100 Best Israel Books of All Time

Richard BransonOne example of a book that has helped me to #ReadToLead this year is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. While the book came out a few years ago now, I got around to it this year, and am very glad I did. I’ve always been fascinated in what makes humans human, and how people are constantly evolving, changing and growing. The genius of Sapiens is that it takes some daunting,... (Source)

Reid HoffmanA grand theory of humanity. (Source)

Barack Obamaeval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'theceolibrary_com-leader-2','ezslot_7',164,'0','1'])); Fact or fiction, the president knows that reading keeps the mind sharp. He also delved into these non-fiction reads. (Source)

Ben ShapiroA really terrific book. [...] It's sort of the history of the founding of Israel. (Source)

Stephen WaltExodus is a book that had a profound impact on how many Americans thought about Israel. (Source)

Michael GoldfarbThe book was structured in such a way that it dealt with the Holocaust and the politics of establishing Israel. (Source)

Amnon RubinsteinThis is a new book which has become very successful in America, though it is less well-known in England. It is a book which seeks to explain the economic success of Israel. Israel has withstood the recent crunch, the recent depression, more successfully than other industrial societies and this book seeks to explain that. One of the things that the authors explain is the spirit of leadership and... (Source)

Sam GichuruI'm reminded to never engage such people. I could have been reading a book (current read: Startup Nation) in transit but instead I was going through unecessary mentions on my TL. Best way is to learn, reflect, find something constructive to do and move on, focus on your mission. https://t.co/pbkm83I1Hr (Source)

Iulian StanciuIn every good or bad decision, there is a lesson. The real win is not having done something right, but having learned something you can apply in the future. I've let people make the wrong decisions even if I knew they were wrong, because I knew that would teach them something better than I ever could. Why the "Start-up Nation" book? Because lots of things are BS free. If someone in the company... (Source)

Noah KaganI’m shocked this book was released. It shares unbelievable stories about Israel secret intelligence and perseverance. (Source)

Rory CormacIn stark contrast to some of the other books which were written by insiders, this book is 100 per cent unofficial and unauthorised. It’s written by a journalist, albeit a journalist with a history PhD. It’s based on interviews and documents that he’s been given over the years. It’s the kind of story that the Israelis didn’t want telling and, in fact, tried to prevent the book from being published. (Source)

Barack ObamaA few months ago, Mr. Obama read “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” by Daniel Kahneman, about how people make decisions — quick, instinctive thinking versus slower, contemplative deliberation. For Mr. Obama, a deliberator in an instinctive business, this may be as instructive as any political science text. (Source)

Bill Gates[On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012.] (Source)

Marc AndreessenCaptivating dive into human decision making, marred by inclusion of several/many? psychology studies that fail to replicate. Will stand as a cautionary tale? (Source)

Barack ObamaAs a devoted reader, the president has been linked to a lengthy list of novels and poetry collections over the years — he admits he enjoys a thriller. (Source)

Ayelet Gundar-GoshenFor me, this is the greatest Israeli novel, at least of this decade. (Source)

Dr. Phil Zimbardo[Talks] about Eichmann as illustrating the banality of evil. (Source)

Lucas MoralesI was introduced to the book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt via Ian Shapiro’s Yale Open Courseware course The Moral Foundations of Political Science. This dramatically changed my outlook on the usual career path for graduates from my university that predominantly went into the defence industry. I am now perhaps overly conscious (maybe to a fault) that... (Source)

David BellPolitical philosopher Arendt sees the work of the Nazis as the inevitable result of colonialism and industrialisation. (Source)

Ghanem NuseibehBrilliant! If you want to read about Jerusalem’s history, it’s Simon’s book! https://t.co/vHyCpMu0eh (Source)

Ben ShapiroBasically a bunch of short stories. But a bunch of them are really, really compelling and interesting. [...] It's a long read but it's an easy read. (Source)

Ayaan Hirsi AliYes. That is the good thing about it. I always get these accusations, ‘Oh, but you are just from Somalia’, your case is not representative. There are many memoirs, but again, if you tell me to reduce it to just one, I pick his. I read a review of this book and it made me buy it instantly. What I liked about it is that it is by a man. It is the story of a man who grew up as the son of a prominent... (Source)

Robin Yassin-KassabThis is the first English-language epic novel to comprehensively express the Palestinian tragedy….It is a great interpenetration of fiction and documentary. Although the subject matter is necessarily political, it remains a great work of fiction and the characters are not ciphers for a political message. (Source)

Walter IsaacsonEverybody, of course, should be familiar with [this book], which is a way of being taught through both parables and tales of people and their values. (Source)

Wim Hof[Wim Hof said this is one of his most-recommended books.] (Source)

Kevin KellyProbably the most amazing thing you haven’t read yet. (Source)

Robin Yassin-KassabMearsheimer and Walt are scholars of great repute, not conspiracy theorists or racists. In this book they argue that the remarkable American financial, military and political support for Israel is motivated primarily by the workings of a powerful right-wing Zionist lobby. This acts against American interests and even against Israel’s long-term security. Mearsheimer and Walt examine who makes up... (Source)

Stephen WaltThe existence of a special relationship – one of nearly unconditional and generous American support – is due almost entirely to the activities of the Israel lobby. (Source)

Adam SavageI felt like I was getting a Chinese version of Chinese culture. And that frame felt unique. (Source)

Ben Brode@noahmp @devonzuegel I thought book 2 and of the series that starts with “the three body problem” fulfilled this condition and was awesome (Source)

The Centre for the Study of Existential RiskIt makes the point that humanity is fairly weak, and that if we’re ever faced by a really big threat, we most likely won’t survive it. (Source)

Richard BransonI certainly wouldn’t consider myself a big reader of paleontology or anthropology – not good words for us dyslexics! – but I enjoy learning about how society has unfolded and history has developed in an exciting, easy to read way. The sequel, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, is a fascinating look into the future too. While these aren’t traditional business or leadership books, they are all... (Source)

Bill GatesHarari’s new book is as challenging and readable as Sapiens. Rather than looking back, as Sapiens does, it looks to the future. I don’t agree with everything the author has to say, but he has written a thoughtful look at what may be in store for humanity. (Source)

Vinod KhoslaNot that I agree with all of it, but it is still mind-bending speculation about our future as a follow-up to a previous favorite, Sapiens. It’s directionally right. (Source)

Gideon LichfieldObviously there are a lot of books about the conflict, and I’ve read only a fraction. But I’ve picked out the ones which are not even necessarily the best of that fraction. Just the books that for one reason or another have made an impact on me because they were useful in helping me get at something deeper at the time when I read them, something about opening up my understanding to other people’s... (Source)

Derek Sivers[Derek Sivers recommended this book in the book "Tools of Titans".] (Source)

Robin Yassin-KassabPappe has written a great historical work on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1947/8 and he shows that it was organised and planned, called Plan D, or plan Dalit, and he has exploded the myths that were current until his work. (Source)

Alon HiluBenny Morris, together with Ilan Pappe and other historians, is an historian who took it upon himself to check what really happened here in early Zionism. He describes, for example, what happened in 1948. Usually with Israel we tell ourselves that in the 48 War the Palestinians ran away and didn’t want to come back. And he showed that in some cases the situation was quite different. People were... (Source)

Gideon LichfieldKhirbet Khizeh by S Yizhar and the final book on the list both come from the same people, and I’ll explain why in a bit. Khirbet Khizeh is an interesting book because it’s a very, very short novel – a long short story really – written by this guy who was an intelligence officer in the fledgling Israeli army. The book’s told from the point of view of a soldier in this army just after the Israeli... (Source)

Robin Yassin-KassabIt’s been a bestseller in Israel, and that’s very interesting because it undermines the blood and soil aspects of Zionism and also the Christian Zionism that is so rife in the United States. (Source)

Amnon RubinsteinThis is a book which has enjoyed great success. It not only denies that Israel is the state of the Jewish people but it denies the fact that there is a Jewish people. (Source)

Ayelet Gundar-GoshenGavron writes about the people who live in the Occupied Territories, who for many left-wing readers are the ultimate ‘other’. (Source)

Ayelet Gundar-GoshenThe most important Israeli writer today; a Palestinian citizen of Israel. (Source)

Ayelet Gundar-GoshenThe people who are afraid of this novel are the people who understand that literature can change the way people think. (Source)

Ayelet Gundar-GoshenCan you be homesick in your own living room? Can you miss the person you love, when you’re lying next to him in bed? (Source)

Doug McMillonHere are some of my favorite reads from 2017. Lots of friends and colleagues send me book suggestions and it's impossible to squeeze them all in. I continue to be super curious about how digital and tech are enabling people to transform our lives but I try to read a good mix of books that apply to a variety of areas and stretch my thinking more broadly. (Source)

David Heinemeier HanssonMichael Lewis is just a great storyteller, and tell a story in this he does. It’s about two Israeli psychologists, their collaboration on the irrationality of the human mind, and the milestones they set with concepts like loss-aversion, endowment effect, and other common quirks that the assumption of rationality doesn’t account for. It’s a bit long-winded, but if you like Lewis’ style, you... (Source)

Francisco Perez Mackenna​This summer, Mackenna is learning more about the birth of behavioral economics, the psychology of white collar crime, and the restoration of American cities as locations of economic growth. (Source)

Eugene RoganThe irony of the title is, of course, that Palestine was made, by the British, into a twice-contested land: between Palestinian Arabs and Jewish Zionist immigrants. (Source)

Michael GoldfarbBoth groups in Palestine had a major bone to pick with the colonial power – Britain. And there was a fair amount of terrorism from both camps. (Source)

James CarrollThis book tells the story of the great interruption in European history – the Holocaust. It’s no accident that the Jewish reaction after the Holocaust was to return to Jerusalem. Zionism had been ambivalent about Jerusalem, but, after the Holocaust, that was no longer the case. Tom Segev’s book explains why. The title refers to the six million who died in the Holocaust; the seventh million are... (Source)

Demetri SevastopuloOn a totally different topic, this book by @stephenkinzer is a great look at US & UK relations with #Iran before the revolution. Lots of interesting similarities with the situation today. https://t.co/rlv8Ip0Kjn https://t.co/gz7InQkMk4 (Source)

Chris AbbottKinzer gives a good and quick introduction to Iranian history and its relationships with America and Britain. (Source)

Alon HiluShmuel Agnon is the only Israeli writer who has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He is still regarded as the best writer in modern Hebrew literature. This book takes place in Jaffa between the end of the 19th century and the start of the First World War. My latest book, The House of Rajani, takes place at the same time and in the same place so I was very much inspired by his book. I read it... (Source)

Peter W. GalbraithThis is a book by Ariel Sabar, whose family came from Iraqi Kurdistan. The Jewish population of Iraq with very large in 1940; a quarter of Baghdad’s population was Jewish. But the partition of Palestine sparked increased repression of Jews in the region and led to a mass exodus of Jews from Iraq, including the author’s father. In the Arab parts of Iraq, Jews were fired from their jobs, had their... (Source)