Malcom Gladwell is the influential author of runaway bestsellers like The Tipping Point and Outliers — and if you haven’t read one of his books, you’ve likely had one recommended to you by a friend. But what does Gladwell recommend to his friends and readers? We compiled a list of Gladwell-approved narratives, both fiction and nonfiction, that are sure to stimulate your brain and open your eyes to new perspectives.
10 Illuminating Novels and Non-Fiction Books Recommended by Malcolm Gladwell
By Stephanie Brown
Fiction
The Plot
By Jean Hanff Korelitz
Gladwell isn’t shy about sharing his love of The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, declaring it his favorite book of 2021. “Good Lord is this a fantastic book. In addition to being an absolutely perfectly told mystery story, it also happens to be an especially deft satire of the literary scene.” Korelitz’s darkly funny thriller delves into thorny questions about artistic integrity and the nature of creativity. The novel centers on Jacob Fincher Bonner, a frustrated writer who hits upon a surefire idea for a new book. There’s just one problem: The pitch isn’t his, it is his student’s. But when that student dies, Bonner decides to take the plot and claim it as his own. The subsequent bestseller brings him everything he’s ever dreamed of — until his secret gets out and he finds himself in a desperate race from the truth. The Sequel, Korelitz’s clever sequel to The Plot, follows Jacob’s wife, Anna, and her own ruthless literary ambitions. It is out now, for a double-dose of wicked literary entertainment.
The Paris Architect
By Charles Belfoure
The Paris Architect is a powerful historical fiction novel by historian and architect Charles Belfoure. In it, we follow Lucien Bernard, a French architect hired to design hiding places for Jews in Paris during WWII. Bernard comes to feel deeply for the plight of the Jewish people through his design work. When one of his hiding places fails, the horrors of the Holocaust are made real to him, and he can no longer maintain his distance. Belfoure’s gripping narrative is, according to Gladwell, “a beautiful and elegant account of an ordinary man’s unexpected and reluctant descent into heroism.” It’s also rich with historical insight and architectural detail, thanks to the author’s background.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
By Agatha Christie
Gladwell told The Guardian that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie changed his life when he read it as a youngster. He cites the “sheer delicious shock of that ending” and the realization that it was “possible to tell a story in a way that made the reader gasp,” a feeling he’s chased ever since. In this classic whodunit by the Queen of Crime, a local physician narrates the unfolding case of Roger Ackroyd, killed for knowing too much. If you’ve never read Christie’s masterpiece, there’s no time like the present.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
By John le Carré
While Gladwell is known for his nonfiction journalistic endeavors, he loves disappearing into a spy novel. In fact, he told The Guardian that John le Carré spy novels are his comfort reads. We recommend starting off with the 1974 Cold War thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. For the uninitiated, the story follows brilliant British Intelligence officer George Smiley as he chases down a Soviet mole who has infiltrated the top ranks of the British Intelligence agency.
Killing Floor
By Lee Child
For nearly 30 years, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher action thriller series has riveted readers around the world — and Malcolm Gladwell is part of that fanbase. In an oral history celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Killing Floor, one contributor notes that Gladwell loves the Reacher series so much he “gets the manuscript before it’s published.” In 2015, Gladwell wrote a glowing essay on the series for The New Yorker, explaining that his favorite part of every book is “Reacher’s moment of introspection in the millisecond before the action occurs.” The first of the series introduces Jack Reacher as a loner and drifter arrested in Georgia for a murder he didn’t commit.
Non-Fiction
Just Kids
By Patti Smith
Gladwell once told The Guardian that books rarely make him cry. And yet, in his review of Just Kids, he admits that Patti Smith’s “salute to the worlds of poetry, rock and roll, art, and sexual politics” did, in fact, make him weep. “It’s that good,” he gushed. Smith’s National Book Award–winning narrative vividly re-creates New York City in the 1960s and ’70s as it chronicles the author’s transformative relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe as they struggle to survive and make art while taking care of each other.
Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession
By Janet Malcolm
Gladwell got straight to the point when championing fellow journalist and author Janet Malcolm: “She’s the boss. The rest of us are just pretending.” With regard to Psychoanalysis, Gladwell told the Times that he revisits the thought-provoking yet accessible narrative to remind himself “how nonfiction is supposed to be done.” If that weren’t high enough praise, he also lauded her work on the Longform podcast, saying that she writes with a confidence and command that keeps the reader enrapt. If you’ve ever wondered about the history, theory, or practice of psychoanalysis, this is a compelling guide that’s sure to both inform and entertain you.
Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious
By Timothy D. Wilson
In a podcast interview with Tim Ferriss, Gladwell described Timothy D. Wilson’s look inside our unconscious minds as “one of the loveliest, most insightful books about social psychology that I ever read.” Strangers to Ourselves questions our assumptions about introspection and our ability to understand our emotions and motivations. Wilson argues that introspection may not be the best approach to fully understanding ourselves. In fact, looking outward at our actions and the reactions of those around us may offer a clearer path to self-knowledge than we previously thought, upending decades of commonsense assumptions about our psyches.
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
By Atul Gawande
Gladwell raved about Atul Gawande’s willingness to “risk to his own reputation” in medicine by releasing this eye-opening treatise on the importance of checklists in the medical field and beyond. In The Checklist Manifesto, Gawande argues that the sheer burden of shouldering complex responsibilities and day-to-day tasks has become too great for our brains to bear. We need to harness the power of the humble checklist to help us get through these jobs. Citing examples from across the professional field, including the revolutionary WHO surgical checklist, Gawande makes the case for a seemingly simple solution to major challenges.
Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know
By Adam Grant
Though he surely has an ever-growing TBR stack, Gladwell makes it a point to “never miss a new Adam Grant book” — and it’s easy to see why. Think Again invites readers to rethink what they think they know about knowing. In it, Grant proposes that one of the best skills to possess in our ever-changing world is the ability to reconsider your perspective. While we’ve been conditioned to equate steadfast conviction with strong moral character, Grant illustrates how getting stuck in thought patterns can harm us in the long term and that “rethinking” is a talent we can build over time to better ourselves and improve our relationships.
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