Books to start the New Year
Submitted by Nidhi Chaudhary on Fri, 2011-12-23 13:30
Books give us a chance to explore a whole new world, flex our assumptions, and discover inspiration. Rather than a traditional list of gifts of social change, we wanted to share some of our favorite books that we read this year. Some helped us to explore new ideas—or perhaps harness all of the ones we are thinking about—and to help align our passions with our purpose. Others encouraged us to think about happiness in a different way, while a few pushed us to take some risks as we continue to look for meaning in our career paths.
Consider these books as new year’s gifts, or add them to your own personal list of books to start 2012.
- Composing a Life by Mary Catherine Bateson
- Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky
- The Angel Esmerelda by Don DeLillo
- Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman
- Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
- The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife by Marc Freedman
- Work on Purpose by Lara Galinksy
- The Power of Social Innovation: How Civic Entrepreneurs Ignite Community Networks for Good by Stephan Goldsmith
- KaBOOM!: How One Man Built a Movement to Save Play by Darrell Hammond
- Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
- Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer
- Happiness by Gretchen Rubin
- Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman
- Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries by Peter Sims
- The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu
A few additional lists of books that we came across:
Guy Kawasaki’s Books for Business Leaders
Washington Post’s best leadership books of 2011
GOOD Books of 2011
And don’t forget books from our Fellows—and the list of books you helped us to put together earlier this year:
Books every social entrepreneur should read
Books YOU think every social entrepreneur should read
Share what you’re reading with us. Let us know if you read any of the books on our list. Tell us what else we should add to our list of books that help you find purpose.
But in the meantime, we wish you a joyous holiday season and a peaceful new year full of purpose, passion, and fun!
