Authors Christmas Recommendations 2021 - Part III
Welcome to part III of a special series of posts in the run up to the holiday season! I asked some of the lovely authors that have previously appeared on the site about their Christmas book recommendations for this year. They graciously replied with some fantastic book picks! (Read Part I here & Part II here)
Hopefully these book recommendations might help you with your own Christmas shopping gift ideas too! :-)
Q. Is there a smart thinking book that you are looking forward to reading this Christmas, or one you would like to give or receive as a gift?
Ian Leslie
I am enjoying Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman, a book about productivity which understands we are humans, not machines.
Four Thousand Weeks: Embrace your limits. Change your life.
Review from Book Depository:
What if you stopped trying to do everything, so that you could finally get round to what counts?
We're obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, the struggle against distraction, and the sense that our attention spans are shrivelling. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the question of how best to use our ridiculously brief time on the planet, which amounts on average to about four thousand weeks.
Four Thousand Weeks is an uplifting, engrossing and deeply realistic exploration of the challenge. Rejecting the futile modern obsession with 'getting everything done,' it introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing rather than denying their limitations. And it shows how the unhelpful ways we've come to think about time aren't inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we've made, as individuals and as a society. Its many revelations will transform the reader's worldview.
Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman sets out to realign our relationship with time - and in doing so, to liberate us from its tyranny.
Embrace your limits. Change your life. Make your four thousand weeks count.
Buy On:
Easons €14.99 Book Depository €18.23 Waterstones £14.99 Wordery $17.08(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Conflicted : Why Arguments Are Tearing Us Apart and How They Can Bring Us Together
Review from Book Depository:
What is the secret of happy relationships?
How do companies build collaborative cultures?
What lies behind some of the greatest scientific and creative breakthroughs?
The surprising answer is: conflict.
Insight and empathy spring from the clash of different perspectives. In a world where it's easier than ever for people to share their opinions, we should be reaping the benefits of diverse views. Instead, we too often find ourselves mired in hostility or - worse - avoiding disagreement altogether. Ian Leslie argues that this is because most of us never learn how to air our differences in a way that leads to progress.
Conflicted draws essential lessons on how to disagree well from world-class experts: interrogators, hostage negotiators, divorce mediators, diplomats and addiction counsellors. It tells inspiring stories of productive disagreements, from the invention of the aeroplane to the success of The Rolling Stones, and combines them with fascinating insights from the science of human communication.
Whether it's at work, at home, or in public, confronting our differences is the only way to make the most of them. Conflicted is about how to do that successfully.
Buy On:
Easons €21.00 Book Depository €15.02 Waterstones £14.99 Wordery $17.03(All affiliate links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Linda Yueh
America and the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy by Robert Zoellick
Bob Zoellick, former World Bank President and US Deputy Secretary of State, has written an engrossing book that tells the stories of US history through the lives of those who played crucial roles. It is intriguing how many key events were shaped by leadership and also circumstance. I am partial to a book about history being told through the lens of those who influenced those events as in my own book, The Great Economists. It avoids the reader having to learn about history through dry facts; instead, readers can see history being made by looking at those events through the lens of the people who were there. Therefore, Zoellick’s masterful telling of America’s rich diplomatic history through its most influential figures makes this my recommended Christmas book.
America in the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy
Review From Book Depository:
Recounting the actors and events of U.S. foreign policy, Zoellick identifies five traditions that have emerged from America's encounters with the world: the importance of North America; the special roles trading, transnational, and technological relations play in defining ties with others; changing attitudes toward alliances and ways of ordering connections among states; the need for public support, especially through Congress; and the belief that American policy should serve a larger purpose. These traditions frame a closing review of post-Cold War presidencies, which Zoellick foresees serving as guideposts for the future.
Both a sweeping work of history and an insightful guide to U.S. diplomacy past and present, AMERICA IN THE WORLD serves as an informative companion and practical adviser to readers seeking to understand the strategic and immediate challenges of U.S. foreign policy during an era of transformation.
Buy On:
Book Depository €15.53 Waterstones £14.99 Wordery $18.40(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today
An informative and interesting combination of history, economic analysis and commentary. The book summarises the life, times, theories, and beliefs of twelve key economists throughout history, and then analyses current economic trends and the challenges of our time through the lens of those historical theories.
The weighty and complex intersection of many, sometimes contradictory, economic theories being applied to current economic issues is a challenge in itself to do in an understandable way. The author executes on this challenge excellently, delivering an accessible introduction to economics history, coupled with exemplar critical analysis.
Buy On:
Easons €21.00 Book Depository €9.75 Waterstones £9.99 Wordery $11.64(All affiliate links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Leidy Klotz
The Elements of Choice by Eric Johnson is at the top of my list. Eric's academic papers have enhanced how I approach everything from writing to teaching to parenting. I've heard the book is even more valuable!
The Elements of Choice: Why the Way We Decide Matters
Review From Book Depository:
How do you get people to donate their organs? What's the trick to reading a wine list? What's the perfect number of potential matches a dating site should offer?
Every time we make a choice, our minds go through an elaborate process most of us never even notice. We're influenced by subtle aspects of the way the choice is presented that often make the difference between a good decision and a bad one. To overcome the common faults in our decision-making and enable better choices in any situation involves conscious and intentional decision design.
Transcending the familiar concepts of nudges and defaults, The Elements of Choice offers a comprehensive, systematic guide to creating effective choice architectures, the environments in which we make decisions. The designers of decisions need to consider all the elements involved in presenting a choice: how many options to offer, how to present those options, how to account for our natural cognitive shortcuts, and much more. These levers are unappreciated, yet they impact our reasoning every day.
This book doesn't simply analyse the mental fallacies that trip us up. It goes further to show us what good decision-making looks like - that it can be both moral and effective.
Buy On:
Book Depository €21.30 Waterstones £20.00 Wordery $21.30(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less
Review from Book Depository:
Blending evidence across science and design, Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less offers a revolution in problem-solving: proving why we overlook subtraction, and how we can access its true potential We pile on "to-dos" but don't consider "stop-doings." We create incentives for good behavior, but don't get rid of obstacles to it. We collect new-and-improved ideas, but don't prune the outdated ones. Every day, across challenges big and small, we neglect a basic way to make things better: we don't subtract. Leidy Klotz's pioneering research shows why. Whether we're building Lego models or cities, grilled-cheese sandwiches or strategic plans, our minds tend to add before taking away. Even when we do think of it, subtraction can be harder to pull off because an array of biological, cultural, and economic forces push us towards more. But we have a choice--our blind spot need not go on taking its toll on our cities, our institutions, and our minds. By diagnosing our neglect of subtraction, we can treat it.
Subtract will change how you change your world. In these pages you'll meet subtracting exemplars: design geniuses, Nobel Prize-winners, rock-stars, and everyday heroes, who have subtracted to dismantle racism, advance knowledge, heal the planet, and even tell better jokes. These and more guiding lights show how we can revolutionize not just our day-to-day lives, but our collective legacy. A paradigm shift of a book, Subtract shows us how to find more of the options we've been missing--and empowers us to pursue them.
Buy On:
Book Depository €19.36 Waterstones £22.99 Wordery $22.07(All affiliate links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Susanne Foitzik
I could recommend the following two books:
The Social Instinct: How Cooperation Shaped the World by Nichola Raihani
Admittedly the subject of this book is close to my heart. I work with ants and all ants are all social, but cooperation actually arose in many different groups of animals and importantly also in us humans. And at this moment in history with a world-wide climate crisis, understanding under which circumstances cooperation can arise and persist, even in large groups, is as important as it has ever been.
I found the book really well written and easy to follow!
Invisible women – exposing data bias in a world designed for men by Caroline Criado Perez
This book was a present from my daughter, who studies law. I read it during my vacation in South Italy. And I think it is a good idea to read it at a time where you have time. The book is data rich, so at least I was unable to read it all at once. But the data presented are revealing and convincing. I think the author really opened my eyes on a new angle to address the question of inequality. The book convinced me that many decisions, which determine our life outside of our homes, public transportation, social benefits, tax laws, yes even the presence of public toilets, are made not thinking on how they affect women. An important read, especially for all kind of decision makers
The Social Instinct: How Cooperation Shaped the World
Review From Book Depository:
Why cooperate? This may be the most important scientific question we have ever, and will ever, face.
The science of cooperation tells us not only how we got here, but also where we might end up. Cooperation explains how strands of DNA gave rise to modern-day nation states. It defines our extraordinary ecological success as well as many of the most surprising features of what make us human: not only why we live in families, why we have grandmothers and why women experience the menopause, but also why we become paranoid and jealous, and why we cheat.
Nichola Raihani also introduces us to other species who, like us, live and work together. From the pied babblers of the Kalahari to the cleaner fish of the Great Barrier Reef, they happen to be some of the most fascinating and extraordinarily successful species on this planet. What do we have in common with these other species, and what is it that sets us apart?
Written at a time of global pandemic, when the challenges and importance of cooperation have never been greater, The Social Instinct is an exhilarating, far-reaching and thought-provoking journey through all life on Earth, with profound insights into what makes us human and how our societies work.
Buy On:
Easons €28.00 Book Depository €20.71 Waterstones £20.00 Wordery $18.71(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
Review From Book Depository: Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognised or valued. If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that you're a woman. Invisible Women shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. It exposes the gender data gap - a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women, and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women's lives.
Buy On:
Easons €14.00 Book Depository €16.30 Waterstones £9.99 Wordery $13.49(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Empire of Ants: The Hidden World and Extraordinary Lives of Earth's Tiny Conquerors
Review from Book Depository:
Ants have been walking the Earth since the age of the dinosaurs. Today there are one million ants for every one of us.
The closer you get to ants, the more human they look: they build megacities, grow crops, raise livestock, tend their young and infirm, and even make vaccines. They also have a darker side: they wage war, enslave rivals and rebel against their oppressors. From fearsome army ants, who stage twelve-hour hunting raids where they devour thousands, to gentle leaf-cutters gardening in their peaceful underground kingdoms, every ant is engineered by nature to fulfil their particular role.
Acclaimed biologist Susanne Foitzik has travelled the globe to study these master architects of Earth. Joined by journalist Olaf Fritsche, Foitzik invites readers deep into her world - in the field and in the lab - and will inspire new respect for ants as a global superpower.
Fascinating and action-packed, Empire of Ants will open your eyes to the secret societies thriving right beneath your feet.
Buy On:
Easons €23.80 Book Depository €15.16 Waterstones £16.99 Wordery $19.88(All affiliate links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Katy Milkman
I think my pick would be The Power of Us.
It’s my favorite book of 2021 so far. It’s about the science of groups and group influence, and it’s just excellent.
The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony
Review From Book Depository:
If you're like most people, you probably believe that your identity is stable. But in fact, your identity is constantly changing - often outside your conscious awareness and sometimes even against your wishes - to reflect the interests of the groups of which you're a part. And that fluid identity has a powerful influence over your feelings, beliefs, and behaviours.
In THE POWER OF US, psychologists Packer and Van Bavel integrate their own cutting-edge research in psychology, neuroscience and economics to explain what identity really is and show how to harness its dynamic nature to:
Increase our productivity - Improve physical and psychological health - Overcome our individual prejudice - Unlock our altruism - Break the political gridlock - Galvanize others to solve controversial global problems
Along the way, they explain such seemingly unrelated phenomenon as why men cry at football games but not funerals, why the history of slavery in U.S. counties is one of the best predictors of current day racism, and why Canada keeps a national reserve of maple syrup. Packed with fascinating insights, vivid case studies, and pioneering research, THE POWER OF US will change the way you understand yourself - and those around you - forever.
Buy On:
Easons €28.00 Book Depository €17.11 Waterstones £20.00 Wordery $21.43(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be
Review from Book Depository:
Award-winning Wharton Professor and Choiceology podcast host Katy Milkman has devoted her career to the study of behavior change. In this ground-breaking book, Milkman reveals a proven path that can take you from where you are to where you want to be, with a foreword from psychologist Angela Duckworth, the best-selling author of Grit.
Change comes most readily when you understand what's standing between you and success and tailor your solution to that roadblock. If you want to work out more but find exercise difficult and boring, downloading a goal-setting app probably won't help. But what if, instead, you transformed your workouts so they became a source of pleasure instead of a chore? Turning an uphill battle into a downhill one is the key to success.
Drawing on Milkman's original research and the work of her world-renowned scientific collaborators, How to Change shares strategic methods for identifying and overcoming common barriers to change, such as impulsivity, procrastination, and forgetfulness. Through case studies and engaging stories, you’ll learn:
- Why timing can be everything when it comes to making a change
- How to turn temptation and inertia into assets
- That giving advice, even if it's about something you're struggling with, can help you achieve more
Buy On:
Book Depository €15.31 Waterstones £15.99 Wordery $18.91(All affiliate links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Peter T. Coleman
I would recommend The End of Bias: A Beginning : The Science and Practice of Overcoming Unconscious Bias
because it understands how bias accumulates in complex systems, is hopeful, and is written by a science journalist with a degree in poetry!
The End of Bias: A Beginning : The Science and Practice of Overcoming Unconscious Bias
Review from Book Depository:
The End of Bias is a transformative, groundbreaking exploration into how we can eradicate unintentional bias and discrimination, the great challenge of our age.
Unconscious bias: persistent, unintentional prejudiced behavior that clashes with our consciously held beliefs. We know that it exists, to corrosive and even lethal effect. We see it in medicine, the workplace, education, policing, and beyond. But when it comes to uprooting our prejudices, we still have far to go.
With nuance, compassion, and ten years' immersion in the topic, Jessica Nordell weaves gripping stories with scientific research to reveal how minds, hearts, and behaviors change. She scrutinizes diversity training, deployed across the land as a corrective but with inconsistent results. She explores what works and why: the diagnostic checklist used by doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital that eliminated disparate treatment of men and women; the preschool in Sweden where teachers found ingenious ways to uproot gender stereotyping; the police unit in Oregon where the practice of mindfulness and specialized training has coincided with a startling drop in the use of force.
Captivating, direct, and transformative, The End of Bias: A Beginning brings good news. Biased behavior can change; the approaches outlined here show how we can begin to remake ourselves and our world.
Includes illustrated charts.
Buy On:
Easons €28.00 Book Depository €27.78 Waterstones £17.99 Wordery $20.22(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
The Way Out: How to Overcome Toxic Polarization
Review from Book Depository:
The partisan divide in the United States has widened to a chasm. Legislators vote along party lines and rarely cross the aisle. Political polarization is personal, too-and it is making us miserable. Surveys show that Americans have become more fearful and hateful of supporters of the opposing political party and imagine that they hold much more extreme views than they actually do. We have cordoned ourselves off: we prefer to date and marry those with similar opinions and are less willing to spend time with people on the other side. How can we loosen the grip of this toxic polarization and start working on our most pressing problems?
The Way Out offers an escape from this morass. The social psychologist Peter T. Coleman explores how conflict resolution and complexity science provide guidance for dealing with seemingly intractable political differences. Deploying the concept of attractors in dynamical systems, he explains why we are stuck in this rut as well as the unexpected ways that deeply rooted oppositions can and do change. Coleman meticulously details principles and practices for navigating and healing the difficult divides in our homes, workplaces, and communities, blending compelling personal accounts from his years of working on entrenched conflicts with lessons from leading-edge research. The Way Out is a vital and timely guide to breaking free from the cycle of mutual contempt in order to better our lives, relationships, and country.
Buy On:
Book Depository €25.16 Waterstones £22.00 Wordery $27.38(All affiliate links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Huge thanks & míle buíochas to Ian, Linda, Leidy, Susanne, Katy, & Peter for their great Christmas book picks!
Watch out next week for Part IV of the series with more author recommendations :-)
Daryl
Image Copyrights: Vintage Publishing (Four Thousand Weeks, The Social Instinct, Invisible Women), FABER & FABER (Conflicted), Little, Brown & Company (America in the World), Penguin Books Ltd (The Great Economists), Oneworld Publications (The Elements of Choice), Flatiron Books (Subtract), Octopus Publishing Group (Empire of Ants), Headline Publishing Group (The Power of Us), Penguin Putnam Inc (How To Change), Metropolitan Books (The End of Bias), Columbia University Press (The Way Out).
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