Each quarter, I post a quick run-down of books I’ve read during the quarter. Please note that all links are Amazon affiliate links that may pay to me a very modest commission that I will promptly use to buy more books to read. Basically just helps spin the flywheel.

General Interest

• Once Upon A Time In Russia By Ben Mezrich.  Fascinating and crazy simultaneously – Once Upon a Time in Russia is the untold true story of the larger-than-life billionaire oligarchs who surfed the waves of privatization to reap riches after the fall of the Soviet regime.
• Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Interesting but long-winded in spots – Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s famous investigations of “optimal experience” have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life.
• Sea Stories by William McRaven Admiral William H. McRaven is a part of American military history, having been involved in some of the most famous missions in recent memory, including the capture of Saddam Hussein, the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips, and the raid to kill Osama bin Laden.

Investing / Business / Markets

• The Great Demographic Reversal: Ageing Societies, Waning Inequality, and an Inflation Revival – Goodhard and Pradhan. This original and panoramic book proposes that the underlying forces of demography and globalisation will shortly reverse three multi-decade global trends – it will raise inflation and interest rates, but lead to a pullback in inequality.
• Investing Amid Low Expected Returns by Anti Ilmanen. Not my favorite – This book provides an evidence-based blueprint for successful investing when decades of market tailwinds are turning into headwinds.
• Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon. In Working Backwards, two long-serving Amazon executives reveal the principles and practices that have driven the success of one of the most extraordinary companies the world has ever known.

Living Thoughtfully

• The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World – A deeply reflective primer on creating meaningful connections, rebuilding abundant communities, and living in a way that engages our full humanity in an age of unprecedented anxiety and loneliness—from the author of The Tech-Wise Family
• The Story of You: An Enneagram Journey to Becoming Your True Self. There are a lot of Enneagram books out there. Ian Morgan Cron’s new one is wonderfully reflective about the negative stories each type of person tells themselves and offers a view on what a movement to health might look like.
• Finding Holy in the Suburbs: Living Faithfully in the Land of Too Much “In everything from books to Hollywood jokes, the suburbs aren’t supposed to be good for our souls.”