In health & self-help:
GENIUS FOODS by Max Lugavere with Paul Grewal, MD — For me, as a creator and knowledge worker, Genius Foods has been one of the most useful books ever about supporting mental strength and performance. The authors did a superb job collecting the best science-based advice on long-term brain health. The subtitle says it all: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life—my book of the year 2021.
In fiction:
CONTACT by Carl Sagan — I adore the movie starring Jodie Foster, but the book blew me away anyway. It contains a huge original twist in the last third that was *not* in the movie, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Liu Cixin thought of it like a thousand times before writing The Three-Body Problem trilogy. It’s truly that remarkable.
In business:
HOW INNOVATION WORKS by Matt Ridley — The more books I read from this guy, the more I respect his objectivity in search of truth. The way he writes about science, markets, and rational optimism resonates a lot, and this book gave me a lot to think about as an entrepreneur.
In popular science:
FACTFULNESS by Hans, Ola & Anna Rosling — IMHO, the best non-fiction book of the last decade! I regret not reviewing this book a few years ago when I read it for the first time (while being distracted by writing my book). This year, I gave it a second, in-depth reading and could not but praise it as a singular achievement.