Shelf

The shelf.

A hand-picked shelf of things I've loved — what I'm reading now, what I've finished, and what's in my ears. It's a list of likes, not a log: the stuff that didn't land just isn't here.

AI Engineering — Chip Huyen
AI Engineering
Chip Huyen

Chip Huyen on building production apps atop foundation models — evaluation, RAG, fine-tuning, and all the engineering that surrounds the model.

Notes on Being a Man — Scott Galloway
Notes on Being a Man
Scott Galloway

Galloway’s blunt, big-hearted field guide to manhood — money, love, and showing up.

The New Happy — Stephanie Harrison
The New Happy
Stephanie Harrison

A research-backed reset on happiness: less hustle, more connection.

Good Muslim, Bad Muslim — Mahmood Mamdani
Good Muslim, Bad Muslim
Mahmood Mamdani

A sharp history of how the West learned to sort Muslims into “good” and “bad.”

The Great Mental Models — Shane Parrish
The Great Mental Models
Shane Parrish

Shane Parrish’s four-volume toolkit of thinking frameworks — the mental models that sharpen how you reason.

Mistborn — Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn
Brandon Sanderson

Heist-fantasy with a magic system so tight it feels engineered. The whole series is a joy.

The Devil and the Dark Water — Stuart Turton
The Devil and the Dark Water
Stuart Turton

A locked-ship murder mystery with a whiff of the supernatural. Turton at his twistiest.

The Last Murder at the End of the World — Stuart Turton
The Last Murder at the End of the World
Stuart Turton

A last-island whodunit at the end of the world — high-concept and propulsive.

Migrations — Charlotte McConaghy
Migrations
Charlotte McConaghy

A woman follows the last Arctic terns across a dying ocean. Gorgeous and gutting.

Wild Dark Shore — Charlotte McConaghy
Wild Dark Shore
Charlotte McConaghy

A remote island, a family, a shipwreck, and the rising sea. McConaghy doesn’t miss.

Once There Were Wolves — Charlotte McConaghy
Once There Were Wolves
Charlotte McConaghy

Wolves loosed back into the Scottish Highlands, and the fierce woman protecting them. Taut and wild.

The Stormlight Archive — Brandon Sanderson
The Stormlight Archive
Brandon Sanderson

Sanderson’s sprawling epic — thousand-page tomes you happily disappear into.

Tribe — Sebastian Junger
Tribe
Sebastian Junger

On belonging — and why modern life leaves us quietly missing the group.

Going Infinite — Michael Lewis
Going Infinite
Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis on the rise and implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX — nobody tells a financial story like Lewis.

If Books Could Kill — Michael Hobbes & Peter Shamshiri
If Books Could Kill
Michael Hobbes & Peter Shamshiri

Two friends demolish the airport bestsellers that quietly warped our brains.

Tetragrammaton — Rick Rubin
Tetragrammaton
Rick Rubin

Rick Rubin’s wandering, unhurried conversations on art, craft, and creativity.

Maintenance Phase — Aubrey Gordon & Michael Hobbes
Maintenance Phase
Aubrey Gordon & Michael Hobbes

Cheerfully debunking the junk science of wellness and weight.