Here are 18 books that The Avatar fans have personally recommended once you finish the The Avatar series.
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Easy Travel to Other Planets by Ted Mooney, is a fictionalised story of an attempt at another Moon shot idea; the building of an interspecies communication bridge between humans and dolphins. This was a real experiment attempted in the 1960s, by neuroscientist John Lilly – which I made a film about, for the BBC, called The Girl who talked to Dolphins. Like God’s Debris, Mooney’s book challenges our perceptions of reality, and like Varieties of Scientific Experience, it tries to shed light on what it is to be human. Not only does it cover these grand ideas, but it also touches on some very prescient themes – such as our current epidemic of information overload and our existential environmental crisis.
"One of the most original seductions in recent fiction... a novel of immensely tender feeling." –The New York Review of Books
Ted Mooney's first novel Easy Travel to Other Planets endures as a cult classic known for its opening scene describing a woman having sex with a dolphin.
Winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and a finalist for the National Book Award, Mooney's inventive novel was also named to the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels list.
From a young age, I was captivated by art, music, film, and literature—constantly craving more from these creative mediums. Growing up in a lower-income, working-class home, I was surrounded by blue-collar workers, many of whom couldn’t attend college due to financial limitations. I learned early on that the richest education comes not just from books but from the stories of others and the world around us. Always feeling I had my own story to tell, I transitioned from steel worker to talent agent in Hollywood. But despite my success promoting others, something was missing—my own narrative. After a tragic loss, I reevaluated my path and chose to become a psychotherapist and author.
I absolutely love this book. As a psychotherapist (and author) myself, I felt like the main character's journey mirrored my own. Like Hector, I found myself questioning whether I was truly happy and even whether my patients were happy. This book inspired me to spend a year researching happiness, only to realize that the real key wasn’t happiness—it was meaning.
In fact, this book should be called Hector and the Search for Meaning! It was the catalyst for my own journey to write my book.
Can we learn how to be happy? Hector is a successful young psychiatrist. He's very good at treating patients in real need of his help. But many people he sees have no health problems: they're just deeply dissatisfied with their lives. Hector can't do much for them, and it's beginning to depress him. So when a patient tells him he looks in need of a holiday, Hector decides to set off round the world to find out what makes people everywhere happy (and sad), and whether there is such a thing as the secret of true happiness.
This book, by one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century, offers a personal insight into understanding and appreciating the vastness of the Cosmos. It’s a book that spans so much and paints the most accurate picture I’ve read of how we might fit into the Universe.
“Ann Druyan has unearthed a treasure. It is a treasure of reason, compassion, and scientific awe. It should be the next book you read.” —Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith
“A stunningly valuable legacy left to all of us by a great human being. I miss him so.” —Kurt Vonnegut
Carl Sagan's prophetic vision of the tragic resurgence of fundamentalism and the hope-filled potential of the next great development in human spirituality
The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth…
I come from a family of born storytellers but grew up to become an archaeologist, sensible and serious. Then, my parents’ deaths brought me to my knees. I knew I would not survive their loss in any form recognizable to me. My grief set me on a journey to understand and rekindle the special magic that they and my ancestors had brought to my life. Eventually, through reading books like these and learning to tell my own stories, I, the archaeologist and life-long rationalist, made my greatest discovery to date: the healing power of enchantment.
I bought this because 1) I loved Le Petit Prince, 2) I had no idea that de Saint-Exupery was a pilot and disappeared over the Mediterranean in 1944, and 3) I thought it might give me a window into what my own late dad found in flight and that it might bring me closer to him in a way.
I was not prepared for the excruciating, almost sacred, tenderness of his thoughts on the nature of earth and sea, war, life, death, and the entire human enterprise. If your spirit has ever yearned or fluttered at such thoughts, there is salvation in these essays. Wow! His final essay on Barcelona and Madrid is luxurious beyond words. It took forever to finish it because I regaled myself on every sentence.
The National Book Award-winning autobiographical book about the wonder of flying from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of the beloved children's classic The Little Prince.
A National Geographic Top Ten Adventure Book of All Time
Recipient of the Grand Prix of the Académie Française, Wind, Sand and Stars captures the grandeur, danger, and isolation of flight. Its exciting account of air adventure, combined with lyrical prose and the spirit of a philosopher, makes it one of the most popular works ever written about flying.
Translated by Lewis Galantière.
"There are certain rare individuals...who by the mere fact of their existence put…
I’ve spent my entire life dealing with mental health issues, and overcoming them took me on a long journey of learning about the mind and how to make it work for us rather than against us. I’ve explored almost every modality out there and developed my own hypnosis modality as a result. Books like these were a key part of helping me figure out how to overcome my challenges and live life to the fullest, achieve my goals, and reach success.
I would never have thought that the weird path that led me to running my own business would make sense to anyone else… until I read this book.
The idea of creating a “talent stack” made immediate sense to me and resonated strongly because it’s exactly how I’ve lived my life. Finding unique skills and talents and blending them into a mix that nobody else can duplicate has been the key to unlocking so much in my life.
Blasting clichéd career advice, the contrarian pundit and creator of Dilbert recounts the humorous ups and downs of his career, revealing the outsized role of luck in our lives and how best to play the system.
Scott Adams has likely failed at more things than anyone you’ve ever met or anyone you’ve even heard of. So how did he go from hapless office worker and serial failure to the creator of Dilbert, one of the world’s most famous syndicated comic strips, in just a few years? In How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Adams shares the…
Throughout my corporate experience, I’ve been frustrated with how access to good career advice has been reserved for the elite few. Careers aren’t always fair—who usually wins? Those with parents with successful corporate or professional careers, who went to an elite school, parents with a degree, and who were not a first generation at university or college, had access to a coach or sponsor, etc. Furthermore, I am still stunned with untrue or half-true advice like “good work speaks for itself” or “be your authentic self”. I like reading evidence-based books and not being lied to by “experts.”
Dilbert makes me laugh, full stop. Its humor and satire on the absurdities of corporate life so frequently hit home that it’s impossible not to think of specific people when reading the comics. I can relate, and the witty commentary helps me come up with ideas of what to do differently or how to think about work in another way. And it’s a great way to look in the mirror and ask, “Is this about me?”
The creator of Dilbert, the fastest-growing comic strip in the nation (syndicated in nearly 1000 newspapers), takes a look at corporate America in all its glorious lunacy. Lavishly illustrated with Dilbert strips, these hilarious essays on incompetent bosses, management fads, bewildering technological changes and so much more, will make anyone who has ever worked in an office laugh out loud in recognition.
The Dilbert Principle: The most ineffective workers will be systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage -- management.
Since 1989, Scott Adams has been illustrating this principle each day, lampooning the corporate world…
Throughout my corporate experience, I’ve been frustrated with how access to good career advice has been reserved for the elite few. Careers aren’t always fair—who usually wins? Those with parents with successful corporate or professional careers, who went to an elite school, parents with a degree, and who were not a first generation at university or college, had access to a coach or sponsor, etc. Furthermore, I am still stunned with untrue or half-true advice like “good work speaks for itself” or “be your authentic self”. I like reading evidence-based books and not being lied to by “experts.”
This book came into my life when difficult decisions had to be made, and it turned out to be a sage advisor I needed then. It made me re-evaluate my commitments to myself, my partner, and my career, weigh the tradeoffs, and make the hard choices.
David Whyte made me challenge my disbalances between career and home, but most of all, he reminded me of the most neglected marriage with myself. This book invites a deep conversation about personal fulfillment whenever I open it.
A radical, "crystalline" (Elle) approach to integrating our work, relationships, and inner selves from the bestselling author, poet, and speaker.
The author of Crossing the Unknown Sea and The Heart Aroused encourages readers to reimagine how they inhabit the worlds of love, work, and self-understanding. Whyte suggests that separating these "marriages" in order to balance them is to destroy the fabric of happiness itself. Drawing from his own struggles and the lives of some of the world's great writers and artists-from Dante to Jane Austen to Robert Louis Stevenson-Whyte explores the ways these core commitments are connected. Only by understanding…
Throughout my corporate experience, I’ve been frustrated with how access to good career advice has been reserved for the elite few. Careers aren’t always fair—who usually wins? Those with parents with successful corporate or professional careers, who went to an elite school, parents with a degree, and who were not a first generation at university or college, had access to a coach or sponsor, etc. Furthermore, I am still stunned with untrue or half-true advice like “good work speaks for itself” or “be your authentic self”. I like reading evidence-based books and not being lied to by “experts.”
My copy of this book has a dedication from the author: “Sergey, I hope you enjoy this unauthorized autobiography! Tomas”.
I love when stereotypes are challenged, defying conventional wisdom about leadership and leaders. Its practical advice is still relevant today, and I open it now and again to look up research or help me formulate my point of view on a topic related to merit and equality. Lastly, I like the tongue-in-cheek yet authoritative style.
Look around your office. Turn on the TV. Incompetent leadership is everywhere, and there's no denying that most of these leaders are men.
In this timely and provocative book, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic asks two powerful questions: Why is it so easy for incompetent men to become leaders? And why is it so hard for competent people--especially competent women--to advance?
Marshaling decades of rigorous research, Chamorro-Premuzic points out that although men make up a majority of leaders, they underperform when compared with female leaders. In fact, most organizations equate leadership potential with a handful of destructive personality traits, like overconfidence and narcissism.…
Throughout my corporate experience, I’ve been frustrated with how access to good career advice has been reserved for the elite few. Careers aren’t always fair—who usually wins? Those with parents with successful corporate or professional careers, who went to an elite school, parents with a degree, and who were not a first generation at university or college, had access to a coach or sponsor, etc. Furthermore, I am still stunned with untrue or half-true advice like “good work speaks for itself” or “be your authentic self”. I like reading evidence-based books and not being lied to by “experts.”
Pfeffer’s no-bullshit “let’s see what’s really happening” accounts of organizational reality left me wanting more. We all want positive messages (myself included), but the truth is more important.
This book taught me to learn from effective mid-level leaders and not from inspirational but anecdotal tops. I like his critical and, at times, cynical style, as Pfeffer eschews the toxic misrepresentations of how leadership and personal development happen, opting for pragmatic, science-proven solutions.
Finalist for the 2015 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Best business book of the week from Inc.com The author of Power, Stanford business school professor, and a leading management thinker offers a hard-hitting dissection of the leadership industry and ways to make workplaces and careers work better. The leadership enterprise is enormous, with billions of dollars, thousands of books, and hundreds of thousands of blogs and talks focused on improving leaders. But what we see worldwide is employee disengagement, high levels of leader turnover and career derailment, and failed leadership development efforts. In Leadership BS, Jeffrey…
I love to read books. I read over 100 books a year and really try to implement principles and tips from those that I love. I also hate traditional sales advice and have worked on building my business differently from the typical salesperson, trying to serve my clients better by learning and practicing in a different way. Nothing happens until somebody sells something, but there is a better way. That’s why I wrote my book, The Mental Game of Real Estate, about the same principles that I teach my agents every day.
One of the biggest reasons that I have been able to become a successful real estate agent is also one that surprises other people: I got lucky. Luck is one of the biggest reasons for my success. I am sure that you know "lucky people," those people for whom everything seems to go right. I know them too, and this book tells you their secrets.
It turns out that luck is not a fortuitous chance but rather a set of rules that you can implement to become more lucky yourself. I love this book and the four rules it gives on how to become more lucky in your life. My paraphrased short version of these rules are: maximize your chance opportunities, expect good things to happen, turn your bad luck into good luck, and listen to your gut.
I love this book, and if you want to have more good…
