35 books that will change the way you think

Reading is the best way to improve your writing, so here’s a summer reading list.

Hi there,

Thank goodness the sun has returned and summer is here. How is your summer going so far? In addition to my work with Forbes, where I coach hundreds of aspiring writers, and occasionally publish insights garnered from the data of many articles, I’m also continuing the volunteer mentorship matchmaking for the Des Femmes community and traveling to Latin America soon. I’ll publish some of the details of both of those adventures in the coming months.

In the meantime, I’ve asked a handful of writers what books they recommend for expanding our minds. If you’re reading a lot this summer (my book appetite is voracious), here are some books that I whole-heartedly agree will help any reader become smarter and more thoughtful.

Books about money

• “The Mandible” by Lionel Shriver

• “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen (read it looking for economic observations and you’ll suddenly see it in every scene)

• “Money Game” by Adam Smith

• “Bitcoin Clarity” by Kiara Bickers

• “Capitalism: A Ghost Story” by Arundhati Roy

Books about the environment

Esther Choy, author of “Let the Story Do the Work: The Art of Storytelling for Business Success,” recommends “World of Wonders” by poet and essayist Aimee Nezhukumatathil. I love the way this book interweaves environmental history and animal science with memoir. The chapters are short enough for a subway commute (or a baby’s nap) and can be enjoyed independently if you’re short on time, picking only the animals you’re interested in. But, in my opinion, reading all of the essays chronologically offers a richer experience. Choy adores the naturalist’s figurative language and the way she explores what perhaps might have been, while still staying firmly grounded in nonfiction.

“The book itself is completely spellbinding, especially for knowledge workers,” Choy said. “I used one of the many chapters as a template to break down the various literary devices that my certified story facilitators can use in their own writing.”

A few more titles to add to this section include:

• “How Beautiful We Were” by Imbolo Mbue

• “The Elephant Whisperer” by Lawrence Anthony (recommended by Chilean crypto journalist Pedro Solimano)

• “Light Eaters” by Zoë Schlanger

Memoir and autobiographical poetry

Fashion journalist and sustainability business consultant Brooke Roberts-Islam said she recommends the iconic journalistic essay collection “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” by Joan Didion, “because the dedication to her craft shows, making the words look and sound like perfect arrangements of themselves.” Roberts-Islam addd that Didion sometimes comes off as snobbish and harsh in these essays, which inadvertently offers a lesson to writers to be more self-aware.

I’m also adding two books by Palestinian poets, “The Music of Human Flesh” by Mahmoud Darwish (with the famous poem “Rita and the Rifle”) and “Adrenalin” by Ghayath Almadhoun, who does an exquisite job writing about painful subjects like war, death, exile, estrangement and longing. For an American war writer, there are few with as unique a voice as Tim O’Brien. “The Things They Carried” is a masterpiece worth every page of heartache. If you’re looking for a short book that beautifully explores the pain of death from sickness, not war, try “Notes on Grief” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

I’m not a fan of recreational trauma, so, if I recommend something that sounds sad, be assured it feels more profound than depressing. O’Brien, in particular, offers countless moments of hilarity, too.

For one last memoir to round out this section, I recommend “Crazy Brave” by the Native American poet and jazz musician Joy Harjo. I promise, if you try all these books, even if some of them aren’t your cup of tea, you will find something that speaks to you in such a shocking way that you’ll still be pondering the book days later.

Classic Books

Children’s book author and environmental scientist Dianne Plummer recommends “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley and “1984” by George Orwell. “It's a really eye-opening take on how distraction and comfort can be just as dangerous as control,” Plummer said about the former.

“It’s such a powerful reminder of how truth and freedom can slip away when we’re not paying attention,” she added about the latter.

For a more fantastical journey, Roberts-Islam recommends “The Hobbit” by JRR Tolkein.

“I read it as a kid, and I've never forgotten how it took me into a world so full of unusual detail and gripping tension that reading it felt addictive,” she said. “There was always more to discover, and it was always more precarious and high-stakes than what came before.”

Speaking of the classics, here are a few more titles that are worth the hype:

• “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville

• “To the Lighthouse” by Virginia Woolf

• “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde

• “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell

• "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel García Márquez

I hope that you give yourself permission to stop reading if you’re not learning or enjoying it, or feeling intrigued, at the very least. That may sound counterintuitive. Yet, sometimes we may feel intimidated by the classics and never try at all. So, I encourage you to tinker with a low stakes approach. Play an audiobook while relaxing or driving. Read just a few pages to see how it feels. When we stay open-minded to a book, without pressure, we may be surprised by what we can relish.

Science fiction and fantasy

• “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson

• “Outlander” by Diana Gabaldon

• “The Three-Body Problem” by Liu Cixin

• “Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller (more mythology than fantasy, but we’ll let that slide here)

• “Sabriel” by Garth Nix

• “Orbital” by Samantha Harvey

Arts and culture

• “Apollo’s Angels: A history of ballet” by Jennifer Homans

• “The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie” by Malu Halasa and Rana Salam

• “The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer” by Anne-Marie O'Connor

Music journalist Audrey Gibbs suggests trying “Lo-Fi” by Liz Riggs for a novel that delves into Nashville’s gritty alternative music scene. Alternatively, she told me that Patti Smith’s memoir, “Just Kids,” takes readers inside a mind suffused with pure musical genius.

“It’s a book about youth, scrappiness, art, love, and the evolution of friendship,” Gibbs said. Last, but not least, both Gibbs and I recommend “Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner as our example of food writing, to complete this summer’s reading list. Fun fact: In addition to being an author, Zauner is also the lead singer of the indie pop band Japanese Breakfast.

I hope all of this inspires you to find a book that widens your perspective and that you enjoyed this peek into my bookshelf. (I just finished Homans’s history of ballet and am halfway through the Virginia Woolf novel.) Tell me, what are you reading this summer?

Feel free to email me your book recommendations all summer long, and any tips you have for using bitcoin while traveling in Latin America. I look forward to continuing this journey with all of you.

Until next time, take care everybody!