I have committed to reading 50 books in 2016 to increase my knowledge of varied fields to up my innovation skills and my ability to make connections between seemingly unconnected ideas. And also because I love books and learning. I’m an awesome nerd like that.

For more on the commitment, check out the original post here.

For books 11 through 20, check out this post.

This post will contain books 1 through 10 I read along with links to the reviews. Please follow along and let me know your thoughts, whether or not you have read the books.

Book 1 – The Future of God: A Practical Approach to Spirituality for our Times by Deepak Chopra

“Faith sees the divine in every aspect of creation.”

Future of God

 My review here.

Book 2 – The Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics can Teach us about Innovation by Frans Johansson

“Everything connects in one way or another. The trick is seeing how things connect and then knowing how to use those connections”

medici effect

 My review here.

Book 3 – Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science and the World by Rachel Swaby

“The materials of science are the materials of life itself. Science is a part of the reality of living; it is the what, the how, and the why of everything in our experience.” (Rachel Carson quoted in Headstrong)

Headstrong

My review here.

Book 4 – Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates

“Americans believe in the reality of “race” as a defined, indubitable feature of the natural world. Racism – the need to ascribe bone-deep features to people and then humiliate, reduce, and destroy them – inevitably follows from this inalterable condition.”

Between the world and me

I don’t really feel like I can adequately review this book, or really even comment. It is such a raw and emotional account of something that I could never possibly understand that I feel like any commentary I provide would be deficient on so many levels.
It is absolutely worth the read to gain some small perspective on this hugely important issue of racism today. None of us can every truly understand how something feels unless we experience it ourselves and Coates does an amazing job of detailing his experiences and background to provide a glimpse into what racism feels like. I don’t know that I have ever read anything that has given me such insight into how someone else perceives the world.

 

Book 5 – Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior – Leonard Mlodinow

“Our brains are not simply recording a taste or other experience, they are creating it.”

 

Subliminal - Copy

Book 6 –  I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai

“I began to see that the pen and the words that come from it can be much more powerful than machine guns, tanks or helicopters. We were learning how to struggle. And we were learning how powerful we are when we speak.”

Malala

 

Book 7 – The Second Machine Age: Work Progress and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee

” We predict that people who are good at idea creation will continue to have a comparative advantage over digital labor for some time to come and will find themselves in demand.” 

second machine age

My review here

Book 8 – The Stranger: Albert Camus

stranger book

Book 9 – On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks by Simon Garfield

 “In other words, maps hold a clue to what makes us human… They reflect our best and worst attributes – discovery and curiosity, conflict and destruction, and they chart our transitions of power.” 

on the map

 

Book 10 – Poke the Box by Seth Godin

“I’m not encouraging you to be bold and right.
I’m not encouraging you to figure out how to always initiate
a smart and proven and profitable idea.
I’m merely encouraging you to start. 
Often. Forever.
Be the one who starts things.”

poke the box

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