My own reading seems to be VERY different from all the others on this thread, but I wanted to mention a few books that have affected me deeply this year:
1) The First 20 Minutes by Gretchen Reynolds. This book brings together all the latest research on fitness, working out, athletic performance, injury prevention, and the effects of exercise on longevity and genetics. It's written at just the right level of complexity, not to simplified as to lose the nuance of each research paper, but simple enough for the layperson to understand the findings of each. The book's title comes from the finding that the greatest percentage gain in health benefit comes from one event: getting off your butt and exercising. And after the first 20 minutes PER DAY of exercise, the percentage benefit drops off sharply. 2) Seasons Of Trouble by Rohini Mohan. A book chronicling three lives of people caught up in the end and aftermath of the civil war in Sri Lanka. For someone who has, thankfully, never lived through conflict or war, I found myself appreciating the futility of ANY response to such conditions. People in the book chose combat, disengagement, and avoidance, yet end up with their lives destroyed beyond recognition. 3) How to Worry Less About Money by Michael Armstrong (??). I'm recalling the names and they might not be entirely accurate. This short, but excellent, read articulates money concerns and thinking about money in a coherent and we'll a categorized manner. I found that my own relationship with money is bound up with emotional baggage from various other parts of my life. And understanding those underlying factors has made me much more at peace with my money and my relationship with it. Other books which I won't describe in detail: A Thousand Faces Of The Night by Gita Hariharan, Creative Strategy by William Duggan, and Cooked by Michael Pollan.
