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“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” – Harry S. Truman

Below is a short list of books I recommend to people who ask what books they should read.  I also include podcasts I listen to regularly.  The books and podcasts include a number of themes to include leadership, personal finance and history.  I like to strike a balance across competing schools of thought - challenging my own biases, assumptions and comfort levels. Read the gamut, then make up your own mind what you want to believe in.    

The most successful people are curious, lifelong learners. Make reading a priority if you want to be successful.


Disclaimer: This list is not intended to imply official endorsement of any author, creator, or specific product. Nor is purchase or consumption of the materials a condition of employment.

Readings

The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy

Endurance

By Alfred Lansing
Link to E-book


The book details the almost two-year struggle for survival endured by the twenty-eight man crew of the ship Endurance. The ship was beset and eventually crushed by ice floes in the Weddell Sea, leaving the men stranded on the pack ice. All in all, the crew drifted on the ice for just over a year. They were able to launch their boats and somehow managed to land them safely on Elephant Island. Shackleton then led a crew of five aboard the James Caird through the Drake Passage, and miraculously reached South Georgia Island 650 nautical miles away. He then took two of those men on the first successful overland crossing of the island. Three months later, he was finally able to rescue the remaining crew members they had left behind on Elephant Island.


The Daily Stoic

The Daily Stoic

By Ryan Holiday
Link to E-book

Why have history's greatest minds—from George Washington to Frederick the Great to Ralph Waldo Emerson, along with today's top performers from Super Bowl-winning football coaches to CEOs and celebrities—embraced the wisdom of the ancient Stoics? Because they realize that the most valuable wisdom is timeless and that philosophy is for living a better life, not a classroom exercise.

The Daily Stoic offers 366 days of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring all-new translations from the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the playwright Seneca, or slave-turned-philosopher Epictetus, as well as lesser-known luminaries like Zeno, Cleanthes, and Musonius Rufus. Every day of the year you'll find one of their pithy, powerful quotations, as well as historical anecdotes, provocative commentary, and a helpful glossary of Greek terms.

By following these teachings over the course of a year (and, indeed, for years to come) you'll find the serenity, self-knowledge, and resilience you need to live well.

 

The Elements of Style

The Elements of Style

By William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
Link to E-book
 In his classic reference book The Elements of Style (1920), William Strunk Jr. explains that writers must first understand writing’s rules before they can break them. He offers clear, instructive advice on proper sentence composition. Strunk composed this book in 1918 and self-published before seeking traditional publication. The book was originally intended to be a textbook for his own English class, but the principles proved to be widely useful. It was later edited and developed by a former student, E. B. White.
 
 
 
 

The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness

By Morgan Housel
Link to E-Book

Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people.

Money―investing, personal finance, and business decisions―is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together.

In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the different ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.


 

Podcasts

Conversations with Tyler

Conversations with Tyler

On the Conversations with Tyler podcast, esteemed economist Tyler Cowen engages with today’s most underrated thinkers in wide-ranging explorations of their work, the world, and everything in between.

Listen to the podcast here.

 

 


The Ezra Klein Show

The Ezra Klein Show

Named a best podcast of 2021 by Time, Vulture, Esquire and The Atlantic. Each Tuesday and Friday, Ezra Klein invites you into a conversation on something that matters. How do we address climate change if the political system fails to act? Has the logic of markets infiltrated too many aspects of our lives? What do psychedelics teach us about consciousness? What does sci-fi understand about our present that we miss? Can our food system be just to humans and animals alike?

Listen to the podcast here.

Interesting Times with Russ Douthat

The first draft of our future. Mapping the new world order through interviews and conversations.

Listen to the podcast here.  

Honestly with Bari Weiss

The most interesting conversations in American life happen in private. This show brings them out of the closet. Stories no one else is telling and conversations with the most fascinating people in the country, every week from The Free Press, hosted by former New York Times and Wall Street Journal journalist Bari Weiss.

Listen to the podcast here.

                                                            Econtalk: Conversations for the Curious 


Conversations for the Curious is an award-winning weekly podcast hosted by Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford's Hoover Institution. The eclectic guest list includes authors, doctors, psychologists, historians, philosophers, economists, and more. Learn how the health care system really works, the serenity that comes from humility, the challenge of interpreting data, how potato chips are made, what it's like to run an upscale Manhattan restaurant, what caused the 2008 financial crisis, the nature of consciousness, and more.

Listen to the podcast here.

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