Monthly Non-Fiction Reading List 3.2025

We’re back, and we have 11 books on this month’s reading list! We have a solid mix of new books and some of my favorite books that I gave another read. They cover a wide range of topics like how to work through money issues with your partner, why we experience schadenfreude, how we can debate better, and how to create a meaningful life.

I’ll be honest, March was hectic, and I forgot to browse around for new releases. But just the other day, I started hunting for new releases and found a lot of interesting books. So stay tuned because we’ll have a lot of brand-new books in the coming reading lists.

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How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason by Lee McIntyre

I’ve read just about all of Lee’s books, and while this book is good, it’s probably my least favorite. I read an early copy of it a while back and remembered being underwhelmed by it. Recently, I’ve been super interested in people who don’t care about facts, so I wanted to give this another read.

Lee touches on some interesting topics and documents interesting conversations with science deniers, but I just wanted more from it. There are a lot of books about persuasion and how to change people’s minds, and I think I wish Lee had turned to more research we already have on the topic. Instead, he kind of just does his own thing to see how it goes.

There are also some stories and chapters in this book that seem a little out of place. I love his books, but this one was a miss for me.

The Joy of Pain: Schadenfreude and the Dark Side of Human Nature by Richard H. Smith

I’ve been really interested in the topic of envy recently, and a book I was reading recommended this author. This is a great book that dives deep into the psychology of schadenfreude, which is when we get pleasure from another person’s misfortune. It’s a great book if you’re interested in this topic. I don’t think it had the answers I was looking for, but it was a great read overall.

Tribal: How the Cultural Instincts That Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together by Michael Morris

There’s not a ton to say about this book. I read a lot of books about tribalism, so this book was nothing new for me. Some books come with new and interesting information, but this one didn’t. It’s a well-written book, and I’m sure many people will love it, but if you’ve read a lot of books like this, you may want to skip it.

The Ancient Art of Thinking For Yourself: The Power of Rhetoric in Polarized Times by Robin Reames

This book was so damn good. I think the art of debate and rhetoric are so interesting, but every book I’ve read on rhetoric is mind-numbingly boring. Not this one. Most of these types of books just tell stories of ancient Greeks or dive way too far into the weeds about rhetoric. This author managed to find the perfect balance between explaining the history, rhetorical strategies, and giving real-world examples.

I’ve read 5 or 6 books on this topic, and this is by far my favorite one. The author also has an interesting perspective because she comes from a family of people who are right wing and believe a lot of misinformation.

How to Stop Trying: An Overachiever’s Guide to Self-Acceptance, Letting Go, and Other Impossible Things by Kate Williams

This book just wasn’t for me. I read a lot of books that are written for women and enjoy them, but not this one. The author has some solid advice in the book, and she’s been through some hardships. Basically, this is a self-help book / memoir, but I just wasn’t a fan.

My biggest issue with the book is that the author comes from a privileged background, and she acknowledges that. But the majority of the book is just repeating that even though you’re privileged, things can still be hard. While it’s true, books like this rub me the wrong way. As someone who didn’t come from much, I know a ton of well-off people who try to join the adversity club by discussing how bad their caviar problems are.

Also, the author uses psychics and other spiritual grifters a replacement for therapy, and it’s really silly. I wish I could recommend this to at least some type of reader, but I struggle to think of anyone who would benefit from this book more than the thousands of others that are much better.

Start Making Sense: How Existential Psychology Can Help Us Build Meaningful Lives in Absurd Times by Steven Heine

I know it’s only March, but this is easily one of the best books of the year for me. Existentialism is a super interesting topic, and I had no clue that existential psychology was a thing. I was completely unfamiliar with Heine, and I almost didn’t read this because there wasn’t an audio version, but I’m extremely glad I did.

I was obsessed with this book and hated each time I put it down. Overall, this book is about meaning. It discusses the importance of having meaning in our lives, how we lose meaning, how we find meaning, and much more. This book had everything I love in a nonfiction book, too.

• Heine is academic, but he talks like a normal person so everyone can understand

• He explains the philosophies of the great existentialists

• He includes a ton of interesting studies that I was unfamiliar with, and some were his own

I read 100+ books each year, and it’s hard to explain how many just say the same thing as other books. Maybe its because this is my first existential psych book, but it was completely unique. Even when he wrote about topics or studies I was familiar with, Heine had interesting takes.

This is a phenomenal book that I highly recommend, and it’s made me wonder how much I’m missing by not reading more physical books. I can definitely see myself reading this book again in the future, and I’m going to have my son read it at some point as well.

Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy by Brian Tyler Cohen

I didn’t know anything about Brian Tyler Cohen, but I keep hearing about how his podcast has overtaken Joe Rogan’s, so I thought I’d check out his book. This book isn’t great, and I don’t know who it’s for. In my opinion, this book was a cash grab. Cohen got big, and like many other influencers, it’s just part of the business to eventually write a book, and that’s what he did. This book is just a basic history of recent years in politics, and it doesn’t really add anything new to the discussion. I guess if you’re a leftist and have no clue about politics, this might be a decent starting point. For anyone who’s been paying attention for the last 10 or so years, this book is a waste of your time.

Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson

This book is a solid 2.5-3 stars out of 5 for me. I love both Klein and Thompson as writers, but this book was just mediocre overall. I don’t even know how to describe it, but it’s very centrist. While I’m sure both authors see themselves as pretty progressive, it’s not. I learned about this book by seeing right-wing folks trash it, but if they actually read it, they’d love this book.

In short, this book is about all of the bureaucracy and regulations that halt housing and innovation. It makes some solid points, but it completely either avoids or is ignorant to how the mega-rich and large corporations would take advantage of everything they propose in this book. This is why I say right-wing people would love this book and should probably get behind it because it’d be their dream come true.

These two authors preach about how we need to speed up innovation, housing, and infrastructure by reducing the amount of blocks, but they don’t stop to think about what those things are actually doing. They make some good points, mainly in the science half of the book, but it’s like they haven’t fully thought through the issue. I think that’s very sloppy and lazy writing/thinking, and it’s a good thing they aren’t in charge of making policies. It’s definitely one of those things where if what they propose in this book were to actually happen, we’d soon be saying, “Oh, they obviously didn’t think of potential consequences.”

The first half of the book is all about housing and infrastructure. For me, it was insanely boring and also doesn’t have rational solutions. I could be mistaken, but I don’t even think they mentioned all these massive corporations buying up all the houses and inflating the prices. I think Thompson made some great points in the science and technology section, which was the only redeeming thing about this book. What they neglected to discuss was how all of our top thinkers get snatched up out of college by companies like Facebook and Google to work on making those companies richer, rather than focusing on innovation. But he did discuss a lot of the challenges researchers face and how they aren’t really given the funding or room to make breakthroughs.

This is a half-decent book that gives the reader some things to think about, but I expected a lot more from these two authors.

The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters by Tom Nichols

I re-read books when I’m feeling a bit crazy when dealing with people. Lately, I’ve been dealing with folks who think they know better than those who have dedicated their lives to researching very specific subjects, and it’s been a bad time. So, I decided to give this one from Tom Nichols another read to help return me to sanity. It’s still an excellent book that I think everyone should read.

Nichols explains why we need to trust experts, and he also has the humility to admit that he doesn’t know everything and is sometimes wrong. He also has a chapter dedicated to when experts screw up and how we navigate those situations. I highly recommend this book if you haven’t checked it out yet.

The Myth of Experience: Why We Learn the Wrong Lessons, and Ways to Correct Them by Emre Soyer and Robin M. Hogarth

I’m a YouTube content creator and I can get pretty frustrated at the randomness of the algorithm. What’s even more frustrating is people who pretend to “know” how it works based on their experience, or they point to success stories as though the anecdotal evidence is proof enough that something works. This is another book that I re-read when I need a return to sanity. It does an excellent job explaining how experience isn’t everything and how people take away the wrong lessons from having experience with something.

Money for Couples: No More Stress. No More Fights. Just a 10-Step Plan to Create Your Rich Life Together by Ramit Sethi

Ramit’s first book, I Will Teach You to be Ric,h changed my life. I was in a ton of debt and had no clue how credit, stocks, or anything else in the financial world worked. Today, my credit score is about 200 points higher, I have savings, investments, and I’m able to live a pretty good life, and I attribute a lot of that to Ramit’s first book. So, when I found out he had a new book, I had to check it out.

For a while now, Ramit’s been bringing couples on his podcast to discuss their money issues. I’ve watched quite a few episodes on YouTube, and they’re great. He’s not a therapist, but he does a great job helping couples get down to the root of their financial issues, and he has an awesome “tough love” approach. In this book, he takes his experience and wisdom from all of those episodes and gives advice to couples about how to manage their money.

This is an excellent book that I think a lot of couples can benefit from. Personally, there wasn’t a ton of tips that were relevant within my relationship, but that’s mainly because I learned from Ramit, and we already do it.

If I had to give one criticism, it’s the same one I find with many self-help books. Ramit attempts to cover every possible angle, and sometimes it doesn’t tie together as well as I’d hope. I don’t really fault Ramit, and maybe that’s just a personal issue of mine. I know how difficult it is to write something while trying not to leave anyone out.

But at the end of the day, this is a great book for couples. Even if you don’t use all of the advice, just implementing some of the practices and addressing some of your personal issues with money will for sure make your financial life better with your partner.

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