Malcolm Gladwell portrait

Malcolm Gladwell's Top Book Recommendations

Writer & Journalist

Want to know what books Malcolm Gladwell recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Malcolm Gladwell's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

Just Kids book cover1

Just Kids

Patti Smith

4.3
In Just Kids, Patti Smith's first book of prose, the legendary American artist offers a never-before-seen glimpse of her remarkable relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the epochal days of New York City and the Chelsea Hotel in the late sixties and seventies. An honest and moving story of youth and friendship, Smith brings the same unique, lyrical quality to Just Kids as she has t
The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail book cover2

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

Clayton M. Christensen

4.3
The bestselling classic on disruptive innovation, renowned author Clayton M. Christensen.

His work is cited by the world’s best-known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic bestseller—now updated with a fresh new package—innovation expert Clayton Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right—yet still lose market leadership. Read th
Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance book cover3

Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance

Alex Hutchinson

4.3
From the National Magazine Award-winning Runner’s World columnist, frequent New Yorker online contributor, and Cambridge-trained physicist: a fascinating and definitive exploration of the extraordinary science of human endurance and the secrets of human performance, for fans of The Sports Gene, Born to Run, and Grit.

From running a two-hour marathon to summiting Mount Everest, we’re fascinated by t
The Fifth Risk book cover4

The Fifth Risk

Michael Lewis

4.2
What are the consequences if the people given control over our government have no idea how it works?

"The election happened," remembers Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, then deputy secretary of the Department of Energy. "And then there was radio silence." Across all departments, similar stories were playing out: Trump appointees were few and far between; those that did show up were shockingly uninformed
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World book cover5

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

David Epstein

4.4
What's the most effective path to success in any domain? It's not what you think.

Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. If you dabble or delay, you'll never catch up to the people who got a head start. But a closer look at research
SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance book cover6

SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance

Steven D. Levitt

4.2
The New York Times best-selling Freakonomics was a worldwide sensation, selling over four million copies in thirty-five languages and changing the way we look at the world. Now, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with SuperFreakonomics, and fans and newcomers alike will find that the freakquel is even bolder, funnier, and more surprising than the first.

Four years in the making, SuperFre
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End book cover7

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

Atul Gawande

4.6
Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming the dangers of childbirth, injury, and disease from harrowing to manageable. But when it comes to the inescapable realities of aging and death, what medicine can do often runs counter to what it should.

Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Atul Gawande, a practicing surgeon, reveals the suffering this
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets book cover8

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

4.2
Fooled by Randomness is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don’t understand. The other books in the series are The Black Swan, Antifragile, and The Bed of Procrustes.

Now in a striking new hardcover edition, Fooled by Randomness is the word-of-mouth se
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything book cover9

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Steven D. Levitt

4.2
Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime? Freakonomics will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.

These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven
10

Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious

Timothy D. Wilson

4.2
"Know thyself," a precept as old as Socrates, is still good advice. But is introspection the best path to self-knowledge? What are we trying to discover, anyway? In an eye-opening tour of the unconscious, as contemporary psychological science has redefined it, Timothy D. Wilson introduces us to a hidden mental world of judgments, feelings, and motives that introspection may never show us.

This is n
11

Should I Be Tested for Cancer?: Maybe Not and Here's Why

H. Gilbert Welch M.D. M.P.H.

4.3
Getting tested to detect cancer early is one of the best ways to stay healthy—or is it? In this lively, carefully researched book, a nationally recognized expert on early cancer detection challenges one of medicine's most widely accepted beliefs: that the best defense against cancer is to always try to catch it early. Read this book and you will think twice about common cancer screening tests such
12

Eye Contact: The Secret to a Bigger Life

Brian Grazer

3.7
A Simon & Schuster book. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.
Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked book cover13

Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked

Adam Alter

4.1
Welcome to the age of behavioral addiction—an age in which half of the American population is addicted to at least one behavior. We obsess over our emails, Instagram likes, and Facebook feeds; we binge on TV episodes and YouTube videos; we work longer hours each year; and we spend an average of three hours each day using our smartphones. Half of us would rather suffer a broken bone than a broken p
The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game book cover14

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game

Michael Lewis

4.4
The young man at the center of this extraordinary and moving story will one day be among the most highly paid athletes in the National Football League. When we first meet him, he is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or any of the things a child might learn in school such as, say, how to read or write. Nor has he ever t
15

A Thousand Pardons

Jonathan Dee

3.4
For readers of Jonathan Franzen and Richard Russo, Jonathan Dee’s novels are masterful works of literary fiction. In this sharply observed tale of self-invention and public scandal, Dee raises a trenchant question: what do we really want when we ask for forgiveness?

Once a privileged and loving couple, the Armsteads have now reached a breaking point. Ben, a partner in a prestigious law firm, has be