100 Books Like A Good Time to Be Born

I love books about trends that make predictions, and Gratton and Scott’s book lays out very compelling evidence about how the increase in life expectancy will – and should – change the way we live. First, they lay out why the three stage model of life (education, work, retirement) doesn’t work as we live longer. Then, they draw on their complementary backgrounds in psychology and economics to tell us what we should do instead. From how to handle our money, to how to think about our careers and relationships, this book offers a recipe for making our extra years fulfilling and meaningful.

When I first saw the book, I thought, “What an odd title for a book on technology?” But the adage that you can’t tell a book by its cover was 100 percent accurate. The author takes the reader on a remarkable journey to understand how the technologies of the day, ordinary technologies—such as vaccines, pasteurization, drug regulation and testing, antibiotics, and industrial safety--have transformed humanity, societies, and our daily lives.

The author leaves the best for last, as he asserts that the most transformative technology has been access to clean water. The results are measured in greater longevity and quality of life for humanity. Using these everyday technologies, the author provides a clear articulation of why technology is so vital to our future.   

Life expectancy among the working-class population in the United States was decreasing at an astounding rate well before the Covid-19 pandemic. While I was aware of growing inequality and decreasing access to health care for many, I didn’t realize how desperate the conditions of life seemed for many working-class Americans.

This book forced me to confront the uncomfortable reality of the health crisis among the many blue-collar workers living in the heartland of America.  

Big data can be beautiful and visualisations make for a wonderful coffee-table book. In Information is Beautiful, David McCandless turns dry-as-dust data into pop art to show the kind of world we live in, linking politics to life expectancy, women’s education to GDP growth, and more. Through colourful graphics, we get vivid and novel perspectives on current obsessions, from maps of cliches to the most fashionable colours. A testament to how the power of big data comes from being able to distill information to reveal hidden patterns and discern trends. 

I initially avoided this book, skeptical both of its author and its daunting thickness. Glad I got over my skepticism, because it is an absolute game-changer for long-term health. It’s by far the most comprehensive, scientific, and sensible book I’ve read on “healthspan”—how to live healthier longer.

As a fellow M.D., I resonate with Attia’s quantitative, science-based rigor. His “Medicine 3.0” approach cuts through all the fads and nonsense: to be healthy till 90, we’ll want to forestall heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and metabolic dysfunction (e.g., diabetes). And do it via early detection and prevention starting today.

His generosity in sharing his own struggles made the book even more approachable. I’ve already incorporated many of his spot-on recommendations into my life. 

This book is great because Norberg is calm, methodical, rational, and optimistic: we have come a long way, we live in the best of times, and let’s get on with it. I love the modern as I’ve said, and appreciate historians who understand that, from a material perspective at least (health, wealth, freedom, and security), most people today are in the top 99.999999 percentile of all the humans who have ever lived.

I so admire (and share) Norberg’s belief in our brilliance and problem-solving skills and admire, too, his arguments which are complex but easy to follow. Modernity gives us plenty to celebrate, and Norberg, I feel, makes this eminently clear.

It is a book that serves as the perfect balance to Barrat’s and to Kurzweil’s. Although the three together will lead to cognitive dissonance, which, in my view, is as healthy as having one’s mind blown periodically.

This book ought to be required reading for every high school student. I didn’t read it in high school. But I’m grateful I found and read it a short few years ago. Why? Because I’m never going to win the rat race. The harder I try, the worse off I’ll become because “the rats” keep getting bigger and faster.

While it's a truism to say that time is the most precious resource, until recently, I didn’t act that way. I know that each of us has limited time, energy, and resources. So, getting more comfortable with the fact that my life is finite is key. Becoming a productivity master is a fool's errand. And the author, Oliver Burkeman, does a stunning and entertaining job of helping you get off that treadmill to live a better, fuller, and more meaningful life.

I don’t know about you, but whenever I have a symptom that I don’t know what to make of, I head right to the laptop and Google it. The sites that pop up run the gamut from helpful to ridiculous. I’ll tell you what my personal doctor said: If you are going to do that, please go to Mayo Clinic.

I love this book for the same reason she recommends their website. They are trusted, reliable, up to date and explain things in a way that is easy to understand but not oversimplified. It is the best resource on aging I know of and works in perfect harmony with other healthy lifestyle books I read.

I double-check their advice against this book, and this allows for the all-important trust-but-verify strategy that helps me personally and in giving others advice. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s a must-have book if… show more.

Although my novel is set mainly on the home front, it starts in no man’s land and the trenches and returns to the front a few more times to demonstrate how close the links were between the home and war fronts. I wanted these passages to be realistic and needed facts, details, and knowledge from which to write.

I read John Lewis-Stempel’s meticulously researched book because it focuses on the experiences of Subalterns—young men who were made officers while they were often still at school. I found it moving, harrowing, and shocking—a book that stayed with me because it showed the impossibility of performing that role and surviving more than a few weeks. It proved invaluable for the first chapter of the book which is entitled The Subaltern.

Telling the story of the girl who became an international icon when the Associated Press published a photograph of her running from napalm bombing in her village in 1972, Denise Chong’s The Girl in the Picture offers insight into the day-to-day lives of South Vietnamese villagers who simply wanted to survive. Caught between the U.S.-supported South Vietnamese military and the National Liberation Front, villagers often had family members fighting on both sides of the war, not because of divergent ideological beliefs, but because repressive recruitment efforts left young men no choice but to enlist. Through the eyes of Kim Phuc, Denise Chong’s book humanizes life on the ground in a war zone and describes what happened when U.S. troops left the country.