Update – November 2024: Book Club was so much fun, we’re going to do it again. Stay tuned for new titles, along with a “what I read this year” summary.

Thank you to everyone who sent in their ideas! We ended up with over 75 different suggestions across many different topics. I hope you can find something you want to read from this list!

I shared my suggestions at the end, both books I want to read next year as well as the books I have read that I enjoy.

Each title is linked to Amazon for browsing convenience, but go support your local bookshop when it’s time to buy!

Contributor 1

• Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and their Battle For Speed and Glory at Lemans by A.J.Baime
• American History Through A Whiskey Glass: How Distilled Spirits, Domestic Cuisine, and Popular Music Helped Shape a Nation by Harris Cooper, Ph.D.
• Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz
• The Black Echo (A Harry Bosch Novel) by Michael Connelly
  • Full Series List
• Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 days that Changed the World by Chris Wallace

Contributor 2

• The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson (also on Scott’s list)
• The Blood Gospel (Order of the Sanguines Series) by James Rollins
  • Full Series List
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (also suggested by Contributor #11)
• The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston
• Sandstorm (A Sigma Force Novel) by James Rollins
  • Full Series List

Contributor 3

• San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities by Michael Shellenberger
• The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and the Deception on the Eve of World War I by Douglas Brunt

Contributor 4

• Violeta by Isabel Allende [English Version]
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
• The Women by T.C. Boyle
• All the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J. Church

Contributors 5 & 6

• The Mummy or Ramses the Damned: A Novel by Anne Rice
• The Martian by Andy Weir
• The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz
• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Contributor 7

• There and Back: Photographs from the Edge by Jimmy Chin
• Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
• The Tools: 5 Tools to Help you Find Courage, Creativity, and Willpower – and Inspire you to Live Life in Forward Motion by Phil Stutz
• Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant
• Dare to Lead: Brave Work, Tough Conversations, Whole Hearts by Brene Brown

Contributor 8

• Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Joseph Grenny, et al.
• Almost Paradise by Susan Isaacs
• When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink

Contributor 9

• The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith
• Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change by William Bridges, Ph.D., and Susan Bridges
• Sum it Up: A Thousand and Ninety-Eight Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective by Pat Summitt
• How Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back from Your Next Raise, Promotion or Job by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith
• The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy by Jon Gordon

Contributor 10

• Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life by Arnold Schwarzenegger
• The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown
• The Alchemist: A Fable about Following Your Dream by Paulo Coelho
• The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Contributor 11

• These Shining Lives by Melanie March (a play)
• Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
• Machine of Death: A Collection of Short Stories about People Who Know How They Will Die by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, David Malik
• Bird Box by Josh Malerman
• Uprooted by Naomi Novak
• American Gods and Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
• Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nugger, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
• Star Wars: The Aftermath Trilogy by Chuck Wendig
• Mediocre by Ijeoma Oluo
• Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price, Ph.D.
• Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema by Lindy West
• All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel by Anthony Doerr
• The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael Singer
• What we Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon
• I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Contributor 12

• Letters from an Astrophysicist and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Eaters of the Dead and Sphere by Michael Crichton
• The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
  • The Jack Ryan Series
• The Gunslinger (Dark Tower I) by Stephen King
  • The Dark Tower Series
• The Art of War by Sun Tzu
• The Divine Comedy (The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso) by Dante
• The War of the Worlds by HG Wells
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Dr. Robin DiAngelo
• The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
• I am Legend by Richard Matheson
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson

Contributor 13

• The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Motley Crue with Neil Strauss
• The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx with Ian Griffins

Scott’s books he has not read:

• The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore
• The Spy and The Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre
• The Road Less Stupid by Keith J. Cunningham
• Stagg’s University: The Rise, Decline, and Fall of Big-Time Football at Chicago by Robin Lester
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

Scott’s Recommendations

• The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of The Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan
• The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore
• Indy Split: The Big Money Battle that Nearly Destroyed Indy Racing by John Oreovicz
• Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higganbotham
• The Field Guide to Understanding ‘Human Error’ by Sidney Dekker
• Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz by Chip Kidd
• Careful: A User’s Guide to Our Injury-Prone Minds by Steve Casner
• Let’s Pretend this Never Happened by Jenny Lawson (and subsequent titles)
• Decipher by Stel Pavlou
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (and sequel novels)
• The Vapors: A Southern Family, the New York Mob, and the Rise and Fall of Hot Springs, America’s Forgotten Capital of Vice by David Hill
• Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL by Jeff Pearlman
• Lincoln’s Last Trial: The Murder Case that Propelled Him to the Presidency by Dan Abrams