Books to Make You Bright
Get a little “brighter” this winter!
November 23, 2021
Is there anything more satisfying that a great book that entertains and makes you smarter? This list of books will do just that.
Dive into the science of the human mind, language, YouTube algorithms, chemistry, fascinating corners of history—and more!
The Alchemy of Us
How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another
Ainissa Ramirez
In the bestselling tradition of Stuff Matters and The Disappearing Spoon: a clever and engaging look at materials, the innovations they made possible, and how these technologies changed us.
Americanon
An Unexpected U.S. History in Thirteen Bestselling Books
Jess McHugh
What does it take to be a good American? And who gets to decide? Journalist Jess McHugh examines thirteen seemingly innocuous, mega-bestselling reference books, guidebooks, and self-help books that have become blueprints for core American values and shaped our national story.
The Brain Fitness Book
Activities and Puzzles to Keep Your Mind Active and Healthy
Carter, Rita
Looking at the well-established science and recent scientific revelations, a volume packed with mental exercises and activities offers a well-balanced, clear, and colorful practical guide to keeping the brain fit and healthy.
Business Made Simple
Sixty Days to Master Leadership, Communication, Sales, and More
Donald Miller
These 60 daily readings from author Donald Miller focus on the tangible skills it takes to offer extreme value to your organization while building your company, your career, and your legacy.
The Dawn of Everything
A New History of Humanity
David Graeber, David Wengrow
An activist and public intellectual teams up with a professor of comparative archaeology to deliver an account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of “the state,” political violence and social inequality—and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
Design a Healthy Home
100 Ways to Transform Your Space for Physical and Mental Wellbeing
Oliver Heath
With indoor air pollution now worse than ever, this book provides the cure and teaches you how to detoxify your home by making small changes to every space/room.
Electrify
An Optimist’s Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future
Saul Griffith
An optimistic—but realistic and feasible—action plan for fighting climate change while creating new jobs and a healthier environment: electrify everything.
The End of Bias : a Beginning
The Science and Practice of Overcoming Unconscious Bias
Jessica Nordell
Weaving gripping stories with scientific research, a science and culture journalist, examining unconscious bias, reveals how minds, hearts and behaviors change by outlining approaches to show how we can begin to remake ourselves and our world.
Enneagram Empowerment
Discover Your Personality Type and Unlock Your Potential
Laura Miltenberger
The enneagram, a popular personality assessment with sacred roots, offers an opportunity to improve your life and relationships through self-awareness and understanding of others. Based on nine core personality types, the enneagram reveals how your personality type and its associated traits can influence your relationships, work habits, and goals. With simple explanations and whimsical illustrations, Enneagram Empowerment gives you the tools to transform.
The Extended Mind
The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain
Annie Murphy Paul
Unearthing the untold history of how artists, scientists and authors have used mental extensions to solve, discover and create, an acclaimed science journalist presents a dramatic new view of how our minds work, offering practical advice on how we can all think better.
The Family Firm
A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years
Emily Oster
Stuff You Should Know
The First Shots
The Epic Rivalries and Heroic Science Behind the Race to the Coronavirus Vaccine
Brendan Borrell
An award-winning journalist, drawing on high-level access, presents the full inside story of the high-stakes, global race of the lifesaving vaccine to end the pandemic.
First-Time Home Buyer
The Complete Guide to Avoiding Rookie Mistakes
Scott Trench, Mindy Jensen
Everything you need to buy your first home, from initial decisions all the way to the closing table! Outsmart the financial trap of homeownership with advice that can save you a fortune during the purchase timeline and into the future.
Gastro Obscura
A Food Adventurer’s Guide
Cecily Wong, Dylan Thuras
The team behind Atlas Obscura, a friendly tour-guide to the world’s most amazing places, presents incredible ingredients, food adventures and edible wonders from around the world, including Chilean beer made from fog and 2,000-year-old egg ovens.
Hormone Intelligence
The Complete Guide to Calming the Chaos and Restoring Your Body’s Natural Blueprint for Well-Being
Aviva Romm
From Yale-trained, board-certified family physician and women’s health expert, a six-week intensive program for treating the hidden and undiagnosed hormone imbalances that lead to disease.
How You Say It
Why You Talk the Way You Do and What It Says About You
Katherine D. Kinzler
A pioneering psychology professor explains how we are hardwired to prejudge others by the way they speak and discusses how accents can even determine the economic opportunity and discrimination one might face in life.
Immune
A Journey Into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive
Philipp Dettmer
A gorgeously illustrated deep dive into the immune system that will forever change how you think about your body, from the creator of the popular science YouTube channel.
Iras, 401(K)S & Other Retirement Plans
Strategies for Taking Your Money Out
Twila Slesnick
Whether they are retiring or just need the money, helps people withdrawing from a retirement plan understand the rules, taxes and penalties involved through plainly written explanations, examples, sample forms and lists of relevant tax code sections.
It’s Elemental
The Hidden Chemistry in Everything
Kate Biberdorf
In this practical pop science book, a scientist dubbed “the Cooler Bill Nye” looks at how we experience chemistry every day, answering questions such as what makes dough rise and how coffee gives us an energy boost.
The Last Winter
The Scientists, Adventurers, Journeymen, and Mavericks Trying to Save the World
Porter Fox
A blend of narrative travelogue, history, and climatology is set against the end of ice, snow, and winter as we know it.
The Library
A Fragile History
Andrew Pettegree, Arthur Der Weduwen
In this meticulously written and deeply researched book, this history of the library, from the ancient world to the digital age, introduces readers to the antiquarians and the philanthropists who shaped the world’s great collections.
Noise
A Flaw in Human Judgment
Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass R. Sunstein
Discusses why people make bad judgements and how to make better ones by reducing the influence of “noise”—variables that can cause bias in decision making—and draws on examples in many fields, including medicine, law, economic forecasting, forensic science, strategy, and personnel selection.
The Power of Geography
Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World
Tim Marshall
Taking readers to 10 regions that are set to shape global politics and power, the author of the global best-seller Prisoners of Geography explains how a region’s geography and physical characteristics affect the decisions made by its leaders.
Resilience Recipe
A Parent’s Guide to Raising Fearless Kids in the Age of Anxiety
Muniya S. Khanna, Philip C. Kendall
Written by two pioneering experts in child psychology and anxiety, this book offers an evidence-based plan grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy to help kids build emotional resilience and adaptability, worry less, and thrive-despite the stressors of modern life.
Shape
The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else
Jordan Ellenberg
Shape reveals the geometry underneath some of the most important scientific, political, and philosophical problems we face. Geometry asks: Where are things? Which things are near each other? How can you get from one thing to another thing? Those are important questions. Geometry doesn’t just measure the world-it explains it. Shape shows us how.
So to Speak
11,000 Expressions That’Ll Knock Your Socks Off
by Shirley Kobliner, Harold Kobliner
Engage with everyday expressions in a completely different (and fun!) way, with this entertaining and interactive book of common phrases that can turn a humdrum gathering into a raucous game night.
The Star Builders
Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet
Arthur Turrell
An award-winning young plasma physicist, who has a unique talent for making complex science accessible, brings to life the race to harness the power of the stars and produce controlled fusions, creating a practically unlimited supply of clean energy.
Stuff You Should Know
An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things
Josh Clark, Chuck Bryant
>The duo behind the massively successful podcast “Stuff You Should Know” offers an unexpected look at weird, fascinating, delightful, or unexpected elements of a wide variety of topics, featuring new subjects that they’ve long wondered about and wanted to explore.
This is Your Mind on Plants
Michael Pollan
In this unique blend of history, science and memoir, a #1 New York Times best-selling author examines and experiences three plant drugs—opium, caffeine and mescaline—from several very different angles and contexts, exploring the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants.
The Unseen Body
A Doctor’s Journey Through the Hidden Wonders of Human Anatomy
Jonathan Reisman
In this fascinating journey through the human body and across the globe, Dr. Reisman weaves together stories about our insides with a unique perspective on life, culture, and the natural world.
Unwell Women
Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World
Elinor Cleghorn
A trailblazing conversation-starting history of women’s health-from Ancient Greece to hormones and autoimmune diseases-brought together in a fascinating sweeping narrative.
We Are What We Eat
A Slow Food Manifesto
Alice Waters
From chef and food activist Alice Waters, an impassioned plea for a radical reconsideration of the way each and every one of us cooks and eats.
The Youtube Formula
How Anyone Can Unlock the Algorithm to Drive Views, Build an Audience, and Grow Revenue
Derral Eves
This book will provide everything a YouTube creator needs to optimize their content strategy, including in-depth, applicable strategies for how to launch a channel, drive massive view and subscriber growth, build a brand and increase engagement, improvesearchability, and drive commerce through YouTube.