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Whitney Cummings' Top Book Recommendations

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

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind book cover1

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari

4.5
Preview Summary
100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens.

How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism?
Barack Obama portraitBill Gates portraitReid Hoffman portrait Recommended by Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Reid Hoffman, and 34 others.
Barack Obama portrait
Barack Obama

Former USA President

Fact or fiction, the president knows that reading keeps the mind sharp. He also delved into these non-fiction reads. [source]

Bill Gates portrait
Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Both Melinda and I read this one, and it has sparked lots of great conversations at our dinner table. Harari takes on a daunting challenge: to tell the entire history of the human race in just 400 pages. He also writes about our species today and how artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and other technologies will change us in the future. Although I found things to disagree with—especially Harari’s claim that humans were better off before we started farming—I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who’s interested in the history and future of our species. [source]

Animal Farm book cover2

Animal Farm

George Orwell and Christopher Hitchens

4.3
Animal Farm is one of the most famous warnings ever written. Orwell's immortal satire - 'against Stalin' as he wrote to his French translator - can be read on many levels. With its piercing clarity and deceptively simple style it is no surprise that this novel is required reading for schoolchildren and politicians alike. This fable of the steadfast horses Boxer and Clover, the opportunistic pigs S
Daniel Pink portraitWhitney Cummings portraitVlad Tenev portrait Recommended by Daniel Pink, Whitney Cummings, Vlad Tenev, and 4 others.
Vlad Tenev portrait
Vlad Tenev

When I was in sixth grade I remember being very upset by the ending of this book. [source]

Heather Brooke portrait
Heather Brooke

I picked Animal Farm because it is an allegory about power and its seductive and corruptive influence on people regardless of their initial good intentions. [source]

Super Sad True Love Story book cover3

Super Sad True Love Story

Gary Shteyngart

3.6
The author of two critically acclaimed novels, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook and Absurdistan, Gary Shteyngart has risen to the top of the fiction world. Now, in his hilarious and heartfelt new novel, he envisions a deliciously dark tale of America’s dysfunctional coming years—and the timeless and tender feelings that just might bring us back from the brink.

In a very near future—oh, let’s say ne
Whitney Cummings portraitJennifer M Harris portraitNicholas Carr portrait Recommended by Whitney Cummings, Jennifer M Harris, and Nicholas Carr.
Jennifer M Harris portrait
Jennifer M Harris

What I like about it is the way Shteyngart takes a pretty wonky concept in geoeconomics and makes it real. [source]

Nicholas Carr portrait
Nicholas Carr

I think that novelists, and other artists, are only beginning to grapple with the implications of the Internet, smartphones and all of that. Literature provides a different and very valuable way of perceiving those implications, so I decided to end with a novel. This book is both funny and extremely horrifying. It’s set in a future that is very close in some ways to the present. Shteyngart takes phenomena and trends that are around us but we don’t even notice, pushes them a little more extreme, and suddenly it gives you a new way to think about not only where we’re heading but where we already are. [source]

Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples: Third Edition book cover4

Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples: Third Edition

Harville Hendrix

4.3
Preview Summary
The New York Times bestselling guide to transforming an intimate relationship into a lasting source of love and companionship, now fully revised with a new forward and a brand new chapter.

Getting the Love You Want has helped millions of people experience more satisfying relationships and is recommended every day by professional therapists and happy couples around the world. Dr. Harville Hendrix an
Whitney Cummings portraitJulie Rice portrait Recommended by Whitney Cummings and Julie Rice.
Whitney Cummings portrait
Whitney Cummings

A very illuminating exploration of how we’re attracted to people who have the negative qualities of our primary caretakers. [source]

Julie Rice portrait
Julie Rice

I definitely give people a lot of people this book. [source]

5

Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself

Melody Beattie

4.4
Preview Summary
The healing touchstone of millions, this modern classic by one of America's best-loved and most inspirational authors holds the key to understanding codependency and to unlocking its stultifying hold on your life.

Is someone else's problem your problem? If, like so many others, you've lost sight of your own life in the drama of tending to someone else's, you may be codependent--and you may find you
Whitney Cummings portrait Recommended by Whitney Cummings.