Napoleon Bonaparte
Schom's one-volume life of Napoleon includes all facets of Napoleon's incredible career, from his childhood in Corsica to his death in exile on the island of St. Helena. It follows his many military campaigns and describes the great battles he won and lost from northern Italy to Egypt, Spain, Prussia, Austria, Poland, and Russia, to his final defeat at Waterloo. It illuminates his extensive political and structural reorganization of the French government; explores his relationships with his wives - the legendary Josephine and her replacement, Marie-Louise - and some of his mistresses; and chronicles his feuds with his tempestuous family and both loyal and mutinous officials. Key aides, ministers, generals, and naval commanders - from Talleyrand and Police Minister Fouche to Marshals Ney, Davout, and Lannes, Admiral Villeneuve, and many more - are fully portrayed and given their due. International rivalries and diplomatic negotiations are also thoroughly covered, and Napoleon's many opponents and enemies - including Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, Emperor Franz I of Austria, Czar Alexander I of Russia, and Field Marshals Kutuzov, Blucher, and the Duke of Wellington - are brought vividly to life. There are intriguing fresh insights here, too; among them an examination of Napoleon's little-known friendship with a leading mathematician and savant, and of the cause of his death on St. Helena.
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- These are the ones I remember, but not necessarily for being the best.
Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson. I thought it was interesting; an honest attempt at cataloguing the life of a fascinating and complex person.
How To Win Friends And Influence People - Dale Carnegie. I'd skimmed through it in high school, and decided it was full of obvious/cheesy platitudes, but was somehow convinced to take another look this year and I'm very glad I did. It is mostly full of very basic "don't be an ass" advice, but I needed it.
Never Eat Alone - Keith Ferrazzi. I'm not sure what to think of this one. It's pretty low on actionable advice, but it did help me (together with HTWFAIF, above) reframe the way I approach interpersonal relationships.
The Cat's Table - Michael Ondaatje. I haven't finished this one yet, but it's part of a recent concerted effort to read more fiction. I've always loved Ondaatje's work, and this latest novel is no different.
Freakonomics - Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner. I just started reading this last night, and I'm already 100 pages in. It's an addicting read, and is already causing me to re-evaluate the incentive systems that are everywhere.
Napoleon Bonaparte - Alan Schom. I've been reading this one slowly for a while (it's a hefty book). It's a very well written account of Napoleon's entire life story--highly recommended.
Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey Moore. Just started this one last night as well (Christmas presents!) and so far it seems like it will live up to the hype.
The Education of Millionaires - Michael Ellsberg. This one, I can't recommend. As always, though, YMMV :)
- I've meant to compile this list, so you just inspired me. I wish the Durants had had the stamina for one more volume. I don't know much about the European revolutions of 1848 and would have like to read about that time from them. I already had read a lot of ancient Greek literature in translation as well as The Pentateuch, all the historical books of the Old Testament and the Gospels. Western Civilization springs from intellectual roots in Athens and Jerusalem, so any survey has to include that heritage. My degree is in Comparative Literature, so I put a lot of stock in origninal source material. The only languages I read are English and German, so everything is in English or translation except Faust, which IMO would be a waste in translation. The books I read for my survey (this was my survey to fill in my personal Bildungslöcke) are not all classics, and not even all to be recommended. It may appear surprisingly heavy on 20th century, but a lot of intellectual threads I thought I should understand better got kicked off in that century. In more or less chronological order by authorship or content (and I've probably forgotten a few):
Euclid The Elements
Arrian The Campaigns of Alexander
Garmonsway (trans.) The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Komroff (ed.) The Travels of Marco Polo
Haydn The Counter-Renaissance
Braudel The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II, Vol I&II
Pascal The Thoughts
Spinoza The Ethics
Christianson In the Presence of the Creator: Isaac Newton & his Times
Newton Opticks
Newton Principia (get the modern English translation by U.C. Press)
Hampson The Enlightenment
Voltaire Candide
Rousseau The Social Contract
Boswell Life of Johnson
Goethe Faust
Phillips The Cousins' Wars
Schom Napoleon Bonaparte
Heidler & Heidler Old Hickory's War
Babbage On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures
de Toqueville Democracy in America
Darwin On the Origen of Species
Foote The Civil War: A Narrative
Maurois Disraeli
Twain Life on the Mississippi
Spector Admiral of the New Empire, The Life and Career of George Dewey
Cardwell The Norton History of Technology
Abbott Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions
Meyer & Brysac Tournament of Shaddows, The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia
Doughty Travels in Arabia Deserta
Lefevre The Golden Flood
Massie Dreadnought, Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War
Lawrence Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Durant The Story of Philosophy
Cardozo The Nature of the Judicial Process
Schapiro The Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Popper The Logic of Scientific Discovery
Kershaw Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris
Blemenson (ed.) The Patton Papers (1940-1945)
Hayek The Road to Serfdom
von Mises Human Action
Skinner Walden Two
Chambers Witness
Kuhn The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Guevara Guerrilla Warfare
Cleaver Soul on Ice
Lacey The Kingdom, Arabia & the House of Saud
Durant The Lessons of History
Hackworth Lessons Learned, Vietnam Primer
Quigley Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time
EDIT: Just remembered two more
Hobbes Leviathan
Locke Two Treatises of Government
