New recommendations from the Future of Good book nook
Why It Matters
There are millions of options for e-readers, Audible accounts and old-fashioned paper models. We’re here to save you time and offer the best signal-to-noise ratio.
I often fall into that meme of the person buying new books even though I have a stack I still need to read from my last shopping spasm in a local bookstore.
Despite that, I did manage to get into several memorable titles in 2023.
With that as the opener, I sent out a survey in late 2023 to members to entice recommendations as we kick off a new year with some level of optimism in our industries.
Here are select responses to inspire your intellectual curiosity.
I’m generally linking to the Amazon versions of these titles for ease, but I encourage you to try to find them at your local shops first to support the 100 km economy.
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Title: Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
Author: Cal Newport
This recommendation comes from our CEO, Vinod Rajasekaran, who said this title was at the heart of his topic focus in 2023.
While many books have been written about minimizing your life (Yes, I did the ‘Tidying Up’ thing while hugging rock concert T-shirts from 1983), this one honed in on the everpresent digital distractions.
From the book promo page on Amazon: “Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our technology. It’s the key to living a focused life in an increasingly noisy world.
“In this timely and enlightening book, the bestselling author of Deep Work introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives.”
TITLE: Post Capitalist Philanthropy
AUTHOR: Alnoor Ladha, Lynn Murphy
This recommendation comes to us from Michelle Baldwin from Community Foundations of Canada.
“In the moment of reckoning in philanthropy amongst the poly-crises, there is a call to transform capital, transform mindsets, transform systems, transform philanthropy and transform futures, and this book explores the origins of healing wealth,” Baldwin shared in her submission.
TITLE: The Web of Meaning
AUTHOR: Jeremy Lent
Submitted by George Brown from Integral North, this title is a comprehensive “big picture” study that links the local with the universal.
“He is a brilliant thinker!” Brown said in his pitch.
From the book promo website: “The Web of Meaning offers a coherent and intellectually solid foundation for an alternative worldview based on deep interconnectedness, showing how modern scientific knowledge echoes the ancient wisdom of earlier cultures.”
“Weaving together findings from modern systems thinking, evolutionary biology, and cognitive neuroscience with insights from Buddhism, Taoism, and Indigenous wisdom, it offers a rigorous and integrated way of understanding our place in the cosmos that can serve as a philosophical foundation for a life-affirming future.”
TITLE: We’ve Got This: Unlocking the Beauty of Belonging
AUTHOR: Ritu Bhasin
Aneil Gokhale from the Toronto Foundation submitted our next entry, which offers a roadmap to unlocking belonging in the face of external pressures to be specific and performative.
From the website promoting the book: “Many of us feel constant pressure to mask and curate who we are—to perform as someone we’re not rather than be who we are. And it hurts us. But we don’t need to live this way.”
“With We’ve Got This, award-winning and globally recognized DEI and empowerment expert Ritu Bhasin delivers a much-needed guidebook on how to heal, thrive, and stand in your power in the face of hate and hardships.”
TITLE: Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business
AUTHOR: Gino Wickman
This one is not really from 2023, to be fair, but it has taken on a new life since the Ninety app gained significant traction (sorry) with many businesses in recent years.
I was introduced to this app in 2022 and became a booster once I recognized its power to solve issues and add meaningful accountability and tracking to remote and siloed departments.
From the book promo website: “The Entrepreneurial Operating System is a practical method for achieving the business success you have always envisioned. More than 80,000 companies have discovered what EOS can do.”
“In Traction, you’ll learn the secrets of strengthening the six key components of your business. You’ll discover simple yet powerful ways to run your company that will give you and your leadership team more focus, more growth, and more enjoyment. Successful companies are applying Traction every day to run profitable, frustration-free businesses—and you can too.”
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