52 Book Reviews For 2020

Before we dig into today’s post we wanted to send a big congrats to The Abundant Family Summit All-Access Pass winner! Belinda N, congrats, you won! We will send you a note to get you your pass to help save money along your parenting journey 🙂

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Back at the half way point of the year, we posted about our 30 book reviews for 2020 based off the books I have read from January-June 2020.  Today we have the follow up post reviewing the 22 books I read in the second half of 2020.  It’s not as impressive of a number as the 30 books from the first half of the year, but I did reach my goal of a total of 48 books for the year and I’m damn proud of that considering I’m still working part time and trying to help keep a little human alive.

To be honest, 52 books in one year was a lot for me to handle and I will likely cut back going forward.  I think a happy medium of 30 books for the year would be a great goal for 2021 and beyond (2.5 books per month).  Reading 52 books in 1 year, for me, meant reading for a few hours most days.  With my priorities on my daughter during her waking hours, this meant reading for ~1 hour in the afternoon while she napped and then for about 1-2 hours at night once she fell asleep.  To be honest, I turned into a book hermit and I didn’t allow nearly enough time to just sit and do nothing, play board games with Nic, or converse with Nic enough during this downtime.  Sure there were days that I wasn’t reading (especially in the summer) but I was definitely reading more than average.  This was a great learning experiment for me and I’m glad to have read all 52 books, but I know going forward that I’ll be cutting back a bit.

Our July-December 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 reads.  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.

1. The Hacking of the American Mind by Robert Lustig *****
   • Wow.  This is one of the best books I’ve read for the year.  It’s not an easy read and you have to take your time with it.  Lustig’s tone throughout is casually conversational (not overly technical) in explaining and illustrating the difference between short-term pleasure/reward and longer-term happiness/contentment, the two distinct neurotransmitter-mechanisms (dopamine and seratonin) that drive human brains’ experience of each, various ways in which these mechanisms can be altered to the point of driving addictive or depressive behaviors, and various growing factors in our modern daily lives that do just that.  About a quarter of this book concerns diet, with a big emphasis on sugar, so if you haven’t read his other book, Fat Chance, you’ll get a good dose of his argument here.  You’ll understand why you make yourself miserable with social media, processed food, and so many other vices once you’re through with this book.
2. Zero Waste Home**
   • While Johnson does provide some helpful energy & cost saving tips in her book, I felt like a lot of the information was a bit intuitive and/or lackluster.  For someone not familiar with many of these types of tips, this book would be a good starting point to help reduce your waste for sure.  I feel like she could have used this book to set a call to action on the crazy consumptive world we live in but instead there were tips for homemade makeup and mascara.  I appreciate her tips and ideas but I really related with the more basic stuff that can pretty much be found anywhere online now.  The really nit picky things just did not speak to me as being realistic.  Since that comprised a majority of the book I found myself zoning out many times.
3. A Random Walk Down Wall Street***
   • I appreciated how Malkiel digs into different time period that affected the American economy and consequently the world in order to provide the necessary elements to understand the main investment rules applied on the stock exchange.  The last section really digs into the meat and potatoes of actual investment advice.  If I was new to investing, this would be a good starting book.  The history of the markets was all new to me but the investing advice is very similar to many other buy-and-hold investment books out there (and this was one of the first books advocating for the buy and hold low fee diversified portfolio).
4. The Complete Tightwad Gazette****
   • What a lovely read.  It’s pretty crazy to think that this compilation of ideas was curated in the 1990s.  There are both tips and practical philosophy in this book and really, this book could potentially change your life.  It’s a compilation of self-published newsletters that Dacyzyn published in the early 1990s about her frugal lifestyle.  She really is an engaging writer with a sense of humor and it covers so many topics that I was able to get a ton of take-aways from it.  I’d call this the mother of all books on frugality.
5. The Simple Path To Wealth****
   • I went with the audiobook version for my second go at this book and while I love JL’s calm soothing voice, he also put me to sleep a few times!!  Considering JL, to me, is the godfather of the FIRE movement, it definitely ranks high up on my list as it covers behaviors relating to money as well as practical investment advice (mostly for Americans).  This is the type of book everyone in their 20s or anyone new to investing should be getting their hands on.
6. The Essential Retirement Guide***
   • Vettese provides some really great analysis on when it comes to retirement.  He dug into some topics I had yet to really research prior to (i.e. annuities) and he really digs into the numbers and charts of what you need for retirement.  While I don’t agree with all his points, it was definitely a worthwhile read to try and piece together our withdrawal strategy thoughts and plans.  I also appreciated that this was a book geared towards Canadians.
7. Retirement Income For Life***
   • I read two of Vettese’s books back to back which likely wasn’t the best way to go about things as there are a lot of parallel thoughts throughout both books.  Similarly, this book digs into the decumulation side of the equation.  While I’d say about 50% of the material was the same, the differing information in both books made reading both worthwhile.
8. Secondhand**
   • I was expecting this book to be more factual than conversational and thus I didn’t get as much out of it as I’d hoped for.  I’m glad it exists and will likely be eye opening for many people.  It was interesting to see how extensive the secondhand industry is on a global scale and to what extent discarded/donated things get restored, refurbished, rebuilt, and resold all over the world.  Minter travels all over the world from Goodwill centers in Arizona, to flea markets in Malaysia, to clothing recyclers in India, to computer/electronics rebuilders in Ghana.
9. How To Talk So Kids Will Listen… And Listen So Kids Will Talk*****
   • I truly think this is a book all parents should read.  It’s soooo easy to get frustrated with your little nugget multiple times a day and this book really helps to build the gap between the communication of an adult and a child.  There’s a ton of talk of recognizing your child’s feelings and emotions so they see that you understand them and they feel heard.  I’ll definitely be re-reading this book in a few years to keep these concepts fresh in my head as it really applies to a wide age-range, not just babies/toddlers.
10. Principles****
    • There were a ton of great takeaways in this book.  Dalio has an amazing story which the first part digs into (you can skip that portion of the book if you don’t care to hear about his story with a bit of humble brags in there too).  The second part was the true meat and potatoes for me with so many great points.  The third section is how these principles can be applied to work/business and let’s be honest I’m 90+% checked out when it comes to work so I didn’t find this part beneficial.  Really, I’d highly recommend the middle section and then you can cut out the “fluff” of the beginning and end if you want the core information as it does get a bit repetitive.
11. The Wealthy Gardener*****
    • Man I LOVED this book.  I didn’t know what to expect, but the way it was written is so good.  Soforic digs into philosophy, finances, learning, mentoring, and living a complete and fulfilling life – which is really what it’s all about.  The story of the gardener and the amazing quotes throughout the book make it a worthwhile read on its own.  Then the life lessons are just as good.  Soforic is definitely more religious than I am, but I was able to read past the religious parts.  He also is way more of a workaholic than me, but everyone’s values differ in this regard.  This really is a gem of a book which I wish everyone would read.  Soforic wrote this for his son and I’m so glad many others as able to read it too.
12. Investing In Rent To Own Property**
    • I was recommended this book by a real estate attorney when we were considering a rent-to-own situation for our townhouse.  While this book was interesting and presented rent-to-own investing in a totally new light that I had never considered, it did not apply to our situation at all.  This likely could have been written as a blog post instead of a book as the concept is relatively simple.  I was hoping for a book on how to structure a rent-to-own deal and things to be aware of but instead the focus was on something else completely.  Rather, this book focused on finding the tenant first, then having them pick their house to purchase, but you being the middle-man to provide the down payment while they work on building up their credit score.
13. Early Retirement Extreme****
    • This was my second time reading this book and I’m glad I re-read it as it really has so much valuable information inside.  This is not a how-to book, rather it’s a philosophical look into our consumer based, work-spend hamster wheel lifestyle.  Fisker, who blogged at Early Retirement Extreme, basically passed the FIRE blogging torch on to Mr Money Mustache.  Fisker asks some very fundamental questions about the nature of work and advocates for people to become “renaissance men” capable of doing/fixing many things rather than buying gadgets or paying people to do stuff.  This book deserves a spot on a bookshelf, not just checked out from the library.  Imagine if every high schooler was required to read this book instead of taking a home economics class?!
14. The Montessori Toddler****
    • The resources and techniques in this book have been really useful with practical applications of how to incorporate them into our home for toddlers.  It’s funny as I was reading this book I kept saying to Nic “hey look we’re doing this or that”.  Well, unbeknownst to me, Nic has done ample research on Montessori and has incorporated a TON of the concepts into our everyday lives.  We love the idea of raising free AND responsible children by allowing Finn to discover the world with all its wonders while also building competency.
15. Atomic Habits****
    • There are a ton of great takeaways and quotes in this book.  While this book is not within the FI realm itself, there are a ton of FI related concepts discussed throughout.  For example, habits are the compound interest of self improvement and your identify emerges out of your habits.  Building habits in the present allows you to do more of what you want in the future.  I appreciated how Clear actually goes over practical ways of implementing your own system.
16. The Grumpy Accountant****
    • This book reads like a story with a style very similar to The Wealthy Barber.  Any Seinfeld fans out there will particularly enjoy this book as Winokur drops many Seinfeld references throughout the book.  This book really provides some thought-provoking ideas as to how the Canadian tax system can be revamped AND simplified.  While you may think a book on the Canadian tax system would be dry and boring, Winokur does an excellent job of clearly explaining his solutions to this complex system while also keeping the material light and easy to read.  The realistic solution presented to simplify the Canadian tax system would likely benefit all Canadians.  And no I’m not going to share his solution, that’s the point of you reading the book! 😉 Definitely a worthwhile read to consider what an alternative tax system could look like.  I thought the Canadian system was simplified when comparing it to the nightmare US tax filing system, but Neal really highlights how much simpler the whole process can be.  Neal for Minster of Finance!
17. The 50 Biggest Estate Planning Mistakes**
    • Another Canadian written book which was helpful to read through prior to us getting our will, enduring power of attorney, and personal directive all set up towards the end of the year.  I was hoping for more out of this book to be honest.  There were some good takeaways but it did get a bit repetitive and the biggest mistake, which was harped on a lot, was not having a will set up.
18. The Creative Family Manifesto***
    • This book covered many ideas but just lightly and quickly.  There was a bit too many personal stories and anecdotes for me.  The overall concept of the book was great as it encouraged a simple lifestyle with all family members being active, involved, and contributing in some way.  Overall I’d say it was full of good ideas surrounded by a lot of fluff.  There we’re definitely some takeaways to incorporate into our own life, so I do appreciate gaining those ideas to be able to connect with each other more.
19. Set For Life****
    • This is a definite must read for anyone in their teens-20-30s who are starting their professional lives post-schooling.  If I were to ever write a book (I’m not!), it would likely read like this one as I’d love to target as many young people as possible to literally help them be set for life by understanding the mindset needed at a young age to gamify life and not let lifestyle creep come into play. Trench is the VP of Bigger Pockets so of course there is a tilt towards real estate in this book and I don’t agree with 100% of what he says, but I definitely agree with setting up a house hack early on as part of being set for life.  Anyone in the FIRE space should read this, especially those just starting out.
20. The Mindful Millionaire***
    • I didn’t know what to expect with this book but it definitely was not what I was anticipating.  This is a very unique personal finance book as it is 100% focused on the mental side of things.  From philosophy, to a DEEP DIVE trying to figure out why you view money the way you do, to meditations, chakras, journaling, breathing exercises, etc. This book is all about feelings and relationships and trying to figure out the root of a person’s problem with money.  I enjoyed it because it was so different than the other money books out there, however it was a bit too out there for me personally.
21. The 7 Most Important Equations For Your Retirement****
    • Whoa Moshe Milevsky you are a great human.  I first heard him on a Rational Reminder podcast and I immediately knew I wanted to read some of his material.  This book was really interesting in that it was a mix of a history lesson about some of the famous mathematicians from the past as well as going into a deep dive into 7 equations that have helped actuaries and financial planners plan retirement calculations.  As a math nerd, I found this book fascinating.  But don’t be alarmed it not just a book digging into equations and proofs – he breaks everything down into easy to comprehend examples.
22. Stumbling on Happiness**
    • I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but I was a bit disappointed.  Despite the title, this is  a cognitive psychology book rather than a self help book on how to find happiness.  It’s more of a study on why we are so bad at predicting what will make us happy.  The book is filled with a bunch of anecdotes and studies and really digs into the many errors we humans make when solidifying decisions and how our minds trick us into choosing things that might not lead us to happiness in the long run.

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

1. The Hacking of the American Mind
2. How To Talk So Kids Will Listen
3. The Wealthy Gardener
4. The 7 Most Important Equations For Your Retirement
5. Atomic Habits
6. Set For Life

Additionally, for any parents out there I’d also recommend The Montessori Toddler as it was a quick read with quite a few good examples to incorporate into your household.  And for any Canadians, I’d recommend The Grumpy Accountant as it too is a quick read and provides some interesting food for thought on how we can really simplify our tax system.

And again, if you missed our post on the first 3o books read from 2020, you can check that out here:

• 30 Personal Development Books From 2020 – Short Reviews 

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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• Investing Newbies: Check out our free Investing 101 Series.
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