Nick Kennedy
On the shelf · 365 books
Nick’s Good Books.
When someone takes the time to write a book, they are sharing the collected knowledge of their life with you.
I can’t think of a better return on investment than spending a weekend digesting that knowledge. Enjoy!
If you only read three
Start here.
Fiction
74 books · Back to top ↑
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Robert M. Pirsig
The Idiot
Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead
The Richest Man in Babylon
George S. Clason
The Prince
Niccolò Machiavelli
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Richard Flanagan
Commonwealth
Ann Patchett
A Confederacy of Dunces
John Kennedy Toole
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace
The Remains of the Day
Kazuo Ishiguro
Sing, Unburied, Sing
Jesmyn Ward
A Little Life
Hanya Yanagihara
The Sheltering Sky
Paul Bowles
The Goldfinch
Donna Tartt
Atlas Shrugged
Ayn Rand
A Man in Full
Tom Wolfe
The Right Stuff
Tom Wolfe
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
Ben Fountain
The Art of Fielding
Chad Harbach
Cryptonomicon
Neal Stephenson
Gilead
Marilynne Robinson
The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr
East of Eden
John Steinbeck
Greatest Short Stories of Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Chekhov: The Collected Stories
Anton Chekhov
All New People
Anne Lamott
All the Pretty Horses
Cormac McCarthy
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
The Dutch House
Ann Patchett
The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho
The Shining
Stephen King
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
Go Tell It on the Mountain
James Baldwin
True Colors
Kristin Hannah
When We Were Orphans
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver
The Fault in Our Stars
John Green
Good Omens
Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
Victor Hugo
The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy
And Then There Were None
Agatha Christie
Moby-Dick
Herman Melville
Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse
Love in the Time of Cholera
Gabriel García Márquez
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
The Call of the Wild
Jack London
The River
Peter Heller
Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy
We Were the Lucky Ones
Georgia Hunter
Daisy Jones & The Six
Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Great Alone
Kristin Hannah
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Hunter S. Thompson
The Outsiders
S. E. Hinton
Cannery Row
John Steinbeck
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Tom Wolfe
To Tame a Land
Louis L'Amour
The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver
War of the Encyclopaedists
Christopher Robinson & Gavin Kovite
Seveneves
Neal Stephenson
Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Michael Chabon
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas
Les Misérables
Victor Hugo
Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson
Around the World in 80 Days
Jules Verne
Anathem
Neal Stephenson
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Non Fiction
74 books · Back to top ↑
Dominion
Tom Holland
The 48 Laws of Power
Robert Greene
How to Do the Work
Nicole LePera
How People Grow
Henry Cloud & John Townsend
The Laws of Human Nature
Robert Greene
Antifragile
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie
The 5 Love Languages
Gary Chapman
Three Nights in August
Buzz Bissinger
Trading Bases
Joe Peta
Tools of Titans
Tim Ferriss
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
The Body Keeps the Score
Bessel van der Kolk
Talking to “Crazy”
Mark Goulston
The Soul of Shame
Curt Thompson
The Shallows
Nicholas Carr
Moonwalking with Einstein
Joshua Foer
Outliers
Malcolm Gladwell
The Magic of Thinking Big
David J. Schwartz
The Singularity Is Near
Ray Kurzweil
Lying
Sam Harris
We Were Eight Years in Power
Ta-Nehisi Coates
12 Rules for Life
Jordan B. Peterson
Father Fiction
Donald Miller
Halftime
Bob Buford
How We Do Harm
Otis Webb Brawley
Essentialism
Greg McKeown
The Omnivore’s Dilemma
Michael Pollan
The Daily StoicRyan Holiday
The Daily Stoic
Ryan Holiday
Civilization
Niall Ferguson
21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Yuval Noah Harari
Sapiens
Yuval Noah Harari
Your Brain on Art
Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross
Scarcity Brain
Michael Easter
The Hawk's Way
Sy Montgomery
The Genius Bat
Yossi Yovel
Hidden Valley Road
Robert Kolker
Paper Tiger
Tom Coyne
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
Oliver Sacks
Billionaire Wilderness
Justin Farrell
Powder Days
Heather Hansman
Lost in the Valley of Death
Harley Rustad
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius
Themes and Variations
David Sedaris
The Joy of Missing Out
Tanya Dalton
Atomic Habits
James Clear
Beyond Order
Jordan B. Peterson
The Rational Optimist
Matt Ridley
You Can't Touch My Hair
Phoebe Robinson
The Obstacle Is the Way
Ryan Holiday
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Lori Gottlieb
Indistractable
Nir Eyal
Raising a Modern-Day Knight
Robert Lewis
Younger Next Year
Chris Crowley & Henry S. Lodge
Men at Work
George F. Will
The Male Brain
Louann Brizendine
The Power of Habit
Charles Duhigg
A Roomful of Hovings
John McPhee
The Whole-Brain Child
Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson
The Emerald Mile
Kevin Fedarko
Chasing Slow
Erin Loechner
How to Raise an Adult
Julie Lythcott-Haims
The Road to Character
David Brooks
The Paradox of Choice
Barry Schwartz
David and Goliath
Malcolm Gladwell
The Idealist
Nina Munk
Her-2
Robert Bazell
How Children Succeed
Paul Tough
Coming Apart
Charles Murray
The Road to Serfdom
F. A. Hayek
The Secret Knowledge
David Mamet
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot
Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters
Meg Meeker
Three Cups of Tea
Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin
Spiritual
80 books · Back to top ↑
You Are What You Love
James K. A. Smith
The Year of Our Lord 1943
Alan Jacobs
Live No Lies
John Mark Comer
Love and Sex
Nancy Houston
Radical
David Platt
Pure Pleasure
Gary Thomas
Present Over Perfect
Shauna Niequist
One Thousand Gifts
Ann Voskamp
The Billion Dollar Game
Allen St. John
Kingdom Calling
Amy L. Sherman
If the Oceans Were Ink
Carla Power
Radical Acceptance
Tara Brach
The Gifts of Imperfection
Brené Brown
Gratitude
Oliver Sacks
Daring Greatly
Brené Brown
Whisper
Mark Batterson
Scary Close
Donald Miller
Boundaries
Henry Cloud & John Townsend
Devotional Classics
Richard J. Foster & James Bryan Smith
The Cost of Discipleship
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer
Eric Metaxas
The Knowledge of the Holy
A. W. Tozer
The Great Divorce
C. S. Lewis
Traveling Mercies
Anne Lamott
Everybody, Always
Bob Goff
Love Does
Bob Goff
Mere Christianity
C. S. Lewis
Thoughts in Solitude
Thomas Merton
Renovation of the Heart
Dallas Willard
The Familiar Stranger
Tyler Staton
In His Image
Jen Wilkin
Anam Cara
John O'Donohue
The Divine Hours
Phyllis Tickle
A Woman's Place Is in the Story
Sandra L. Glahn
To Bless the Space Between Us
John O'Donohue
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
John Mark Comer
Invitation to a Journey
M. Robert Mulholland
The Divine Conspiracy
Dallas Willard
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality
Peter Scazzero
The Lie You Don't Know You Believe
Jennie Allen
Eternity Is Now in Session
John Ortberg
The Ragamuffin Gospel
Brennan Manning
The Screwtape Letters
C. S. Lewis
Abandonment to Divine Providence
Jean-Pierre de Caussade
We Who Wrestle with God
Jordan B. Peterson
Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools
Tyler Staton
Reflections on the Psalms
C. S. Lewis
Vindicating the Vixens
Sandra Glahn
A Non-Anxious Presence
Mark Sayers
I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet
Shauna Niequist
Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice
Jan Johnson & Dallas Willard
The Essential Rumi
Rumi & Coleman Barks
The Bible Recap
Tara-Leigh Cobble
Beyond Boundaries
John Townsend
The Practice of the Presence of God
Brother Lawrence
The Kingdom Life
Dallas Willard & Keith Meyer
What's So Amazing About Grace?
Philip Yancey
The Art of Listening Prayer
Seth Barnes
Get Your Life Back
John Eldredge
The Gospel Comes with a House Key
Rosaria Champagne Butterfield
The Sin of Certainty
Peter Enns
Let Your Life Speak
Parker J. Palmer
Breathing Under Water
Richard Rohr
Searching for Sunday
Rachel Held Evans
Loving People
John Townsend
Every Good Endeavor
Timothy Keller
Letters to the Church
Francis Chan
The Circle Maker
Mark Batterson
The Furious Longing of God
Brennan Manning
Anxious for Nothing
Max Lucado
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
Donald Miller
Counterfeit Gods
Timothy Keller
Turn My Mourning into Dancing
Henri Nouwen
In the Grip of Grace
Max Lucado
The Everlasting Man
G. K. Chesterton
The Reason for God
Timothy Keller
Sacred Marriage
Gary L. Thomas
Captivating
John Eldredge & Stasi Eldredge
Velvet Elvis
Rob Bell
Love and War
John Eldredge & Stasi Eldredge
Biographies & Memoirs
47 books · Back to top ↑
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Annie Dillard
To Shake the Sleeping Self
Jedidiah Jenkins
Permission to Screw Up
Kristen Hadeed
The Third Door
Alex Banayan
Indestructible
Allison Fallon
A Monk Swimming
Malachy McCourt
When Breath Becomes Air
Paul Kalanithi
Unbroken
Laura Hillenbrand
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
Fearless
Max Lucado
The Places in Between
Rory Stewart
Kitchen Confidential
Anthony Bourdain
Man’s Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl
Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Martin Luther
Eric Metaxas
Blood, Bones & Butter
Gabrielle Hamilton
Elon Musk
Ashlee Vance
The Last Lion
William Manchester & Paul Reid
Billy Martin
Bill Pennington
Not Fade Away
Laurence Shames & Peter Barton
Barbarian Days
William Finnegan
Blue Like Jazz
Donald Miller
Medium Raw
Anthony Bourdain
Mountains Beyond Mountains
Tracy Kidder
Reagan: An American Journey
Max Boot
A Moveable Feast
Ernest Hemingway
Me
Elton John
Know My Name
Chanel Miller
Can't Hurt Me
David Goggins
An American Childhood
Annie Dillard
MBS
Ben Hubbard
Chasing the Bear
Lars Anderson
Small Fry
Lisa Brennan-Jobs
Alexander Hamilton
Ron Chernow
32 Yolks
Eric Ripert & Veronica Chambers
Living with a SEAL
Jesse Itzler
The Color of Water
James McBride
Churchill: A Life
Martin Gilbert
Nikola Tesla
Sean Patrick
Bossypants
Tina Fey
Doc
Dwight Gooden & Ellis Henican
Luckiest Man
Jonathan Eig
Amazing Grace
Eric Metaxas
SEAL Team Six
Howard E. Wasdin & Stephen Templin
Decision Points
George W. Bush
Same Kind of Different as Me
Ron Hall & Denver Moore
Where Men Win Glory
Jon Krakauer
Writing & Creating
9 books · Back to top ↑
The Artist’s Way
Julia Cameron
On Writing
Stephen King
Bird by Bird
Anne Lamott
Draft No. 4
John McPhee
The Elements of Style
William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White
Pity the Reader
Kurt Vonnegut & Suzanne McConnell
Write for Life
Julia Cameron
Walking on Water
Madeleine L'Engle
The War of Art
Steven Pressfield
History
27 books · Back to top ↑
The Fall of the Athenian Empire
Donald Kagan
The Accidental Superpower
Peter Zeihan
Nothing Like It in the World
Stephen E. Ambrose
The Lessons of HistoryWill & Ariel Durant
The Lessons of History
Will & Ariel Durant
The Emperor of All Maladies
Siddhartha Mukherjee
On Grand Strategy
John Lewis Gaddis
The Ascent of Money
Niall Ferguson
The Passage of Power
Robert A. Caro
Master of the Senate
Robert A. Caro
Means of Ascent
Robert A. Caro
The Path to Power
Robert A. Caro
On Tyranny
Timothy Snyder
Brave Companions
David McCullough
When Money Destroys Nations
Philip Haslam & Russell Lamberti
The Warmth of Other Suns
Isabel Wilkerson
The Splendid and the Vile
Erik Larson
Hidden Figures
Margot Lee Shetterly
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Jared Diamond
Profiles in Courage
John F. Kennedy
The Boys in the Boat
Daniel James Brown
Congo
David Van Reybrouck
Jefferson and Hamilton
John Ferling
The Billion Dollar Spy
David E. Hoffman
On Wings of Eagles
Ken Follett
Common Sense
Thomas Paine
The Art of War
Antoine-Henri Jomini
A Short History of the United States
Edward Channing
Business
54 books · Back to top ↑
What You Do Is Who You Are
Ben Horowitz
The Truth About Employee Engagement
Patrick Lencioni
Contented Cows Give Better Milk
Bill Catlette & Richard Hadden
Conscious Capitalism
John Mackey & Raj Sisodia
The Tipping Point
Malcolm Gladwell
Predictably Irrational
Dan Ariely
The Membership Economy
Robbie Kellman Baxter
The Innovator’s Prescription
Clayton M. Christensen
Never Eat Alone
Keith Ferrazzi
Better
Atul Gawande
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
The Everything Store
Brad Stone
Zero to One
Peter Thiel
Bad Blood
John Carreyrou
The Frackers
Gregory Zuckerman
Lords of Finance
Liaquat Ahamed
So Good They Can’t Ignore You
Cal Newport
Free
Chris Anderson
Floating City
Sudhir Venkatesh
The Black Swan
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Detroit
Charlie LeDuff
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz
Crossing the Chasm
Geoffrey A. Moore
Conspiracy
Ryan Holiday
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephen R. Covey
Strategy Is Attitude
Ganzorig
Skunk Works
Ben R. Rich & Leo Janos
The Emotionally Healthy Leader
Peter Scazzero
Radical Candor
Kim Scott
Bitcoin Billionaires
Ben Mezrich
Immunity to Change
Robert Kegan & Lisa Laskow Lahey
Billion Dollar Loser
Reeves Wiedeman
Manifesto for a Moral Revolution
Jacqueline Novogratz
Billion Dollar Whale
Bradley Hope & Tom Wright
Reboot
Jerry Colonna
Crucial Conversations
Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan & Al Switzler
The E-Myth Revisited
Michael E. Gerber
Originals
Adam Grant
High Output Management
Andrew S. Grove
Rocket Fuel
Gino Wickman & Mark C. Winters
Creativity, Inc.
Ed Catmull & Amy Wallace
Maximizing Your Effectiveness
Aubrey Malphurs
Hard Landing
Thomas Petzinger Jr.
The 4-Hour Workweek
Tim Ferriss
StrengthsFinder 2.0
Tom Rath
Delivering Happiness
Tony Hsieh
Flash Boys
Michael Lewis
Hatching Twitter
Nick Bilton
Barbarians at the Gate
Bryan Burrough & John Helyar
Boomerang
Michael Lewis
Economics in One Lesson
Henry Hazlitt
The Quants
Scott Patterson
Googled
Ken Auletta
Don't Make Them Think!
Jerry Weissman
An exploratory conversation
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