Book Summaries 2024

In Come As You Are , author Emily Nagoski uses scientific research and her years of experience as a sex educator to change the negative way that women talk, think, and feel about their sexuality due to years of misinformation and harmful cultural messaging surrounding sex. Arguing that a scientific perspective on sexuality can free women from unrealistic standards and help them to appreciate their...

Most people would say that the opposite of fragility is durability—that is, resistance to damage. However, there’s a step beyond durable, which we could call antifragile. Something that’s antifragile actually becomes stronger when it’s damaged, like the mythical Hydra growing two heads when one is cut off. In Antifragile , Nassim Nicholas Taleb explores how we can leverage antifragility to make th...

When you’re unable or unwilling to say "no" to pressures in your life, your body may do it for you by creating illness. Many chronic illnesses have been linked to stress caused by our lifestyles, our conditioning as children, and our psychological coping mechanisms. When the Body Says No is Dr. Gabor Maté’s exploration of the connection between stress and disease. Rather than just occasional exter...

Women have it rough. Our patriarchal society has a million expectations for how they should act, look, feel, and speak in any situation. And failure to meet these expectations equates to feeling like they aren’t "enough"—humble enough, generous enough, pretty enough, strong enough, and so on. The result? Physical, mental, and emotional burnout. In Burnout, Amelia and Emily Nagoski explain how wome...

Do you struggle with bad habits? Do you try to create good habits that will bring positive changes to your life, but have trouble making them stick? In Atomic Habits , James Clear argues that adopting the right habits will drastically improve your life —but to do so, you must understand how habits work and how you can change yours. In this guide, you’ll discover why habits matter and the three min...

Most of us shudder at the thought of jumping into a cold shower, but what if doing so could make you healthier? In The Wim Hof Method , renowned motivational speaker Wim Hof (a.k.a. The Iceman) makes that exact claim. Hof, who gained fame and baffled scientists with his record-breaking ability to survive dangerously low temperatures, argues that by following the Wim Hof Method—a system based on co...

Humans and computers face many of the same problems: We both have a never-ending stream of things we want to do and a limited amount of time and energy to do them. Is it possible that the age-old question of how best to live has already been solved by computer engineers? In Algorithms to Live By , science writer Brian Christian and Berkeley psychologist Tom Griffiths team up to prove that computer...

In Narrative Economics , economist Robert J. Shiller argues that human beliefs and actions, rather than numbers and statistics, ultimately drive economic outcomes. He adds that our beliefs and actions spring from the stories we tell ourselves about the economy and our role in it. According to Shiller, these narratives play a crucial role in our understanding of economic events by weaving facts and...

Whether they’re winning sports championships or engineering technological breakthroughs, teams can accomplish amazing things. But building a high-performing team requires more than getting a group of people together and hoping for the best. In The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork , leadership expert John C. Maxwell provides 17 pieces of advice compiled over a lifetime of leadership research to hel...

You may have heard of the compound effect—where an investment grows not only in the principal amount but also in the interest earned, leading to exponential growth over time. Investment portfolio manager and best-selling author Gautam Baid argues that compounding isn’t just a financial concept. Rather, it’s a transformative principle you can apply to every aspect of your life to grow both your ban...

Do you ever feel financially stuck, unable to make enough money to live the life you want? Do you feel like a lack of money is holding you back from reaching your goals? According to Jen Sincero in You Are a Badass at Making Money , the key to breaking out of a financial rut is changing the way you think about money. She argues that by ridding yourself of underlying, limiting beliefs about money,...

In his 1942 essay The Myth of Sisyphus , French Algerian philosopher and journalist Albert Camus describes his philosophy of the absurd. The absurd is both a feeling and a condition of existence—it describes the irreparable tension between the human desire for meaning and purpose in life, and the inevitability of oblivion and death. Camus draws on existentialist theory to argue that humans are doo...

The Master Guide series is an original Shortform exclusive. We integrate the advice from every major book on a topic into a single, authoritative guide. Storytelling is an elusive art—you may have found yourself moved to tears by a story without fully understanding why. This makes writing fiction a tricky endeavor. Is it possible to learn how to capture and communicate this kind of emotional magic...

During the 2016 US Presidential elections, at a time when pundits had Trump at 2% likelihood of winning, Dilbert creator Scott Adams predicted that Donald Trump would win -- primarily because of his persuasive power. According to Adams, what looked to outsiders like blunders were instead examples of a Master Persuader channeling a nation’s energy to help his candidacy. Win Bigly describes the pers...

A Warning is an inside look at the chaotic Trump administration by a senior Trump administration official writing anonymously. It’s a follow-up to the author’s September 5, 2018, New York Times op-ed piece describing internal efforts to control Trump’s impulses. This is no longer working, "Anonymous" writes. The book depicts an impulsive and corrupt president, who puts his self-interest above the...

Before the White House and The Apprentice , Donald Trump was a real estate mogul whose large-scale projects made him one of the most well-known developers in New York City. In this autobiography, Trump recounts his early life and career—from building low- and middle-income housing with his father in NYC’s outer boroughs to erecting luxury apartments in Manhattan. Trump outlines the eleven principl...

Michelle Obama's memoir Becoming delivers candid reflections on the life of the first African-American first lady. Offering a window into her personal evolution, Michelle details how ambition, hard work, and embracing her authentic story helped her journey from her family’s Chicago working-class neighborhood to a 47th-floor law office, then to the White House and beyond. Becoming provides insights...

A Promised Land is Barack Obama’s memoir of his early political career and the first two years of his presidency. Obama takes us on his journey from relative obscurity as a biracial kid from Hawaii to becoming a transformative figure as the nation’s first African-American president. At every step of his career, Obama was guided by a deep faith in the fundamental unity of Americans; the potential a...

Jimmy Carter isn’t remembered as a great president, but he’s come to be revered for his work as a humanitarian. However, in His Very Best , biographer Jonathan Alter presents a fresh perspective on the groundbreaking work Carter did in Washington. Instead of focusing on the hardships America suffered during Carter’s time in office, Alter draws attention to the long-term effects of what Carter acco...

Best known as the general who led the Union to victory over the Confederacy in the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant has been widely misunderstood by mainstream historians, argues biographer Ron Chernow. According to Chernow, the mainstream narrative characterizes Grant as an inept heavy drinker whose success in the Civil War stemmed primarily from a numbers advantage and whose Presidency was marred by...

Many consider Abraham Lincoln the greatest US president of all time. He held the presidency from 1861 to 1865, and during that time, guided the Union to victory in the American Civil War and signed the Emancipation Proclamation—a document that began the process of ending chattel slavery in America. But, in Lincoln on Leadership , author Donald T. Phillips doesn’t just focus on what Lincoln did—he...

Abraham Lincoln is a central figure in American history: He was the 16th president of the United States, the "Great Emancipator," and the man who led the US through the Civil War. In And There Was Light , historian and biographer Jon Meacham breaks down the myths and legends that have surrounded Abraham Lincoln, arguing that Lincoln had good intentions, and accomplished great things, but was still...

Are great leaders born, or are they made? In Leadership: In Turbulent Times , bestselling author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin argues that it’s the latter: Great leaders often grow from personal challenges that shape how they lead later on. In our guide, you’ll discover how the personal crises of four US presidents helped them lead through national crises. Why did a career setback lead Abraha...

Has there been a skill you’ve been wanting to learn, but you’ve been putting it off for years? It can be hard to find the time, energy, and motivation to learn something new. Fortunately, in the international bestseller The First 20 Hours , skill acquisition expert Josh Kaufman provides a simple and effective method for learning almost any skill in just 20 hours. Whether you want to learn how to c...

Though we don’t like to think about it, we’re all going to get old. But in Ageless , physicist-turned-biologist Andrew Steele contends that aging isn’t as inevitable as it seems. Steele argues that we can treat—and even cure—aging . He explains that scientists are on the cusp of discovering anti-aging therapies and treatments that could lengthen the human lifespan and enable us to live many more y...