J.T. Rath - author

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Art of Spending Money by Morgan Housel. While I didn’t find Housel’s first book - The Psychology of Money - revolutionary, this follow up focused on happiness, pitfalls of wrong ways to spend your money, but with encouragement to “live it up” in ways that are meaningful, was a read that spoke loudly to me. I tore through this similar to how I did The Almanack of Naval Ravikant (also a 5 star read). I plan on re-reading it with note taking later this year, highly recommended!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey, book 5 in the Expanse series. A refreshing change of pace for an already incredible series, this story splits up our main characters and effectively fleshes out backgrounds for several of them. This is all against the backdrop of series-altering events that left my jaw on the floor. It reads as fluidly as any other book in the series, though the pacing has issues near the end as this book, more than others, seems to have more story to tell and clearly leads directly into book 6 (which I decided to start reading right away).

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Last Green Valley by Mark Sullivan. Much like his other work, “Beneath a Scarlet Sky”, this story floored me and I could hardly put this book down. It’s historical fiction, but very much based in the incredible hardships civilians had to endure on the Eastern side of WWII as they navigated away from the Nazi/Russian war front toward the hopeful liberation by Allied forces. Mark Sullivan’s storytelling is as exquisite as his character work; this is yet another 5-Star, incredible read from him. Highly recommended.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Odyssey by Homer. Continuing my trek through the Iliad (a slog) onto the Odyssey, I’m happy to report I enjoyed this adventure much more. There’s more plot, with far less people, and the tale - despite getting dragged down in places - is exciting. Can’t wait to see how Christopher Nolan undoubtedly elevates the material in a few months!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. I’ll give kudos to my upbringing that I’m very well aware of the value of a dollar, saving, investing, etc. In that light, Housel’s guidance wasn’t all that new to me, but the psychological aspects of how we generally think about money - and how we got here since the end of WWII - were really interesting. I look forward to reading his follow-up, The Psychology of Spending Money.

⭐️⭐️✨ The Iliad by Homer. There’s a very obvious reason I’m re-reading Iliad and Odyssey right now *cough cough Christopher Nolan cough* but man was The Iliad a 600+ page slog for the first 75%. Did you know there are over 1000 characters mentioned in this story? It’s clearly a product of another time and I appreciated how great the translation was + all the helpful notes in the back as I read along. The final 25% is fantastic and makes me eager to continue to The Odyssey, where the majority (if not all) of the upcoming movie will take place.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Influence by Robert Cialdini. I kept seeing this one pop up on a lot of business-oriented bookstagram pages and realized I already owned it. This was largely a fascinating read about the key levers of influence we all experience, how to recognize them, and how to defend against them. It falls into the usual trap of many self improvement books of being too long due to some repetition, but overall this was a read I highly recommend!

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown. I’ll pretty much always be a sucker for a Robert Langdon adventure and this one was no different. Set entirely in the city of Prague, it’s a thrilling tale with mind blowing concepts that unfortunately overstays its welcome. Brown, for better or worse, always wants you to know he’s done his research and it can both bolster and detract from his narrative. Still, an enjoyable read to kick off 2026!

Book Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman. Book #2 of the Thursday Murder Club Series. I enjoyed the first book in this series, but found it a bit forgettable with a mystery that was convoluted. Book #2 then is a much better sequel with characters who are fully in their own, with better laughs and a thrilling diamond/spy mystery to solve. Such an entertaining read!

Book Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Anthem by Noah Hawley. Catching up on my extensive Kindle TBR (not to mention the physical book TBR that’s a mile long), I decided to check out Noah Hawley’s Anthem (creative producer and director for FX’s Fargo, Legion, and Alien: Earth). It’s a difficult read not from a technical level, but because it wants to truly live in the muck of modern day American politics, behaviors, and attitudes post COVID 19. In some ways this was very intriguing, and in other ways it made the read - which has a slightly aimless plot until it doesn’t - a bit of a drag. It’s also a much darker book than I was expecting so recommend doing your research beforehand.