82 Books Like New Power

This is a pie-in-the-sky 30-year plan for reducing CO2 in the atmosphere by joint worldwide implementation of 80 “solutions.” For each of these, the book proposes a number of giga-tons of CO2 to be removed from the atmosphere and the resulting dollar cost and savings.

I admire Hawken for his quantitative approach and his imaginative list of “solutions.” The numbers reveal the enormity of the drawdown enterprise. Some “solutions” are merely the usual renewables. Some came as a nice surprise to me, such as LED lanterns with batteries and small solar panels for residents in off-the-grid regions.

But I fear many of the solutions will never be rigorously implemented and would have a high policing cost to ensure compliance. For instance, the first solution involves the collection of refrigerant gases from expiring air conditioners. Who will voluntarily pay for this?

We all want to know why success happens in the hope that we will be able to avoid the pitfalls that make it fail to materialize. This book suggests that those who succeed have an advantage that is circumstantial. This seems discouraging, but it is also empowering.

When circumstances and the environment create such a compelling case for success, we can better understand what to do to succeed in life. This book has popularized the 10,000-hours ‘rule’ where expertise in anything can be achieved by that number of hours of practice. Ignore that advice.

There are real caveats behind it that Gladwell fails to mention. Focus, instead, on what you need to have, who you must surround yourself with, and what actions you have to undertake to make success happen for you.  

Jon Ronson has also written a highly entertaining book about extremism called Them, but I chose this one because it could just as well be called Us. Public shaming on the Internet is almost a sport at this point, but Ronson shows how, after the mob moves on, the target of the virtual stoning has to figure out how to put themselves back together and carry on.

A funny, readable romp, this book also asks the reader to think deeply about how morality plays out online and what we are saying when we use degradation and dehumanization as a way of communicating moral ideas.

Privacy Is Power gets to the heart of why we should all be worried about encroachments on our privacy. 

Carissa Veliz is a philosopher and a talented writer who brings complex and profound ideas to life on the page. Some writing about technology can feel dry and detached, but Veliz makes you understand viscerally how the impact of technology is a human, not a technological issue. 

Reputations are formed in many ways, leveraging off demonstrated behaviours, network choices, and narrative strategies. This book has it all, capturing how hip hop became the defining cultural driver of its time through a brilliantly woven story of cross-cultural tension and appropriation in America. Stoute draws from his expertise and networks in the music and marketing industries to create an inspiring story of how hip-hop became the embodiment of cool, uniting people from across the entire spectrum of society. This is a book that will remain contemporary for many decades to come.  

If we could just teach about the evils of climate change, people would surely change their behaviors.

I knew this idea was not born up by the facts and was searching for an alternative. This book showed me that if I wanted to get people to eat climate-friendly foods or become a climate advocate, I needed to think about social connections—in particular, what people see their friends and family doing.

Not only do the authors describe how we influence each other’s health, voting, and even happiness—they also argue that social networks provide a middle ground between individual destiny vs structural determinism.

In my work, Network Climate Action is similarly a middle ground between individual behavior change vs government policy in addressing the climate crisis. 

At first I thought that spreading plant-rich diet or other climate-friendly behaviors would be easy—all my students and I had to do was post photos of enticing meals on Instagram, and hundreds if not thousands would rush to their kitchens.

Then I read Centola’s book and realized that measles spread rapidly with minimal effort, but complex behaviors spread only through repeated exposure in tight networks—through multiple messages from multiple messengers.

Host vegan meals for close friends and family and you might see more plant-rich options when you get invited back. 

Destination weddings, glamorous McMansions, and luxury cars—this is the result of us seeing what our better-off compatriots do and wanting to have ever more.

In fact, the biggest problem with carbon-intensive behavior is not any one rich person’s carbon footprint. Rather it’s the influence “affluencers” exert on others. But we can turn this around. Solar panels are often clustered in neighborhoods because people also copy each other’s climate-friendly behaviors.

For me, the important thing is not to hide what you are doing—make your sustainable behaviors visible for others to see.

The author also reads this audiobook with professional polish making it a very pleasurable experience. Actually comforting as I would tune in often during the day doing the chores, with the iPhone in the back pocket. 

Maggie Haberman, currently a New York Times reporter with previous positions at the Post and Daily News, makes her account of the man “formidable” – to use a word from the New York Times review. But for me it was continually fascinating to hear the stories of Trump’s early years. For example, one of Haberman’s talking points is that Trump’s orientation to the world is one of hospitality, of course. This explains his charm to voters where I see none. 

It’s a long book, but I loved Haberman reading her story to me, as sad as it is, but as the saying goes, “knowledge is power,” and I feel stronger for knowing the human… show more.

Not only is Mary L. Trump a trained clinical psychologist and Donald’s only niece, but she also spent much of her childhood hanging out at her grandparents’ home in Queens, New York, where the president grew up with his four siblings.

Mary has the inside scoop, bringing the reader into several dysfunctional family events, including holiday meals. And she reveals the interfamilial patterns of abuse and neglect that helped shape the polarizing sociopath who now threatens the United States and the world’s well-being and economic security.