The Life Science Library was a set of 26 books published in the 1960s. Each book focused on a single topic, such as weather, the human body, or planets. My family had a set when I was a kid, and I studied them obsessively. I was as fascinated by the incredible design as I was by the text and images. My favorite of the set was The Mind, published in 1964, which explored the mysteries and complexities of perception, memory, learning, mental illness, psychoanalysis, and the nervous system. While much of the information has been superseded by later discoveries, it introduced me to many things that have stuck with me my entire life: Ames rooms, Louis Wain’s kaleidoscopic cat art, and the stunning William Kurelek painting, The Maze. Out of print, but used copies are available, and you can view it at the Internet Archive.— MF

At first, the title sounds like an insane idea: One Billion Americans. But this easy-to-read book is very persuasive in making the case why current Americans benefit from a vigorous immigration policy and generous family friendly programs, as ways to increase the country’s prosperity. Matt Yglesias, the author, deals with all the obvious objections of a billion Americans in an even handed way. He changed my mind; I think it is a great idea. — KK

BookPecker.com summarizes popular books into 5 key points. Five bullet points may not be enough information to learn and absorb new concepts, but just enough to pique your interest and help you decide if you want to read a particular book or not. Here’s an example of a book I’ve been wanting to read: King, Warrior, Magician, Lover. Based on the summary, I decided to forgo reading the book and instead try to do some online research on each of the masculine archetypes. Currently there are 14,509 books summarized in 5 bullet points. — CD 

The Library Extension has changed how I find and borrow ebooks. While browsing Amazon or Goodreads, this browser add-on indicates whether a book is available at my local library. With a simple click on the "borrow" button, the book is sent directly to my Kindle. It requires only a library account to use. (Screenshot) — MF

Classical antiquity is not as far away from us as it might first appear. I’m in love with a newish book about the first millennia called, “In the Shadow of the Sword,”  Inside this elegantly written, sweeping history about the birth of Islam, is hidden a more profound book about the birth of religions in general. Just as the bishops created Christianity from the slim, scarce, and obscure oral teachings of a holy man, so Islam was created from the slim, obscure oral traditions of another holy man. This is one of the densest books I’ve ever read, with more insights per page than I could count. The two greatest forces shaping our lives today are technology and orthodox, dogmatic religion, and this is the biography of the second. — KK

A few years ago, we ran a website edited by my wife, Carla Sinclair, that showcased visual reference books – art books, comics, photography books, pop-ups, atlases, and so on. We realized these were books that belong on paper and were worth keeping as books (they don’t disappear). You can still visit the site (called Wink), but it hasn't been updated recently. We are repacking all this visual greatness into a new free newsletter: Books That Belong on Paper. Each issue will feature two books from Wink, complete with updated links to purchase them. We hope you subscribe! — MF

Managing creative people is a whole ‘nother skill than just being creative yourself. The best practices for managing a group that is persistently creative and innovative is described in Ed Catmull’s bestselling book on Pixar. Catmull co-founded Pixar when it was a computer hardware company, and ran it through its glorious run of producing one hit movie after another. His book Creativity, Inc., recounts the many lessons he learned. I found it a page-turner because throughout the book he focuses on his mistakes, failings, and what he got wrong. Almost no one does that, and yet I found it irresistibly the most powerful way to teach. Get the newly released updated edition, where, true to his spirit, Catmull expands on what he got wrong in the original book! — KK

The best book about tools – the tools you can buy today – is this new illustrated tome by Theo Gray, called Tools: A visual exploration. It is comprehensive (covers hundreds of examples from hand tools to elaborate power tools), detailed, very graphic (clear photos for each thing), and witty. Most importantly, this overview of all tools is based on Gray’s 40 years of using all these tools to make an astonishing range of things. As a maker, I found his expertise and recommendations essential. I also read the book as a catalog of possibilities; each tool unfamiliar to me opened up possible new directions of making. Gray also made a free website with pictures of the tools without any text. — KK

One of my favorite novels is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven, written in 1927. Recently, I read his 1926 novel, The Death Ship, and found it equally captivating and impressive. The plot revolves around a young American merchant sailor who, while on leave in Antwerp, misses his ship and subsequently struggles to survive. The novel’s theme reminds me of Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, because both explore survival in destitution, balancing of humor and harrowing intensity. (Very little is known about B. Traven, who was so publicity shy that he makes Thomas Pynchon seem like Jacqueline Susann.) — MF

I hate to misuse my position of power on this newsletter, but I must recommend my new book one last time. Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier will go on sale in two days (Tuesday) and I honestly believe most subscribers will find the book useful, helpful, surprising, and inspiring. Not techy, it’s as broad as life. You are the recipients I had in mind when I compiled it. BTW, it would make a perfect graduation gift for a young person, or even a Mother’s and Father’s Day gift. — KK

In an act of unabashed self-promotion, I highly recommend you get my new book: Excellent Advice for Living.  It’s the result of 70 years of trying to live the good and right life. There is a lot I am now certain of that I wished I had known when I was younger. So I wrote down these hard-earned bits of wisdom into brief telegraphic lessons with as few words as possible (life is short!).  Here are a couple examples:

• Rule of 3 in conversation : To get to the real reason, ask a person to go deeper than what they just did. Then again, and then once more. The third time’s answer is the one closest to the truth.

• If you are looking for something in your house and you finally find it, when you are done with it, don’t put it back where you found it. Put it back where you first looked for it.

• Taking a break is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength.

• To succeed, get other people to pay you; to become wealthy, help other people to succeed.

• Productivity is often a distraction. Don’t aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible. Instead aim for better tasks that you never want to stop doing.

There are 450 more! You can pre-order Excellent Advice for Living now; it ships in a week. — KK

In addition to the pleasure of reading a rousing story, there is a special benefit in exploring alternative histories. You know, the ones that ask what if? What if the Nazis won? What if the Russians landed on the moon first? This question is both a great way to approach history, and a good skill for thinking about the future. The Sideways Awards for Alternative History on Wikipedia is a fantastic source that lists the best alternative history stories written for each of the past 30 years. — KK

Reco•mind•o: Mindful Recomendos for Life and Work is now available as a downloadable PDF with clickable links for $2.99. It is a collection of my personal tips distilled from more than 300 issues of Recomendo. It has less product recommendations and more invisible tools to improve the inner and outer aspects of life. The full-color paperback is still available on Amazon. — CD

I’ve been skeptical of the need for humans to live in space. I’m having my mind slowly changed by the science fiction of Daniel Suarez, who describes in great detail how moving some industry – including power generation – off our planet into near-orbit space may be the greenest thing we can do. All this hard science is wrapped up in a page-turning sci-fi thriller. The second volume in his Delta-V trilogy, called Critical Mass, is his best so far and can be enjoyed without having to read the first one (though of course it’s even better that way). — KK

For the past half century the most powerful resource in the world has been computers. The book Chip War is the story of the political, commercial, and military struggle to control this global resource in the form of tiny silicon chips used in everything. Chip War is a brisk, insightful, punchy, fast read. The ups, downs, upsets, rebounds, and flameouts of the major players make it clear that this story is not done and there will be more surprises around this power in the future. Highly recommended. — KK

I’d like to shamelessly promote my 50-year project to document the remote parts of Asia that very few people have seen. I call it Vanishing Asia. These gigantic books have thousands of photos of exotic traditions, rituals, festivals, costumes and disappearing architecture. I not only put years and years into traveling to the end of the roads, but also I put my heart and soul into collecting these images for posterity. There are still some copies of this immense 3-volume set available on Amazon, and they are currently discounted. These are the last copies because there will not be any more printed. Amazon says they can be delivered by Christmas, for a tremendously wow gift. — KK

My personal recommendations always lean more toward mindfulness and productivity hacks, and a lot of what I’ve shared with you are daily habits which have significantly improved my quality of life. So I went back in time to pull my own essential recomendos and I put them in a paperback book called Reco•mind•o: Mindful Recomendos for Life and Work ($14, 120 pages). It has less products to buy and more tips on how to be a better human. It is now available on Amazon and should arrive before Christmas. — CD

We are proud that we’ve published Recomendo every week for the past 6 years. It’s free, but not cheap. You can show your support for our service by forwarding an issue you enjoyed to a friend, or sharing your support on the socials with a link. We also still have copies of the “best of” Recomendo book (2020) which makes a great holiday gift, with over 1,000 of our best recomendos. — KK

One of the better books of I’ve read that is crammed with very good and actionable advice for gaining happiness, success, and wealth is The Alamanack of Naval Ravikant, which is generously (a key skill!) available as a free PDF. I found myself agreeing with most of the advice. Kindle and printed book versions are sold on Amazon. – KK

For the last several years, the cartoonist Seth has been designing and illustrating an annual series of beautiful little books, called Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories. This year’s series includes A Visit by Shirley Jackson, The Corner Shop by Lady Asquith, and The Dead and the Countess by Gertrude Atherton. – MF