Non-Fiction

A sweeping history of humankind from the emergence of Homo sapiens to the modern era. Harari traces how shared beliefs, social organization, and technological change shaped our species’ rise to dominance. Clear, direct, and wide in scope.

A look at how human knowledge advances and why progress has no inherent limits. Deutsch argues that the growth of understanding through science, reason, and problem-solving can turn today’s impossibilities into tomorrow’s routine realities.

An examination of how human beings find belonging, purpose, and resilience in tight-knit communities, especially under conditions of hardship. Junger contrasts the cohesion seen in traditional societies and wartime with the isolation of modern life, arguing that connection and shared struggle are essential to well-being.

An accessible, often witty tour of the human body from head to toe. Bill Bryson somehow puts what feels like a lifetime of research on all sorts of topics into a single book. In this one, he conveys anatomy, physiology, and medical history with unusual facts and vivid stories. It’s a way of turning complex science into something engaging and easy to grasp.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali has a fascinating life story. She’s a Somali Muslim who escaped an arranged marriage and eventually earned a degree in political science and became a member of the Dutch parliament. In this book, which has become increasingly prophetic over time, she looks at the link between large-scale migration from Muslim-majority countries and the resulting changes in women’s rights and public safety in Europe. It’s a rational and well-researched argument for more effective immigration strategies that balance the protection of cultural norms with addressing humanitarian needs.

The ideas in this book play a significant role in how we coach, by avoiding the use of “averages” to define individual potential. Rose’s central premise is that there is no such thing as an “average” person and that to assume so ignores the complexity and individuality of human ability. He makes the case for designing systems that adapt to individual strengths and pathways rather than forcing everyone into the same mold.

A look inside the mental side of fighting, drawn from conversations with elite athletes, trainers, and coaches across boxing, MMA, wrestling, and other combat sports. Sheridan examines how fighters develop focus, manage fear, and push through pain to illustrate that mindset and adaptability are as critical as physical skill.

A deep dive into the ideology, motivations, and worldview of ISIS through first-hand interviews and encounters. Wood approaches members and sympathizers of the Islamic State with curiosity rather than confrontation, seeking to understand the theological and apocalyptic beliefs that drive them. If you’re in the business of dealing with this form of extremism, this provides valuable background knowledge about how it develops and its surprisingly broad reach worldwide.

A true-crime investigation into the hundreds of young women murdered in Ciudad Juárez since the early 1990s. Drawing on interviews with victims’ families, survivors, journalists, and human rights activists, the authors detail the patterns of the killings, the social and economic forces that put women at risk, and the climate of corruption and impunity that has allowed the crimes to continue. It’s a harrowing account that blends personal testimony with investigative reporting, making it one of the most accessible entry points for understanding the Juárez femicides and the systemic failures behind them.

A deeply reported portrait of working-class life in 1990s America, focusing on young people coming of age in struggling towns and cities. In some of our leadership development course content, particularly for people in law enforcement roles in which they need to understand those from different backgrounds and what their daily struggles are like, books like this provide a helpful footing. Finnegan follows individuals from different racial and regional backgrounds as they navigate poverty, limited opportunity, and shifting cultural landscapes. It’s a window into the resilience and the disillusionment of those living on the margins.

An investigative account of a series of sexual assault cases in Missoula, Montana, focusing on incidents involving University of Montana football players. The disturbing thing is that Missoula does not rank highly in per capita sexual assault cases. Krakauer is just using a handful of cases there as a microcosm to illustrate what this looks like nationwide. He examines how the cases were handled by law enforcement, the justice system, and the university, while also exploring the broader cultural and legal challenges survivors face. It’s a tough but important read to understand how sports culture, power, and the treatment of sexual violence coalesce in the US.

An exploration of how women across the Middle East are challenging restrictive norms and pushing for change within Islamic frameworks. Coleman profiles activists, educators, and entrepreneurs who utilize religious texts, local traditions, and community leadership to advance women’s rights in ways that align with existing cultural frameworks and work to change them from within.

A good business and marketing book that challenges the idea that success comes from imitating market leaders. Moon, a Harvard Business School professor, argues that real differentiation means breaking away from category norms entirely, creating products and brands that are more than tiny variations on what’s already out there. One of her more memorable examples is the feeling most of us have had standing in the toothpaste aisle, trying to choose from a wall of virtually identical products with different packaging, and how that’s not a good situation for anybody.

This book opens by asking a hypothetical question about why anybody in their right mind would purchase an H1 Hummer. Miller’s answer to that question is that much of consumer behavior is about signaling key traits to others, often through three distinct types of displays. Conspicuous consumption broadcasts wealth and resources, conspicuous precision signals expertise and discernment, and conspicuous waste shows an abundance of time, energy, or money. These signals are used to advertise six desirable traits: intelligence, openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, stability, and extraversion. This applies whether we’re buying luxury goods, selecting niche equipment, or indulging in elaborate hobbies. It’s a useful perspective that reframes everyday consumption as a form of social self-marketing.

An important one for anybody in a long-term relationship. This is a look at the tension between long-term stability and erotic desire. Drawing on her experience as a couples therapist, Perel explores why comfort and commitment can sometimes dampen passion, and how partners can sustain both closeness and excitement over time.

An investigative account of Somalia’s rise as the world’s piracy capital in the early 2000s, told through the eyes of a young Canadian journalist who embedded himself among pirates. Bahadur combines on-the-ground reporting with political and cultural context. He explains how poverty, lawlessness, and foreign exploitation of Somali waters created the conditions for modern piracy. Somehow always makes me think of the South Park episode where the kids all leave to become Somali pirates.

An investigation into how governments and corporations exploit crises like natural disasters, wars, and economic collapses to push through controversial policies that benefit the powerful at the expense of the public. Klein documents this “disaster capitalism” from Chile under Pinochet to post-Katrina New Orleans, arguing that shock and fear are tools for remaking societies in ways that would be resisted under normal conditions.

This is another one where it will be interesting to see how it holds up over time. It’s an argument for why human progress, fueled by trade, innovation, and cooperation, has historically made the world better and will likely continue to do so. Ridley’s optimism about rising living standards and the problem-solving power of markets has generally aged well so far in its core message, with trade and specialization still driving prosperity. But, it’s also true that he underplays systemic inequality, environmental risks, and the limits of market-driven solutions, and that his confidence in technological fixes sometimes overshadows the complexity of global challenges.

Cowen’s central argument is that the middle class (the “average”) is eroding, and that society is dividing into two groups: those who can work effectively with technology and capture the rewards of the new economy, and those who fall behind. He points to data-driven decision-making, AI, and outsourcing as forces that reward adaptability, skill, and entrepreneurial thinking, while reducing opportunities for routine, middle-skill jobs. Cowen’s predictions are unsettling, but his framework is useful for thinking about where work, inequality, and opportunity are headed. For readers of your list, this book pairs naturally with Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz, which critiques how elite education produces conformity without meaning, and with The End of Average by Todd Rose, which argues for moving beyond standardized measures of talent.

This is an interesting one for any of us involved in warfare as an occupation, in that it helps to place our current conflicts into a long-term historical context and provide a measure of hope. Pinker’s premise here is that rates of violence, ranging from warfare and homicide to domestic abuse, have declined sharply throughout human history, making the present the most peaceful era yet. He credits this trend to a mix of cultural, political, and psychological factors, including the stabilizing role of strong states, the expansion of trade and commerce, the spread of literacy and cosmopolitan ideals, the empowerment of women, and the growth of rational, evidence-based thinking.

A book that became a prophecy after being published in 2011. The Filter Bubble looks at how personalized algorithms from search engines, social media, and other online platforms shape what we see (and what we don’t) on the internet. Pariser warns that by filtering information to match our existing interests and beliefs, these systems can create “filter bubbles” that limit exposure to diverse perspectives, reinforce biases, and distort our understanding of the world.

This is one where it helps to keep the Upton Sinclair line in mind as you read it: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on not understanding it.” It’s likely to produce some cognitive dissonance in those of us who have worked for Blackwater or similar companies, but that doesn’t invalidate Scahill’s reporting. This is an investigative exposé on the private military company Blackwater, detailing its rise from a small security contractor to one of the most powerful and controversial mercenary forces in the world. Scahill traces the company’s close ties to U.S. political and military leaders, its lucrative contracts during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and its involvement in high-profile incidents, including civilian casualties. It draws on interviews, leaked documents, and on-the-ground reporting, and after reading quite a few books on this subject, it stands out as the most rigorous.

Another excellent work by Scahill, recommended to us by a friend who was working at the CIA at the time. This is an investigation into the expansion of U.S. covert warfare in the years after 9/11, showing how the “war on terror” evolved into a global battlefield with few boundaries. Scahill traces the rise of special operations forces, drone strikes, targeted assassinations, and secret prisons, documenting operations from Afghanistan and Iraq to Yemen, Somalia, and beyond.

A slim, inspiring book adapted from George Saunders’ 2013 commencement speech at Syracuse University. With warmth, humor, and his signature blend of insight and storytelling, Saunders reflects on his life and argues that the greatest regrets often come from failures of kindness.

Another good book that goes into the category of empathy or better understanding people from backgrounds other than your own. This one is a first-person look into the realities of low-wage work in America. Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich takes on a series of minimum-wage jobs, such as waitressing, house cleaning, and retail work, to see whether it’s possible to survive on the wages these positions offer. She documents the physical demands, unstable schedules, and hidden costs that keep workers trapped in poverty.

Speaking of poverty, this one is a deep dive into the systemic factors that help to perpetuate it in one of the wealthiest countries in history. It’s easy to let cognitive dissonance win and let confirmation bias take over when reading books like this. If you take this one on, work to avoid that, and to understand how multi-factorial things like poverty can be, and how we’re not helping ourselves or anyone else by trying to explain them with bumper sticker slogans. Here, Desmond argues that poverty is not just a result of bad luck or personal failure, but something actively sustained by systems and policies that benefit more affluent Americans. It’s not uplifting. 

This is a very close look at what things are like in Central America’s “Northern Triangle” of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, where gang violence, corruption, and poverty shape daily existence. Martínez, a journalist with firsthand experience reporting in some of the world’s most dangerous neighborhoods, documents the lives of people caught between predatory gangs, abusive authorities, and the constant threat of death. It’s a series of somewhat independent articles or stories, based on interviews, field reporting, and personal observation. You probably know that things are bad in these countries. This will help you understand just how bad and how deep the problem is. It’s amazing that Martinez is still alive.

I was initially skeptical of this book and didn’t get much out of it, possibly because I was already familiar with the concepts in it from other sources, but then I had a client who read it and found it immensely helpful. He went on to crush it in BUD/S, so for the right person at the right time, it can be great. It’s focused on the idea that true peace and fulfillment come from living fully in the present moment, and on how dwelling on the past or worrying about the future traps us in patterns of fear, stress, and dissatisfaction. The goal is to quiet the mind and access a state of awareness that Tolle calls “presence.”

If you’re in the military, your deployments will probably bring you into contact with people living through abject poverty. You may also wonder what that world is like, and what could possibly be done to help address it at scale. This book is about that. It uses rigorous field experiments to challenge common assumptions about poverty and development. Banerjee and Duflo examine how the poor make decisions about education, health care, savings, and work, showing that many well-intentioned interventions fail because they overlook the realities of life in extreme poverty. Their findings are critical of the notion that micro-lending alone can lift people out of poverty; while it may help smooth consumption or fund small ventures, it rarely produces large, lasting economic change.

Óscar Martínez, a Salvadoran journalist, embeds himself among Central American migrants making the harrowing journey north atop La Bestia, the freight trains that carry thousands toward the U.S. border. He illustrates the relentless danger from gangs, corrupt officials, the elements, and the train itself, to show the physical and moral costs of migration in one of the world’s most dangerous corridors. It’s a ground-level companion to the broader political and historical framing in Jonathan Blitzer’s Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here, and it echoes the same themes of risk and resilience found in other survival and journey narratives on this list.

This book traces how a small group of scientists systematically cast doubt on well-established science for political and corporate ends. From the dangers of smoking to acid rain, DDT, and eventually climate change, it shows how tactics like manufacturing uncertainty, sowing confusion, and delaying action, are used to undermine public understanding and stall regulation in the interest of those who profit from the large scale harm they impose on society. The playbook has been around for half a century and is still in use today. 

Gerald Pollack’s landmark work proposes a radical rethinking of water, not just as ice, liquid, or vapor, but as a four-phase substance that includes a structured, gel-like “exclusion zone” (EZ) water. This phase forms naturally next to hydrophilic (water-attracting) surfaces, from glass to cellular membranes, and carries a negative charge, while the adjacent bulk water carries a positive charge, creating a tiny, biological “battery.” This exotic form of water absorbs light (especially infrared), stores energy, and may explain a host of mysteries, from capillary action and blood flow to microorganisms’ behavior and physiological resilience.

An important one for young people in sports or high-achievement arenas, and their parents. It examines the life and death of Madison Holleran, a gifted student-athlete at the University of Pennsylvania whose suicide at age 19 shocked her community and sparked broader conversations about mental health in athletics. At its core, the book is about the hidden pressures of high achievement: the weight of expectations, the isolation of transition, and the stigma around admitting struggle in competitive environments.