, tidy, and direct call to wake up in your life.

(Started with ebook and moved to paperback)

Three white papers

Three papers had a big influence on me this year, all in the emerging field of “inner development,” approaches to cultivating inner human capacities to help us confront major challenges like the climate crisis. Click these open and take a look at an area of thinking that I hope will continue to build and mature – it’s the right time.

Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out (The Mindfulness Initiative)

The Human Dimension of the Green Deal: How to Overcome Polarisation and Facilitate Culture & System Change (Inner Green Deal)

The system within: Addressing the inner dimensions of sustainability and systems transformation (Report to the Club of Rome)

Leaves of Grass (Walt Whitman)

And last on the book list, this year I pulled Leaves of Grass off the shelf and stepped back into Whitman’s roiling fever dream of human beauty, chaos, eroticism, a his nearly psychedelic lust for the spiraling miracle of existence in its full display. A person should probably never let a year pass without spending some sincere time with poetry, and in 2024 Walt was my guide.

(I read from the beautiful hardcover edition my mom gave me on my 18th birthday – thank you, Judy!)

And lastly I’ll place this video here: a three-hour bootleg of the 1996 PBS special The Wisdom of Faith, in which Bill Moyers interviews the late Huston Smith, the renowned scholar of spirituality (and impish sage). I watched it all and found it wonderful.

Thank you for reading (this book report), and thank you for reading! Always reach out to me if you want to chat about any of this. Here’s to being curious and brave in 2025.