Best Books I Read from 2015 through 2019

By Dom Nozzi

The following books are the best books I read from 2015 through 2019. They are books that influenced how I see the world, and many are the books I most refer back to in conversations with others.

And they certainly inspired me, through the sheer intellectual enjoyment of reading them at the time, to read voraciously in a never-ending search for further epiphanies.

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, by Junger, Sebastian

Hate Inc: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another, Taibbi, Matt

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World -- and Why Things Are Better Than You Think, by Rosling, Hans

The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss, by Fung, Jason

Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health, by Taubes, Gary

Undoctored: Why Health Care Has Failed You and How You Can Become Smarter Than Your Doctor, by Davis, William

The Keto Cure: A Low-Carb, High-Fat Dietary Solution to Heal Your Body and Optimize your Health, by Nally, Adam

Sugar Crush: How to Reduce Inflammation, Reverse Nerve Damage, and Reclaim Good Health, by Jacoby, Richard P.

Brain Maker: The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain -- for Life, by Perlmutter, David

Untrue: Why Nearly Everything We Believe About Women, Lust, and Infidelity Is Wrong and How the New Science Can Set Us Free, by Martin, Wednesday

Me Before You, by Moyes, Jojo

Free Women Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism, by Paglia, Camille

The Tuscan Year, by Romer, Eizabeth

Lies My Doctor Told Me: Medical Myths That Can Harm Your Health, by Berry, Ken

The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom, by Rawicz, Slavomir

Dispatches, by Herr, Michael

Fat Nation: A History of Obesity in America, by Engel, Jonathan

The Mezzanine, by Baker, Nicholson

Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places, by Speck, Jeff

The Hell of Good Intentions: America's Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of US Primacy, by Walt, Stephen

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, by Haidt, Jonathan & Lukianoff, G.

1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List, by Mustich, James

A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion, by Thornhill, Randy & Craig Palmer

Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are, by Stephens-Davidowitz, Seth

Death of the Liberal Class, by Hedges, Chris

Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar -- Your Brain's Silent Killers, by Perlmutter, David

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health, by Davis, William

The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet, by Wolf, Robb

Why We Get Fat: And What We Can Do About It, by Taubes, Gary

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, by Walker, Matthew

The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet, by Teicholz, Nina

Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, by Tegmark, Max

Robot Sex: Social and Ethical Implications, by Danaher, John (ed)

Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of 2 Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II, by Kurson, Robert

Greedy Bastards: How We Can Stop Corporate Communists, Banksters, and Other Vampires from Sucking America Dry, by Ratigan, Dylan

The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters, by Nichols, Tom

The Untold History of the United States, by Stone, Oliver & Peter Kuznick

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, by Lansing, Alfred

The Fault in Our Stars, by Green, John

The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government, by Talbot, David

The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon, by Fedarko, Kevin

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, by Grant, Adam

The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire, by Kinzer, Stephen

The Case Against Sugar, by Taubes, Gary

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West, by Rarick, Ethan

Zero Sugar Diet: The 14-Day Plan to Flatten Your Belly, Crush Cravings, and Help Keep You Lean for Life, by Zinczenko, David

Spiral: Trapped in the Forever War, by Danner, Mark

Lights Out: A Cyberattack. A Nation Unprepared. Surviving the Aftermath, by Koppel, Ted

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, And Why, by Gonzales, Laurence

His Porn, Her Pain: Confronting America's PornPanic with Honest Talk About Sex, by Klein, Marty

Thoughts on Building Strong Towns, by Marohn, Charles

Daylight Atheism, Lee, Adam

The End of Automobile Dependence, by Newman, Peter & Jeffrey Kenworthy

Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution, by Sadik-Khan, Janette

America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History, by Bacevich, Andrew

The Humanists versus the Reactionary Avant Garde: Clashing Visions for Today's Architecture, by Siegel, Charles

Chasing Ghosts: The Policing of Terrorism, by Mueller, John & Mark Stewart

Still Alice, by Genova, Lisa

The Upside of Stress: Why Stress is Good for You and How to Get Good At It, by McGonigal, Kelly

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Gawande, Atul

Changing Lanes: Visions and Histories of Urban Freeways, by Dimento, J.F.C. and Cliff Ellis

The Village Effect: How Face-to-Face Contact Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, and Smarter, by Pinker, Susan

Dataclysm: Who We Are When We Think No One Is Looking, by Rudder, Christian

Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle that Set Them Free, by Tobar, Hector

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, by Sides, Hampton

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I urge you to email me (dom@walkablestreets.com) or leave a comment if you have a suggested addition or subtraction from this list. Or if you have any other thoughts about this list.

About

Each list in this blog contains my own personal opinions based on my personal experiences. I acknowledge that there may be a need to add or subtract from these lists (or to create a new subject list), and I welcome such suggestions. The lists are not ordered from higher to lower quality. Each list is a work in progress.