One of the most magical features of modern life is that with a single click, you can read or listen to every author’s greatest stories and wisest insights. My favorite new releases this spring explore the dynamics of embracing melancholy and facing loss, anticipating the future and adapting to change, building strong communities and partnerships, and building more diverse and inclusive workplaces.
Emotions and Loss
1. Bittersweet by Susan Cain
This is the rare book that doesn’t just open your eyes—it touches your heart and sings to your soul. In Quiet, Susan Cain gave a voice to introverts, and now she masterfully paints our heaviest emotions in a light that’s long overdue. Bittersweet is the perfect cure for toxic positivity and a sparkling ode to the beauty of the human condition.
2. Big Feelings by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy
Over the past few years, our emotions have often gotten the better of us. This book could very well restore your sense of control—and make you feel less alone in the world. Two masters of design do an outstanding job bringing your fuzziest feelings into sharp focus.
3. Grief is Love by Marisa Renee Lee
A poignant memoir about the love that lasts after loss. With powerful prose and refreshing candor, an entrepreneur specializing in emotional support and social impact challenges the cultural stigma around grief and highlights a healthier way to cope. If you’re struggling with loss, reading this book might just be a jolt of hope.
4. Tough by Terry Crews
There isn’t a man more qualified to prove that vulnerability is strength than Terry Crews. In this raw, revealing memoir, he chronicles his journey through abuse, anger, insecurity, and misogyny—and shows how he found a better path. If his words don’t move you to tears, you might be a robot.
Technology and Change
5. Imaginable by Jane McGonigal
Back when you were worrying about the 2008 financial crisis, Jane McGonigal was leading a simulation of a pandemic. As a game designer, she’s unusually adept at anticipating events that most of us can’t even fathom. In this eye-opening, actionable book, she teaches you how to widen your peripheral vision, extend your imagination farther into the future, and conceive of the inconceivable.
6. The Shame Machine by Cathy O’Neil
For everyone fed up with cancel culture, this book puts shame to shame. A prominent mathematician and algorithm aficionado highlights how we can build systems that amplify complexity over simplicity and compassion over judgment.
Relationships and Belonging
7. Mastering Community by Christine Porath
A workplace isn’t a family, but it can become a thriving community. This book is filled with insights on how to build one. Christine Porath is an influential scholar of creating more civil organizations, and she brings the data and the examples you need to create a culture of respect and concern.
8. Partnering by Jean Oelwang
Great relationships are the wellspring of happiness at home, success at work, and wisdom in life. Jean Oelwang is remarkably gifted at building them—she’s worked closely with many of the most dynamic duos of our time. Her book is filled with uplifting stories and practical takeaways for building stronger partnerships.
Diversity and Inclusion
9. Breaking the Age Code by Becca Levy
This book will shatter some of your basic assumptions about aging—and how we can lead longer, healthier, and happier lives. Becca Levy is the world’s foremost researcher on the psychology of aging, and she shares rigorous, remarkable evidence that one of the best ways to stay mentally and physically fit is to rethink your stereotypes about what it means to be an older person.
10. Inclusion Revolution by Daisy Auger-Domínguez
Many companies are talking about racial inequity, but few are making meaningful strides. Daisy Auger-Domínguez is here to change that. She’s led diversity and inclusion for Google and Disney, and now serves as chief people officer at Vice, and her book examines why so many initiatives fail and offers a road map for meaningful change.
11. Pay Up by Reshma Saujani
Reshma Saujani has helped many women crack the glass ceiling, but now she’s convinced that we need to rebuild the foundation of work itself. Her provocative book will challenge you to reconsider some of your basic assumptions about what it will take to create real equality of opportunity
12. The Elephant and the Mouse by Laura Liswood
Laura Liswood built a council that brought together every living female head of state for the first time. She highlights that many of our problems with diversity stem not from differences in demography but from differences in power between dominant and non-dominant groups. If she ran the world, it would be a fairer, more inclusive place.
