Since 2010, I’ve participated in a yearly challenge to read 100 books. For 2023, I aimed to read at least 50 books as I knew this would be an intense work year. Luckily, I reached 100, thanks to some good summer breaks.

For 2024, I will try more books that are outside my wheelhouse. I’ve been struggling to find good science fiction with well-developed characters. Note, you will notice this is different from my favorite reads of 2023 on Shepherd; that is because the Shepherd book year runs from October 1st of the previous year to September 30th of the current year.

87% of the books I read were fun, and 13% were serious. I read more nonfiction this year and hope to add more in 2024. This was the most nonfiction I’ve read as a percentage since 2018.

If you want to look at past years for some reading ideas, check them out here: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

If you only read 3 books this year, I recommend the following…

1. Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman
   I adore this series. I’ve read the first three and am about to start on the fourth. They make me laugh, cry, and everything in between. The story is about four septuagenarians meeting every Thursday at a lush retirement village to solve cold cases. I love the characters (especially Joyce), as the author is brilliant at weaving in the struggles, joys, and torments of getting old with excellent crime fiction. Plus, the humor perfectly matches the dark/light moods that life throws at you. It’s made me reflect heavily on friendship, marriage, love, aging, and more.
2. I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
   This is the best thriller I’ve read in 5 years. I read this book in one go as I could not put it down. The plot revolves around bioterrorism and is fantastic and complex. I loved that I couldn’t see how all the pieces would meet back up, and how they tie together in the end is perfection. Plus, the writing is brilliant, and the main character feels real (something often lacking in spy thrillers). This is as good or better than Vince Flynn, Tom Clancy, and David Baldacci. I am looking forward to the sequel.
3. Inspector Lu Fei series
   I love detective books that take place in other countries, especially when they mix in food. Not only do I get to learn about life in that country, but also what they eat! The series is about a policeman named Lu Fei who lives in rural China. He ends up with a rural posting after stepping on some powerful toes. The author does a fantastic job describing what it is like to work in that power system and how he has to navigate the realities of modern China. I like Lu Fei as he reminds me a bit of Bosch. He has a code and must figure out how to stay true to his code while navigating the world he lives in. I’ve read the entire series, and I hope the author releases a new one soon. Some later books feel like thrillers, which is also quite fun.

Honorable mentions?

• Nonfiction? Walking with Sam is about a man and his son walking the Camino route in Spain. He reflects on his son, his relationship with him, his life, and their daily interactions on the trail. As a father, it was moving and special to read. It caused me to reflect heavily on my relationship with my son and some adventures I hope to take with him as he ages.
• History? Savage Peace was stunning in its ability to show me one year in history and make the pace feel more realistic. The book is the story of the year 1919. WW1 has just ended, the Spanish Flu is receding, and the USA is filled with hope but also red scares and terrorism. There is something about digesting history on a slower granular basis that helps me look at my own time and see the world more clearly. It is hard to articulate. We are in a weird moment in history. It feels like fascism is lurking in the shadows, a war in Europe has broken out, and the Middle East is slipping into the same violent echos of the past. This book helped me to hone in on the pace of change based on the past and what I need to keep an eye on. Plus I got to learn some incredible history that I am not as well versed on.
•  Thriller? Heat 2 is stunning! It is one of my all-time favorite movies, and Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner delivered something equally impressive. It picks up where the movie is left off but expands into something more (with both a pre and post-story). It is only available via audiobook, and I enjoyed it immensely. I hope they make a movie.
• Historical fiction with a bit of adventure? Washington and Caesar by one of my favorite authors, Christian Cameron. This was a CHALLENGE to read because the depictions of slavery and that mindset were so ugly and brutal. It is one thing to read a dry history book and know “what” slavery was in the USA, but to see it come to life in these historical figures and characters was like getting your skin peeled off and rubbed with salt. I read a lot of books about slavery in Ancient Rome, but somehow, the Americans made it so much worse. This belief that somehow x group is better than y group is just so fucking repulsive. This book is one I think every history student should read, not for the story, but for how well it puts you in the mindset of a slave-owner and slave (among many other things).
• Fun crime fiction? I am a big David Baldacci fan and picked up his Memory Man series. It is about a broken man with a perfect memory and his climb back to some life in the world (while solving great mystery cases). I’ve read the first three and just got book four. David has a gift with characters as they feel rounded and grow with the story. That is my favorite part about books.
• Fantasy? The Empire of the Wolf series and the Covenant of Steel series. I loved both of these, and they were close to being some of the best books I’ve read this year. I adored the main character in the Covenant of Steel and his growth over the series. The Empire of the Wolf was fantastic as well and just utterly unique. I can’t wait for the book 3 in that series.
• Sci-fi? It was a rough year in that area… my favorite was the Rorshach Explorer Missions. I loved the mystery elements of this science-fiction as they went from hearing mysterious signals from space to exploring the cause. Fun read!
• Unique? Babel by RF Kuang. Excellent world-building, but it felt like the intro to a story that never developed. It was a great read, and I see why people love it, but I wanted the meat instead of just an appetizer. Where is the plot? Where is the resolution? It ends with a cliffhanger, and I don’t think a sequel is planned.
• Self-help? From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life. My brother and I read this together, and I found it an incredible articulation of a lot of the ethos I’ve created for myself (along with help from Tim Ferris and the 4-hour workweek). My brother is turning 40 in a month, and I am 42, so it is an excellent book to review life and where we are headed. The bit about intelligence in the book’s first part was interesting, and I am still thinking about that.

Since 2010 I’ve participated in a yearly challenge to read 100 books. For 2022 I barely made it with 101 books. It has been an intense year, and combined with working so hard on Shepherd; I didn’t have as much time for reading.

92% of the books I read were fun, and 8% were serious. I am not reading as much non-fiction, and I am curious if that changes anytime soon.

I do a big book summary each year; if you want to take a look at past years for some reading ideas, check them out here: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022.

If you only read 3 books this year, I recommend the following…

1. The entire Tom Swan series by Christian Cameron
   Christian Cameron is one of my all-time favorite authors, and this adventure historical fiction series was amazing. I love the characters he creates and how much they grow over the course of a series. I can’t help but fall in love with them (so hard to say goodbye). This is based in the 15th century and follows someone who is a bit like Indiana Jones. I read these while I was biking through Italy for 3 weeks, and they made the perfect companion.
2. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
   This is hard science fiction from the author of the Martian. Earth is under threat, and an emergency program is started to try to find a solution. This stumbles into a first-contact scenario that is truly unique. With the current state of the world, I need some engineering/competence porn, and this book delivers. If you need to read about someone solving incredible problems with a gungho attitude, this book is for you!
3. The Agent Cormac Series by Neal Asher
   I love this character and the science fiction world it imagines. This is some of the best science fiction I’ve read over the last few years. It made me think about AI and what the world would look like if AI ran it. What would a world look like that is filled with super intelligent AI programs that can come into conflict with each other and operate at a speed humans can’t even fathom?

3 honorable mentions?

• Love fantasy? The Blacktongue Thief by Chrstiopher Buehlman is the best fantasy book I read this year. The characters are hilarious, and I was laughing loudly often. I eagerly await book #2.
• Like to canoe? Adam Shoalts canoes upriver across all of Canada’s arctic. The book is called Beyond the Trees, and this book left me utterly silent inside. The way he describes what he sees is mesmerizing, and the scope of his trip is astounding.
• I’ve been thinking a lot about the rise of fascism in the 19th century. I highly recommend My Name Was Five by Heinz Kohler for a unique view of the rise of Nazism in Germany. It is the story of a young boy growing up before, during, and after WW2 in Berlin. I couldn’t put it down.

Enjoy your next book :)

A good day, as we shipped search + bookshelves! We’ve been working on this for 5+ months so it is very exciting to see readers using it. And, the new front page is coming toward Feb 7 which gets the website in a real good position.

For launch, I had 1,009 bookshelves ready to go. And, I have another 909 I need to go through to finish setting up.

Since 2010 I’ve taken part in a yearly challenge to read 100 books. For 2021 I read 108 books! My goal for the year was 50 books but I was so close I pushed in December to hit 100.

93% of the books I read were fun books, and 7% were serious. This is 2nd largest imbalance I’ve ever had. I think this is due to two things, first, I use podcasts to get a lot of my skill updates when it comes to marketing, SEO, etc. And two, a lot of what I am doing is within my current skillset, so I just don’t read as many MBA-type books as I did when I was younger and running a large team/company (I do read a lot of newsletters).

I do a big book summary each year too, if you want to take a look at past years for some reading ideas check them out here: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021, so what are my top books of the year?

What types of books did I read this year?

I read a lot of historical fiction, fantasy, and mystery/detective. With a little science fiction although I was disappointed with a lot of those picks.

If you only read 3 books this year I recommend the following…

1. Bruno, Chief of Police series.
   I adore this series. The books are about a French policeman in a small village in the South of France who has to deal with some really interesting crimes. The chracters and environment are wonderful and I can’t wait to visit the area on a future trip. Highly recommended :).
2.  Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
   This is a book they should give every high school senior or as a class your first year of college. I know a LOT about burnout and still learned so much from this book. I plan to listen to it again this year as it was one of my first audio books and I recommend it for every human being on this planet who deals with stress. Fantastic read and I got some super useful tips from it. Don’t be put off by the female focus, everything applies equally well to men.
3. Simon Scarrow’s Eagles of the Empire series.
   I was finally able to read the entire series (I read the first 6 books last year but got stuck as the next book wasn’t on Kindle). This is like Lethal Weapon but set in Roman times. I fell in love with the two main characters and loved their wanderings through the history of this period. I’ve been addicted to Roman historical fiction for some time.

Other Honorable Mentions?

1. Simon Scarrow also has a series on the lives of Wellington and Napoleon. Over 4 books he traces their lives to their final moments and I found it a very interesting read for a period in history I am very interested in. I love the Sharpe series a little more but this was quite good. It was hard to read about Napoleon as his personality was so disgusting and it seems like in the end he beat himself with poor decision making.
2. The Charlie Parker series by John Connolly. This is a super dark PI series and don’t read it if you have a weak stomach. I am to book 5 and I LOVE this series as they are starting to dive into subjects I am super interested in such as the book of Enoch, James Bruce, and a lot of other ideas I’ve been playing with for book ideas since I was in college. Great sense of humor and interesting characters.
3. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. I listened to this while doing morning workouts and this is the type of book that hollows you out and you need to sit down to process it all. It is about the Vietnam War and some very powerful fiction from someone who fought there.
4. In Her Name: Redemption Trilogy by Michael R. Hicks. This was an amazing book that is somewhere between fantasy and science fiction. I highly recommend this series as the characters and world were super interesting. It follows Reza Gard, a young human boy who is kidnapped by aliens at a young age. It gets pretty weird but entertaining after that.

I also reread the Wheel of Time series for the 3rd time. I love those characters and those books. So much fun!

Enjoy your next book :)

Shepherd just hit 2,000 published pages today, very cool as that was my goal for the year (hit it a month early). For next year my goal is to hit 6,500 published by the end of the year. That should provide a nice steady pace as we get going.

Added Dec 15th -> We also had an awesome mention by Jane Friedman here which is cool to see :)

Today is the 6 month anniversary of Shepherd’s beta launch! Things are going very well and we have 1,878 lists in the system with 1,561 published. My goal is to reach 2,000 published by Dec 31st :)

And, we are building the 3 big features that I hope to launch in early December (rough ETA). Those being the book recommendation search, new front page, and topic pages.

Slowly but surely :)

Fun day, Shepherd is officially launched into public beta :)

A TON of data entry and editing over the last 4 to 5 weeks. 409 book lists, 2305 books along with all the data and cover images, and 2,452 author profiles.

Lots more to come :)

btw, a really nice writeup here by the awesome Marton who built this :)

And, a short interview with Phil about the project here. And, another one here too. And, a nice podcast interview here on WritersCast. Another one here much later on too in the Oxford Indie Book Fair.

Shepherd is like browsing the best bookstore in the world.

I want to help people discover books in a new way and help authors connect with new fans, sell more books, and build a larger fan base. It has been a blast to work on so far and the last 3 weeks have been so much fun. Right now I am emailing amazing authors to see if they will recommend five books on a subject they are passionate about. The response has been great and I hope to have my first 100 pages by the end of the month.

I am aiming to launch the beta in March or April. I am working with an amazing developer on the backend now. It is rare to find someone with whom you communicate so well with and it makes all the difference. The same goes for the designer whom I’ve been working with on a variety of projects for the last 4 years.

I got a webpage up Friday that shows some mockups so authors can understand how it will all work for them.

Fun stuff!

Since 2010 I’ve taken part in a yearly challenge to read 100 books. For 2020 I read 193 books! This is a new all-time record! Between lockdown and a lack of work, it was a good reading year.

94% of the books I read were fun books, and 6% were serious. This is the largest imbalance I’ve ever had, I think a desire to escape reality ran high this year :). I read a lot of historic fiction this year and hit a lot of duds when it came to science fiction.

I do a big book summary each year too, if you want to take a look at past years for some reading ideas check them out here: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, so what are my top books of the year?

If you only read 3 books this year I recommend the following::

1. Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
This was one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read in the last 5 years. It is a memoir of his life, travel, and surfing. It was a fantastic read and just really hit me deep. I will be reading it again down the road. Some of the reflections on travel really resonated with why I love to travel. Amazing read.

2. Who Is Michael Ovitz?
Wow! I am not sure who recommended this book to me but it was AMAZING. It is about Michael Ovitz, the co-founder of the Creative Artists Agency, and an amazing person. Some great life stories about actors and Hollywood, highly entertaining, and one of the best business books I’ve ever read.

3. The Dresden Files
A fantastic fantasy series about a magician in Chicago. There are 17 books and I fell in love with the main character and the universe. Beautiful books and the humor cracks me up. There are some rough bumps in the reading toward some later books, but the last few have cleared up some of that. Highly recommended!

4 Best In Historical Fiction

1. Alex Kovacs Series
There are six books and they are based in the late 1930s in Europe and follow the growing rise of the Nazi party and subsequent outbreak of war. The main character starts in Vienna and takes you on a journey that really illuminates what it felt like to watch WW2 break out. Fantastic reads.

2. Eagle Series
I read books 1 through 6 of this series as it follows 2 Roman soldiers through several campaigns. I LOVE the characters and it is fascinating to go through this period. There are 13 more books but they are not on Kindle in the USA, I emailed the author to hopefully make those available so I can read the rest.

3. Roger of Huntley
This series follows a monk named Roger who flew the priesthood and joins the crusades around 1191. This is a fantastic historical fiction series with a lovable character as you see history through his eyes.

4. Bernicia Cronicles
These are based in AD 633 and following a Viking named Beobrand. The character can be a tad flat at times, but amazing reads and I’ve really enjoyed seeing this world. I pre-ordered book 8.

The 3 Best Fantasy Books

1. Codex Alera
Fantastic fantasy series by the author of the Dresden series. It has an incredible universe, great characters, and while the plot can be familiar at times it has its own unique charm. Highly recommended!

2. The Faithful and the Fallen
Huge and in-depth fantasy series that was a pleasure to read. There were some aspects I found frustrating but overall the cast was fantastic and the world amazing.

3. The 13th Paladin Series
This series is translated from the oringal German and fantastic reads. I’ve read the first two and looking forward to the next three. Great plot and characters so far.

2 Honorable Mentions

1. Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey was the 4th best book I read this year and just barely missed the best books cut. It is a reflection on his life and wildly entertaining. This guy is 100x crazier than I thought and a really fun read. I read it in one night as I couldn’t stop and told Lindsey so many stories from it. Amazing read!

2. Michael Connelly is one of my favorite authors and I have now read all his books. This year I read his Jack McEvoy series which is a bit darker and follows a crimer reporter who gets entanbgled with serial killers. Great reads!

The Best Science Fiction

This year was a big miss when it came to science fiction. The only one I will mention is the Rise of the Republic series. It is a fun series about finding out how big the universe is. But the characters are rather flat. It does not measure up to the books from previous years so it isn’t getting a ranking. I miss good science fiction. Too many authors seem to be publishing short books with barely any meat and trying to turn them out every few months.

Enjoy your next book! :)

Since 2010 I’ve taken part in a yearly challenge to read 100 books. For 2019 I read 149 books! This is my 3rd highest ever… I read a ton of fantasy this year.

88% of the books I read were fun books, and 12% were serious. This year was a little rough as I feel like I hit a bunch of duds and it was much easier to pick my top choices. I read a LOT of fantasy and historical fiction this year.

I do a big book summary each year too, if you want to take a look at past years for some reading ideas check them out here: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, so what are my top books of the year?

If you only read 3 fiction books this year I recommend the following:

1. The Power of the Dog is a stunning 3 book series by Don Winslow that takes you deep inside the drug trade and cartels. They are fantastically written and feel like they are pulled directly from newspaper stories about the cartels. They follow a DEA agent through his career and are amazing.

2. The Gaius Valerius Verrens series is 9 books of stunning Roman historical fiction. The character is fantastic and you follow him through an uprising in Roman Britain, Roman politics, and seeing a lot of Rome from AD 68 through AD 80. The only downside was the last 9 pages were a little off, but the rest were magnificent reading.

3. Thin Air by Richard Morgan one of my favorite authors. This is a gritty detective book set on Mars and just a great read. The main character is fantastic and the story is even better. I hit a lot of duds this year when it came to hardcore science fiction and this helped redeem a lot of those duds.

After top 3 of the year, my fav 3 Fantasy / Sci Fi / Historical Fiction:

1. It starts with the Green Count and is a 4 book Chivalry series by one of my absolute favorite authors (Christian Cameron). It is historical fiction and it follows William Gold starting with his life as a goldsmith’s apprentice in London just after the great plague of 1347 and continues through the Battle of Poitiers and the Savoyard Crusade, as well as the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, right through to the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, covering the history of the period—military, chivalric, and literary—in England, France, Italy, and Greece. Cameron just brings everything to life and like all his books it is hard to read the last book because you don’t want to lose the characters.

2. The Raven Mark Series is the best of fantasy, characters that feel real, that you wish you knew, and a story that leaves you unable to put down the book. This one is set in a postapocalyptic frontier that is half magic and half western.

3. The two-book series the Age of Tyranny are my final pick. They throw you right into the middle of a crazy world with a hilarious dark and messed up main character. Magic, gods, and a deeply disrespectful main character. The author knows how to end a book and I was impressed that the 2nd book was even better than the first (the ending was magnificent).

After top 3 of the year, my fav 3 *Real* Books:

1. The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. This is a MUST READ, and one of the most awesome and insane true books I’ve ever read. Lindsey and I heard the author on a podcast and the story is insane. Basically about a guy who started a business that was in a bit of a gray area and making hundreds of million dollars and then decided to become an arms dealer, drug smuggler, assassin, etc… insanity.

2. Free Country: A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain. This was a hilarious travel book about two guys who decided to see how nice the people of the UK are. How did they do that? They went to the southernmost point of the UK, stripped down to their boxers and then had to make it to the most northern point in 20 days on bikes without paying for anything (including bikes). Meaning they had to ask for places to sleep, food, bikes, clothes, etc. Thanks to Tony for the recommendation!

3. The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country. A hilarious story that is part travelogue and part cultural exploration. It had me laughing out loud constantly. Highly recommended!

Enjoy your next book! :)

Christian Cameron is one of my favorite authors. His “Traitor Son Series” about the Red Knight is one of my favorite book series and one where I was sad to even read the last book because I did not want to say goodbye to such amazing characters and have nothing more to read about them. I do not know why I waited so long to read more of his books and the minute I picked up Killer Of Men, the first book in the Long War series, I was thrown into an utterly amazing story. The story starts with a young farm boy named Arimnestos, Arimnestos is a historical figure who was the commander of the Plataean contingent during the Greco-Persian wars. Christian creates a 6 book fictionalized series about him and they are utterly amazing books. I will probably read them again in a few years :).

I highly recommend you read these books. Not only are they amazingly well written with characters you will fall in love with, they walk you through a really interesting period of history. You might even notice Herodutus peak his head in.

I just realized I hit 100 books read so far this year… and July isn’t even over. This is the fastest I’ve ever gotten to 100. It helps that I have been reading mostly fun books where the words just fly. It also helps when work is currently learning and poking around new ideas, it leaves a good chunk of time open.

I just finished a series of fantastic military/legal thrillers by Brian Haig about a JAG lawyer named Sean Drummond. I highly recommend you grab the first one, Secret Sanction.

Since 2010 I’ve taken part in a yearly challenge to read 100 books. I love reading so this is not too hard. For 2017 I read 157 books! This is a new record versus my all-time high of 146 in 2012, and 141 in 2015. It helps when you sell your business in the middle of the year and have time off :).

91% of the books I read were fun books, and 9% serious.

I do a big book summary each year too, if you want to take a look at past years for some reading ideas check them out here: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. So what are my top books of the year?

If you only read 3 books this year I recommend the following:

1. The Red Knight series. This has become one of my top 10 all-time Fantasy books. The characters are amazing are amazing. Reading the last one was hard as I did not want to say goodbye.
2. The Bobiverse series… This is the best sci-fi series I read all year. I laughed so hard reading these :). Basically, this guy signs up to be frozen when he dies, then he dies, and then wakes up in a computer and the future sends him out into the stars on a mission. Bob is hilarious.
3. The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity. This book really hit home this year.

After top 3 of the year, my fav 3 Scifi / Fantasy:

1. Stiger’s Tigers and the subsequent series. This is military fiction about a Roman legion in the wild… with a little fantasy thrown in.
2. The Red. A military series about small unit tactics in the future. Great narrative.
3. Books 1, 2 and 3 of the Embers of Illeniel series. Not your typical hero and pretty dark which was a nice change. Kinda like Conan meets Seven Eyes with a weird ending.

After top 3 of the year, my fav 3 *Real* Books:

1. The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World’s Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You. Fantastic book and the author has a great story about her own life straddling China and the USA. The book weaves together the macro and the micro for a really interesting picture. I love her overall message that China’s growth is not a zero-sum game, and together with the USA and other western countries, the two can work together to build a better earth.
2. The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy. Frustrating content, but really well put together. Illustrates the fall of the middle class in the USA and why…
3. Capital without Borders . A really interesting read on how wealth managers operate as told by someone who joined their ranks. Fascinating read on a global group of people who do nothing but help the top 1% hang onto their money and keep it out of the hands of government and other entities. So weird.

After top 3 of the year, my fav 3 Honorable Mentions:

1. The entire Harry Bosch series. I finished them all this year. I can’t wait for the next season of the Amazon tv series.
2. The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival – An insane story about a famous tiger attack in Russia. Crazy!
3. A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II. An AMAZING book about a pilot in the German air force in WW2 and an American bomber crew. This is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve read this year and incredibly moving / heartwarming story about combat.

A really cool moment happened yesterday, I was reading to Calico and he stood up on the chair and choose a new book for me to read himself. At 11 months old he is starting to seem more and more like a lil person :). A few days he picked the below outfit off the couch and wore it like a cape and walked around the house being hilarious. Fun times :)

Since 2010 I’ve taken part in a yearly challenge to read 100 books. I love reading so this is not too hard. For 2016 I read 112 books, and they were mostly fun books given the nature of the year.

I do a big book summary each year too, if you want to take a look at past years for some reading ideas check them out here: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. So what are my top books of the year?

If you only read 3 books this year I recommend the following:

1. Red Phoenix is a book based at the end of the Cold War and follows a North Korean invasion of the South and our response. It has echoes of Tom Clancy and I enjoyed it immensely.

2. Dawn of Wonder is an amazing fantasy book and I can’t wait for the second one. The premise is simple, a young boy as he suffers a tragedy and then as he joins a very elite military unit. Beautifully written, great characters, and just fantastic.

3. The Wolf of the North was a fantastic book and I can’t wait for the next one. Solid fantasy and beautifully written story with viking undertones.

Top 3 Scifi / Fantasy:

1. The Lives of Tao series. This is a GREAT science fiction series and very well written. Aliens crashed into earth and have been driving our evolution in order to get to a technology level to enable them to leave. At some point the group split into a group trying to help humanity and improve them, and another that just wants off the planet no matter the cost to earth. The aliens are a symbiotic relationship, and they combine with a human and can talk to them and effectively live forever. Which makes some really interesting topics on history when an immortal alien was inside the human’s head talking to them and giving them advice. Great series, highly recommended and I can’t wait to read more by this author.

2. The Black Gate Series is awesome fantasy and huge in scope. You see the world through a variety of characters that are slowly driven toward each other. Pretty unique world too.

3. The King’s Dark Tidings series. These are not the most complex, but boy are they fun. The main character is like a fantasy James Bond but a monk who seems to kill just about everyone. Fun world and characters, good for the beach.

Top 3 *Real* Books:

1. I was interested in learning how the USA passed a recent constitutional amendment so I picked up
Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. It was very well written and fascinating to learn about. I was also curious how it mirrored Cannabis and the path to legalization a lot of states are taking.

2. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life . This is a GREAT read and I love his website as well. I wish we passed this out to every student in high school or college.

3. The Rent Is Too Damn High: What To Do About It, And Why It Matters More Than You Think – This was a really interesting look at the cost of housing on Americans and the impact on the economy.

3 Honorable Mentions:

1. I read every book in the Gabriel Allon spy series. They are all very solid books and highly recommended.

2. The First Rule of Ten series, which is a fantastic detective series based in LA. The main character is a Buddhist monk and apart from the newest they are all amazing.

3. Waking the Kiso Road. This is a pilgrimage route in Japan I am thinking of doing and it made for a great read.