My 9 Favorite Books of 2024
Each year, I read/listen to about 100 or more of the best books I can find. I don’t have a specific process for finding them. Most are referred to me by friends, and others I find in my research on specific topics. Many of the books I read are very old, sometimes out of print, and others are hot off the press. I believe most books aren’t worth reading, and I certainly come across my fair share. Each of the books on the list either impacted me profoundly or was just very engaging and informative. I have had this list lying around for 8 months and forgot to send it out, so now I am finally sharing it. I hope these books bless you as much as they have blessed me. I would love to hear your thoughts if you happen to pick any of them up.
My 9 favorite books of 2024
- Adam’s Return - Richard Rohr
- Rules for Knights - Ethan Hawke
- From Wild Man to Wise Man - Richard Rohr
- The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life - Boyd Varty
- In The Heart of the Sea - Nathaniel Philbrick
- The Art of Profitability - Adrian Slywotzky
- Going Infinite - Michael Lewis
- Chop wood, carry water - Joshua Medcalf
- The anatomy of peace - The Arbinger institute
Adam’s Return – Richard Rohr
Father Richard Rohr’s “handbook for male initiation” still astonished me after rereading it four times in 2024. Drawing on decades of leading rites-of-passage retreats, the Franciscan distills initiation wisdom from tribal ceremonies, Bible scripture, and depth psychology into five bracing truths every man must absorb: life is hard, you’re not that important, your life is not about you, you’re not in control, and you’re going to die. Far from morbid, these truths free men from ego illusions and open the door to service, creativity, and joy. I first read this book 12 years ago, now as a husband and father, I found his wisdom cutting deeper. Rohr’s stories of mentors, wilderness vigils, and hard-won surrender named the very tensions of masculine life and offered a path that feels both ancient and urgently contemporary. After four passes last year, I’m convinced Adam’s Return belongs on every man’s shelf. It is an unflinching, compassionate compass that points men towards God and their true masculine nature.
Rules for a Knight – Ethan Hawke
Actor-writer Ethan Hawke frames this slim, meditative novel as the last letter of Cornish knight Sir Thomas Lemuel Hawke to his children on the eve of a 1483 battle. It’s split into twenty short chapters, each focused on a virtue like humility, courage, patience, or love. Sir Thomas recounts parables from his own life that crystallize the value in practice, creating a hybrid of fable, self-help manual, and parenting guide. The book's peaceful style and medieval framing make the moral lessons feel both ageless and refreshingly earnest, inviting quick readings yet encouraging slow reflection. At under 200 pages, it’s a pocket-sized reminder that character is forged less by grand quests than by everyday acts of generosity, honesty, and disciplined attention.
From Wild Man to Wise Man – Richard Rohr
Father Richard Rohr distills three decades of men’s retreats into this concise spiritual roadmap that traces the masculine journey from raw energy to seasoned wisdom. Drawing on scripture, Jungian archetypes, and cross-cultural initiation rites, Rohr argues that true manhood is less about dominance than about surrender to vulnerability, service, and the mystery of God. Each essay-length chapter pairs theological insight with practical reflection questions, inviting readers to examine their wounds, confront ego illusions, and cultivate compassion. The result is a gentle yet challenging companion that helped me understand my own masculine journey.
The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life – Boyd Varty
South-African wilderness guide Boyd Varty invites us onto a single day’s hunt for an elusive lion in the Londolozi reserve, then turns that literal tracking into a metaphor for navigating modern life. As Varty and two legendary Shangaan trackers read faint paw prints, snapped grass, and birdsong, he teases out field-tested maxims, “find the first track,” “follow the trail of not-here to here,” “stay in the aliveness of uncertainty,” that challenge goal-obsessed culture. The book moves lightly between bush adventure, memoir of growing up on a family-run safari camp, and soulful coaching reflections, all in a pocket-sized 130-page book designed for rereading. What lingered for me was one statement in particular “I don’t know where we’re going, but I know exactly how to get there.”
In the Heart of the Sea – Nathaniel Philbrick
Nathaniel Philbrick’s gripping reconstruction of the 1820 sinking of the whaleship Essex, and the crew’s harrowing, 90-day fight for survival on the open Pacific. This book made our long drive across Washington, Idaho, and Montana seem too short. Switching between vivid archival detail and novel-like pacing, Philbrick charts how a Nantucket crew’s routine hunt spiraled into disaster, inspiring Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick yet proving even wilder than fiction. The audiobook’s cinematic narration made each refueling stop feel like an unwelcome intermission: Heather and I could hardly wait to climb back into the truck to hear how the crew would navigate starvation, storms, and impossible moral choices. Equal parts maritime history, survival epic, and study on human resilience, In the Heart of the Sea earned its spot among my 2024 favorites by being one of the most interesting and engaging books I have read in years.
The Art of Profitability – Adrian Slywotzky
Strategy guru Adrian Slywotzky disguises a mini-MBA in profit margins as a Socratic fable, pairing a seasoned consultant, David Zhao, with an anxious young executive for thirteen weekly tutorials on making money. In less than 200 pages, Slywotzky sketches 23 distinct “profit models,” from razor-and-blade “Multi-Component Profit” to blockbuster hits, installed-base lock-ins, and scarcity plays, each illustrated with real-world examples like Disney, Dell, and Zara. The mentoring dialogue keeps the material breezy yet pointed. What sets this 2002 classic apart on my list is its relentless insistence that revenue is vanity; profit design is art: map your business into micro-segments, spot the fat profit pools, and architect value so customers happily pay above cost. This is a must-read for anyone in business, but particularly helpful if you are frequently working with different kinds of companies.
Going Infinite – Michael Lewis
Lewis embeds himself inside Sam Bankman-Fried’s charmed circle to chronicle how a math-driven trader, fired up by effective altruism’s dream of “earning to give,” went from a trading prodigy to a crypto king, and then vaporized $8 billion in customer funds almost overnight. The narrative is a classic Lewis thrillride, including frenzied Bahamas trading floors, late-night League of Legends marathons, and board-room showdowns where SBF’s hoodie-clad nonchalance masks unimaginable risk. What makes the book magnetic is its access: Lewis was on the inside as FTX imploded, so you feel the adrenaline rush, the heady promise of “infinity dollars for Effective Altruism,” and the dawning horror when Alameda’s backdoor siphon is revealed. I was fascinated by the EA connection and how Lewis delivers a front-row seat to ideology turning into rationalization. The result is a captivating cautionary tale of how brilliance untethered can torch both fortunes and ideals overnight.
Chop Wood, Carry Water – Joshua Medcalf
Joshua Medcalf packages high-performance psychology into a story that follows John, an American teenager who travels to Japan dreaming of becoming a master samurai archer. Instead of instant heroics, John’s sensei assigns a humbling regimen of, literally, chopping wood and carrying water, a daily grind that teaches him to fall in love with the process of becoming great. Through bite-size parables, the mentor reminds him that comparison steals joy, shortcuts hollow out character, and goals without mission collapse at the first setback. This 110-page page-turner is a reminder that excellence is built in the unglamorous grind of repetition that most people skip. Reading (and re-reading) it in 2024, I found it a great antidote to our dopamine economy fueled by overnight-success hype. This book reminds us to: return to the axe, lift the pail, and lay another brick of who we are becoming.
The Anatomy of Peace – The Arbinger Institute
This modern parable opens at a desert wilderness camp where worried parents expect counselors to “fix” their rebellious teens, only to discover that the real work lies within their own hearts. Guided by co-leaders Avi Rozen (an Israeli Jew) and Yusuf al-Falah (a Palestinian Arab), the adults learn that most conflict, at home, at work, even between nations, grows from the same root: seeing others as obstacles instead of people. Through stories, simple diagrams, and the arresting contrast of a heart at war versus a heart at peace, the book shows how self-justification perpetuates strife and how shifting to curiosity and empathy can dissolve it. I found the book's message surprisingly actionable: before I try to correct anyone else, the anatomy I must study is my own capacity to dehumanize. Few books this year carried such disarming insight.
I hope some of these books can bless you the way they did me.
- John Walt
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