20 Books of 2024
My attempt to share 20 books I completed this year and perhaps inspire you to read one or more of them -- or to be more intentional about reading more books that might illuminate your life!
Merry Christmas! I hope this quick review of the 20 books I read in 2024 might inspire you to read one or more of them, or to find a way to be more intentional about reading more books that might bring joy and inspiration to your own life.
Reading and traveling are the two things that are the most profound lifelong learning adventures in my own life. Sometimes the two intertwine, as you’ll see below.
***
Six of the books that I read this year were books chosen for the Fearless Journeys community — and given my role as the leader of this community, five of those six books were a second-time read for me. While I read almost all books only one time, I have found that reading a book a second time (or more) illuminates its lessons even more for me.
We were fortunate to have three of the authors of these books — Chris Mueller, Claudio Sorrentino, and Francois de Neuville — come on to Fearless Journeys live online session with us, for members of our community to interact directly with them to discuss their books with them! It’s a way we help connect our members with innovators across the world. It probably helps make the stories be more “real” and relative as well when you can directly connect with the author.
In addition, we had Michael Gibson walk us through Peter Thiel’s “classic,” Zero to One. Michael worked for Peter Thiel for more than five years, where he was the VP of Grants for the Thiel Foundation. Hearing Thiel’s insights directly from Michael was a real treat.
Another innovator in our community, Jake Denburg, a leading chef in Guatemala, walked us through one of his favorite books, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra. Jake had conveyed to me a couple years earlier how much this book’s philosophy had on his own life and so it inspired me to read it and use it in the Fearless Journeys community book club.
And one member of our community, Doug Pestana, helped guide us through Stillness Is the Key by one of my favorite authors, Ryan Holiday. I actually read that book twice this year, mostly due to Doug’s recommendation while traveling with him on the Fearless Journeys group trip to Argentina. After reading it the first time, I thought it was a perfect book for the Fearless Journeys community and so I read it again to help write up the summaries, which can all be found in our book club archives at: fjbookclub.subtack.com.
We all need to find more stillness, especially in a world that is full of distractions. Reading is one way to find that stillness. But Holidays gives us many more ways to find stillness and to understand why it will help bring more fulfillment to our lives.
***
The next set of books I read this year can all be classified as biographies or philosophy. Both types of books help me learn from others and their experiences.
The Churchill biography is Volume 2 in William Manchester’s The Last Lion, a 3-part series on this most influential figure of the 20th century. This book (like volume 1) is a monster of a read. I listened on Audible (over 40 hours!) While the first volume covered Churchill’s early life from childhood to the earlier part of his career, this second volume takes us through the period from Churchill’s time outside of Parliament to his time back in, and culminates with the British nation finally turning to him to lead them through WWII. His many warnings about the Nazis for many years finally (and sadly) came true. He went from being looked at as an outside alarmist to the leader the British (and the world) needed in a time of existential crisis — and for the very survival of civilization. In some ways, his time on the sidelines was beneficial as he was able to gain a perspective that those leading the government from the inside failed to grasp, in many ways because they were lost in the fog of it all.
***
Earlier this year, I visited Amsterdam for the first time, the location of the Anne Frank House. In anticipation of my visit, I began reading her autobiography. It is deep and profound.
I was looking forward to visiting the “attic” she and her family hid out in for about two years to get a better idea of what was portrayed in the book. Sadly, in preparation for my trip, I didn’t even think about the fact that the tickets would be sold out over six weeks in advance, so when I arrived in early June it was not possible for me to visit. But I did visit the outside of the home to pay homage. On my next visit, I will surely plan to do more than just read a book, but also to purchase tickets to the home well in advance.
Given all that is happening in our world today, especially to the Jewish people, I was grateful so many are still interested in the story of Anne Frank. Her story is known because of the diary she kept. It is a must-read book for our entire civilization.
***
I also read a great book — that reads like a novel — The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel, documenting the life and times of the inventor of the Diesel engine. The book not only gives us a great biography of the man and the influence his innovation was having on technology and the world, but also how he just one day disappeared. The author, Douglas Brunt, takes us on a journey to discover a truth that has been missing from the world since Diesel disappeared over a century ago.
***
Perhaps the most surprisingly great book I read this year was Michael Richards’ new autobiography, Entrances and Exits. He is best known as “Kramer” from Seinfeld. He has lived a fascinating life, one that was always evolving from one opportunity to the next. He also gives us highlights of what he’s been up to since his big mistake of a moment on a comedy stage in 2006.
While that got so much attention at the time, there is one big thing I didn’t know about Michael Richards: his mother almost aborted him when she was pregnant at a young age. Good thing she didn’t! He never knew his father and he spends part of the book telling us how he tried to search for him, until he finally landed on an uncomfortable truth.
There’s a lot of entrances and exits in the book, as there surely are in all of our lives. Richards is a deeply philosophical man and I enjoyed learning some of the the people, books, and philosophies that influenced him most and about his wonderful approach to life and work. I listened to this book on Audible, which he reads himself. He’s fantastic. A unique character in our world that we can all learn from.
***
While in the early days of recovery from tearing my Achilles tendon this August, I had been reading Viktor Frankl’s classic, Man’s Search for Meaning. I guess my own little bit of “suffering” gave me a better avenue to relate to what he wrote about. For him, and many others, suffering was on an entirely different level.
Even in a concentration camp, “there were always choices to make,” wrote Frankl. “Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threaten to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom.”
“If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering,” wrote Frankl. “Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.”
This book is a must read and I’m glad I finally got around to it — perhaps it walked into my life at the right time, when I needed its message most. We can all benefit.
***
My business professor friend Siri Terjesen runs a little book club at my alma mater, FAU, which she invited me to join. For the book club’s latest read, she picked out Kash Patel’s 2023 book, Government Gangsters, where he describes every facet of the “deep state” and how bad people use the powers of government in wrong ways. Mr. Patel recently was nominated by President-elect Trump to serve as the next director of the FBI. This book, written a year prior, reads almost like his resume for the job. It’s hard to imagine a person better prepared to put into place much needed reforms throughout the FBI. I hope he is confirmed and I hope he succeeds.
***
As of this writing, I’m in the process of finishing Jordan Peterson’s latest work, We Who Wrestle With God. He uses the text of the early books of the Old Testament, mixed with a few New Testament writings, and other epochs of history, to dissect how so many of these stories are the narrative that continues to guide mankind, and particularly Western Civilization. Blending his background in psychology with philosophy and a moral code built on the beliefs of Western Civilization, he illuminates our minds, hearts, and souls with this tome. It may be his greatest work yet. For those who wrestle with God, it may bring you closer to understanding Him.
***
The final seven books I showcase here are quite fun. Three are novels and the others are parts of history that greatly interests me.
Two of the novels are the second and third in a series by William Forstchen. I read the first one, One Second After, about two years ago. It is a novel that is more about a future where an EMP device turns off all the power in the United States. It is amazing how quickly civilization falls apart, within days and weeks.
The second novel, One Year After, brings us forward a year, where people across the country — the ones still alive — are still struggling for survival. It even shows how military and government react, as well as how militias are formed in various locales.
The final novel brings us about five years forward to The Final Day. I don’t want to give it away, but things get pretty wild. These novels can be read simply as thrilling novels or as a way to imagine how we might prepare for that unknown day where the power goes out without any warning — perhaps for good. Not even your car will work. Hope we never see that day. This series is challenging to read, but also gripping and really makes you think.
***
I also finished the latest novel in the “Terminal List” series by Jack Carr, Red Sky Mourning. I believe it was the seventh in that series. They are all amazing and Jack Carr really has some timing with his books, which are fictional stories built on historical and current day realities following a character named James Reece, who is a former Navy Seal who is often battling forces at work within his own government while also trying to save lives, including his own and those close to him. Red Sky Mourning involves a plot with the Chinese, Taiwan, and even near-earth orbiting satellites.
This fall, Jack Carr released his first non-fiction work, Targeted: Beirut, which details the terrorist attack on the U.S. Marine Barracks in Lebanon in 1983. He gives us all the details, background, and context, including insights from soldiers there, politicians in Washington, and families of the victims all around the U.S. and Lebanon. He contextualizes this event as the opening salvo in the U.S. global war on terrorism that arguably started with the events in Lebanon in 1983.
***
With all the time I’ve spent in Argentina in 2023 and 2024, it was well past time for me to read a History of Argentina. I downloaded a brief history of Argentina on Audible and it took me through all the highlights of its history — since the prehistoric formations of the Patagonia land to the native tribes in the interior of the continent, to the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500s, the independence of Argentina in the early 1800s, its golden age of the late 1800s/early 1900s, and its economic decline over the past century. Argentina is a beautiful land with abundant resources and yet a tumultuous history. It’s always good to know more history about a place you love.
***
Speaking of history of places I love — I read Covert City, which was released this year. This gives us the untold recent history of espionage and the role that Miami played in the Cold War. Much of it is focused on our battle with the intelligence of the Soviets and Cubans during the Cold War, but there is so much more involved. It is pretty wild and it showcase another side of Miami that few have studied or even had any knowledge about.
***
One of the most thrilling books I read this year was Ryan Holiday’s book, Conspiracy. While I love Holiday’s books on Stoic philosophy (from The Obstacle is the Way to Stillness Is the Key, and more), this book confirmed for me that Holiday may indeed be the best writer of my generation. He details Peter Thiel’s secret war to take down the gossip rag Gawker and even Hulk Hogan plays a role. It’s a wild story that Holiday uses to tell us more about the human condition and the true role that conspiracies play throughout history and why they are so rare.
***
BONUS BOOKS!
Three books I cracked open but did not get past the introduction are actually quite good, I just ran out of time to read the rest of the books. So I do not count them in my 20 books of 2024, since I did not complete them. But they are bonus books that I did read enough of to cover here and they all involved authors who I met and interacted with at the Miami Book Fair.
The first is The War Below by Ernest Scheyder, a reporter with Reuters. I had Ernest on my podcast and moderated a panel with him at the Miami Book Fair in November with Nicola Twilley, the author of Frostbite. Both of these books really center on the idea of tradeoffs. While Ernest is focused on the tradeoffs associated with moving from fossil fuels to lithium batteries powered by minerals, Nicola is focused on the tradeoffs associated with refrigerating our food.
The third book was by Julie Satow, a New York Times contributor who authored a book called When Women Ran Fifth Avenue. She focuses on three women who ran major department stores in New York City between the 1930s and 1980s. Those department stores were places where women, shopper and shopgirl alike, could stake out a newfound independence. Members of the Economic Club of Miami, including myself, were able to have a private roundtable discussion with Julie Satow about her book at the Miami Book Fair
***
And finally one book that everyone should get to is my book! In November I published my book, The Heart of The American Dream, which is the second volume in my “American Dream” series. The first one, The American Dream is a Terrible Thing to Waste is focused on building an entrepreneur’s mindset. This new one is focused on the characteristics of the entrepreneur’s heart, while bringing you stories of more than 40 entrepreneurs succeeding in today’s economy. Be sure to complete your 2024 by putting it on your bookshelf. It’s available on Amazon!
See you in 2025! There’s always more to read!
