100 Books Like Radical Humility

This book profoundly moved me, opening my eyes to a concept I had never contemplated. This book explores the origins of weight stigma and anti-fatness while linking them to the history of the development of racism.

Patriarchy, white supremacy, and the false conclusion that black people who were brought to Europe to be slaves were inferior because of their “larger appetite for sex and food” is a stunning revelation. This book rocked my world and incited inner rage and a quest to right this wrong.

It’s hard to know quite where to begin with this book–there is so much to love.

This book tells the story of the Great Migration of African American people out of the South across the United States to Chicago, New York, California, and beyond; it transforms and fills in a crucial part of American history that every American should know to understand our present day. But for me, what I love most starts with the way Isabel Wilkerson cares for people’s stories. 

Wilkerson tells this decades-long, sweeping, under-told story through individual stories that are so detailed and compelling, so thoroughly contextualized with historical research, that I was completely enmeshed in these people’s lives, their struggles, their loves, and their feelings. I cared. In the years since I read it, stories from the book often come to my mind, teaching and guiding me like the words of a beloved relative. 

What are the true costs of racism and the benefits of breaking out of its cage? I deeply admire the way Heather McGhee mines evidence and shows how the construction of race has worked against the interests of everyone, regardless of race. Then, she flips the script and shows compelling evidence for all the ways that we as a people benefit by working together. She calls it the ‘Solidarity Dividend,’ and I love this term she has coined.

She gives living examples of how everyone benefits when we work together to move beyond the zero-sum game, whether in the fields of healthcare, education, housing, employment, voting rights, the safety net, or more. Data-driven but in a refreshing style, McGhee’s book is inspiring!

I am deeply connected with this essay. It filled me with joy that someone understood my experiences. How sexual politics permeates a lot of the daily interactions we experience, and just what it means to be a woman.

It had me reexamine my ideas of womanhood and my engagement with Patriarchy. This elegant, eloquent book is an empowering call to tear down gender hierarchies.

Over a number of decades, Schein has been one of the guiding thinkers in professional services and consultancy. His books are always worth reading as the advice is sounds and practical. In this book he talks about how it is better, and more productive, to help people by the practice of asking questions rather than giving answers. The model in the book goes completely against the stereotype of the consultant as a brash and overconfident individual pretending to be an expert who can tell anyone the answer to any question. Instead, Schein proposes a model that would be more familiar to those with a coaching background. It is brilliant advice.

David Brooks thinks deeply and writes thoughtfully. He challenges me through this book to be a better person and to live a more courageous, authentic life. 

As I conducted interviews with scores of social entrepreneurs and development leaders for my book, several commented on the toxic hero culture that exists in this space. 

People want to change the world for a variety of reasons–and some of these reasons have more to do with what success would do for them rather than for the people they are trying to serve. This book shines a light on this problem, and I appreciate David’s courage in writing what he did. 

This book, bundled as the first three in the series, is one that I’ve reread often over the last twenty years. It may be in the science fiction genre, but it’s really Dr. Vic Hunt connecting the dots that others can’t quite see. The author pours brilliance and humility into Dr. Hunt which creates an almost immediate bond. The characters are written so well that you feel that you’re uncovering the mysteries at the same time Dr. Hunt is. This is rare in third person writing as authors tend to tell you the story instead of taking you on the journey of the character. Throw in the right mix of light and deep plot lines and it will soon become a regular read for you, too.

Once you’ve opened yourself up, gotten a few instructions and are reminded that nothing is holding you back, you’re ready to connect with your own internal mechanisms. Hillman re-positions psychology in the context of soul-making, where it makes most sense and is most useful for us.

We get hung up on so many things, and Hillman fearlessly wades into every one of them with great intention. I think Hillman is one of the smartest, most perceptively radical writers not named Jung, and this book grapples with the uneasy humility that is creative work: your own soul-making.

I’m absolutely obsessed with this book.

It earned a spot on the 2014 Gittle List, a contest I hosted for 5 years for self-published children’s book authors. I’ve purchased several copies for both children and adults. Somewhere, there’s a video of my grandson reading it to me (well, a couple of pages).

It’s unique in character, words, and pace. Seeing the two characters becoming friends, being the closest of friends, having a fallout that separates them, and finding their way back to each other moved me to tears because that is what my son and I were doing, at the time. Finding our way back to each other.

The lessons of forgiveness and humility flow naturally without ever saying those words explicitly. 

Inspired by Napoleon Hill, Jones researched thoroughly to come up with a simple four-step approach that can help a person get everything they want out of life. Once he found his research completed, he then determined to test it—and wound up with a national company with representatives in every state, plus an 8-figure income in 5 years (starting in the early 1950s). I use this four-step formula daily—for everything.