Morgan Housel's Book Recommendations

"A book about dopamine, the most powerful chemical in your brain that we rarely think about has so much influence on the world. Dopamine doesn’t give you happiness in the moment; it convinces you that there’s happiness in the future that you should pursue, always pushing us for more, more, more."

"The story of an heiress who inherits a fortune but lives a life of seclusion with almost no contact with the outside world while collecting mansions that go unvisited until she dies at age 104 after living in a hospital for years despite excellent health, setting off an epic battle for her money. Like the Vanderbilt story, it’s a fascinating look at what money does, and doesn’t, do for you."

"Walking on the moon is probably the coolest thing humans have ever done. The hardest, boldest, riskiest, thing ever attempted by anyone – I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. There are surprisingly few books that describe what it was like for the astronauts, most of whom assumed they’d die on these missions. This is the best one I’ve found."

"A fascinating book about the complexity of something that seems basic. One example: Trees that grow up in their mothers’ shade grow slowly, because their moms block most of the sun. Slow growth leads to dense wood, which leads to a strong tree. Trees that instead grow in the open sun, without their mom’s shade, grow very fast, gorging on all the light they can absorb. But fast growth leads to soft wood, which is susceptible to rot and fungus. That analogy – grow fast at your own peril – applies to many fields, as do several of the lessons in this book."

"This book on the space race was very good."

"This book on the space race was very good. Putting a man on the moon seemed so implausible in the early 1960s that the only equivalent today is probably achieving something like time travel."

"It's great."

"Highly recommend @dollarsanddata's new (and first) book, it's great."

"The telling of America’s first modern bubble: the Florida real estate boom of the 1920s. What’s great about this book is that so many of the characters, scenes, incentives, behaviors, and outcomes could be right out of today’s world. Same as it ever was."

"Maybe the best book I’ve read in years. The true story of a young Hungarian girl sent to Auschwitz where her parents are murdered upon arrival but who manages to survive a year of torture and starvation before being liberated. After the war she moves to America, gets a PhD in psychology, and becomes a therapist who understands the psychology of trauma better than anyone. Just epic writing and storytelling, hard to put down."

"Underrated."

"A few underrated books: 1. Where The Money Was: Memoirs of a Bank Robber (Willie Sutton) 2. Crashing Through: The Story of the Man Who Dared to See 3. One Summer: America in 1927"

"The Body is probably the best book I read in the last year:"