Gray skies. Freezing temperatures. Scraping ice off your car windshield—again. Yes, if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, there’s a good chance that you’re sick of winter by now.
So if you’re feeling some winter blues, how can you best pass the time until spring? Well, we believe that the seven inspiring books below will warm your heart, and help you power through the next few weeks with a smile on your face.
The Power of Awe: Overcome Burnout & Anxiety, Ease Chronic Pain, Find Clarity & Purpose―in Less Than 1 Minute Per Day
By Jake Eagle and Michael Amster
The A.W.E. Method ensures that awe and its many benefits are accessible to you at any time, in any place—sitting at a stoplight, cooking a meal, petting an animal, or listening to a loved one’s laugh. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by co-authors Jake Eagle and Michael Amster, in the Next Big Idea App
The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise
By Pico Iyer
Traveling from Iran to North Korea, from the Dalai Lama’s Himalayas to the ghostly temples of Japan, an acclaimed journalist brings together a lifetime of explorations to upend our ideas of utopia and ask how we might find peace in the midst of difficulty and suffering. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Pico Iyer, in the Next Big Idea App
Life Is Short: An Appropriately Brief Guide to Making It More Meaningful
By Dean Rickles
A University of Sydney philosopher explains why the finiteness and shortness of life is the essence of its meaning―and how this insight is the key to making the most of the time we do have. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Dean Rickles, in the Next Big Idea App
The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness
By Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz
What makes for a happy life, a fulfilling life? A good life? According to the directors of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest scientific study of happiness ever conducted, the answer to these questions may be closer than you realize. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by co-authors Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz, in the Next Big Idea App
The World According to Proust
By Joshua Landy
A Stanford professor reveals Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time as a quest for purpose, enchantment, identity, connection, and belonging, examining the novel’s fascinating treatments of memory, society, art, same-sex desire, knowledge, self-understanding, self-fashioning, and the unconscious mind. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Joshua Landy, in the Next Big Idea App
How to Be Weird: An Off-Kilter Guide to Living a One-of-a-Kind Life
By Eric G. Wilson
With brief digestible entries on how to make sense of the random, guidelines on how to defamiliarize familiar objects through meditation, and exercises for locating weird states and phenomena for ourselves, How to Be Weird is an invitation to lean into the weird and to live a fuller life. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Eric G. Wilson, in the Next Big Idea App
How to Calm Your Mind: Finding Presence and Productivity in Anxious Times
By Chris Bailey
The pursuit of calm ultimately leads us to become more engaged, focused, and deliberate—while making us more productive and satisfied with our lives. In an anxious world, investing in calm can be considered the best productivity strategy around. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Chris Bailey, in the Next Big Idea App
The Key Ideas in 15 Minutes
“If you are going to get anywhere in life, you have to read a lot of books,” Roald Dahl once famously said. The only trouble is, reading even one book from cover to cover takes hours—and you may not have many hours to spare.
But imagine for a moment: What if you could read a groundbreaking new book every day? Or even better, what if you could invite a world-renowned thinker into your earbuds, where they personally describe the 5 key takeaways from their work in just 15 minutes?
With the Next Big Idea App, we’ve turned this fantasy into a reality. We partnered with hundreds of acclaimed authors to create “Book Bites,” short audio summaries of the latest nonfiction that are prepared and read aloud by the authors themselves. Discover cutting-edge leadership skills, productivity hacks, the science of happiness and well-being, and much more—all in the time it takes to drive to work or walk the dog.
Go Deeper with a Next Big Idea Club Membership
The Next Big Idea App is free for anyone to try—and if you love it, we invite you to become an official member of the Next Big Idea Club. Membership grants you unlimited access to Book Bites and unlocks early-release, ad-free episodes of our LinkedIn-partnered podcast. You also gain entry to our private online discussion group, where you can talk big ideas with fellow club members and join exclusive live Q&A sessions with featured authors.
For a more focused learning experience, we recommend a Hardcover or eBook Membership. Every few months, legendary authors and club curators Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink select two new nonfiction books as the must-reads of the season. We then send hardcover copies straight to your doorstep, or eBook versions to your favorite digital device. We also collaborate with the authors of selected books to produce original reading guides and premium video e-courses, 50-minute master classes that take you step by step through their most life-changing ideas. And yes, it’s all available through the Next Big Idea App.
Learn Faster, from the World’s Leading Thinkers
Whether you prefer to read, listen, or watch, the Next Big Idea is here to help you work smarter and live better. Wake up with an always-fresh Idea of the Day, the perfect shot of inspiration to go with your morning coffee. Then dive into one of our Challenges, hand-picked collections of Book Bites that form crash courses in subjects like communication, motivation, and career acceleration. Later, watch the playback of an interview with U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt, or philosopher John Kaag. And be sure to check the “Events” tab in the app, so that you can join an upcoming live Q&A and personally chat with the next featured thought leader.
If you’re hoping to grow as a person or as a professional, we hope you’ll join us and tens of thousands of others who enjoy the Next Big Idea. Get started by downloading the app today!
