To-Read Book List for 2024

As promised in my last post where I provided an overview of the 30 books I read in 2023, this post will contain the list I have curated on the books I intended to pick from in 2024. I got them from different places — Twitter, Facebook, podcasts, books, etc. Here were the ones for 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020.

Once again, I share these lists every year for three reasons:

1. To encourage others to read. I will not get tired of saying we need to read more as a people. Joining a book club like the Naija Book Club may not be a bad idea.
2. To provide a list for those who don’t know where to start. With 53 books, there is a lot of options.
3. To document my own personal book history. I take writing seriously because I know that a pen is many times better than the best memory.

So, here you go:

BIOGRAPHY / AUTOBIOGRAPHY / MEMOIR

1. Why Beethoven: A Phenomenon in One Hundred Pieces, by Norman Lebrecht
2. How to Say Babylon: A Memoir, by Safiya Sinclair
3. Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom, by Ilyon Woo
4. A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality, by David Edmonds (Author)
5. The Chile Project: The Story of the Chicago Boys and the Downfall of Neoliberalism, by Sebastian Edwards (Author)
6. The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer &Brené Brown

BUSINESS

1. Truth, Lies, and Advertising: The Art of Account Planning, by Jon Steel
2. Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet, by Tim Hwang
3. Winning the Right Game: How to Disrupt, Defend, and Deliver in a Changing World (Management on the Cutting Edge), by Ron Adner
4. The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, by Robert Iger & Joel Lovell
5. Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth, by Gabriel Weinberg &Justin Mares
6. Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don’t, by Jeffrey Pfeffer
7. Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity, by Kim Scott (Author)

FINANCE & ECONOMICS

1. Follow The Money: How much does Britain cost?, by Paul Johnson
2. The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind, by Melissa S. Kearney
3. The Emperor’s New Road: China and the Project of the Century Hardcover, by Jonathan E Hillman
4. The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street, by Justin Fox
5. Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away, by Julien Saunders (Author), Kiersten Saunders (Author)
6. Finance for the People: Getting a Grip on Your Finances, by Paco de Leon
7. What the Happiest Retirees Know: 10 Habits for a Healthy, Secure, and Joyful Life, by Wes Moss
8. Same as Ever: Timeless Lessons on Risk, Opportunity and Living a Good Life, by Morgan Housel
9. Social Justices fallacies, by Thomas Sowell

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

1. Being Mortal Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande
2. The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet, by Jeff Goodell
3. The AI Revolution in Medicine: GPT-4 and Beyond, by Peter Lee & Carey Goldberg & Isaac Kohane
4. Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America, by Beth Macy
5. The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime, by Adrian Raine (Author)

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

1. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor
2. Breaking Busy: How to Find Peace and Purpose in a World of Crazy, by Alli Worthington
3. The Science and Art of Longevity, by Peter Attia MD & Bill Gifford
4. 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less, by Dan Sullivan & Benjamin Hardy
5. How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, by David Brooks

PHILOSOPHY

1. Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope, by Sarah Bakewell
2. The Individualists: Radicals, Reactionaries, and the Struggle for the Soul of Libertarianism, by Matt Zwolinski & John Tomasi
3. Zen Meditation in Plain English, by John Daishin Buksbazen

POLITICS

1. The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, by Tim Alberta
2. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
3. Party of One: The Rise of Xi Jinping and China’s Superpower Future, by Chun Han Wong
4. Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence, by Amy B. Zegart
5. Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country, by Patricia Evangelista
6. Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848–1849, by Christopher Clark
7. The New Faces of Fascism: Populism and the Far Right, by Enzo Traverso

FICTION

1. Call and Response: Stories, by Gothataone Moeng
2. All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel, by S. A. Cosby
3. Small by Small: Becoming a Doctor in 1990s Nigeria, by Ike Anya
4. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store: A Novel, by James McBride
5. Daughter in Exile: A Novel, by Bisi Adjapon
6. Ishmael: A Novel, by Daniel Quinn

NATIONS

1. Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives, by Siddharth Kara
2. Scotland: The Global History: 1603 to the Present, by Murray Pittock
3. The Middle Kingdoms: A New History of Central Europe, by Martyn Rady
4. Medieval Horizons: Why the Middle Ages Matter, by Ian Mortimer
5. Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future, by Svetlana Alexievich

Do you want to join our reading club? Here.

Got books you absolutely love and would like for me to read? Please mention them in the comments.