Here are the 2015 books:

How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It, by Mark Cuban. The title is silly (trust me, if you think you can emulate Mark Cuban you’re crazy), but the content isn’t bad.

The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue, by Frederick Forsyth. The spy novelist shares some of the amazing stories of his life. Fun stuff.

Magna Carta: The Birth of Liberty, by Dan Jones. Easy to read history of the legendary document and the people who made it happen.

The Chimes, by Charles Dickens. In many ways a darker version of A Christmas Carol.

Roadmap to Reconciliation, by Brenda Salter-McNeil. Brilliantly hopeful, easily applied, absolutely needed for our era.

The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett, by Nathan Ward. How Dashiell Hammett transformed crime fiction. If you love his books, you’ll love this biography.

Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California, by Frances Dinkelspiel. A touch of California history, a touch of modern day arson, and a touch of Napa Valley wine. Fun book for the California wine lover.

Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, by Jon Meacham. A sympathetic look at a President we often overlook. Meacham at his best.

Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair, by Anne Lamott. Thought this might complete my Journey of Hope series but found it was more “repair” and less “hope.”

The Tank Man’s Son, by Mark Bouman and David Jacobsen. Redemption, hope, reconciliation. Brilliant memoir of an interesting life.

The Death of Caesar: The Story of History’s Most Famous Assassination, by Barry Strauss. One of the most often told ancient stories explained well with a few new insights.

God & Churchill: How the Great Leader’s Sense of Divine Destiny Changed His Troubled World and Offers Hope for Ours, by Wallace Henley and Jonathan Sandys. Sometimes a historical book. Sometimes an interpretive book. Sometimes a warning. I liked some of it, dismissed other parts.

Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People, by Nadia Bolz-Weber. A book my conservative friends will hate. But boil it down to the core message, and it’s really good. Gritty and profanity laced, but good. Or should I say thus good?

Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time, by Jeff Sutherland. Amen! Finally points out the folly of strategic planning, long term planning, and deep thinking before a project. Just get started! Solid tips on business management.

Twelve Angry Men, by Reginald Rose. Great audiobook of the legendary drama. Still a powerful story.

The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars, and the Legacy, by Charles Hyde. Reads like very thorough research. Not very engaging.

Go Set a Watchman: A Novel, by Harper Lee. Disturbingly brilliant. The dialogue in the mid-50s south is not all that different than what we hear even today in our nation.

Gracias: A Latin American Journal, by Henri Nouwen. How have I not read this book before???? Brilliant look at Latin culture, mission work, and connecting with the poor.

Bridge of Spies, by Giles Whittell. A good book that sets the record straight on some hyperbolic American history. Rarely do I say this, but the movie (though not entirely accurate) is even better.

Silence, by Shusaku Endo. A classic novel about faith, culture, and 16th Century Japan. Powerful.

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Classic.

Making Hope Happen, by Shane Lopez. How to create hope in our lives.

Choosing Hope: Moving Forward from Life’s Darkest Hours, by Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis. Not a very good book but hard to criticize somebody who lived through the Sandy Hook horror.

Beowulf. A classic. Buy the audiobook — great way to “read” this one.

The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers, by Gillian Tett. Management insights about how silos can be deadly for an organization. Too bad the author didn’t read my blog first.

Misreading Scripture Through Western Eyes, by Richards and O’Brien. Insightful and compelling look at how our culture shapes our understanding of Scripture.

The Story of the Goths: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Gothic Dominion in Spain, by Henry Bradley. Meh.

Threshold, by G.M. Ford. One of my favorite detective mystery authors keeps me engaged again.

Mr. Nary: The Story of How Grady Thoms Got Published, by Roo Carmichael. Hilarious! A very creative and fun book.

Don’t Blink, by John Merritt. Fun book about experiencing all the joy God intends for our lives.

Vanished Empire: Vienna, Budapest, Prague-The Three Capital Cities of the Habsburg Empire As Seen Today, by Stephen Brook. Came across this just before traveling to all three cities. Great concept, but it was published in 1988 just before the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Thus a good chunk of the book is dated.

Psychology of Hope, by C.R. Snyder. Insights from looking at the psychology of people who have a lot of hope.

The Man Who Was Thursday, by G.K. Chesterton. Anarchists, policemen, and London at the start of the 20th Century. A crazy book about character and paradox.

How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, by Paul Tough. Interesting take on the power of character and determination in the development of children.

A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War, by Joseph Loconte. Fun, insightful, interesting topics. Loved it.

Kingdom of Shadows, by Alan Furst. Hungarian spy in Paris, 1938, dealing with a rapidly changing Europe.

Life Is A Dream, by Gyula Krudy. Ten short stories set in Hungary at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Death in Budapest, by James Ross. Twists and turns in this spy novel.

No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends, by Richard Dobbs and others. Not very impressive. Nothing new here, and some of the information feels a decade old.

Top 10 Prague. Can you tell where I’ve been lately?

I Served the King of England, by Bohumil Hrabal. Classic Czech fable, often hilarious, that will remind you of the movie Grand Budapest Hotel.

The Sea Wolves: A History of the Vikings, by Lars Brownworth. The amazing history of the Vikings. Well told historical narrative.

The Martian, by Andy Weir. Great summer read.

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, by Ashlee Vance. Good biography of a very interesting person.

Essentialism, by Greg McKeown. Staying focused on what really matters in life is the reminder coming from this book.

How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery, by Kevin Ashton. Seeing the creative process strictly as thinking and working.

No Man is an Island, by Thomas Merton. A brilliant book. One of the twelve I’m reading this year in the Journey of Hope theme.

Irrationally Yours: On Missing Socks, Pickup Lines, and Other Existential Puzzles, by Dan Ariely. Fun collection of posts from the authors blog.

Dead Wake, by Erik Larson. True story of the Lusitania, but written more like a novel.

Hell and Good Company: The Spanish Civil War and the World it Made, by Richard Rhodes. Most forget about this war because of the scope of World War II just afterward.

In Search of Bacchus: Wanderings in the Wonderful World of Wine Tourism, by George Taber. One of my favorite wine writers travels the globe.

Lion of Liberty: Patrick Henry and the Call to a New Nation, by Harlow Giles Unger. Came across as simplistic and biased.

The Hidden White House: Harry Truman and the Reconstruction of America’s Most Famous Residence, by Robert Klara. More info than you probably want or need about the rebuilding of the White House.

The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence. A book to read once a year.

Seeds of Hope, a Henri Nouwen reader. Brilliant as you’d expect.

Flashpoints: The Emerging Crisis in Europe, by George Friedman. Overview of the past, present, and potential future of a war-torn continent.

An Officer and a Spy, by Robert Harris. Historically accurate spy novel set in 1890’s Paris.

The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Yes, well aware this is a children’s book. Still great.

Gilgamesh: A New English Version. Every now and then you gotta read the oldest book in history.

When to Rob a Bank: …And 131 More Warped Suggestions and Well-Intended Rants. From the Freakonomics guys. Fun reprints of their blog posts.

Astoria: Astor and Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire: A Tale of Ambition and Survival on the Early American Frontier, by Peter Stark. Had never heard of this bit of history. Well told story.

Is the American Century Over, by Joseph Nye. One of the leading geopolitical thinkers, Nye makes a strong case for continued American preeminence in the world.

Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble. Fun book about the lives of archaeologists. They aren’t Indiana Jones, but are still a fascinating bunch.

Finding Faith in the Dark, by Laurie Short. One of my journey of hope books; great for people going through difficult times.

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity, by Nabeel Qureshi. Powerful, personal story of a young mans spiritual journey.

Extreme Wine, by Mike Veseth. A look at the most extreme wines and how they influence the mainstream wines.

The Honourable Schoolboy, John Le Carre. Complex, subtle, nuanced spy story set in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and London. Brilliant.

Superpower: Three Choices for America’s Role in the World, by Ian Bremmer. You might disagree with the authors conclusions, but the conversation he starts is desperately needed in America.

The Wright Brothers, by David McCullough. Another Pulitzer worthy book from the greatest living historian.

Simply Good News: Why the Gospel Is News and What Makes It Good, by N.T. Wright. Encouraging and insightful, as always in Wright’s books.

Scarcity: The New Science of Having Less and How It Defines Our Lives, by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir. Research on how scarcity (or poverty) impacts our ability to reason, live, and function.

The Road to Character, by David Brooks. Brilliant, needed, and one of my favorite books of the year.

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, by Kay Redfield Jamison. An honest and transparent autobiography from a woman dealing with bi-polar disorder.

Typhoon and Other Stories, by Joseph Conrad. Brilliant book that doesn’t translate well into modern cultural perspectives.

Aunty Lee’s Delights, by Ovidia Yu. Going to Singapore? Read some local color.

The Painted Veil, by Somerset Maugham. Brilliant character development.

The Man Who Would Be King And Other Stories, by Rudyard Kipling. Classic tale that set off a thousand copycats.

Top 10 Hong Kong. Can you tell where I’m vacationing next week?

Unleashing the Power of Rubber Bands, by Nancy Ortberg. Thoughts on leadership.

The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster, by Darren Hardy. Meh. Reads a bit like an infomercial.

Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest, by Carl Hoffman. Wild true story of Michael Rockefeller being eaten by cannibals in the early 60’s.

Small Cloud Rising, by Dave Gibbons. Poetic vision of the ancient future Church.

Yes, And: How Improvisation Reverses “No, But” Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration, by Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton. The very funny folks at The Second City comedy theater have some seriously good ideas about leadership and teamwork.

Heretics and Heroes: How Renaissance Artists and Reformation Priests Created Our World, by Thomas Cahill. I usually enjoy Cahill’s work, but this book was dry.

Scary Close, by Donald Miller. The challenge of intimacy from an author willing to be vulnerable.

Where Are the Customers’ Yachts: or A Good Hard Look at Wall Street, by Fred Schwed. Hilarious look at the workings of Wall Street.

Meet Me in Atlantis, by Mark Adams. Fun look at all the theories about Atlantis and the people who pursue the myth.

In Defense of a Liberal Education, by Fareed Zakaria. A strong case for the power of a liberal arts education. Adds power to what I’ve been saying for years.

Hebrews. Part of my Journey of Hope readings.

All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel, by Anthony Doerr. Brilliant.

Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis, by Tim Townsend. The Nuremberg Trials through the eyes of an army chaplain ministering to the Nazi’s sentenced to death.

Thicker Than Water, by G.M. Ford. One of my favorite smart aleck private detectives is back in action.

Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution, by Nathaniel Philbrick. An excellent writer tells an old story with new insights.

The Colors of Hope, by Richard Dahlstrom. Calling us to be “artisans of hope” who blend the beauty of justice, mercy and love.

Red Notice, by Bill Browder. Compelling true story of how corrupt the Russian government is today.

The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon, by Stephanie Dailey. I love history, but even I found this one dull.

The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World, by Jacqueline Novogratz. For five years people have been telling me to read this book. It’s good, but somehow didn’t hold my attention.

Beyond Awkward: When Talking About Jesus Is Outside Your Comfort Zone, by Beau Crosetto. Helpful book about how to share your faith.

Keeping Hope Alive, by Lewis Smedes. Thoughtful insights into the power of hope.

Fool Me Twice, a Robert Parker book. Unsurprisingly, Robert Parker books haven’t been the same since he died.

Bold, by Steven Kotler and Peter Diamandis. Forward thinking book about how entrepreneurs can shape an amazing future.

The Normans: From Raiders to Kings, by Lars Brownworth. The Battle of Hastings was the extent of my knowledge of the Normans. This book shows how much I was missing.

The Son, by Philipp Meyer. Listened to the Audible version of this and was enchanted by the narrators. Story itself is depressing.

Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers, by Gabriel Weinberg. Good overview of marketing techniques in this digital age.

The Grand Paradox, by Ken Wytsma. Excellent look a the mystery of God and the messiness of life.

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914, by Christopher Clark. A brilliant history book that is relevant today.

Wonderland by Robert Parker. Escapist detective fun.

The Last Battle: When U.S. and German Soldiers Joined Forces in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe, by Stephen Harding. Unusual story of American and German forces saving French prisoners during WWII.

Boys Adrift, by Leonard Sax. Excellent insight into the epidemic of failing boys.

Nine Centuries in the Heart of Burgundy: The Cellier aux Moines and Its Vineyards. Beautiful photography, interesting history.

Accidental Superpower, by Peter Zeihan. Very interesting, fun, insightful. Good stuff here.

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, by Hampton Sides. It almost held my interest, but not quite.