Corey McCaffrey

If, God forbid, you or a loved one ever need surgery, and you have an opportunity to ask questions before the operation, ask the surgeon whether he or she uses the WHO Safe Surgery Checklist. If you don't think this sounds like a big deal one way or the other, please read this book.

My former law firm's IP department used a variety of checklists to great effect. If you're not using checklists in your job, consider reading this book to understand how nearly every industry and profession can benefit.

Full of literal idioms, devilish puns, and the most realistic demons known to mankind, I wish this book had found me in my fourth grade instead of my fourth decade.

Must-read Holocaust literature. I finally picked it up shortly after Elie Wiesel's death. I regret not reading it when I was younger.

I learned about this book during an OK interview with the author on Betterment's new podcast. I was curious, and it's a short, super-quick read. Mostly I didn't like it—the style, the attitude, questionable hypotheticals, and questionable advice (overemphasis on 401(k), bonds, and homeownership). It's mostly aimed at personal finance beginners, but I hesitate to recommend it even for beginners because there are better sources of information out there.

It gets two stars because the underlying thesis (automate everything related to saving and spending) is spot on. If you're not automating everything already, maybe this is worth a couple hours. Or skip this and read Nudge and The Willpower Instinct instead.

Action-packed page-turner. A Science Friday interview with the author made the first 50 pages or so a lot less mysterious and surprising than the author intended, but the rest of the book was an exciting, character-driven exploration of a popular interpretation of quantum mechanics.