Some of My Favorite Books:
Creativity + Play
- Collaborative Intelligence: Thinking with People Who Think Differently | Dawna Markova + Angie McArthur
- Creative Economy Entrepreneurs: From Startup to Success | Alice Loy + Tom Aageson
- Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration | Ed Catmull
- Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul | Stuart Brown
- Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World | Jane McGonigal
- Show Your Work: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered and Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative | Austin Kleon
- The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity | Julia Cameron
- The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon
- The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles | Steven Pressfield
- Thought Revolution: How to Unlock Your Inner Genius | William A. Donius
Education and Youth Empowerment
- Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World | Tony Wagner
- Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education | Ken Robinson
- Lifelong Kindergarten: Cultivating Creativity through Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play
- Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era | Tony Wagner + Ted Dintersmith
- The Third Teacher: 79 Ways You Can Use Design to Transform Teaching and Learning | O’Donnell Wicklund Pigozzi and Peterson, Bruce Mau
Work, Life, Sociology, Economics, Social Justice
- Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant | W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
- Brave New Work | Aaron Dignan
- Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs | Muhammad Yunus
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us | Daniel H. Pink
- Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown
- Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries
- Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World | Rand Fishkin
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die | Chip Heath + Dan Heath
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, How We Can Learn to Fulfill Our Potential | Carol S. Dweck
- Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace | Gordon MacKenzie
- Outliers: The Story of Success | Malcolm Gladwell
- Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions | Dan Ariely
- Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade | Robert Cialdini
- Principles | Ray Dalio
- Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable | Seth Godin
- Rework: Jason Fried + David Heinemeier Hansson
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard | Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World | General Stanley McChrystal
- The E Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It | Michael E. Gerber
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich | Tim Ferriss
- The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything | Stephen M.R. Covey
- Thinking Fast and Slow | Daniel Kahneman
- Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers | Tim Ferriss
- Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life | Gary John Bishop
Data Privacy + Visualization
- Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World | Bruce Schneier
- Dear Data | Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec
- Understanding the World : The Atlas of Infographics | Sandra Rendgen (note this is the most ginormous book I’ve ever checked out from the library, so not one you can tuck away into a small bag on a bike ride. 🙂 )
Ethical AI
- Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy | Cathy O’Neil
- Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism | Safiya Umoja Noble
Empowering Women
- How Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back from Your Next Raise, Promotion, or Job | Sally Helgesen + Marshall Goldsmith
- Playing Big: Practical Wisdom for Women Who Want to Speak Up, Create, and Lead | Tara Mohr
- The Art of Asking: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help | Amanda Palmer
- The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table | Minda Harts
Science
- Design in Nature: How the Constructal Law Governs Evolution in Biology, Physics, Technology, and Social Organization | Adrian Bejan and John Peder Zane
Fiction
- One Hundred Years of Solitude | Gabriel García Márquez
- The Alchemist | Paolo Coehlo
- Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype | Clarissa Pinkola Estés
