All the Books Bill Gates has Recommended Over the Last Eight Years
2. 
The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
by:
Steven Pinker
4.16 avg rating — 29,269 ratings 
8. 
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
by:
Trevor Noah
4.49 avg rating — 778,752 ratings 
11. 
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty 4.28 avg rating — 23,741 ratings
12. 
The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism 4.15 avg rating — 23,622 ratings
14. 
The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life
by:
Nick Lane
4.18 avg rating — 5,766 ratings 15. 
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
by:
Steven Pinker
4.20 avg rating — 31,748 ratings 16. 
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by:
Jared Diamond
4.04 avg rating — 445,030 ratings 17. 
The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True
by:
Richard Dawkins
4.05 avg rating — 27,031 ratings 18. 
What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
by:
Randall Munroe
4.14 avg rating — 191,209 ratings 19. 
13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time
by:
Michael Brooks
3.75 avg rating — 6,124 ratings 20. 
The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
by:
David McCullough
4.22 avg rating — 22,134 ratings 21. 
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
by:
Hans Rosling
4.36 avg rating — 197,283 ratings 
29. 
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
by:
Katherine Boo
3.98 avg rating — 114,817 ratings 30. 
The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change
by:
Roger Thurow
4.09 avg rating — 758 ratings 30. 
Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War
by:
Leymah Gbowee
4.16 avg rating — 4,306 ratings 
33. 
The Man Who Fed the World: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug and His Battle to End World Hunger
by:
Leon Hesser
3.83 avg rating — 504 ratings 
34. 
However Long the Night: Molly Melching's Journey to Help Millions of African Women and Girls Triumph
by:
Aimee Molloy
4.21 avg rating — 1,216 ratings 36. 
Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think (Exponential Technology Series) 4.05 avg rating — 11,575 ratings
38. 
39. 
A Nation of Wusses: How America's Leaders Lost the Guts to Make Us Great
by:
Ed Rendell
3.54 avg rating — 162 ratings 40. 
The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty
by:
Nina Munk
3.93 avg rating — 1,450 ratings 
42. 
43. 
The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?
by:
Jared Diamond
3.78 avg rating — 10,884 ratings 44. 
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
by:
Jared Diamond
3.93 avg rating — 73,872 ratings 
48. 
50. 
The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World
by:
Pedro Domingos
3.74 avg rating — 6,368 ratings 51. 
The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention
by:
William Rosen
3.93 avg rating — 1,369 ratings 
53. 
The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
by:
Marc Levinson
3.86 avg rating — 6,744 ratings 54. 
How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking
by:
Jordan Ellenberg
3.95 avg rating — 20,875 ratings 
56. 
Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words
by:
Randall Munroe
4.14 avg rating — 12,052 ratings 57. 
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don't
by:
Nate Silver
3.97 avg rating — 51,882 ratings 58. 
Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street
by:
John Brooks
3.81 avg rating — 24,341 ratings 
60. 
Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2012
by:
Carol J. Loomis
3.98 avg rating — 2,721 ratings 61. 
Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger 4.41 avg rating — 16,003 ratings
62. 
Broken Genius: The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age
by:
Joel N. Shurkin
3.80 avg rating — 125 ratings 
64. 
Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens
by:
Eddie Izzard
3.86 avg rating — 10,156 ratings 65. 
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
by:
Allie Brosh
4.17 avg rating — 213,864 ratings 
67. 
Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved
by:
Kate Bowler
3.80 avg rating — 51,878 ratings 
75. 
Should We Eat Meat?: Evolution and Consequences of Modern Carnivory
by:
Vaclav Smil
3.52 avg rating — 629 ratings 76. 
Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization
by:
Vaclav Smil
3.76 avg rating — 585 ratings 77. 
Harvesting the Biosphere: What We Have Taken from Nature
by:
Vaclav Smil
3.72 avg rating — 139 ratings 78. 
Energy Myths and Realities: Bringing Science to the Energy Policy Debate
by:
Vaclav Smil
3.87 avg rating — 622 ratings 
80. 
Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing
by:
Vaclav Smil
3.77 avg rating — 484 ratings 81. 
Prime Movers of Globalization: The History and Impact of Diesel Engines and Gas Turbines
by:
Vaclav Smil
3.89 avg rating — 130 ratings 82. 
The Earth's Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics, and Change
by:
Vaclav Smil
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 35 ratings 83. 
Energy at the Crossroads: Global Perspectives and Uncertainties
by:
Vaclav Smil
3.98 avg rating — 125 ratings 84. 
Energies: An Illustrated Guide to the Biosphere and Civilization
by:
Vaclav Smil
3.80 avg rating — 35 ratings 
86. 
Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production
by:
Vaclav Smil
4.18 avg rating — 95 ratings 
88. 
Transforming the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations and Their Consequences
by:
Vaclav Smil
4.27 avg rating — 37 ratings 89. 
90. 
91. 
Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics
by:
Morten Jerven
3.76 avg rating — 158 ratings 92. 
Getting Better: Why Global Development Is Succeeding--And How We Can Improve the World Even More
by:
Charles Kenny
3.62 avg rating — 204 ratings 93. 
In the Company of the Poor: Conversations with Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez
by:
Michael Griffin
4.25 avg rating — 479 ratings 94. 
How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place
by:
Bjørn Lomborg
3.39 avg rating — 155 ratings 95. 
The Foundation: A Great American Secret; How Private Wealth is Changing the World 3.62 avg rating — 131 ratings
98. 
Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food
by:
Pamela C. Ronald
3.86 avg rating — 445 ratings 99. 
The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality
by:
Angus Deaton
3.82 avg rating — 2,418 ratings 