2020 Year in Review
The lost reviews, Part I...
All previous Book Reviews/ ratings can be found at jessesbooks.com.
2020 and 2021 are the lost years of book reviews. A combination of complacency after crushing the 2019 reading goal by 50%, business school shifting priorities, and not having my work email list as motivation resulted in a whopping zero reviews for the 34 books read in 2020 (the majority, pre-business school, thanks lockdown) and 12 books in 2021 (the majority during the summer, thanks, free time from bschool parties).
There has been too much time since completion for me to write an appropriate review myself, so I’m going to just provide a one-sentence summary. If you just wanted any review, well, the internet exists, and you can use ChatGPT.
Some additional notes:
2020’s top 5 are INCREDIBLE and I would highly recommend each and every one of them. They are all very different but all fall under the category of “unbelievable true story”.
If sci-fi is your thing, then Blake Crouch’s two entries, (Dark Matter & Recursion, unrelated/ not part of a series) are riveting page-turners.
If you want a good cry, let me point you to Just Mercy (nonfiction) A Man Called Ove (fiction), or The Tattooist of Auschwitz (fiction).
In general, people will complain there are too many five-stars in 2020, but the truth is that I read a lot of bangers. What else can I say?
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, Laura Hillenbrand – Unbelievable what the human body and spirit can go through. If you only take one book from this list, read about Louis Zamperini, national track star turned castaway after his bomber was shot down over the Pacific in WII, turned Japanese POW, and his unstoppable fight to return home.
Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice, Bill Browder – Red Notice is the crazy true story of a normal trader, who accidentally stumbled upon insane levels of corruption in the Russian government, setting off a chain of events that ultimately would lead to the Magnitsky Act and freezing of Russian oligarch assets. Buckle up, because this one is wild.
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War, Ben Macintyre – An incredible real-life spy thriller about an MI6 spy embedded in the KGB and an American traitor who almost exposed him; it’s a harrowing story that reads like fiction and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, Bryan Stevenson – Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Institute to defend the poor, incarcerated, and wrongly condemned and Just Mercy tells his story through the eyes of defending a black man in Alabama, sentenced to die for a murder of a white woman that he did not commit.
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, Patrick Radden Keefe – One of Obama’s books of the year, Say Nothing is an excellent retelling of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, starting with Jean McConville’s murder at the hands of the I.R.A (although never proven) and ending with the Good Friday Accords in 1998. Given how recent this fight was, Keefe’s investigative journalism brings incredible specificity and detail to the brutal violence of the Ireland-Northern Ireland conflict.
Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage, Sherry Sontag – The previously unknown and untold history of American underwater espionage during the Cold War; the amount of cool stuff these submariners have accomplished that has since been declassified is incredible.
Dark Matter, Blake Crouch – A twisting, thrilling sci-fi book that took home “Fiction of the Year” honors; the main character is kidnapped and wakes up himself but not–his life is completely different and altered somehow and he must figure out how.
Recursion, Blake Crouch – It’s difficult to give a summary without spoilers here, but it’s a sci-fi book about a policeman who starts remembering a life that isn’t his (False-Memory Syndrome) and starts searching for the truth behind it. I thought it was my favorite fiction of the year until I then read Dark Matter.
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, Yvon Chouinard – I love this book because I love Yvon, a truly principled but at the same time wildly successful businessman, almost by accident. I learned so much about the Patagonia brand and am now more willing to part with my hard-earned cash if it’s going to them.
A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman – Good lord, the tears came flowing for this one. A grumpy old man named Ove meets his match when a couple with two young daughters, one particularly persistent, moves next door.
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Michael Lewis – We’ve all seen the movie, but here’s the book on exactly what went down with the mortgage-backed securities short during the 2007/2008 financial crisis.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris – The (mostly true) story of Lale Sokolov, a Jew forced into Auschwitz in 1942, who is assigned the role of tattooing the numbers on incoming prisoners. Lale’s story is a beautiful one of finding love in the darkest of places imaginable and the enduring power of the human spirit.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, Malala Yousafzai – Malala’s autobiography is an incredible story of her fight for women’s education, getting shot by the Taliban for it, and recovery and further efforts to push for change.
Beartown, Fredrik Backman – A story about a hockey town rocked by scandal when the head coach’s daughter is assaulted by the team’s star player; it’s heavy, it’s sad, and it’s deep.
The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead – A sad fictional portrayal of a reform school in Florida in the 1960s, that unpacks how the judicial system and race handcuff black boys; it’s sad but it’s critical, and really it’s quite beautiful in the end.
The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson – A true story that combines the design, architecture, and execution of the 1893 Chicago World Fair and a serial killer who took advantage of the influx in tourism to terrible ends; one half is much more interesting than the other.
Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, Jocko Willink – Leadership as taught the U.S. Navy SEAL way. It’s a bit macho, but I think everyone can take lessons from Jocko and add their own spin/ flair.
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg – The Power of Habit explains how little things compound over time into large changes and successes.
The Fifth Risk, Michael Lewis – Lewis’ investigation into the dysfunction of the Trump administration and how his leadership affected other departments and institutions within the government.
Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream, Jonathan Gruber – I only read this one because it was a gift after getting into MIT Sloan, but it was actually pretty interesting; the premise is how to set up science-hubs around the country (similar to what Stanford/ Bell Labs did during the cold war) to kick-start economic growth through public-private partnership in affordable cities.
Cracking the PM Interview: How to Land a Product Manager Job in Technology, Gayle Laakmann McDowell – This is four stars because it’s useful for its target audience, but only read this if you’re applying for PM jobs. If that’s the case, it’s probably actually five stars.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Gentleman in Moscow, Amos Towles – I know this one is a classic, but I honestly found it quite boring most of the time. It’s about a Count who is holed up in a hotel in Moscow following the revolution.
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, Erik Larson – The Splendid and the Vile is really all about Churchill and how he all but willed his country through the nightly bombings that occurred during the Battle of Britain; history nerds will love it, although it can be quite dry.
The Mamba Mentality: How I Play, Kobe Bryant – Kobe’s thoughts and approach to basketball and life; a fun look into the mind of one of the greatest to ever lace them up and the ultimate competitor.
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, William Finnegan – Finnegan’s autobiography chronicling his endless journey to catch waves that brings him around the globe adrenaline chasing. Living in San Francisco now, the section on Ocean Beach hits very close to home.
Juror #3, James Patterson – A typical James Patterson mystery thriller, don’t remember much else sadly.
The Last Wish (The Witcher #0.5), Andrzej Sapkowski – This one might have been better if I had finished the series but alas, I’ve got Netflix for that. It’s no Game of Thrones.
The Refugees, Viet Thanh Nguyen – The stories of three fictional Vietnamese refugees, telling variations of the immigrants’ tale.
⭐️⭐️
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond – Ever wonder why Western Civilization seemed to advance faster, why the Renaissance happened in Europe, and why the West is so powerful today? According to Diamond, it can be boiled down to guns, germs, and steel, but the book is very dense and at times boring in getting that point across.
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't, James Collins – This used to be the Magna Carta of business leadership, but is probably more apt for 2001, when it was written and could have been a blog post.
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, Nassim Nicholas Taleb – It would appear that Taleb is an arrogant asshole based on this book, and you wouldn’t think that of someone who specializes in probability and probabilistic thinking. Pass.
Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow, Yuval Noah Harari – I loved Sapiens, but sequels rarely live up to the originals and this is no exception; Homo Deus is mostly conjecture and doomsday fear-mongering in my opinion.
Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness, Ingrid Fetell Lee – I think this one was just very simplistic and not that interesting. Nothing stands out, however.
⭐️
When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Davis Sefaris – I genuinely don’t remember anything about this book other than that I was mad that I had read it after I finished.
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Cheers,
Jesse