One of my primary reading goals in 2025 is to start a ton of books and then stop reading said books that do not pique my interest early in the book. I have come to realize over many years that there are too many books that I will never get to read if I grind my way through subpar books. Books in my January reading list include Leadership: In Turbulent Times, Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes, Right Thing, Right Now: Good Values. Good Character. Good Deeds., Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever, and The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. My favorite book from my January reading list was The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.
Leadership: In Turbulent Times is the first book in my January reading list I have read by Doris Kearns Goodwin. She can write. Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes by Morgan Housel was incredible. The book is a nice companion to his CollabFund blog. Right Thing, Right Now: Good Values. Good Character. Good Deeds. is another fantastic book by Ryan Holiday. Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever is the first book I have read by Jack McCallum. I plan to read more of his books. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt shook me to the core. I cannot wait to read more of Haidt’s books. For all of the books I have read this year, including ones in my January reading list, check out my reading lists [HERE].
Leadership: In Turbulent Times
Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin is the story of how Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson “all collided with dramatic reversals that disrupted their lives and threatened to shatter their ambitions forever.” The primary reason I read this book was to learn about Lincoln. The book did not disappoint in sharing lessons about Lincoln being one of the best leaders ever. Additional books about Lincoln to read are Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times and Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever.
Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes
Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes by Morgan Housel may be the best book I read in 2025. I hate to call it this early but damn was this a wildly surprising and pleasant read. It was my first Housel book to read. However, I have been reading his Collaborative Fund blog for quite some time. Same as Ever is a short read “inviting us to identify the many things that never, ever change.” The book teaches you how to think about “optimizing risk, seizing opportunity, and living your best life” concisely, which I appreciate. Same as Ever is chock-full of stories and examples about how to look backward at history and ask yourself what is not going to change. I learned we can better see what is coming down the pike while realizing the most important thing is to live a good life. Other self-help books to check out include Four Thousand Weeks, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, and Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual.
Right Thing, Right Now: Good Values. Good Character. Good Deeds.
Right Thing, Right Now: Good Values. Good Character. Good Deeds. draws on lessons from historical figures like Marcus Aurelius, Jimmy Carter, Charles de Gaulle, and George Marshall. Each of these figures provides us with examples of “kindness, honesty, integrity, and loyalty we can emulate as pillars of upright living.” The book provided me with a cautionary tale of how life goes sideways when you do not have a moral compass by providing examples of unjust leaders. Other Holiday books worth reading include Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control, The Daily Dad: 366 Meditations on Parenting, Love, and Raising Great Kids, The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph, Ego Is the Enemy, Stillness Is the Key, Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave, and The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living.
Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever
Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever by Jack McCallum tells the story of the 1992 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team. McCallum, then working for Sports Illustrated, had a front-row seat to this unique time in Olympic basketball history. He covered the team’s inception through its gold medal win in Barcelona. The book offers a behind-the-scenes look at the team’s selection process led by Michael Jordan, the late-night card games, and the relationship between Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson. One of my favorite parts of the book was the legendary intrasquad scrimmage where Jordan and Magic went at it. Spoiler alert, Jordan got the best of Magic. The 1992 Dream Team changed Olympic basketball forever, in the most positive way. Michael Jordan: The Life, Driven from Within, Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made, and Drive: The Story of My Life are additional Jordan and Bird books worth checking out.
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt is one of those hit-you-in-the-face books if you are a parent. Haidt’s overarching question in the book is why rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide of adolescents in the early 2010s. The book then lays out the facts about the epidemic that is teen mental illness. An illness that hit many countries nearly at the same time. Haidt explains why children need free play to become thriving adults. Play-based childhood started its descent in the 1980s. It was wiped out with the arrival of what Haidt calls a phoned-based childhood in the early 2010s. The book argues that a phone-based childhood interferes with children’s social and neurological development. Impacts from this inference show up in sleep, attention spans, addiction, loneliness, and social comparison. Haidt walks you through why social media impacts girls more than boys. The books also show that boys are withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world and the consequences of this withdrawal for themselves and society. I loved how the book provides four clear calls to action to set every free: no smartphones until high school, no social media until 16, phone-free schools, and more free play for children.
