Head over to the Mirr Ranch Group blog to read more about the unique investment value of Cinch Buckle and Antelope Springs Ranches. Not only can buyers expect predictable financial returns, but they can also enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that they are bolstering a massive swath of prairie grasslands—healing the land, increasing biodiversity, and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.

Cattle Ranches for Investment-Minded Buyers

“The Cinch Buckle and Antelope Springs Ranches are managed by Grasslands, LLC, a renowned ranch management company and global leader in Holistic Planned Grazing. On both ranches, Grasslands’ focused management techniques have restored the grasses and strengthened the landscapes’ overall ecological diversity, leading to increased livestock capacity on both ranches. The increased capacity, combined with Grasslands’ extensive investment in water infrastructure and ranch improvements, has allowed them to enjoy a level of profitability that would have been unimaginable on these ranches years ago.”

January-February Book Club Selection: “American Wolf” by Nate Blakeslee

During my podcast interview with renowned historian and author Dan Flores, I asked him to name his favorite books about the American West. He mentioned several classics, and then went on to describe in glowing terms a not-yet-released book about wolves in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Dan, the author of two of my all-time favorites—Coyote America and American Serengeti—described the book as “The Game of Thrones story of modern western wolves, [unfolding] in just as riveting a fashion. It is an absolutely mesmerizing read.”

The book has since been released, and if it’s is good enough for Dan, it’s good enough for us! So the January-February 2018 selection for the Mountain & Prairie Book Club is:

American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee

Wolves are a delicate subject here in the West, and most discussions of the legendary canine are sure to evoke strong reactions from anyone connected to the region. The animal and its influence touch almost every aspect of life in the West, including agriculture, hunting, conservation, ecology, government, sociology, tourism, and environmentalism, just to name a few. It’s difficult to understand the modern-day West without understanding wolves, so this should be an interesting and informative read.

Given the lightening-rod status of wolves in the West, this book selection and the ensuing discussion will serve as a revealing test case to determine if this book club will be a civil and productive endeavor. As you know, the Mountain & Prairie Book Club only has one rule: Be Nice. Please keep that front of mind as you read and discuss with the group. We all love the West and are here to learn from each other, so please Be Nice.

If you’d like to participate:

• Grab a copy of American Wolf — purchase it from Amazon or your local bookseller, or check it out from your local library. Start reading it.
• Head over to our Goodreads Group. Create an account, then join in the conversation in the online discussion forum. As you read, give your feedback on the book, pose questions to the group, and share your first-hand experience with wolves in the West. The only way this works is with lot of participation from lots of people, so the more the better.
• Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement on Goodreads regarding a live online discussion of the book via Google Hangouts. The number of video participants will be limited to 25, but any number of people can interact with the discussion by typing. This event will likely happen the second full week of March, and I will set the exact date and time in late-February.
• We’ll usually have two full months to read the selected book, but since we’re starting in late January, we’ll be on a modified schedule for American Wolf.  From now until the group discussion in mid-March, you’ll have 6+/- weeks to read the book. In the future, count on 8+/- weeks per book. (We’re expecting our second child to arrive in late March, so I want to have one full reading-discussion cycle complete prior to her birth and resulting crazy schedule. Thanks for understanding.)

Mountain & Prairie Book Club – Goodreads Group

Not interested in wolves or American Wolf?  Then get started on the March-April Book Club selection: All the Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West by David Gessner.  The official announcement will be in early March.

Last night’s sunset in South Park, Colorado

South Park, Colorado. A 1,000-square mile high-altitude basin. Expansive grasslands surrounded by towering snow-capped peaks, located just 70 miles west of the booming Denver metro area. In early summer, South Park is one of the most stunning landscapes in all the West—lush emerald meadows, herds of grazing deer, elk, and pronghorn, and cascading snowmelt that forms the headwaters of the South Platte River. In winter, it’s not for the faint of heart—sub-zero temperatures for days on end, gales that regularly knock 18 wheelers on their side, and blowing snow that reduces visibility to nothing.

Like most resource-rich areas of the West, South Park’s human history has been, and continues to be, one of conflict and conquest. The Utes and the Arapahos fought to control the basin’s rich hunting grounds. Then came the French and Spanish trappers whose insatiable appetite for beaver pelts all but eliminated the species from the basin. They were followed by miners, who were followed by ranchers, who were followed by developers, who were followed by present-day water speculators, all competing to squeeze a profit out of a delicate ecosystem with limited resources.

So who’s right and who’s wrong? Who deserves to capitalize on South Park’s resources and who doesn’t? Your answer likely depends on your upbringing, who pays your salary, your political leanings, what you do for fun, and an unknowable number of variables that make you a unique human. I have my opinions, but if I fed my family by working in the mining industry, would I feel differently? Probably so.

There are no simple, Twitter-length solutions to South Park’s challenges, or to the challenges of the American West. It’s a complicated and messy place—has been and always will be. But personal experience has shown me that most of us who love the West share more commonalities than differences, no matter our backgrounds or politics. Keep reading deeply, being curious, seeking out opinions different from your own. We’re all in this together, so we best start focusing on the common ground.

Book recommendation for further reading: Bayou Salado: The Story of South Park by Virginia McConnell Simmons

Photo and text republished from the Mountain & Prairie Instagram account.

My 10 Favorite Books of 2017

2017 was a solid year of reading that played out even better than expected—I discovered some older titles that I should’ve read long ago, enjoyed some new releases that I’d been anxiously awaiting, and had the opportunity to meet and chat with several of my favorite authors. As usual, the books’ subjects varied widely, and I hard-headedly stuck to 100% non-fiction.

It was difficult (silly? pointless?) to try and pick the absolute best books I read last year, but below, in no particular order, is my feeble attempt at My 10 Favorite Books of 2017:

Cattle Kingdom: The Hidden History of the Cowboy West by Christopher Knowlton – The most entertaining and comprehensive history of cattle ranching in the American West that I’ve ever read… and I’ve read a lot on this subject. (November/December list)

Bad Land: An American Romance by Jonathan Raban – Interesting and new (to me) insights into the settlement of Montana’s eastern Great Plains, with an eye-opening emphasis on the role that corporations and the government played in convincing (i.e. tricking) would-be settlers to head West. (September/October list)

American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains by Dan Flores – A “biography” of North American megafauna, including pronghorn, coyotes, horses, grizzlies, bison, and wolves. A must read for anyone who loves the American West. (July/August list)

Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History by Dan Flores – Coyotes are the most scorned large mammal in North America, yet they’re surprisingly the most human-like in their behavior. A wonderful overview of this fascinating animal and its complicated relationship with us humans. (May/June list)

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder – A short and to-the-point historical examination of how well-meaning countries fell prey to fascist rulers and tyrannical governments. Timely reading in this day and age. (July/August list)

All Waves are Water: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment and the Perfect Ride by Jaimal Yogis – Part memoir, part meditation manifesto, and part surf travelogue, Yogis nails it again with his follow-up to one of my all-time favorites, Saltwater Buddha. (July/August list)

Free Will by Sam Harris – Harris argues that free will is an illusion and that no one is truly in control of themselves or their actions. I don’t want to believe this, but, despite my best efforts, it’s tough for me to poke holes in his rationale. (September/October list)

What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength by Scott Carney – Since reading this book, I’ve taken a freezing-cold shower every day. And even after pushing the breathing exercises a little too far, passing out, and “bumping” my face on the floor, I’m still a huge fan! (March/April list)

Hellhound on his Trail: An Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt in American History by Hampton Sides – The true story of the nutjob loner who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. and the ensuing international manhunt that followed. Hampton Sides never disappoints. (January/February list)

Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram – A deep dive into the mind of an obsessed, unconventional, take-no-shit-from-anybody soldier, whose commitment to his craft changed the course of US military history. (March/April list)

A comprehensive list of every book I recommended in 2017, taken directly from my bimonthly book recommendations email.

Hellhound on His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt in American History by Hampton Sides – Hampton Sides is a damn genius. As far as I’m concerned, he is the best non-fiction writer alive. His ability to write in-depth, detailed, scholarly history on a wide variety of subjects and deliver it in entertaining, fun-to-read books is second to none. This one covers the stalking and assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. by the loner/pervert/nutcase Eric Galt aka James Earl Ray. The lead-up to the assassination and the subsequent international manhunt for Ray is a perfect example of truth being stranger than fiction. If you’re like me and are embarrassingly uneducated about the Civil Rights movement, the life of Martin Luther King Jr., and the turbulent 1960s, this book will serve as a solid jumping-off point to learn more. Excellent book. [One of my favorite books of all time is Hampton Sides’ Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West]

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides – I doubled down on Hampton Sides with this book about an ill-fated expedition to discover the North Pole. While the adventure narrative about the actual expedition is entertaining, I found some of Sides’ insights into the Gilded Age to be the more interesting parts of this book. The Gilded Age is my favorite chapter in U.S. history, and the amount of knowledge gained and myths busted during that time period is amazing. For example, when the USS Jeannette left on its adventure, the world’s leading scientists (as well as the boat’s captain) were absolutely convinced that the North Pole was an open warm-water sea created by thermal energy emanating from the earth’s core—turns out it was a deadly frozen wasteland that killed almost everyone on board. Once again, Hampton Sides knocks it out of the park with this one. [For more cold-weather adventure, you can’t beat Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing.]

Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Tim Ferriss – Given the amount of driving I do for work, Tim Ferriss’ podcast has been a godsend. I’ve listened to almost every episode, and each one invariably offers a few new ideas, actionable advice, or interesting book recommendations. Many of the books I’ve recommended on this list were a result of Ferriss’ in-depth and lengthy interviews with “world-class performers.” Tools of Titans is basically the CliffsNotes version of the podcast—hundreds of hours of audio distilled down into the “greatest hits” from each episode. The 700-page book is gargantuan—ridiculous really—and I’ll likely never read it all the way through. But it serves as a great reference for all of the excellent material covered in the podcast. [Check out his podcast interviews with author Sebastian Junger, former Navy SEAL Jocko Willink, and music producer Rick Rubin.]

Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk – A commonplace narrative in biographies of despondent or depressed people is a heroic story of how the individuals fought through their emotional challenges and eventually had a breakthrough that allowed them to conquer their demons once and for all. This book does no such thing. Instead, it explores how Abraham Lincoln’s chronic, sometimes debilitating, depression was a constant struggle his entire life, and how his battles with “melancholy” made him a stronger and more effective leader during one of our nation’s most tumultuous times. It’s an interesting examination of how a person’s greatest weakness can simultaneously be their greatest strength. [For more on the links between mental health and greatness, I recommend A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness by Nassir Ghaemi]

On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser – I’m a firm believer that the only way to learn how to do something is to actually do it. For instance, reading a book about how to run 100-mile ultra marathons won’t do you any good unless you lace up your shoes and go on six-hour training runs. A book may offer some good tips, but the learning is in the doing. So no, this book did not transform me into Hampton Sides overnight, but it did give me a useful toolkit to dig into every time I drag myself to the keyboard and struggle to bang out a few coherent sentences. The book is entertaining, surprisingly hilarious, and offers tips that run contrary to the rules and regs of freshman English class. I will refer back to this book often. [The best book on writing, or any creative endeavor, is The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield.]

What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength by Scott Carney – Over a year ago, I heard a podcast interview with an eccentric Dutchman named Wim Hof who was touting the benefits of cold showers, ice baths, and wacky breathing exercises—so, of course, I immediately gave it all a try. Barring the time I passed out and “bumped” my face on the floor, I found his exercises to improve my mood, burn fat that no amount of running seemed to be able to eliminate, and generally improve my overall well-being. I thought I had discovered a valuable secret until I heard that this book was being released, bringing the techniques and science behind the claims into the mainstream. The author is an investigative journalist who has made a career of debunking gurus, but when he used Wim’s techniques to hike to the summit of Kilimanjaro shirtless, his skepticism began to recede and he realized there may be something to Wim’s claims. (Here’s a short, mainstream article that summarizes the techniques, and here’s an excellent NPR interview with the author.)

The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution by David Quammen – Hardly a day goes by that I don’t hear or read a reference to “Darwinian,” “Darwinism,” or “Survival of the Fittest.”  But while reading this book, I realized just how little I actually knew about the man behind the theory… and the theory itself. Because I always pictured Darwin as a larger-than-life adventurer sailing the high seas on the HMS Beagle, I was surprised to learn that he was actually a bookish homebody who worked himself to the bone, all while suffering from debilitating chronic illnesses likely caused by anxiety. It took him close to 20 years to actually publish his theory because he worried about blowback from religious institutions, and he was a perfectionist who had trouble finishing projects. Eventually, other scientists began producing similar theories, so good ol’ ego and competition finally spurred him to publish On the Origin of Species. I really enjoyed this book. (The best evolution-focused book I’ve read in years is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.)

The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits by Judson Brewer – Luckily, I’ve never been addicted to anything, with one glaring exception—my iPhone. I pretty much despise the device, yet I find myself constantly fighting the urge to look at it, check email, or research any obscure idea that happens to pop into my head. This book helped me to understand exactly what’s going in people’s brains when they crave anything (cigarettes, booze, drugs, iPhones) and presents methods to stop the addictive behaviors. (Spoiler: iPhones are kind of like heroin.) The author is a neuroscientist and experienced meditator who combined science and mindfulness to invent a system that helps addicts of all kinds conquer their addictions. Amazingly, his system is twice as effective at helping smokers quit cigarettes as the “gold star” treatment prescribed by the American Lung Association. This is a very useful book that combines rock-solid scientific data with ancient Buddhist philosophy in a straightforward and non-silly style. We’ll see if it gives me sustained relief from the iPhone craving. (The best non-silly book on meditation/mindfulness that I’ve ever read is 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works by Dan Harris.)

Why Wall Street Matters by William D. Cohan – Given our current hyper-polarized political climate, you wouldn’t expect a lifelong progressive Democrat to write an insightful and even-handed defense of Wall Street, but that’s exactly what Cohan does in this short and easy-to-read book. Cohan, a former investment banker turned journalist, explains the history of Wall Street, the rise of investment banks, Wall Street’s effect on global economies, and how all of this affects every American’s day-to-day life. Cohan argues that American finance is mostly a force for good, but it has lost its way over the past 30 years thanks to faulty incentives that allow bankers to gamble with the public’s money with little or no personal consequence if they lose it all. After all of the indiscriminate Wall Street bashing by both parties during the recent presidential election, I appreciated this book’s rational and measured tone. (For a deeper dive into the history of Wall Street, check out The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Streetby Justin Fox.)

Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram – This rather obscure book was recommended to me by one of the toughest, most focused, and clearest thinking people I know (or know of). It’s the story of John Boyd, a fighter pilot turned self-taught military strategist whose theories led to the development of the F-15 and F-16, guided US strategy during Desert Storm, and altered the trajectory of the Air Force and the US Military. The book’s military history is extremely interesting, but I was more fascinated with Boyd’s personality—hard-charging, amazingly focused, contrarian, irreverent, hard working, and willing to bend or break long-standing military rules in order to accomplish his goals. Because Boyd was never promoted beyond Colonel, he’s not a well-known historical figure, but thanks to Coram’s entertaining and dense book, Boyd is receiving at least a little of the recognition he deserves. (If you like learning about irreverent, hard-charging, focused men, read my favorite book of all time: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris.)

Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History by Dan Flores – I love books that go deep on one very specific subject, and this is one of my favorites. The coyote is a controversial figure, especially here in the American West, and understanding this highly intelligent animal—and humans’ relationship with it—provides some interesting insights into the history of North America, our relationships with other species, and some of the comical ways we’ve gone about trying to control the natural world. The book covers all aspects of the animal, from its evolutionary past to its relationship with Native Americans, and its ability to outwit our best efforts to exterminate it from the planet. Whether you love them or hate them (or can’t distinguish a coyote from a German Shepard), you’ll walk away from this book with new insights into humans, animals, and the North American landscape. (My favorite subject-specific book of all time is Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky.)

United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good by Cory Booker – I first learned of Cory Booker back in 2005 when I watched the documentary Street Fight. I was intrigued by this Stanford and Yale-educated, Division One football-playing, Rhodes Scholar attorney who passed up high-paying jobs to live in the housing projects of Newark, NJ and devote his life to community development. Since then, he’s worked his way up from City Councilman to Mayor to Senator. While I usually avoid books written by sitting politicians—they are often self-congratulatory nonsense—I made an exception for Booker. It’s a well-written and engaging book that discusses his upbringing, his parents’ role in the civil rights movement, and lessons learned from various mentors along the way. Of course he delves into some current political issues, but I thought they were presented in a logical, non-inflammatory manner. He even challenged some of my notions on issues such as minimum wage and the environment, which is exactly why I read so much—to stretch my mind, challenge my beliefs, and see the world in a more informed way. (If we’re talking about politicians, of course I have to recommend a TR book. Here’s a good one that covers his time as police commissioner of New York City: Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt’s Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York by Richard Zacks.)

The Legend of Colton H. Bryant by Alexandra Fuller – This book follows the life of Colton Bryant, a young man from Evanston, WY, whose life is shaped by the booms and busts of the American West’s energy business. His father is a lifelong oil rig worker, and Colton follows in his footsteps, taking a job on a rig in the Upper Green River Valley during the boom of the mid-2000s. I felt a surprising connection with Colton, because we were almost the same age, working in the same area of Wyoming at the exact same time—we very well could have passed each other on Highway 191 at some point. However, through nothing but luck of circumstance, I was selling beautiful ranches while Colton was risking his life in unsafe conditions for relatively low pay and little job security. Although the book reads like fiction, it is true, and it gives some valuable insights into the lives of the West’s struggling lower-middle class. (David Gessner’s All the Wild that Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West touches on energy production in the West, plus plenty of other fascinating subjects.)

Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer by Phyllis Bennis – I was having dinner with friends recently when the subject of Palestine came up. As I sat quietly, nodding my head, contributing nothing to the conversation, I thought: “I probably can’t find Palestine is on a map, but I sure know a hell of a lot about coyotes!” Two days later, the folks at Boulder Bookstore pointed me to this book as a way to fill this embarrassing gap in my understanding of the world. The book is basically 200 pages of Israel-Palestine FAQs that covers everything from the history of Israel and the competing interests in the area to answers to basic questions like “What is Hamas?” and “What is Zionism?” As I read the book, most of the people and events were vaguely familiar to me, and this book brought them all together into a relatively easy-to-understand narrative. As much as I read and as curious as I am, it’s amazing that I could be so clueless about such an important (and violent) part of world history that has been unfolding throughout my life. I wonder what else I’m missing?

Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher by Richard P. Feynman – Years ago, I came across a Youtube video of a man ripping to shreds the idea of “honors,” and I knew I had to learn more about this man. Turns out he was Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, a man who not only contributed to the success of the Manhattan Project, but was a quirky polymath who dabbled in painting, bongo playing, safe cracking, pranking, and hilarious storytelling. Feynman was also a gifted teacher, and this book consists of six different introductory physics classes that he taught at Cal Tech, transcribed into written word. I never took physics in high school or college, so I found the overall concepts interesting. More interesting, however, is Feynman’s ability to communicate extremely complex subjects in a manner that is relatively easy to understand. Most interesting is the opportunity to observe how Feynman’s mind works—extremely curious, open to new ideas, looking to overturn conventional wisdom, and completely rational. In our current political environment where the scientific method seems to be taking a back seat to opinions and emotions, absorbing Feynman’s outlook and personality is like a breath of fresh air. (For more insights into the man himself, I highly recommend one of his other books, Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character.)

American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains by Dan Flores – If you have an interest in natural history and love the American West, this book should be required reading. It gives an overview of the history of large mammals in North America—also known as “charismatic megafauna’—which included lions, mammoths, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, and giant long-horned bison, to name a few. Then Flores digs into detail on some of North America’s remaining large mammals, including pronghorn, coyotes, horses, grizzlies, bison, and wolves. I marked up almost every page of this book with notes and highlights, as each chapter gave me new insights into the why things are the way they are in the West. Flores balances natural history and science with humor and clean prose, making this book a real pleasure to read. I predict I’ll be referring back to this book often. (The first book that introduced me to some of these natural history concepts, then changed my perspective on how livestock can be used to restore grassland ecosystems is For the Love of Land: Global Case Studies of Grazing in Nature’s Image by my good buddy Jim Howell.)

Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania by Frank Bruni– This book confirmed many of my suspicions about college rankings, specifically people’s obsession with the US News “Best Colleges” list—that it is a baseless system that can be gamed by participants and ultimately means nothing. Everyone who has children should read this book, as it gives excellent insights into just how flawed and nonsensical those rankings are. Kids should pick colleges based on their specific interests and personalities, not based on a list put together by a faceless profit-seeking organization with dodgy intentions. Bruni argues that no matter where you go to school, you only get out of it what you put in, so kids’ efforts at their school are much more important than the school’s brand. College admission is far from the finish line of life—work ethic during college and the pursuit of a fulfilling, meaningful career for the following 40+ years should be a much higher priority. (Bruni’s undergraduate education at UNC-Chapel Hill was funded by the Morehead-Cain Foundation—my ridiculously smart wife had the same scholarship and now works for the Foundation, which is how I learned about this book.)

All Waves are Water: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment and the Perfect Ride by Jaimal Yogis – Before I started surfing, I used to scoff when I’d hear spaced-out surfer dudes drone on about how surfing is “spiritual.” Then, after surfing almost every day for a year, I came to understand and completely agree with their assessment. This book combines surfing, meditation, religion, travel, and adventure, in an amazingly cohesive and fun memoir that connects these heavy subjects in unexpected ways. It amazes me that Yogis is able to write about such weighty topics as religion and philosophy, then connect them to surfing, in a manner that is neither silly nor pompous. As an obsessed surfer and a daily meditator, I loved everything about this book. And to top it all off, I was lucky enough to meet Yogis in person at a recent book-signing and thoroughly enjoyed chatting with him—he was humble, insightful, and interested, which made me like the book even more. (Yogis’ first book Saltwater Buddha: A Surfer’s Quest to Find Zen on the Sea is one of my all-time favorites.)

The Haywire Heart: How too much exercise can kill you, and what you can do to protect your heart by Case, Mandrola, and Zinn – Back in June, I was running a 100-mile ultramarathon in Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains, and my heart went completely nuts, ruining my race and giving me quite a scare. After multiple visits to cardiologists, I am apparently fine, but I walked away from the experience realizing that most doctors know next to nothing about ultra-distance endurance training and its effects on the body. Lucky for me, this book was published earlier this year and is written by several hardcore endurance athletes, one of whom is also a respected electrophysiologist. The book discusses how extreme exercise can affect the heart, the specific diagnoses, and the full spectrum of treatment options—all from the perspective of people who understand the realities of running non-stop for 24-48 hours at a time. A very niche subject for sure, but I highly recommend it, as it gave me solid base-level of understanding about the heart, cardiologists’ lingo, all of the treatment options, and more.

The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy – I don’t know how I came across this book or why I read it—maybe because I was down in the dumps about my heart and unfinished race—but it was timely and surprisingly good. I generally shy away from self-help books, as they usually lead me down a rabbit hole of endless planning, systems, and processes, with very little action and results. This book didn’t really present any new ideas, but it was an effective repackaging of things I already knew at a time when I needed a fresh perspective. The basic ideas are: work extremely hard, make definitive choices, take full responsibility for everything, track your progress, be mindful of habits, and take action NOW.  It’s not rocket science. It’s straightforward stuff that everyone knows in theory, but I took a lot away from Hardy’s original presentation of the familiar material. (One of the best self-help type books I’ve read and that I continually refer back to is The Art of Taking Action: Lessons from Japanese Psychology by Gregg Krech.)

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder – Very enlightening and short book that discusses how totalitarian regimes were able to take over societies during the 20th century. Most of the examples revolve around Hitler’s rise to power, and Snyder shows how Hitler’s transformation of Germany into a fascist regime was a complete surprise to many German scholars, politicians, and citizens—very few took him seriously at first, writing him off as an extremist clown. The book demonstrates just how vulnerable democratic societies can be to the pull of authoritarianism and how citizens must remain vigilant and proactive in repelling forces that threaten democracy. This would be an eye-opening book at any time, but given the current cuckoo political climate in the U.S., it’s even more important. (If you don’t know how to read, check out this interview with the author on Sam Harris’s Waking Up Podcast.)

Bad Land: An American Romance by Jonathan Raban – This book had been on my “to-read” list for quite a while, but a recent work trip to eastern Montana prompted me to bump it to the top of the list—an amazing book that I should’ve read years ago. It’s a history of the settlement of eastern Montana combined with the author’s personal journey traveling through and learning about this uniquely American landscape and culture. Raban details the railroads’ marketing trickery that convinced aspiring emigrants to pack up and move to a 320-acre patch of treeless, dry, windswept grassland. He explains the government’s propaganda touting the lie that “rain follows the plow,” which convinced most of these settlers to plow up healthy grass and plant crops that would not grow. Raban is British, so he brings an outsider’s perspective to his analysis, completely free of the romantic biases that Americans often harbor toward the West. Enlightening, funny, and entertaining—highly recommended. [I also recommend Theodore Roosevelt’s Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, as it lays the groundwork for TR’s love of the West, which directly affected some of the policies that led to the settlement of Montana.]

Theodore Roosevelt’s Letters to His Children by Theodore Roosevelt – I re-read this book and will likely re-read it every year for the rest of my life. Everyone knows that TR was a hard-charging politician (and soldier, naturalist, historian, hunter, explorer, rancher, etc.), but few  understand that he was a truly devoted father and family man. This collection of letters is equal parts hilarious and heartwarming, and I also see it as instructional—he sets a great example of an engaged and fun father, while also modeling the values that I hope to pass along to my children. The book is full of ridiculous stories, such as a badger running loose in the White House, snakes slithering up the pants of Senators, and flying squirrels terrorizing presidential guests, all to the sheer delight of TR.  But for every letter about mischief, there is a letter encouraging his children to work hard, be honest, and live up to high personal standards, no matter the influences of the outside world. [If you’re looking for a single good book in the ridiculous heap of the parenting genre, the best one I’ve read is Bringing Up Bebé: One American Woman Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman.]

In the Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time by Peter Lovenheim – Ever since becoming a father, I’ve come to appreciate the importance of community even more than I did before. I’ve also realized how our modern-day society inadvertently snubs out community—many Americans don’t know our neighbors, we’re isolated in our own little sealed-off worlds, mostly oblivious to the people who live in our immediate vicinity. In this book, the author, who has lived in the same suburban, high-end neighborhood for most of his life, realizes he doesn’t really know any of his neighbors, so he sets out to change that. Using the very, very weird technique of asking to spend the night in their homes, he learns the ins and outs of the neighbors’ lives, is able to make connections among once-strangers, and builds a nice community in what was once a sterile suburb. Some parts of the book are a little over the top (as in I would likely call the authorities on a neighbor doing some of the stuff this guy did), but his slightly odd community-building efforts make a strong point—communities matter and we need to be proactive in building and maintaining them. [For the best defense of community I’ve ever read, check out Sebastian Junger’s Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging.]

Free Will by Sam Harris – I really admire Sam Harris and see him as one of the most clear-thinking and rational voices on a wide spectrum of modern-day cultural issues. Most of his ideas make so much sense to me that I’ve begun actively trying to poke holes in every argument he makes—I never want to defer too much to one individual’s line of thinking (except TR). Free Will is one of those books that I do not want to agree with, but it’s hard for me to find a gap in Harris’s rationale. He argues that no one actually has free will—that all of our choices and opinions are the product of circumstances outside of our control and that no one is truly in control of themselves and their actions. He also argues that a lack of free will is not a bad thing, and that understanding and accepting this reality can improve huge parts of our lives and society. I continue to ruminate on these ideas weeks after finishing the book, so it obviously had an impact on my thinking. It’s a very short book, so if you like challenging your preconceived ideas, you should check it out. [I will once again recommend Sam Harris’s brain-scrambling book Lying—an argument that no one should lie about anything, ever, no matter how benign the issue may be.]

Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual by Jocko Willink – So much for the idea of “no free will,” because I read this book with the intention of willing myself to be a little tougher, more disciplined, and an all-around better person. Jocko Willink is a retired Navy SEAL and one of the most genuinely hardcore dudes I’ve ever encountered. The book basically details his day-to-day operating system for living a successful life, which involves embracing discipline above all else. He declares that there are no shortcuts or secrets, that discipline is difficult and it should be. He touts the importance of getting up early, exercising daily, and always working from a list. All very simple ideas, but far from easy. To give you a sample of his no-nonsense advice, here’s a short passage: “People constantly ask me for the secret of getting up early. I tell them it is simple: Set your alarm clock and get out of bed when it goes off.” In a world of endless motivational quotes, “lifehacks,” and self-help foolishness, this book is refreshing, realistic, actionable, and no-nonsense. [If you’re not familiar with Jocko, you many want to check out his podcast or other book, Extreme Ownership: How US Navy SEALs Lead and Win. I love his approach, but I can see how he may not be for everyone.]

Modern Huntsman, Volume 1 – Not a book per se, but this soon-to-be-published magazine will hold a place on my bookshelf alongside all the other important works that mean so much to me. This 200+ page magazine is the brainchild of several friends who happen to be some of the most interesting and impressive folks I know. The first edition of this publication, to be released in early 2018, will feature articles, photography, and commentary by an all-star team of deep-thinking conservationists, hunters, and adventurers. The goal of the publication is to improve the perception of hunting in our society through storytelling in a fresh, elegant, and thoughtful manner. I’m not an obsessed hunter, but my work in conservation and my understanding of natural history have given me a firsthand appreciation for the importance of hunting and the vital role it plays in conserving landscapes and species around the world. This is an important project on several levels, so watch the video on their Kickstarter page if you want to learn more and secure a copy for yourself.

Cattle Kingdom: The Hidden History of the Cowboy West by Christopher Knowlton – This is the book I’ve been waiting for since I moved West in 2005. It’s a comprehensive history of the settlement of the West, as shaped by the rapid expansion (and dramatic implosion) of the cattle ranching business. I loved this book because it’s broad enough to offer a solid overview of the timeframe of the first cattle drives north from Texas, but it also zooms in on specific individuals and events that were instrumental in fueling the western cattle boom. Despite my involvement in the ranching world and my voracious appetite for western history, I learned a lot from this book, specifically the influence of European investment on western settlement. To add to my excitement, there is lots of discussion of TR and his involvement in the West, which is always a welcome subject. [Speaking of TR, if you want a full book dedicated exclusively to his time in the West, check out Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands: A Young Politician’s Quest for Recovery in the American West by Roger Di Silvestro.]

The Rules Do Not Apply: A Memoir by Ariel Levy – For Pete’s sake, this author’s life is complicated. She’s a staff writer for the New Yorker and an enormously talented author, but how she had the guts to reveal such tragic, weird, sad, and extremely personal details of her life, I’ll never know. This memoir covers everything from her non-traditional family upbringing to a terrible tragedy that struck during a reporting trip to Mongolia, which resulted in the total upending of all aspects of her life. This is far from an upbeat, fun-to-read book, but despite my having almost nothing in common with the author, I found many of her insights and lessons learned to be wise and worth considering. I continue to think about this book weeks after finishing it, which I consider the mark of a book worth reading. It also makes me very thankful for my relatively boring life. [For another New Yorker-staff-writer memoir, read the Pulitzer Prize-winning Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan. It’s one of my all-time favorites.]

The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis—and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Relianceby Ben Sasse – Sasse is an up-and-coming Republican Senator from Nebraska, but you don’t need to agree with his politics to appreciate his insights in this excellent book. To be clear—this book is not the compiled rants of a well-to-do white guy complaining about how today’s youth don’t understand how good they’ve got it (e.g. “I used to walk 10 miles to school through the snow, uphill both ways!”). Rather, it’s an insightful, historically based examination of how recent cultural changes are making younger generations less prepared to compete and succeed in the real word. Sasse advocates for consuming less, reading more, traveling to deeply experience new cultures, and devoting oneself to meaningful, challenging work—it’s hard for me to disagree with any of that. And like Cattle Kingdom above, there are many TR references throughout the book, which only adds to its appeal.

Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose by Joe Biden – Until a few years into his Vice Presidency, I wrongly assumed Joe Biden was just another fake-grinning, loudmouthed politician. But as I dug into his backstory, I was surprised to discover that behind the aviator sunglasses, the endless gaffes, and the persona created by The Onion, there is an amazingly decent, grounded, and truly optimistic man who has suffered—and recovered from—some of the most devastating personal experiences imaginable. He doesn’t drink, has never been wealthy, and is deeply admired by a wide range of colleagues from Strom Thurmond to Ted Kennedy. This book tells the story of his most recent loss, his son Beau’s death from aggressive brain cancer. It’s touching, insightful, and inspiring to understand how Biden dealt with yet another tragedy, and how he continued get up and keep pushing forward without becoming bitter. Included in the book is a bit of fluff about his Vice Presidential accomplishments, which is expected and hints that he’s not done with politics. But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. [If you want the over-the-top, R-rated version of Joe Biden that colored my perception of the man for years, check out The Onion’scoverage of his Vice Presidency. Completely fictional, completely crude, and completely hilarious.]

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel – This is the true story of a complete weirdo who lived hidden in the Maine woods completely alone, never speaking to another human for 27 years. I enjoyed the book and read it quickly in just three sittings, but absolutely did not like the main character, the hermit Christopher Knight. Knight’s experience as a hermit was unlike any other known hermit—he was not seeking spiritual enlightenment nor did he have a true love of nature—according to the author, he just sort of sat around for the better part of three decades in a small, forested cove with no real purpose or reason for being there. Instead of hunting, trapping, or some other type of self-reliant badassery, he snuck around at night and stole all of his food, clothing, and gear from vacation homes and a nearby summer camp. My visceral reaction to the hermit and his lame “hunting and gathering” methods speaks to the author’s ability to tell an engrossing story that strikes a chord with readers. Very entertaining and worth a read. [One of my favorite books as a kid was Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, about a boy who actually hunts and fishes (and doesn’t steal) in order to survive in the wilderness.]

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger – I re-read this book a few weeks ago, and will likely re-read it again and again. It’s no exaggeration that I think about it everyday and have bought numerous copies to give away to friends and family. It’s short and powerful and has redefined my thinking on the importance of community, purpose, and the social structure of modern-day America. I can’t recommend it enough. Here’s my original recommendation from July/August 2016. [But don’t take my word for it, the almighty Oprah loved it, too—listen to her podcast with Junger.  Or listen to this Joe Rogan Podcast episode with Junger.]

Innovators of the American West Book List

Over the years, I’ve interviewed dozens of innovators who are shaping the future of the American West—writers and ranchers, athletes and artists, conservationists and entrepreneurs, to name a few. While their vocations and backgrounds vary widely, they’re all connected by a shared love of books. All of my guests read widely and deeply, and they credit books with shaping their outlooks, work, and lives.

On each episode’s webpage, the exhaustive “episode notes” link to all books, authors, and other pertinent information discussed in the interview. So in an effort to consolidate all of this valuable information in one easy-to-access location, I compiled every book mentioned by each of my guests into this single comprehensive super-mega-list—the Innovators of the American West Book List. I’ve tried my best to organize them into logical categories, taking into account that many of the books span several genres.

As you’ll see, the books are as diverse as the guests, with topics ranging from the obvious western history and biographies, to more esoteric subjects such as military history, religion, and philosophy. Each book has played an important role in at least one of my guests’ fascinating lives, so it’s safe to say these books have been vetted and come highly recommended. For curious readers who love the American West, this list is a treasure trove.

I will continue to update this list after episodes (last update: 3-13-19), adding newly mentioned books or authors to their respective categories. I hope this list directs you to some books that you would not have otherwise discovered and that you will continue to check back as the list grows. Enjoy!

Western History

• Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival by Peter Stark
• Jefferson’s America: The President, the Purchase, and the Explorers Who Transformed a Nation by Julie Fenster
• Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West by Hampton Sides
• The Big Burn: Theodore Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan
• The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
• American Buffalo: In Seach of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella
• Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West by Dorothy Wickenden
• Beyond the 100th Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West by Wallace Stegner
• Sweet Promised Land by Robert Laxalt
• Winter: Notes from Montana by Rick Bass
• Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s by Donald Worster
• Roughing It by Mark Twain
• The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West by Patricia Limerick
• Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose
• An American Idea: The Making of the National Parks by Kim Heacox
• Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America’s National Parks by Mark Woods
• Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean
• Cattle Kingdom: The Hidden History of the Cowboy West by Christopher Knowlton 
• Bad Land: An American Romance by Jonathan Raban
• Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan
• Cougar Annie’s Garden by Margaret Horsfield
• Down the Santa Fe Trail and Into Mexico: The Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin by Susan Magoffin
• Montana: An Uncommon Land by Ross Toole
• Big Bend: A Homesteaders Story by JO Langford
• The Big Ranch Country by JW Williams

Biographies & Memoirs

• The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt, A Lifetime of Exploration, and the Triumph of American Natural History by Darrin Lunde
• The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
• Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris
• Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
• The Wilderness Warrior – Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley
• Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands: A Young Politician’s Quest for Recovery in the American West by Roger Di Silvestro
• An African Obsession: The Life and Legacy of Carl Akeley by Penelope Bodry-Sanders
• All the Wild that Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West by David Gessner
• No Destination: Autobiography of a Pilgrim by Satish Kumar
• Shadows of the Koyukuk: An Alaskan Native’s Life Along the River by Sidney Huntington
• Confessions of a Maverick: An Autobiography by Farrington Carptenter
• Call Me Ted by Ted Turner
• Last Stand: Ted Turner and His Quest to Save a Troubled Planet by Todd Wilkinson
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• The Hippy Guide to Climbing the Corporate Ladder and Other Mountains: How JanSport Makes It Happen by Skip Yowell
• Memoirs of the Second World War by Winston Churchill
• The Prophet of Dry Hill: Lessons from a Life in Nature by David Gessner
• Knife Fights: A Memoir of Modern War in Theory and Practice by John Nagl
• Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
• House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind by Ivan Doig
• Heart Earth: A Memoir by Ivan Doig
• The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeanette Walls
• The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball
• Temperance Creek: A Memoir by Pamela Royes
• Ladies of the Canyons: A League of Extraordinary Women and Their Adventures in the American Southwest by Lesley Poling-Kempes
• Two in the Far North by Margaret Murie
• Claiming Ground by Laura Bell
• Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris
• The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
• Where the Rivers Change by Mark Spragg
• 60 Meters to Anywhere by Brendan Leonard
• Life at Full Draw: The Chuck Adams Story by Gregg Gutschow
• Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life by Kathleen Dalton
• Breaking Clean by Judy Blunt
• The Mountain and the Father: Growing Up in the Big Dry by Joe Wilkins
• Bad Luck Way: A Year on the Ragged Edge of the West by Bryce Anderson
• The Far Horizons: 30 Years Among the Gauchos of Uraguay by Christopher Empson
• The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich

Western Issues

• Colorado Water Law for Non-Lawyers by P. Andrew Jones
• Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner
• Man Meets Gizzly by F.M. Young
• Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park by Lee H Whittlesey
• The Abstract Wild by Jack Turner
• Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
• Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
• Wild Idea: Buffalo and Family in a Difficult Land by Dan O’Brien
• Ranching West of the 100th Meridian edited by Knight, Gilgert, and Marston
• Crossing The Next Meridian: Land, Water, and the Future of the West by Charles Wilkinson
• The Secret Knowledge of Water: Discovering the Essence of the American West by Craig Childs
• Where the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River by David Owen
• The Grand Canyon: Between River and Rim by Pete McBride
• A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American West by William deBuys
• Losing Eden: An Environmental History of the American West by Sara Dant
• Revolution on the Range: The Rise of a New Ranch in the American West by Courtney White
• Recovering a Lost River: Removing Dams, Rewilding Salmon, Revitalizing Communities by Stephen Hawley
• A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia River by Blaine Harden

Adventure

• The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko
• Beyond the Mountain by Steve House
• River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
• The Horizontal Everest: Extreme Journeys on Ellesmere Island by Jerry Kobalenko
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
• Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by John Krakauer
• Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man’s Miraculous Survival by Joe Simpson
• Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire by John Maclean
• Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean
• The Fire Line: The Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots by Fernanda Santos
• Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
• Fire by Sebastian Junger
• The Wild Places by Robert MacFarlane
• The Man-Eaters of Tsavo by John Henry Patterson
• The New American Road Trip Mixtape by Brendan Leonard
• Horns in the High Country by Andy Russell
• Death in the Long Grass by Peter Capstick
• Death in the Silent Places by Peter Capstick
• My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

Native American History

• Crowfoot: Chief of the Blackfeet by Hugh Dempsey
• The Apache Wars: The Hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy Who Started the Longest War in American History by Paul Andrew Hutton
• The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin
• Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne
• Corn Among the Indians of the Upper Missouri by George Francis Will and George E. Hyde
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown
• Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto by Vine Deloria, Jr.
• God is Red: A Native View of Religion by Vine Deloria, Jr.
• Mitakuye Oyasin: We Are All Related by A.C. Ross
• Indian Why Stories by Frank B Linderman
• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
• Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations by Charles Wilkinson
• I Will Fight No More Forever: Chief Joseph and the New Perce War by Merrill Beal

Land Management & Agriculture

History & Natural History

• Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest Hour by Lynee Olson
• Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger
• The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction by David Quammen
• Fire: A Brief History by Stephen Pyne
• Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History by Dan Flores
• American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains by Dan Flores
• American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee
• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
• The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World’s Wild Places by Bernie Krause
• Seeing Nature: Deliberate Encounters with the Visible World by Paul Krafel
• Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
• Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
• The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams
• Backcountry Bow Hunting by Cam Haynes
• The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
• Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War by Joe Begeant
• On Desperate Ground: The Marines at the Reservoir, the Korean War’s Greatest Battle by Hampton Sides
• Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England by William Cronon
• Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert Putnam
• Seeing Like a State: How Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James Scott
• Manhunt: The 12-Day Hunt to Catch Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson
• Body of Water: A Sage, a Seeker, and the World’s Most Elusive Fish by Chris Dombrowski
• Coming Into the Country by John McPhee
• One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rainforest by Wade Davis
• Down from the Mountain: The Life and Death of a Grizzly Bear by Bryce Andrews

Athletics

• Training for the New Alpinism: A Manual for the Climber as Athlete by Steve House and Scott Johnston
• Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall
• Natural Born Heroes: How a Daring Band of Misfits Mastered the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance by Christopher McDougall

Personal & Creative Development

• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• Good to Great for the Social Sectors: Why Business Thinking is Not the Answer by Jim Collins
• War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win You Inner Creative Battle by Stephen Pressfield
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Business and Life by Charles Duhigg
• The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss
• Forever Changed: How Summer Programs and Insight Mentoring Challenge Adolescents and Transform Lives by Linda Mornell
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
• Sit Like a Buddha: A Pocket Guide to Meditation by Lodro Rinzler
• Walk Like a Buddha: Even if Your Boss Sucks, Your Ex Is Torturing You, and You’re Hungover Again by Lodro Rinzler
• Make It Till You Make It: 40 Myths and Truths About Creating by Brendan Leonard
• In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki
• Wabi Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets, and Philosophers by Leonard Koren
• Life Work by Donald Hall
• How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence by Michael Pollan
• Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard
• The Four Agreements by Don Migel Ruiz
• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
• Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
• Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future by Peter Senge et. al.
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• The Compassionate Achiever by Christopher Kukk
• Draft No. 4 by John McPhee

Fiction

• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• East of Eden by John Steinbeck
• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
• Anthill: A Novel by E.O. Wilson
• My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
• Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
• The Drifters: A Novel by James Michener
• The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
• The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
• The River Why by David James Duncan
• The Rum Diary: A Novel by Hunter S Thompson
• Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway
• The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway
• The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
• Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
• Something of Value by Robert Ruark
• The Old Man and the Boy by Robert Ruark
• A River Runs Through It by Normal Maclean
• Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeannette Walls
• Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck
• Youth by Joseph Conrad
• Typhoon by Joseph Conrad
• Little Britches series by Ralph Moody
• Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Little Big Man: A Novel by Thomas Berger
• Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggars
• The Painter by Peter Heller
• A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
• Blind Your Ponies by Stanley Gordon West
• Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
• The Wolves of Currumpaw by William Grill
• Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• A Thousand Acres: A Novel by Jane Smiley
• The Road Home by Jim Harrison
• Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison
• All the King’s Men by Robert Warren Penn
• Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs by Wallace Stegner
• Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
• Ismael by Daniel Quinn
• Trails Plowed Under by Charles Russell
• 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marquez
• The Sheep Queen by Thomas Savage
• My Antonia by Willa Cather
• The Meadow by David Galvin
• Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
• Gallatin Canyon by Thomas McGuane

Philosophy & Essays

• The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
• The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
• The Walk by William deBuys
• A Native Hill by Wendell Berry
• The Problems of Work by L Ron Hubbard
• Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew Crawford
• Meditations on Hunting by Jose Ortega y Gasset
• A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• Walking by Henry David Thoreau
• The Public and Its Problems: An Essay in Political Inquiry by John Dewey
• West of 98: Living and Writing in the New American West by Lynn Stegner

Specifically Mentioned Authors

• Wendell Berry
• Aldo Leopold
• Edward Abbey
• Nick Hornby
• Gary Snyder
• Joseph Campbell
• Hubert Selby Jr.
• David Gessner
• Tom Dorrance
• Satish Kumar
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Wallace Stegner
• Mary Oliver
• Sinclair Lewis
• Cormac McCarthy
• David Quammen
• Thomas McGuane
• Ernest Hemingway
• Ivan Doig
• Michael Pollan
• Kristin Kimball
• John Muir
• Annie Dillard
• Zane Grey
• David Montgomery
• Joel Salatin
• Charles Wilkinson
• Robinson Jeffers
• Robert Frost
• Loius L’Amore
• Max Brand
• Craig Childs
• Donald Hall
• Burns Ellison
• Philip Roth
• Shelby Foote
• Jim Harrison
• David Grann
• Candice Millard
• Laura Hillenbrand
• Nathaniel Philbrick
• David McCullough
• Tim Cahill
• David Quammen
• Jon Krakauer
• Sebastian Junger
• Hal Rothman
• Willam deBuys
• Hal Herring
• David James Duncan
• Chris Dombrowski 
• Wade Davis
• Reinhold Niebur
• JRR Tolkien
• Peter Heller
• James Salter
• Gary Snyder
• Christian Wiman

A comprehensive list of every book I recommended in 2016, taken directly from my bimonthly book recommendations email.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari – If you’ve ever wondered how we humans managed to transform ourselves from fancy monkeys who roamed the plains eating berries and raw meat into fancier monkeys who fly rocketships to the moon, then this is the book for you.  Harari crams an unbelievable amount of interesting information into 464 pages, covering all aspects of Homo Sapiens’ rise to power – agriculture, religion, government, empires, corporations, and science, just to name a few. In a sometimes funny and surprisingly easy-to-read style, he boils down the last 70,000 years into fascinating (and probably highly controversial to some) narrative of our species’ relatively short existence on earth.

Encounters with the Archdruid by John McPhee – What happens when you take a passionate (some would say militant) environmentalist and send him on three separate close-quartered trips with a mining-obsessed geologist, a loudmouth resort developer, and a brash former Secretary of the Interior who loves to dam up rivers?  Read this book and you’ll find out. In it, John McPhee follows David Brower (former head of the Sierra Club) on each of these trips, and McPhee gives unbiased, fully detailed accounts of the conversations and interactions between the men. The book is a great reminder that environmental and conservation issues are extremely complex, and no matter which side of the spectrum you are on, there is no “right” answer.  If the answers were that easy, the problems would’ve been fixed generations ago. A thought-provoking read by one of our most talented living authors.

Being Nixon: A Man Divided by Evan Thomas – I think a better title would be “Being Nixon: A Weirdo.”  I knew almost nothing of substance about Nixon when I picked up this book, and now I can’t stop thinking about him.  What an oddball! Nixon was a walking contradiction— he was an introverted, socially awkward man who devoted his life to politics, one of the most extroverted careers imaginable.  He fancied himself a tough guy, yet he was terrified of face-to-face confrontation (and cried a lot, too). He claimed to hate Ivy Leaguers, yet he filled his cabinet with them and constantly sought their approval.  He positioned himself as a champion of the downtrodden “silent majority,” yet he was disgustingly racist. The list goes on and on. As weird as he was, I came away thinking that there’s something strangely admirable about a man who could push himself so hard to reach the pinnacle of a career in which he had no natural talent.  It’s like if I somehow willed my way into becoming the MVP of the NBA. I learned about the book from Conan O’Brien, who periodically does serious, non-comedy interviews with authors and other intriguing people. Here’s the one for Being Nixon, but they are all great.  (Also worth reading by Evan Thomas – The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898)

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard – President James Garfield has one of the more impressive life stories of any U.S. President, yet few people know about him because he was assassinated just months into his presidency.  Alas, when people now hear the name Garfield, they just think of that fat lasagna-eating cat. Anyway, Garfield was shot in 1881, just as medicine was rounding the corner from being one step above voodoo into becoming an actual science with a focus on sterilization and controlling infection.  Unfortunately for Garfield, his doctors had not yet accepted all the new-fangled inventions like, say, hand washing. Within minutes of being shot, while lying on the filthy train station floor, Garfield’s doctors were jamming their nasty fingers into the wound, trying in vain to extract the bullet.  The doctors did, however, start a fatal infection that dragged out for almost three months until Garfield finally died. Worst case, this book will make you appreciate just how far our medical technology has progressed in less than 150 years. (Also by Millard is River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, one of my favorite books of all time.)

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing –  My good buddy and Denali tentmate recommended this book to me.  Since he and I get a peculiar enjoyment from freezing our faces off in ridiculously cold places, he thought I’d love the book… and I did.  It follows Ernest’s Shackleton’s ill-fated overland expedition across Antartica and consists of three brutal survival tales—shipwrecked on a floating ice flow for over a year, open boat sailing through the roughest seas on earth, and traversing an uncharted, glaciated, arctic island on foot with no climbing gear.  When taken as one massive adventure, it is hard to understand how not a single life was lost. Endurance is the ultimate example of rock-solid leadership, the limits of human toughness, and the power of optimism.  I actually got chills on my neck when reading the last two pages, which I don’t recall ever happening before. It’s one of the best true adventure stories of all time.

It All Turns on Affection: The Jefferson Lecture and Other Essays by Wendell Berry – In my circle of friends involved in land conservation and agriculture, Wendell Berry is a living legend.  A Stanford-educated writer and poet who studied under Wallace Stegner, Berry choose to return home to his family farm in rural Kentucky to live, farm, and write, all while deeply immersed in a place that he loves.  The first essay in this book is a reflection on the importance of truly knowing a place, having deep affection for it, and developing the obligation to protect and care for it. I imagine that I’ll read this essay at least once a year, as it is one of those dense, meaningful, beautifully written works that will take on a different significance depending on my current stage of life.

Four Fish – The Future of the Last Wild Food by Paul Greenberg – Despite the fact that there are thousands of species of fish on earth, consumers focus primarily on four species: salmon, sea bass, cod, and tuna.  Why? Well, it’s a complicated and fascinating story that takes 304 pages to explain. Greenberg travels around the world learning from the fishermen, scientists, geneticists, conservationists, and other characters who’ve played a role in making these four species the mainstays of the seafood industry.  It’s also a cautionary tale of the irreversible global damage that unchecked commercial fishing is causing, and it will make you think twice next time you see those massive slabs of pink salmon at your local Costco. [Are you a weirdo like me who likes fish biographies? Then check out Cod: A Biography of a Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky.  It’s even better than Four Fish.]

The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson – If this book were fiction, it would be too ridiculous to believe, and I’d promptly throw it in the trash.  But it is true, which makes it really hard to put down. It’s the story of a secret U.S. military division that was created during the 1960s with the goal of using psychic and metaphysical powers to fight evil around the world.  The book describes American generals who are convinced they can walk through walls, “warrior monks” who claim the ability to become invisible on command, and, of course, psychic military contractors who can allegedly kill goats by staring at them.  It’s easy to shrug off some of this nonsense when thinking of it in the context of the hippied-out 60s, but you’ll be surprised to know that the U.S. government has been employing some of these wacky techniques as recently as the post-9/11 Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  A perfect example of truth being stranger than fiction.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport – The author is a 34-year old professor of computer science at Georgetown who has published over 70 academic papers, four books, and countless blog posts, all while having a family and rarely working after 6PM.  How does he do it? His answer is “Deep Work”—disciplined, lengthy stretches of undistracted, highly focused work. Newport’s theory is that many knowledge-based workers have lost the ability to focus thanks to endless technological distractions such as email, social media, and smartphones.  He also believes that professionals with the ability to cultivate focus and deep thinking will have a huge advantage over the distracted masses. Anyone who spends a majority of their workday in front of a computer needs to read this book. I took tons of notes on this book and have already referred back to them multiple times.  [Two other related books that I recommend are Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford and Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence by Daniel Goldman.]

Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II by Robert Kurson – Prior to reading this book, I thought that scuba diving was a pastime for portly Carnival Cruise patrons who enjoy staring at starfish and conch shells while flailing around in tropical waters.  Well, I stand corrected. The book follows a group of tough, competitive, risk-loving deep water shipwreck divers who discover a wrecked Nazi submarine off the coast of New Jersey, which leads them on a six-year adventure that ends with them rewriting the history books.  The book goes into great detail about the complexities and dangers of deep water diving, and makes it crystal clear that this “sport” is not for the faint of heart. The mentality of these guys (as evidenced by several team members who die on the bottom of the ocean) is very similar to many world-class high-altitude mountaineers—absolutely obsessed with a goal and willing to do anything to achieve it.

Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin – I really need to lay off the Navy SEAL books, because every time I read one, I feel like a weak, lazy, undisciplined lunk.  But after listening to an interview with one of this book’s authors, I knew I needed to check it out.  Willink and Babin are retired SEALs who now run a leadership consulting business, trying their best to impart some of their battlefield wisdom to corporate America.  The book alternates between true war stories and case studies of how those battlefield lessons can be applied to the business world. Interestingly, many of the war stories describe times that the authors made mistakes, then they deconstruct how they adjusted course, fixed the situations, and learned valuable lessons—it’s an unexpected and humble method of conveying their wisdom.  I gleaned a lot of value from this book, even though I basically work alone. I’d imagine professionals who lead teams would find the advice all the more valuable.

The Professor in the Cage: Why Men Fight and Why We Like to Watch by Jonathan Gottschall – Gottschall was an out-of-shape English professor at a small liberal arts college who was feeling weak and sloppy (perhaps he was reading too many Navy SEAL books?), so he decided to join a mixed martial arts (MMA) gym.  The book follows his 2+ year journey as he goes from complete novice to skilled and tough enough to compete in a sanctioned MMA fight. Layered on top of the author’s personal adventure is a very interesting discussion around why men have always been focused on demonstrating strength, dominance, and mental toughness, and how that tendency plays out in sports, business, or just plain ol’ brawling. [Years ago I read A Fighter’s Heart: One Man’s Journey Through the World of Fighting by Sam Sheridan and LOVED it.  I still think about it all the time, so I highly recommended it as well.]

The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko – This book hits on many of the subjects I love: adventure, history, conservation, the West, water, and crazy people. The title sums up the primary storyline, but the book covers many ancillary topics including Coronado’s 14th-century expedition to the Grand Canyon, John Wesley Powell’s first descent of the Colorado, a history of the US’s river-damming efforts (and ensuing protests from Edward Abbey et. al.), and the culture of river guiding in the West. If you enjoy exciting adventure stories and want an overview of the history of Western water issues, this book is an excellent choice. [If you’re looking for a straight-up river adventure book, check out Hell or High Water: Surviving Tibet’s Tsangpo River by Peter Heller.  If you’re looking for an in-depth conversation about Western water policy, check out my interview with former river guide and current water innovator Spencer Williams.]

Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi – I never really played tennis and I’m not an avid fan of the sport, but I found this book to be unbelievably interesting. It digs deep into an idea that I find endlessly fascinating: that people’s best characteristics can also be their worst. Most of the aspects of Agassi’s life that drove him to be a champion—a relentless competitive streak, high-strung personality, an overbearing father—were also the causes of much of his personal misery and anguish. Agassi reveals some astonishingly private details of his life (e.g. his frosted mullet was partly a wig, humiliating specifics of his father’s bullying, his use of meth, etc.), details that made me much more sympathetic toward him and his brash, attention-grabbing antics as a youngster, including his acid-washed jorts. The book was a good reminder to me that most people—from elite athletes to everyday Joes—are fighting some sort of internal battle, and that if I knew their full story, I’d probably be more compassionate and patient with them. [For more insights into the idea that a person’s best characteristics can also be their worst, I highly recommend The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert.]

On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss – A year or so ago, you may remember endless media coverage around a measles outbreak that originated in Disneyland (I would’ve guessed Carnival Cruise Lines was somehow responsible), which devolved into arguments regarding the nuances of immunology from the likes of Jenny McCarthy and other washed-up celebrities. In the midst of the hubbub, I read an article by Bill Gates in which he recommended this book as a solid, well-reasoned overview of the subject. If it’s good enough for Gates, it’s good enough for me, and I’m very glad I read it. Biss efficiently covers everything from broad immunization theory down to the scientific details, which gave me a useful foundation of knowledge that I’m happy to have, especially as a new parent.

Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life by Winifred Gallagher – In my last email, I recommended Deep Work by Cal Newport, which I absolutely loved. Throughout the book Newport references Rapt, so I decided to give it a read. Gallagher’s main premise is that your life is the creation of what you do (and do not) focus on, and that one’s ability to choose their focus can play a big role in their happiness. A lot of this book details the science of attention, which I find very interesting. It also gave me a deeper understanding of Newport’s book. But unless you are a science nerd, I’d recommend reading Deep Work first; then, if you like it, delve deeper with this one.  [Another great book on focus, which is referenced by both Gallagher and Newport is Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.  Yes, that is his real name.]

Churchill by Paul Johnson – For years I’ve wanted to learn more about Winston Churchill, but I haven’t been willing to devote the time required for most of his 600+ page biographies. When I came across this short biography, it seemed like the perfect way to sample the goods. It was a fun read that piqued my interest in the man, and I plan to read more books about him in the coming years. Churchill, like my hero Theodore Roosevelt, squeezed every last drop out of his life, and enjoyed tremendous success across a wide spectrum of disciplines. At the end of the book, Johnson details the five character traits that led to Churchill’s success, which are interestingly the same five characteristics I’d argue are the main reasons for TR’s success. [Did somebody say TR? Then check out the greatest book of all time, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris.]

Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu by J. Maarten Troost – I almost never reread books, but I enjoyed this one even more the second time. This book and its predecessor The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific follow the misadventures of a hilarious guy who moves from Washington, DC to the South Pacific thanks to his wife’s job in international development. Both of these books were truly life changing for me—I read them while living and working in DC, and they planted the then-ridiculous idea to pack up and move to Central America thanks to my wife’s job in international development. If I ever write a book, I hope it can be a fraction as funny as these two—It is worth the book’s $12.23 price tag just to read Troost’s description of the DC subway and a haughty businessman whom he describes as a “smug little puffin [who] came to represent all that I found odious about Washington.” [Troost’s third book Lost on Planet China: One Man’s Attempt to Understand the World’s Most Mystifying Nation is also hilarious and worth reading.]

The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt, A Lifetime of Exploration, and the Triumph of American Natural History by Darrin Lunde – NEW T.R. BOOK ALERT! Just when I think I’ve maxed out my T.R. knowledge, The Naturalist is published! This book focuses exclusively on T.R.’s work in natural history, starting with his early childhood bird obsession and culminating with his yearlong, post-presidency African hunting/scientific expedition. The book also digs deep into the growth of natural history in the United States, discussing the rise of natural history museums and profiling the era’s pioneering naturalists. The author does a great job explaining how T.R. could be such a devoted conservationist and nature lover, while also being an enthusiastic big game and bird hunter.  I’ve always said that his 7.5 years as President were the least interesting part of T.R.’s life, and this book presents strong evidence for my claim.  [For a sometimes too-detailed history of T.R.’s conservation work, check out Douglas Brinkley’s Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America. For a non-T.R. history of America’s naturalist/conservation movement, check out Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West by Michael Punke.]

Denali’s Howl: The Deadliest Climbing Disaster on America’s Wildest Peak by Andy Hall – I haven’t come across many good books about Denali, but this one seemed promising. It details a 1967 expedition in which 12 climbers started up the mountain, and only five made it down. The cause of disaster was not so much incompetence (although there was a little of that) as it was a massive superstorm that hammered the mountain for days on end. I’ve spent over 45 days on Denali and have experienced firsthand how a storm with just a quarter of the power of this storm can wreck the most high-tech, 21st-century gear and tents (as well as the climbers in those tents!). It is a stern reminder that, in the end, humans and all our fancy gear are simply no match for nature. I’d only recommend this book to people with a specific interest in Denali—it’s a rather meticulous, point-by-point retelling of this particular expedition, and I can see how it might be boring for folks without an interest in the subject. [If you’re looking for a solid collection of mountaineering stories suitable for most audiences, I highly recommend Jon Krakauer’s Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains.]

Saban: The Making of a Coach by Monte Burke – I’m not a huge fan of college football, but I am a huge fan of fascinating characters, so I’ve always been intrigued by Alabama head coach Nick Saban. A consistent winner, perpetually grumpy, and off-the-charts competitive, I was excited for some insight into what makes him tick. Predictably, a lot of his success can be chalked up to simply outworking the competition—both the quantity and uber-focused quality of his work are super-human. Less predictably, Saban does not focus on motivation, rather he focuses on “The Process,” which involves breaking the game down into its simplest parts. The book digs deep into his entire life, from growing up poor in coal-mining country, to his early career when he never held a position for much more than a year, to some of his NFL flameouts. Solid portrait of an interesting guy, with many lessons that can be applied to almost any business or hobby.

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger – After decades of writing about wars and profiling soldiers, Junger noticed that even though America’s military conflicts have become less and less deadly for U.S. soldiers, there has been a staggering rise in the prevalence of PTSD. Even soldiers who never see direct combat report PTSD-like symptoms after leaving the military. In the book, Junger theorizes that long-term, persistent PTSD is more the result of societal aspects of life in the U.S. than traumatic war experiences. After leaving the military, soldiers are forced to try and find a new purpose larger than themselves, while simultaneously being thrust into a society severely lacking in community. Junger then explores humans’ evolutionary need for purpose and community, and how our modern-day lives can be startlingly devoid of both. There are lessons for everyone in this book, whether you served in the military or not. It’s one of the most throught-provoking books I’ve read in the last year, and I highly recommend it. [For more on humans’ evolutionary heritage, check out Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. Equally thought-provoking.]

Braving It: A Father, a Daughter, and an Unforgettable Journey into the Alaskan Wild by James Campbell – Even though my daughter is barely a year old, I already daydream about some of the fun adventures that we’ll have together in wild places. This book presents an excellent blueprint for hardcore father-daughter Alaska expeditions. The author and his teenage daughter take a series of three trips above the Arctic Circle—two of which involve living and working with trappers in their remote Alaskan outpost. The third trip is an unsupported backpacking and canoeing trip down a remote, grizzly-infested valley. The book is very well written, and I could easily relate to both the father and daughter. The book is also heavy on travel and adventure narrative and light on sappy father-daughter emotional nonsense, which I appreciated. A great book, especially for dads of little girls.  

Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday – I loved Ryan Holiday’s previous book The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph. It was one of those books that I covered with underlines and notes, and, now two years later, it still sits on my bedside table for quick reference. In Obstacle, Holiday discusses methods—many based on lessons learned from Stoic philosophy or specific historical figures—for dealing with the challenges brought about by external forces in our lives. In Ego in the Enemy, he examines the powerful internal force of ego, and how it can affect different stages of life—early career, hard-won success, and inevitable failure. Using real-world examples ranging from Howard Hughes to Benjamin Franklin to Malcolm X and many more, Holiday provides concrete case studies of ways that ego can either assist or sabotage the pursuit of our goals. Now covered in notes, this book will remain within close reach for years to come.

One Breath: Freediving, Death, and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits by Adam Skolnick – Did you know there are people who can inhale one massive breath, dive 300+ feet below the ocean’s surface, then swim back to the top, mostly unscathed? I didn’t, and I’m usually in the know when it comes to such oddballs. One Breath is an overview of the sport of freediving, and it explores the activity from every angle—its history, physiology, training techniques, mental aspects, and current competitive landscape.  While the book focuses primarily on Nick Mevoli, a freediving prodigy who ultimately pushes beyond his limits, it also profiles many of the sport’s top competitors, an intriguing and diverse cast of characters. As an interesting side note, I started messing around with some of the breathing techniques described in this book and easily held my breath for 3:15! Crazy stuff that I will continue to explore. [For more ocean adventure, I’ll re-recommend this book from the March/April 2016 email: Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II by Robert Kurson]

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance – Growing up in eastern NC and spending plenty of time in Appalachia (as well as one particularly memorable stint deep in the Louisiana bayou), I’m very familiar with the demographic profiled in this book. But having the plight of poverty-stricken white people so intimately described by one of their own was eye-opening and disturbing even to me—I can only imagine how shocked people less familiar with this culture (e.g. many of my neighbors here in Boulder, CO) would be. The author grew up in one of the poorest parts of Appalachia, with an opioid-addicted mother and no father, yet he managed to claw his way out, eventually graduating from Yale law school. This would be a fascinating story at any time, but it’s especially important at this juncture in our country’s history. Check out this WSJ book review for a more detailed analysis by a person who actually knows how to recommend books. [People may think I’m joking, but the cult classic documentary The Dancing Outlaw also gives a surprisingly accurate portrayal of life in the “holler.”]

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan – No exaggeration, this is one of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s part memoir and part adventure travel narrative, and it is written in a style so beautiful and engaging that I found myself re-reading pages and passages multiple times—I never do that, nor do I use the word “beautiful” to describe anything. The author is a war reporter and staff writer for The New Yorker who has lived a fascinating, adventurous life. From his childhood in California and Hawaii, a multi-year, around-the-world surf trip, teaching English in apartheid-oppressed South Africa, and his early career in San Francisco, surfing has been the common thread that connects all aspects of his life. He describes surfing and the ocean in ways that are amazing, artistic, and accurate, yet he somehow never goes overboard with flowery or pompous language—unexpected for anyone from The New Yorker. Even if you have no interest in surfing, you’ll love this book. It’s long with small print, but I never once found my attention drifting. I just wanted a fun surf adventure story, and I ended up with a Pulitzer Prize-winning work of art. It’s amazing. BUY IT! [My two other favorite surf books are In Search of Captain Zero: A Surfer’s Road Trip Beyond the End of the Road by Allan Weisbecker and Saltwater Buddha: A Surfer’s Quest to Find Zen on the Sea by Jaimal Yogis.]

Home Ground: A Guide to the American Landscape edited by Barry Lopez and Debra GwartneyAfter nearly a decade of struggling to figure out original ways to accurately describe ranches, rivers, and western landscapes, this book was a godsend. More of a reference book than prose, it’s a comprehensive catalog of over 850 terms that describe America’s natural features. Even better, the terms’ original definitions were composed by some of our best contemporary writers, folks like Jon Krakauer, Charles Frazier, and many more. I’ve caught myself looking up one word, and then continuing to read, page after page, because it’s all just so interesting. Highly recommended for anyone like me who thrashes through the writing process. [I was turned on to the book by Stephen Rinella, one of the modern-day masters when it comes to describing the natural world. His book American Buffalo: The Search for a Lost Icon is one of my all-time favorites.]

End of Plenty: The Race to Feed a Crowded World by Joel K Bourne Jr. – The author is from my hometown and has had a distinguished career writing for National Geographic—most notably, he warned of New Orleans’ hurricane vulnerability in 2004, just 10 months prior to Katrina’s wrath.  In the End of Plenty, he lays out a balanced history of industrial agriculture, then goes on to scare the bejesus out of the reader with numerous examples of how the world is going to run alarmingly short on food if we remain on our present (population, political, technological) trajectory. Thankfully, the second half of the book is a series of optimistic, hopeful stories of individuals and companies altering the doomsday trajectory through innovative and sustainable agriculture that can be applied on a global scale. It’s dense, well researched, and thought provoking, but written in a fun style that you’d expect from a National Geographic reporter.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo – I don’t know that I’d call it “life-changing” and it’s certainly not “magic,” but after reading this book, I went absolutely nuts decluttering. My wife and daughter were out of town for the weekend, so I spent two full days ridding myself of accumulated junk—I gave a pile to Goodwill, recycled at least 100 pounds of paper, and organized everything else into what seems to be a sustainable system. Keep in mind, I’m no pack rat and purposefully don’t have a lot of junk, so I was amazed at how much I was able to eliminate using Kondo’s system.  There are plenty of weird/silly ideas in the book (she seems to think socks are alive), but it convinced me to spend a weekend cleaning instead of having fun in the mountains, so I have to recommend it.

Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch by Dan O’Brien – This book combines many of the subjects I find fascinating: ranching, natural history, bison, conservation, the American West, and regenerative agriculture. It follows the author’s journey to convert his South Dakota ranch from a traditional cattle operation to a 100% grassfed and finished bison operation, which, as it turns out, is not an easy task. I had the pleasure of meeting the author a year ago, and he’s equal parts tough-guy rancher and soft-hearted intellectual—he seems just as likely to write a verse of poetry as he is to finish a bar fight. The book thoroughly explains the economic and emotional challenges facing ranchers throughout the West, while digging deep into the historical and ecological aspects of flora and fauna, particularly buffalo, in the shortgrass prairie ecosystem. But if you’re looking for a brief overview of O’Brien’s work without all the words and stuff, check out the short, free film Unbroken Ground. [If you like this book, I’d also suggest O’Brien’s most recent title: Wild Idea: Buffalo and Family in a Difficult Land.]

Natural Born Heroes: Mastering the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance by Christopher McDougall – Several friends who run ultras recommended this book, so I was excited to check it out. It’s basically two books rolled into one: a historical account of a little-known WWII battle on the island of Crete and the author’s personal adventure to discover how Cretans were able to run farther and lift more than average humans using only natural and timeless training methods. While the WWII stories are interesting, I enjoyed the second part of the book the most, which involves the author ripping to shreds the U.S. government’s food-pyramid-based diet, gyms that encourage the use of weight machines, and the “sports nutrition” industry. Contrary to popular belief, true fitness and lifelong health do not require a membership to Gold’s Gym or chugging gallons of gatorade. Reading tip: If you get bogged down in the WWII history details, just skim ahead a few pages and it will pick up. [I also highly recommend McDougall’s other well-known book Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.]

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg – I’m always looking for tips on how to easily break bad habits and form good ones. (For a friend. Not for me, of course.) This books answers those questions with detailed scientific research and well-documented case studies, all presented in an engaging and entertaining style. The author, a New York Times investigative reporter, does an excellent job presenting a ridiculous amount of data in a way that is fun to read and memorable. It consists of three sections: habits of individuals, organizations, and societies. I found the habits of individuals section to be the most useful, but folks who work at larger companies or manage teams of people may get more out of the other two sections than I did. If you’re the type to set New Year’s resolutions, this book might give you a fighting chance of sticking with them past January 15th.

Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue by Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz – An outspoken atheist neuroscientist (Harris) sits down with a former radical Islamic extremist (Nawaz) to discuss religion… what could possibly go wrong? Surprisingly, nothing. In fact, I’d say everything goes right—they have a respectful, in-depth, wide-ranging conversation in which they both come away better understanding each other’s opinions. This short book is basically their conversation transcribed into print, and it provided me with new insights into Islam and the controversies surrounding the religion. Given our current political climate, it’s very refreshing to observe two smart, well-informed people with opposite belief systems have a civil and substantive conversation. If more people like these authors were on TV, I probably wouldn’t have canceled my cable! [I also highly recommend Sam Harris’s Lying, another short book that argues that no one should tell a lie of any kind, “white lie” or otherwise, ever.]

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight – The only things I knew about the early days of Nike were that founder Phil Knight paid an art student a few bucks to design the famous “swoosh” logo and something about his using a waffle iron to create prototype shoe soles. Turns out there’s more to the story than that. I LOVED this book, and it’s one of the best business memoirs I’ve ever read. It’s an extremely revealing and exciting firsthand account of Knight’s journey from writing a business plan during grad school to eventually taking Nike public. He seems to be very honest in his telling of the story—he’s upfront about his self-doubt and open about how the company was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy for well over a decade. He makes it crystal clear just how damn hard it was to survive, much less thrive as a company. This was my favorite book on this list, highly recommended. [One of my other favorite business memoirs is Call Me Ted by Ted Turner. Ted’s on the polar opposite end of the personality spectrum than Knight, but many of his struggles and lessons learned are similar.]

The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance  and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman – This is the third book by Ryan Holiday that I’ve recommended. It’s what I call a “bedside table book”—one that I keep close at hand to page through before bed or first thing in the morning. This one is 366 quotes by Stoic philosophers, each followed by a brief discussion of how the idea can be applied to our daily lives. I was forced to take standard philosophy in college and found it infuriatingly worthless, but my experience with Stoicism has been the exact opposite—the ideas are amazingly relevant and useful in my day-to-day life. The basic gist of Stoicism is that you can’t control what happens to you, only how you react, and guys like Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus have some pretty solid thoughts on the subject. Think of this book as a compilation album of the Stoics’ greatest hits. [One of my other favorite bedside table books is the National Outdoor Leadership School’s Wilderness Wisdom.]

Running Man: A Memoir by Charlie Engle – To call the author’s life “interesting” would be a comical understatement. Charlie Engle grew up an excellent athlete and solid student, but then his life veered into the abyss of drug and alcohol abuse, culminating in a multi-year addiction to crack. Miraculously, he pulled himself out of the death spiral and focused his addictive energy on ultra-endurance challenges such as 100-mile runs, adventure races, and a ridiculously long run across the Sahara Desert. But after getting his addictions under control and life in seemingly good order, he was busted for mortgage fraud and spent 16 months in federal prison. Now he’s out of the ol’ gray bar motel and back at his endurance feats… and apparently trying to scrape together some dough by selling this book (sorry, Charlie, I borrowed it from the library). I read this book as more of a cautionary tale than an inspirational one, which I don’t believe was its intended purpose. Trouble and conflict seem to follow this guy wherever he goes, and, other than his physical gift for endurance, there’s not much about him that I’d like to emulate. Entertaining book, nonetheless. [For a more uplifting addict-turned-athlete story, I recommended Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World’s Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself by Rich Roll.]