Best Books of 2023
Here you go, my 2023 list. These are the books I read in 2023 (not necessarily published in 2023) that I enjoyed/learned from the most and found most interesting. Click here for a link to last year’s list, which then leads you to over a decade of annual lists.
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann. A great story with a great storyteller. Everyone is talking about this book this year. However, in my opinion, Grann’s best book is The Lost City of Z (it’s on my Best Books list from many years ago). If you haven’t yet, maybe read The Lost City of Z before The Wager. And don’t watch the Lost City movie, it falls far short of the book.
Seeking God, by Trevor Hudson. Too few books speak about the centrality of desire to our relationship with God/the reality of being human. Here Hudson gives a fantastic treatment of desire.
Americana: A 400-Year History of American Capitalism, by Bhu Srinivasan. A clever, interesting, and supremely readable way to organize a history book. Each chapter explores one theme of American history/Capitalism: Tobacco, Taxes, Cotton, Steam, Railroads, Gold, etc. Hopefully there are colleges and high schools out there who use this book to teach history, economics, and business.
The Soul of Desire: Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community, by Curt Thompson. Again, desire is so important and this book is a far ranging exploration of how what we want shapes and integrates our relationships and entire approach to life. PS. For over a decade one of my favorite books on desire remains the often overlooked: The Journey of Desire.
How to Invest: Masters of the Craft, by David M. Rubenstein. Part of how I like to grow as an investor is by learning how others invest—different strategies, stories, approaches, personalities, etc. I loved these interviews with 23 very different investors.
David’s Crown: Sounding the Psalms, by Malcom Guite. During my sabbatical this summer I slowly read the Psalms along with these accompanying poems. These poems opened up the Psalms and my heart in new ways.
Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, by Michael Lewis. A lot of people bashed Lewis for this book when it first hit the shelves this fall—they felt he spoke too highly of Sam Bankman-Fried and didn’t call out his crimes. To the contrary, I think Lewis tells a strong story and wants his readers to come to their own conclusions about SBF…and, Lewis provides loads and loads of evidence showing exactly why SBF was not to be trusted. PS. If you haven’t read it yet, I think Lewis’ best book is still The Big Short (and the movie is pretty good too).
The Woman They Wanted, by Shannon Harris. I hesitate to put this book here, but my wife and I did devour it quickly just a few weeks ago…it was interesting. We met Shannon once and briefly when we visited the organization she writes about/against (I wrote a sentence in this article about how I feel the Lord protected us from them). During that visit 13 or 14 years ago we experienced most of the women being like the the women in Stepford Wives…robotic; the more we saw the whole vibe among the men and women felt cultish. This unhealthy culture is what Harris critiques, and I find much of it very fair and some of it overstated and all of it worth reflecting on. Mostly, though, it seems her story is one of moving from one “crazy” to a different crazy. It reminds me that this is why we need Jesus—salvation is not found by being hyper religious or hyper irreligious, the grace and way of Jesus is something entirely new and different.
The Joys of Compounding: The Passionate Pursuit Of Lifelong Learning, by Gautam Baid. A rare book about learning, thinking well, and investing all in one.
A Roatan Odyssey, by Anne Jennings Brown. I read this book while spending three weeks on the island of Roatan. This was a fun, interesting, and quirky way to learn more about the storied history of this special piece of the Caribbean.
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