What We’re Reading This Summer: Stories That Stay With You - Creative Economic Development Consulting

If you are planning for your summer getaway, or if you are already packing, don’t forget to consider the reading material that will keep you company on your journey, or on your bedside table or beach chair. We loved the thought-provoking, mind-expanding Nexus, by Yuval Noah Harari (author of the also-excellent Sapiens). It is an amazing tour through the history of information and how it manifests power in communities and societies. If you don’t want to jump in to this lengthy tome first, you can try his 21 Lessons for the 21^st Century, organized into independent chapters of wisdom and questions.

As you ponder the power and impact of information, check out The Siren’s Call, by Chris Hayes, where he illuminates the ‘economy of attention’, and the powerful forces competing to capture our interest. He offers several ideas for resisting these impulses and maintaining mental focus. Another great read about the internal world is Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It by Ethan Kross. A psychologist, Kross coaches the reader on how to tame the negative voice that may be distracting and diminishing capacity for excellence. And, for a terrific ‘reality check’ on setting practical and achievable objectives for ourselves, Oliver Burkeman (author of 4000 Weeks) has published Meditations for Mortals, organized into four weeks of daily doses of practical, action-oriented ideas for ‘thriving as a finite human’ – terrific!

This year at our Women’s Economic Development Network Conference, we shared a copy of The Friction Project, by Robert Sutton, where he proposes that organizational excellence can be gained by paying attention to the friction employees encounter and urging us to eliminate friction that blocks desirable outcomes and even consider introducing some friction to discourage unwanted ones. On the interpersonal front, Denise Young has a great look at the empowering effects of empathy with When We Are Seen. The former HR Chief at Apple illustrates how leadership can show up as embracing authenticity as an intentional skill. We are looking forward to reading Dan Heath’s Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working as it looks like a smart model for addressing issues in a systemic manner rather than merely reacting to the results of the problem.

If you prefer some non-fiction that is not inwardly focused, Careless People, by Sarah Wynn-Williams is a dishy memoir from a longtime Meta employee. She was present for the tremendous growth and transformation of the company and has some stories to tell! An economic development book club is enjoying Soul City: Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia, by Thomas Healy. The book describes a utopian effort to build a planned community in North Carolina in the late 1960s. It illuminates both their visionary goals as well as structural barriers to their success.

In The Wide, Wide Sea, by Hampton Sides, the author recounts Captain James Cook’s third and final voyage. It was a perilous and ultimately fatal expedition that took him from the Arctic to Hawaii, where his celebrated career ended in violence. Blending adventure, exploration, and cultural collision, you will learn some history and be left with plenty to ponder. If you are a fan of Erik Larson, The Demon of Unrest chronicles the chaotic months between Abraham Lincoln’s election and the outbreak of the Civil War, focusing on how a divided nation descended into conflict. His detailed research and powerful character portraits capture the tension, inaction, and missteps that allowed secession to ignite into war. For some more-recent history, Challenger, by Adam Higginbotham painstakingly reconstructs the lead-up to the 1986 Challenger disaster, exposing ignored warnings and political pressures that led to the tragic shuttle explosion. The book is a sobering look at how ambition and institutions can override caution, with devastating consequences. It won the 2024 National Book Award.

A more pleasant peek into space travel is Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, a 2024 Booker Prize winner. Featuring a single 24‑hour snapshot aboard the International Space Station, it follows six astronauts and cosmonauts as they circle Earth sixteen times, exploring human fragility, ecological crisis, and the bonds between orbiters and their home planet.

We read with interest about a genre of Japanese ‘feel good’ fiction that is gaining popularity here as it is available in translation. These whimsical and cozy books have long been popular in east Asia and have found new audiences with English language readers. If you want to sample some, try What you are looking for is in the Library, Michiko Aoyama, or Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

For a true ‘summer read’ try these light and fluffy fiction selections from Clare Pooley – The Authenticity Project, Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting, and How to Age Disgracefully. And find a lyrical and heartwarming exploration of life’s meaning and octopus habits with Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt.

We hope you found one or two book ideas that intrigue you here, and we offer below some much longer lists of recommendations from sources we respect. Give us a reply and tell us what you are enjoying reading this summer, and we may check it out!