5 Books I've Read This Year

That taught me something

by Anonymous Bestie

When someone asks me what my favorite hobby is (obvs after shopping - which honestly is more of a sport if you ask me) my answer is usually reading. It’s honestly my favorite thing to do. A book, my bed, and a warm drink will literally give me brain tingles. 

This year, I’m on pace to read substantially fewer books than I normally do, thanks in part to an eye injury (iykyk), but the books I have read are really sticking with me differently.

I’m not entirely sure why I picked most of them in the first place. Mostly a vibe, if I’m being honest. But somehow, the books I’ve been drawn to this year have all had a similar effect on me, even though they’re about wildly different things.

They’ve helped me understand people, myself, or the world in a different way. Why we react the way we do, why we believe certain things, why some people become successful, and how often our own brains are making decisions before we even realize it.

I LOVE a book that gives me a new way to look at something and leaves me feeling a little more confident in how I move through the world.

These are five that have done that for me this year.

Are You Mad at Me? by Meg Josephson

This was probably the most personally useful book on the list. I truly can’t recall how many times I’ve said those words, let alone thought it.

The book talks a lot about fawning, which was something I didn’t really know about before, people pleasing, and the habit of constantly monitoring how other people feel about you. Basically, things I’ve been doing for as long as I can remember.

If you’ve ever assumed someone is annoyed with you because their text sounded slightly different, or felt responsible for making sure everyone around you is comfortable, you will probably recognize yourself somewhere in this book.

It helped me understand how much energy can go into trying to predict other people’s reactions and how easy it is to confuse anxiety with intuition.

The biggest thing I took from it was learning to give other people’s moods a little less power over mine. You can’t know what everyone is thinking or experiencing all the time. And generally, it’s not about you. Trying to figure it out usually just makes you more insecure or, at the very least, exhausted.

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

Working in and around social media every day meant this book held a very specific interest for me. I’m always curious about what is actually happening behind the platforms we spend so much time on and in the rooms that we don’t have access to. 

The book covers Wynn-Williams’ years working at Facebook and gives a pretty wild look at how major decisions were being made as the company became more powerful.

What stuck with me most was how little anyone seemed to understand the full impact of what they were building until it was already enormous. And once you have that kind of power, well... apparently it’s hard to give it up.

We tend to talk about social media and algorithms as these huge abstract forces, but there are actual people making decisions behind them with their own incentives, blind spots, ambitions, and priorities. That was eye-opening for me.

Definitely one that makes you stop and think.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

I’ve been known as a quick thinker my whole life, so naturally I was fascinated by a book that essentially spends hundreds of pages explaining why thinking quickly isn’t always the flex you think it is.

Kahneman breaks thinking into two systems. System 1 is fast, automatic, and constantly making associations and judgments without much effort from us. System 2 is slower and more deliberate. It’s the part we have to recruit when something requires real concentration, reasoning, or mental work.

A lot of the book is about recognizing the patterns and biases that come from letting System 1 run the show, which, to be clear, it does most of the time. I started noticing how quickly my brain fills in missing information, makes an assumption, or decides something feels true before I’ve really thought about it. Having language for those patterns alone made the book worthwhile for me.

But the part I found even more useful was understanding why System 2 can be so hard to mobilize. Deliberate thinking requires actual effort and attention, and our brains would generally prefer not to expend either if they don’t have to. Suddenly it made a lot more sense to me why I can make certain decisions almost instantly while another task that requires sustained concentration can feel weirdly Herculean.

I finished the book much better at recognizing what my brain is doing, when I might be relying on an assumption, and when I need to force myself to slow down and actually think. For me, that kind of self-awareness is a huge win.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I don’t really have a neat takeaway from The Bell Jar, I just loved it. 

It’s obviously a book about mental health, but what stayed with me most was how current so much of it still feels. There are lines, ideas, and ways of describing situations that have somehow never really left the zeitgeist.

It also becomes even more interesting when you know more about Sylvia Plath’s own life and how much of the novel is drawn from her experiences. That autobiographical layer gives certain parts of the book a completely different weight.

I think some books teach you something very specific, and some just leave you with a feeling you keep carrying around afterward. This was one of those for me.

It felt sad, sharp, familiar, and weirdly modern all at once. And I think that’s why I’m still thinking about it.

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

This book changed the way I think about wealth more than I expected it to.

A lot of it comes down to the fact that money is incredibly emotional which seems, not obvious to me. People make financial decisions based on where they grew up, what they’ve experienced, what they’re afraid of, what they want other people to think of them, and what success looks like in their own head.

It also gives a much more realistic view of why some people become wealthy. Luck is real, timing matters, and patience and persistence count for a lot. I found the idea of success as a tail event especially helpful, because it puts into perspective how often a small number of outcomes drive an outsized share of the results.

What this all says about me

I think books should stretch your universe a little. They should challenge how you see something, give you a new perspective, or leave you with a feeling or idea you keep thinking about after you’ve finished.

These all did that for me. Highly recommend.

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