A running ranking of the books that I have reviewed this year, updated and reranked after each book that I finish.

★★★★☆ A self-help book from the "World's Greatest Mentalist" in which he shares advice for how best to connect with people based on how the human mind works.

★★★★★ The intersecting journeys of the author's father, who survived years in WWII concentration camps, and the American soldiers who found him.

★★★★★ Decades of missteps and immorality by J & J are laid bare as they repeat a pattern of placing profits over people's health and lives.

Amazon's Top 100 Books of 2025. How do they compare to Barlin's Books rankings for the year? Where did they get things right, and where did

★★★★☆ Author Mary Roach is back with her signature blend of wit as she examines the human body and all of the potential ways we attempt to modify it.

★★★★☆ Teddy Roosevelt's sons embark on a quest in 1929 to obtain a specimen of a giant panda, an animal rarely seen and wholly unknown at the time.

★★★☆☆ A British couple decide to sail from England to New Zealand in the 1970s, only to be stranded in the middle of the Pacific after a whale destroys their boat.

★★★☆☆ Part memoir, part history of fire, author Thomas recounts his time with the Los Padres Hotshots while positing ways to deal with megafires.

★★★★★ A thoroughly researched exploration of the rise in mental illness among Gen Z, paired with several suggestions for how we can fix it.

★★★★☆ An exposé on a fraternity-led Xanax trafficking ring, focused on Greek life and the pervasiveness of benzodiazepine use at colleges.

My "Best Books of 2024", ranked #1 through #67.

★★★★★ A nostalgia-inducing romp through the most impactful songs of the '90s, focusing on their meaning to the decade and to music overall.

★★★★☆ Gladwell revisits how social epidemics take off with a new set of stories to illustrate variations of concepts from The Tipping Point.

★★★★☆ An entertaining look at a few lesser-known influential people throughout U.S. history, presented in a conversational and engaging way.

★★★★☆ A memoir that exposes the role of PR firms in our news cycle and the ways they manipulate information to support their wealthy clients

★★★★☆ The account of the California School for the Deaf, Riverside, and their football team's pursuit of a championship across two seasons.

Inspired by an underwhelming list from Goodreads, this counts down a far superior list of the Top 50 books of the last 5 years (2020-2024).

★★★★☆ A thoroughly-researched and compelling account of the University of Washington rowing team's quest to win gold at the 1936 Olympics.

★★★★☆ An in-depth look at six of the wrestlers (and the rise of wrestling in the 80s) based around the Iron Sheik becoming champion in 1983.