30 Personal Development Books From 2020 – Short Reviews

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Last year I read 36 books so I decided the up the ante this year.  At the beginning of the year I had set a goal to read 4 books per month (48 total) and I’m happy to report I’m ahead of schedule for the first half of the year with 30 books read so far.  I definitely am paring back for this second half of the year as I already am feeling a bit burnt out but hope to reach my 48 total for the year.

Our January-June Reading List

The following books are in my original reading order and not in order of preference.  After each title/author I rank each book on a scale of 1 o 5 stars (5 being the best).  At the end I provide my top 5.  All opinions stated below are my own.  I apologize in advance for the ugly view of these images – for whatever reason the cleaner Amazon images could not get posted properly.

• Deep Work by Cal Newport **
  • 
  • This book had a lot of valuable ideas about the importance of deep work and how to do it.  Cal did a nice job explaining the benefits of deep work and flow with some examples, various research, and so on.  I thought this booked dragged on a bit and what could have been a very good 100-page book instead stretched into a mediocre 260-page book.  I’m a fan of Cal but I would recommend his other book, Digital Minimalism, over this one.

• Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist *
  • I really wanted this book to be good but it was WAY too religious for me.  There were a few chapters or pages that I really appreciated but the bulk of the book was about her being busy, going on vacations, or what she enjoys most about escaping to her lake home which I don’t think many people can likely relate to.  She’s honest and approachable but the lack of privilege, repetitiveness, and many references to religion turned me off.

• Beat The Bank by Larry Bates *****
  • Excellent read.  This reminded me of the Canadian version of John Bogle’s book The Little Book of Common Sense Investing.  This book was well written and easy to understand with some compelling examples on just how much those MER fees eat away at your investments.  If you want a book that provides charts and numbers explaining just how awful fees are for your portfolio, read this book!

• Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic by John De Graff, David Wann, & Thomas Naylor ***
  • Affluenza helps readers diagnose the symptoms and understand the causes for the disease of over consumption. It covers a large breadth of topics but many ideas were not explained enough.  It has a very important message to get people to change their lifestyles but personally The Story of Stuff covers a similar topic in better detail.  PS for any Your Money of Your Life fans, Vicki Robin wrote the foreword for this book.

• The Art of Frugal Hedonism: A Guide To Spending Less While Enjoying Everything More by Anne Raser-Rowland and Adam Grubb ***
  • This book is packed with some cute and quirky ways to live live frugally – while non of it is life shattering it may be some new ideas for some.  Some of the content might resonate better with Aussies (as the authors are eccentric individuals hailing from Australia) but the overall message is about remembering about what actually makes us happy and avoiding lifestyle creep.  Some of their life hacks were a bit extreme for me, but loved their creative ideas!

• The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking *
  • I had high hopes for this book as it was written by the CEO of the Happiness Research Institue in Copenhagen but to be honest it was a bit of a let down.  To me this came off as let’s turn something that could be the length of a blog post or new article into a full on book since it’s a trendy topic these days.  I love the concept of Hygge but there wasn’t too much meat to this book.

• We Are The Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer ****
  • The first part of this book is great and a worthwhile read for everyone.  Our planet is irreplaceable and we are destroying life as we know it by not being mindful with many of the daily choices we make.  Foer’s main ask is for everyone to a eat plant based diet prior to supper each day.  It was refreshing to see stats behind a very doable ask to try and fight climate change from an individual level.  There was a part of the book where he did an interview with himself that was a bit odd but otherwise it was a good read.

• How To Raise an Adult by Julie Lythcott-Haims **
  • Personally, I could not relate to much of this book and think that the demographic is more so for parents who believe their child MUST get straight A’s and attend the #1 university in order to be “successful” in life.  There was a part about helicopter parenting and asking parents to not go to interviews with their post-college children.  I honestly can’t believe that parents would do this?!? I thought the best part of this book was section 3 where the author gives concrete practical advice on steps you can take at your child’s various ages to teach them independence skills. Don’t overparent, allow mistakes, don’t prioritize grades, relax about college.

• More Than Happiness: Buddhist and Stoic Wisdom for a Sceptical Age by Antonia Macaro **
  • If you’re interested in both Buddhism and Stoicism this book morphs the two concepts and shows many similarities between the two.  I’m really interested in both the Buddhist and Stoic was of life yet I found this book a bit dry and some chapters I would just jump to the end where she provides a conclusion to the chapter.  It had some good quotes and concepts but not sure it’s something I’d recommend to others.

• The Cash Machine: A Tale of Passion, Persistence, and Financial Independence by Dave and Chana Mason ****
  • As far as I know, this is the only fictional book on FIRE that I’ve ever come across.  I really enjoyed the story line and was looking forward to the next chapters.  It did come off a bit sexist in which Dylan came off as the condescending male and Amber was the ditsy unaware female but if you can get over that, it really is a creative twist on the usual dry personal finance books.  This is a must read for anyone who wants to shift their perspective from a wage earner to an investor.  Highly recommend.

• The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life by Anu Partanen ****
  • Now this is the Nordic book I was looking for.  This is not one of the currently-trendy books about hygge and all the ways that Scandinavians excel at coziness and contentment. This book shows how Scandinavian social policies create a better life for all because they are ultimately based on what the author calls the Nordic Theory of Love.  Partanen makes a fresh argument about how the lack of a social safety net in the US actually makes Americans less free, not just by constraining opportunities based on your family background, but also by forcing your social relationships to bear the weight of responsibilities like health care and education. Why should your health care depend on a spouse or your employer?  I really enjoyed this book but did find the second half repetitive of the first.  Living in both the US and Canada, Canada is definitely closer to the Nordic way of life, which I truly appreciate.

• How To Break Up With Your Phone by Catherine Price *****
  • This book is very similar to Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport which I read last year.  Both are great worthwhile reads.  We all, to some degree, have a dependency on our devices. And while some may have a higher dependency than others, every single one of us would benefit from a digital detox (hence why we did our first digital detox in January and then a second one in May).  This is a quick read (165 pages) and hopefully will change your life with all of her actionable tips.

• The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis by Christina Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac ***
  • I wanted to love this book as I’m passionate about climate change but I felt this book was too focused on the Paris Climate Accords (as one of the authors is the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and they were the architects of the Paris Agreement). The climate crisis is not something we can stave off – it is happening now, and is only going to get worse at exponential rates. The authors did a great job outlining two worlds we would end up with if we don’t take drastic actions to achieve net zero emission by 2050 and I wish the entire book was a bit deeper.  I was looking forward to the list of concrete individual actions to take to prevent climate change but found them all obvious (eat less meat, drive less, don’t buy fast fashion) or unclear and far too high-level (give up the past, be more optimistic, embrace AI).  I just didn’t get much out of this.  I found that the book was very self-congratulatory on the mere fact that the accords were agreed upon and vague to non-existent on their actual impact.

• The Minimalist Home by Joshua Becker **
  • This would be a good introduction to minimalism for those who haven’t really heard of the basic tenets but if you’re familiar with the idea of ‘not letting consumerism rule your world’, ‘letting go of your possessions’ and ‘decluttering’, this book won’t be revolutionary news to you.  I found this book very repetitive.  Do x, y, z for room A.  The do that same x, y, z for room B.  On repeat.  For me, there was nothing new in here but I do appreciate anyone trying to get more people on team minimalism.  As I am not a religious person, it’s hard for me to relate to the irrelevant references to Jesus.

• All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum *
  • The list at the beginning of the book outlining the little things everyone learns in kindergarten that applies to adults is great.  But after that, I thought this book was misleading in that hardly any of the book is actually about things the author learned in kindergarten.  He provides short anecdotes that may or may not have gotten the point across on random thoughts.  It is a quick little read which reminds you sometimes it’s the simple things that make life enjoyable.  I just wasn’t a fan of the journal-type stories.

• The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff ****
  • I really enjoyed this little book. I love the concept of Taoism and any Lao Tzu quotes I come across.  This was a briljant little book full of life lessons and a course to a happy way of viewing life through a witty dialogue with Winnie the Pooh and friends. It was lovely in it’s simplicity about such a complex subject as overall happiness.
  • Note that this was my first audiobook as I prefer paperback but with COVID-19 kicking in and shutting down libraries our options are now ebooks or audiobooks.  I have learned that I have to lay in bed in complete darkness to be able to completely focus to an audiobook.  And then that leads to falling asleep and waking up to the book being finished and not knowing where I left off before dozing off.  Oops!  I do really enjoy audobooks (especially when the author is the speaker) but it requires a lot of effort on my end to focus so I’m enjoying the challenge.  I loved how the speaker did such an excellent job with all the voices of all the characters.

• The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything by Neil Pasricha ***
  • While one of his core principles to being happy is to never retire (gasp!), I found this book to be quite refreshing.  Some of the book was promoting his other work and I wish he focused more on the “want nothing” section.  But overall, Pasricha provides some great information in very easy to digest chapters full of little sketches and charts.  I appreciate that there’s not a lot of fluff in this book, it focuses on some important themes, it’s easy to read, and easy to apply.

• Happy Go Money by Melissa Leong ***
  • I really appreciated the humor that Leong was able to incorporate into a personal finance book.  She was very relatable and well versed in money management.  I liked the stats that connect money to happiness but I wish there had been a bit more of that. Which is surprising given the title. A lot of it that didn’t directly make the happiness connection was basic (Canadian) finance i.e. explaining what an RRSP and TFSA are (note this book could be read by any nationality, not just Canadians, as the focus is not solely on Canadian accounts).  Personally, the book was a bit too basic for me but Leong does provide some great tips for people who may not be all gung-ho for team FIRE.

• Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Ruppel Shell **
  • I found this book to be a bit of a slog with some worthwhile points scatters throughout.  It’s kind of like the first 200 pages are all introduction and Shell finally gets to her point & develops a point of view in the last thirty pages.  There is a very prolonged history of discount retailing that covers more than the first half of the book which is not was I was looking for.  Late in the book Shell finally gets to what she sees as the major downsides of modern global society’s pursuit of low cost at any cost: no money for R&D, the promotion of waste and the dumbing-down of work. This final section reveals some passion and a point-of-view which are largely missing from its predecessor chapters. In short, read the last section and you basically get the point.  I’d recommend reading The Story of Stuff over this book.

• How To Retire The Cheapskate Way by Jeff Yeager ***
  • A good, quick, fun read for some ideas on living simply and I enjoyed the profiles of some of the “cheapskates” (a positive term, as defined in this book) where you get to hear about how real people have been living using the values and techniques described in this book.  It’s a decent entry-level book on (not-so-early) retirement.  Yeager could be a pioneer of the FIRE movement as his philosophy definitely jives with FIRE concepts but it seems like he’s writing more to the traditional retirement crowd.  I’d recommend Your Money or Your Life over this.

• Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig *****
  • I loved this book. A truly timely and important book that everyone living on this nervous planet should read. Haig writes of truth and hurt and feelings, and the discord so many of us feel in our oh-so-busy modern lives.  By being so upfront with his own struggles with anxiety and depression (via his previous book “Reasons to Stay Alive”), this book continues on the theme of the pressures we place on ourselves in the modern world, and if it is indeed worth it.  We are bombarded with information overload from the time we wake up to the moment our head hit the pillow. This book is raw and real and I’d highly recommend it.

• The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha **
  • Same author as The Happiness Equation above. It’s a book of small wins that practically everyone can relate to. This is the type of book that you could read the chapter title and then move on to the next one (each chapter is only a page or two anecdote anyway). It’s a lighthearted book that brings back nostalgia but wasn’t earth shattering in any way. I appreciate how he make up words and sayings as that’s my jam too.

• The Humans by Matt Haig***
  • This was a strange, funny, and satirical book by Matt Haig (same author as Notes on a Nervous Planet above). Granted, the plot is somewhat unrealistic and silly – an alien is put on Earth to complete a mission – but said aliens observations on humans are spot on and very interesting as well as hilarious. We humans do weird things all the time without thinking about it, and its books like this one that make you realize that and make you stop to wonder why.  Haig’s originality and imagination is hard to beat.

• I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi **
  • I wanted to really like this book.  I like Ramit and enjoy podcast episodes I’ve heard him on but he’s definitely targeting millennial’s and trying to be this funny frat-bro which just came off as insincere and elitist.  The pros are that Ramit is all about DIY, automating your spending/investing, and low fees.  And he does mention FIRE and Vicki Robins which made me excited.  Overall, it does have a lot of good content but not the go-to book I would recommend.  He’s a big proponent of investing 10% of your income and advises that those in the FIRE community are miserable throughout their journey, hate their jobs, not building a life, and wishing a magical number at the end of the day will solve all their problems.  I can confidently say that is the exact opposite of our journey and if you’ve been following along, you know we are big proponents of building a happy life along the way.

• Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins****
  • Man this was an excellent book that everyone should read.  Insatiable greed, subtle imperialism, corruption, power, war, global empires, corporations, capitalism, and consumption fuel the world we live in.  This is the inside look from an actual Economic Hitman providing his stories and experiences that he endured over the years.

• Grit by Angela Duckworth***
  • I read this book with how to raise my child in mind.  While there was a bit of self promo in the book and not a ton of crazy new ideas, hearing about all Dr. Duckworth’s stories and research on grit was uplifting.  It reminded me to instill persistence, passion, effort, risk, curiosity, commitment, and a growth mindset in my offspring. “As much as talent counts, effort counts twice.” 

• How To Be Fine by Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer**
  • This was a very light book geared towards those wanting to gain tips from self help books without actually reading all these books.  There wasn’t a whole lot said about the individual works themselves, so if you’re looking for more of that the book probably isn’t for you. But if you want quick tips and general concepts that stretch across various books in the genre, then this isn’t a bad read. The best part of this book was the list of 100 books they mention at the beginning.  It was refreshing to see the 13 positive takeaways from their journey correlate to many of our values.

• Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive & Creative Self by Manoush Zomorodi****
  • I am very interested in the topic of phone use and overuse and I’m so glad to be spreading the message of digital detoxes. I am not anti-technology (and neither is the author of this book), but I do find the overuse of phones by much of our society alarming (hence all our detoxes this year).  We have the option to never, ever be bored.  There’s always something, somewhere willing to keep us occupied, and it’s rarely farther than a pocket.  It’s time to move “doing nothing” to  the top of your to-do list.

• Rich Dad’s Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki**
  • Much of the book consists of Kiyosaki relating various career paths with his four quadrant system which breaks careers and wealth building into the categories of employee (E), self- employed (S), business-owner (B), and investor (I). The key to the whole system is getting yourself into either the B or I quadrants to get on the path to financial freedom.  While I agree with his core take away, it seemed like he was really pushing his Rich Dad brand and Cashflow games.  If you’re going to read one of Kiyosaki’s book, read the original Rich Dad Poor Dad.

• The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor****
  • I’ve been reading quiet a few books on the topic of happiness lately. We often think happiness will come after success, but in fact, happiness leads to success. Our brains are hardwired to preform at their best when they are positive.  Happiness is a state of mind – one that does come more naturally to some than others – but it’s also a muscle that can be exercised.  Think of this book as to how-to of positive psychology.  My personal take away from this book is to go around the table at supper having each family member mention the top three good things that happened during the day.  So far, each night Finn’s top two responses are always “mommy!” and “momma!” – that makes my heart happy.

After all of that – what were my top 5 from this list?

1. Notes on a Nervous Planet
2. Confessions of an Economic Hitman
3. Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive & Creative Self
4. Beat The Bank
5. How To Break Up With Your Phone

For anyone curious, here’s the list of the 36 books I read in 2019:

• Man’s Search For Meaning
• Homo Deus
• Your Money or Your Life
• The Happiness of Pursuit
• The Simple Path to Wealth
• The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down
• I Heart My Little A Holes
• Broke Millennial
• The More of Less
• Get Money
• Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees
• The Year of Less
• Financial Freedom
• The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up
• Girl, Wash Your Face
• Playing With FIRE
• 10% Happier
• The Joy of Doing Nothing
• Goodbye, Things
• The Story of Stuff
• Work Optional
• Digital Minimalism
• Do You Really Need It?
• The Wealthy Barber
• Cozy Minimalist Home
• The Latte Factor
• Simple Living in a Complex World
• The Wealthy Barber Returns
• The Automatic Millionaire
• The Little Book of Common Sense Investing
• How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life
• Millionaire Teacher
• Quit Like a Millionaire
• The Next Millionaire Next Door
• Choose FI
• Happy As a Dane

What are some your favorite books? Have you read any of the books above?  Do you agree or disagree with any of my opinions?  Any must read books I should add to our always growing reading list?  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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