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Genres
11genres
312books sorted
Have a favorite genre you like to read? Every book I've reviewed in it is consolidated here, grouped by the rating I gave it — so you can start with the five-star shelf and work down, rather than scrolling a whole year to find the thrillers.
Nonfiction
25 reviewed · 4.3 avg rating★★★★★Five stars
9 books
Book
Rating
Genre
Group
Christie TateBEST OF2020#5 of 2020
★★★★★BEST OF2020#5 of 2020
When author Christie Tate hits rock bottom, she decides to try a radical form of group therapy, where everything is NOT confidential.
★★★★★
Nonfiction Memoir
60 Songs That Explain the '90s
Rob HarvillaBEST OF2024#9 of 2024Audiobook
★★★★★BEST OF2024#9 of 2024Audiobook
A nostalgia-inducing romp through the most impactful songs of the '90s, focusing on their meaning to the decade and to music overall.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Angela DuckworthBEST OF2023#10 of 2023
★★★★★BEST OF2023#10 of 2023
Both entertaining and helpful, Duckworth systematically lays out a plethora of evidence for why passion + perseverance = success.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
Fear Is Just A Word
Azam Ahmed#17 of 2023
★★★★★#17 of 2023
When a young woman goes missing, kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel, her mother makes it her life's mission to bring them to justice.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
Being Henry: The Fonz...and Beyond
Henry Winkler#18 of 2023
★★★★★#18 of 2023
An honest autobiographical account of a showbiz life, infused with humor, self-deprecation and a joie de vivre oozing from every page.
★★★★★
Memoir Nonfiction
The Art Thief
Michael Finkel#19 of 2023
★★★★★#19 of 2023
A thoroughly researched examination of the exploits of Stéphane Breitwieser, the most prolific art thief the world has ever known.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
The Boys in the Light
Nina Willner#20 of 2025Audiobook
★★★★★#20 of 2025Audiobook
The intersecting journeys of the author's father, who survived years in WWII concentration camps, and the American soldiers who found him.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
No More Tears
Gardiner Harris#25 of 2025Audiobook
★★★★★#25 of 2025Audiobook
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.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
The Anxious Generation
Jonathan Haidt#30 of 2025
★★★★★#30 of 2025
A thoroughly researched exploration of the rise in mental illness among Gen Z, paired with several suggestions for how we can fix it.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
★★★★★Four stars
14 books
Book
Rating
Genre
The Boys of Riverside
Thomas Fuller#17 of 2024Audiobook
★★★★★#17 of 2024Audiobook
The account of the California School for the Deaf, Riverside, and their football team's pursuit of a championship across two seasons.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
London Falling
Patrick Radden Keefe#18 of 2026Audiobook
★★★★★#18 of 2026Audiobook
A gripping and fascinating piece of investigative journalism that seeks to uncover the truth behind the mysterious death of a young London man in 2019.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
All the Worst Humans
Phil Elwood#27 of 2024
★★★★★#27 of 2024
A memoir that exposes the role of PR firms in our news cycle and the ways they manipulate information to support their wealthy clients
★★★★★
Memoir Nonfiction
Revenge of the Tipping Point
Malcolm Gladwell#29 of 2024Audiobook
★★★★★#29 of 2024Audiobook
Gladwell revisits how social epidemics take off with a new set of stories to illustrate variations of concepts from The Tipping Point.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
The Small and the Mighty
Sharon McMahon#31 of 2024Audiobook
★★★★★#31 of 2024Audiobook
An entertaining look at a few lesser-known influential people throughout U.S. history, presented in a conversational and engaging way.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
The Formula
Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg#32 of 2024Audiobook
★★★★★#32 of 2024Audiobook
Focused not just on the recent rise of F1 but its entire 75-year history, this is an entertaining look at the evolution of the sport.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
David Grann#32 of 2023
★★★★★#32 of 2023
The author of Killers of the Flower Moon returns with an account of a shipwreck in the 1740s and the tale of survival that follows.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
The Boys in the Boat
Daniel James Brown#33 of 2024Audiobook
★★★★★#33 of 2024Audiobook
A thoroughly-researched and compelling account of the University of Washington rowing team's quest to win gold at the 1936 Olympics.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
Read Your Mind
Oz Pearlman#39 of 2026Audiobook
★★★★★#39 of 2026Audiobook
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.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
The Escape Artist
Jonathan Freedland#40 of 2023
★★★★★#40 of 2023
A difficult (but important) read about one of the first Jews to escape from Auschwitz and alert the world to the atrocities there.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
Among the Bros
Max Marshall#43 of 2025Audiobook
★★★★★#43 of 2025Audiobook
An exposé on a fraternity-led Xanax trafficking ring, focused on Greek life and the pervasiveness of benzodiazepine use at colleges.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
The Six Pack
Brad Balukjian#44 of 2024Audiobook
★★★★★#44 of 2024Audiobook
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.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
Replaceable You
Mary Roach#49 of 2025Audiobook
★★★★★#49 of 2025Audiobook
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.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
The Beast in the Clouds
Nathalia Holt#53 of 2025Audiobook
★★★★★#53 of 2025Audiobook
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.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
★★★★★Three stars
2 books
Book
Rating
Genre
When It All Burns
Jordan Thomas#60 of 2025Audiobook
★★★★★#60 of 2025Audiobook
Part memoir, part history of fire, author Thomas recounts his time with the Los Padres Hotshots while positing ways to deal with megafires.
★★★★★
Nonfiction Memoir
A Marriage at Sea
Sophie Elmhirst#71 of 2025Audiobook
★★★★★#71 of 2025Audiobook
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.
★★★★★
Nonfiction
Why this page isn't a single ranking
Each book's rank is its position within the year I read it. That makes it directional, not absolute: the best book of a thin year and the fifth-best of a strong one can't be stacked against each other honestly. So these are grouped by the rating I gave them, which is comparable across years, and ordered within each group by how they placed in their own year. Where I have ranked an author's books against each other, that list says so and shows the numbers.
Want more like these?
One email on the first of every month with a summary and rating of each book reviewed over the past 30 days, and a look at where the year's ranking stands.