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Leaders are readers. I’ve yet to meet a consistently effective leader who wasn’t. Reading is how you borrow experience, perspective, and judgment you haven’t yet earned yourself. It sharpens your thinking, gives you a better language for coaching and teaching, and expands your catalog of ideas that you can draw from when needed.
Early in my career, I was drawn to the latest business and self-help books. Over time, I’ve learned that the biggest returns didn’t come from reading more of the same, but from reading more broadly. History, biography, literature, philosophy—these books have stretched how I think.
For the past several years, I've posted my favorite books of the year. If you'd like to see the past lists (I must have forgotten 2022!), you can visit 2024, 2023, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018.
Here are my top ten books for 2025, listed in no particular order.
John Adams by David McCullough
Here’s a hill I’ll die on: John Adams should be on Mt. Rushmore. As a Founding Father, he was a workhorse. Adams was willing to be unpopular in favor of doing the right thing. Whether it was defending the British soldiers after the Boston Massacre or stubbornly pushing for independence when others hesitated, Adams was a do-the-right-thing kind of guy.
The Last Manager by John Miller
Earl Weaver, as manager of the Baltimore Orioles, was one of the great characters of the game. He was foul-mouthed, uncouth…and years ahead of his time. Looking back, most baseball people realize that Earl was a savant. Computers and Ivy League general managers changed the game of modern baseball—yet Weaver was employing the same principles in the 1970s. Instead of iPads and printouts, he had index cards.
The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom
Sahil is a young guy I’ve been following on social media for a few years. This is his first book, and it’s a good one. I’ve recommended it to several clients who are early in their careers and trying to forge the right path. He reminded me that we often fixate on the wrong scoreboard in our desire for a good life. It’s not always revenue or earnings; it's time, health, and other factors.
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
This book is an excellent story about a road trip, character, and surprising twists. It made my list this year for two anecdotes. First, there was a great line about salespeople. Duchess, one of the main characters, sees a sales guy in a Howard Johnson’s hotel. He says, “...traveling salesmen are not simply hard-working men, they are the foot soldiers of capitalism.” What a line.
Another part of this book made a strong impression on me. One of the characters talks about being in a juvenile work center. Was it hard? It wasn’t so hard. We got up the same time every day, dressed in the same clothes, We had breakfast at the same time with the same people. We did the same work in the same fields and went to bed at the same time in the same beds. Every day was an every-day day…and something is disconcerting about that. It’s easy to get into a rut of every-day days.
Make Me Commissioner by Jane Leavy
If you are a baseball fan, you may feel like the game you fell in love with is gone. Baseball has become boring. There…I said it. It’s hard to be a fan. For me, it’s the story of so many things. We over-optimize everything. We make it so good that it’s no longer what we liked about it in the first place. In this book, it was baseball, but we could apply it to many other things.
Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara
This historical fiction book brings to life the uncertainty the American founders faced. No playbook, no guarantee of success. What stood out to me was how many big, important decisions were made with so little information. Leadership rarely offers certainty, but it always requires responsibility.
Mark Twain by Ron Chernow
What a character! Immensely talented with an ear for the world he lived in. Twain was a brilliant writer and orator and a terrible businessman. He overestimated his own business prowess, repeatedly went for “easy money,” and fell off the rails time and time again. While reading it, I was reminded that if we get too far out of our Genius Zone, we are flirting with disaster. He was world-class in a few areas—but he too-often strayed. We need guardrails.
The Odyssey by Homer
I could have put The Iliad on the list as I read it this year as well. I liked both books. I won’t even attempt my hot take on the book that every great story in the history of Western civilization is based on. I’ll only say that I’d recommend the Emily Wilson version.
Born Fighting by Jim Webb
I loved this book. In my family tree, there is a strong Scots-Irish heritage. In fact, when I did my DNA lineage test, nearly 50% of my ancestry matched back to Scotland and Ireland. Webb tells a great story about hardship, independence, and a mistrust of institutions and elites. On many pages, I saw my parents and grandparents. After reading this book, I decided that it was time to visit Scotland. So…good Lord willing and if the creek don’t rise, that’ll happen in 2026.
Of Boys and Men by Richard Reeves
I saw Richard Reeves speak at the Richmond Forum this year, and frankly, it was unsettling. Boys and young men are struggling. Girls are graduating from college at a much higher rate—that gap has completely flipped since the 1970s. Labor participation is falling. Boys are four times more likely to have an ADHD diagnosis than girls. On and on. His larger point is that we are failing boys by doing little to nothing to address these challenges. On the positive side, it highlights the progress girls have made over the last 30 years. If you have a son, I’d suggest reading this book.
Robin Green is the President and Owner of Ascend Performance, Inc., a certified and award-winning Sandler Training Center in Richmond, VA. He specializes in helping companies of all sizes to develop the Attitudes, Behaviors, and Techniques that will help them reach new levels. Robin is a keynote speaker and podcast host. You can reach him at robin.green@sandler.com. He helps companies and motivated individuals with sales, management, and customer service training.
