70 Essential Reads Recommended By Impact-Led Innovators In 2021
With 2021 rapidly drawing to a close and a huge year ahead for the social enterprise movement, changemakers are once again looking to their shelves and headphones for inspiration.
This year we have heard about a wide range of ambitious projects and initiatives from progressive changemakers globally who are seeking to create a positive impact. These entrepreneurs are often connected through the resources they draw wisdom from regarding a broad range of topics.
Here are the most inspiring reads, recommended by world-leading changemakers throughout 2021 on our social impact podcast series.
“To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.”
- A.C. Grayling
one
The Infinite Game By Simon Sinek
two
Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard
Three
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
four
Dare to Lead by Brene Brown
five
Thinking In Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows
six
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth
Seven
Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing The World by Anand Giridharadas
Eight
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Nine
Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by Ernst F. Schumacher
Eleven
Undercurrents: Channeling Outrage To Spark Practical Activism by Steve Davis
Twelve
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Thirteen
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
Fifteen
Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live by Nicholas A. Christakis
Sixteen
Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters by Kara Goldin
Seventeen
The Long Game by Dorie Clark
Eighteen
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Nineteen
Start With Why by Simon Sinek
Twenty
Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe
21. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
22. Outliers: The Story Of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
23. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk
24. Transformative Innovation: A Guide To Practice And Policy For System Transformation by Graham Leicester
25. Zen Pencils by Gavin Aung Than
26. Better Business: How the B Corp Movement Is Remaking Capitalism by Professor Christopher Marquis
27. Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta
28. Mythos by Stephen Fry
29. Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal
30. What To Do When It’s Your Turn by Seth Godin
31. The Infinite Machine: How an Army of Crypto-hackers Is Building the Next Internet with Ethereum by Camila Russo
32. Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism by Mariana Mazzucato
33. Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming by Paul Hawken
34. A Kids Book About Empathy by Daron K. Roberts
35. The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer
36. The Practice: Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin
37. Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund
38. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
39. Klara And The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
40. Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders (and how to fix it)? by Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
41. Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat In Difficult Times by Katherine May
42. The Business Solution To Poverty: Designing Products and Services for Three Billion New Customers by Paul Polak & Mal Marwick
43. Late Bloomer: How An Autism Diagnosis Changed My Life by Clem Bastow
44. Stand Out by Dorie Clark
45. The Lean Entrepreneur: How Visionaries Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Markets by Brant Cooper
46. Body Counts: A Memoir of Politics, Sex, AIDS, and Survival by Sean Strub
47. Who Do We Choose To Be?: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity by Margaret J. Wheatley
48. The Framework of Three Horizons by Bill Sharp
49. Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker
50. Bulletproof Problem Solving: The One Skill That Changes Everything by Charles Conn & Robert McLean
51. Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton
52. Born To Run by Jonathan Rado
53. The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris
54. Innovation the Mayo Clinic Way: Think Big, Start Small, Move Fast by Nicholas F. Larusso, Barbara Spurrier and Gianrico Farrugia
55. Clarity & Connection by Yung Pueblo
56. Trusting Yourself: Growing Your Self-Awareness, Self-Confidence, and Self-Reliance by M.J. Ryan
57. Truth, Growth, Repeat by Mike Edmonds
58. A Beginner’s Guide To DAOs by Linda Xie
59. Rising Heart by Aminata Conteh-Biger
60. Radical Help: How We Can Remake the Relationships Between Us and Revolutionise the Welfare State by Hilary Cottam
61. Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition by Charles Eisenstein
62. Any Ordinary Day: Blindsides, Resilience and What Happens After the Worst Day of Your Life by Leigh Sales
63. How To Avoid A Climate Disaster by Bill Gates
64. Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
65. Company Of One by Paul Jarvis
66. Brain Pickings by Maria Popova
67. The Gift by Lewis Hyde
68. Measure What Matters by John E. Doerr
69. Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
70. Startup Focus by Mick Liubinskas and Phil Morle
