I’m pleased to share what I consider the most promising, must-read nonfiction titles scheduled for release in April 2025.
These titles will be included in our longlist of potential titles for Season 26 of the Next Big Idea Club. In a couple of months, our curators—Susan Cain, Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink—will review all of my monthly selections, narrow the list down to a handful of finalists and, ultimately, choose our two official season titles, which we will send the members.
All must-read authors are invited to create a “Book Bite”, a short audio self-recording that features five key insights from their book. Imagine chatting with a stranger while waiting in line at the supermarket—only that person just happened to write a fascinating nonfiction book.
And now, the April 2025 titles are…
Reverse the Search: How to Turn Job Seeking into Job Shopping
By Madeline Mann
Publication Date: April 1, 2025
From the creator of top career YouTube channel Self Made Millennial, a new guide on how to go beyond the antiquated—and exhausting—job search. View on Amazon
Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life
By Maggie Smith
Publication Date: April 1, 2025
New York Times bestselling author and poet Maggie Smith distills creativity and the craft of writing with a practical guide. View on Amazon
Meaningful Work: How to Ignite Passion and Performance in Every Employee
By Wes Adams & Tamara Myles
Publication Date: April 1, 2025
A powerful revelation that finding meaning at work is the true driver of employee well-being, high performance, and even profit, and a practical roadmap to make it the cornerstone of your leadership approach. View on Amazon
Secrets of Adulthood: Simple Truths for Our Complex Lives
By Gretchen Rubin
Publication Date: April 1, 2025
For anyone undergoing a major life transition or for those just encountering everyday dilemmas, these disarming aphorisms will inspire you by articulating truths that you may never have noticed but instantly recognize. View on Amazon
Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words
By John McWhorter
Publication Date: April 1, 2025
With his trademark humor and flair, bestselling linguist John McWhorter busts the myths and shares the history of the most controversial language topic of our times: pronouns. View on Amazon
Shatterproof: How to Thrive in a World of Constant Chaos (And Why Resilience Alone Isn’t Enough)
By Tasha Eurich
Publication Date: April 1, 2025
This new roadmap for stressed-out strivers reveals the surprising limits of resilience and offers a second skillset for overcoming life’s greatest challenges. View on Amazon
What We Value: The Neuroscience of Choice and Change
By Emily Falk
Publication Date: April 8, 2025
A neuroscientist reveals the hidden calculations that shape our daily decisions―and how to make more fulfilling, impactful choices in our work, relationships, and lives. View on Amazon
There’s Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift
By Kevin Evers
Publication Date: April 8, 2025
A smart, page-turning exploration of the business and creative decisions that transformed Taylor Swift from a teen prodigy into an unprecedented modern cultural phenomenon. View on Amazon
Business School and the Noble Purpose of the Market: Correcting the Systemic Failures of Shareholder Capitalism
By Andrew Hoffman
Publication Date: April 8, 2025
The intellectual foundation for the next generation of business leaders. View on Amazon
The Once and Future World Order: Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West
By Amitav Acharya
Publication Date: April 8, 2025
The epic story of the past, present, and future of world order, revealing how the decline of the West may be a good thing for the world. View on Amazon
The Doors You Can Open: A New Way to Network, Build Trust, and Use Your Influence to Create a More Inclusive Workplace
By Rosalind Chow
Publication Date: April 8, 2025
Carnegie Mellon organizational behavior researcher Dr. Rosalind Chow introduces the novel concept of sponsorship. While mentors act on mentees, sponsors act on external observers – audiences – to change how they see proteges. View on Amazon
Transcend: Unlocking Humanity in the Age of AI
By Faisal Hoque
Publication Date: April 8, 2025
This book answers, how can we use AI to unlock humanity’s full potential while protecting what is most precious about the human experience? View on Amazon
Hate the Game: Economic Cheat Codes for Life, Love, and Work
By Daryl Fairweather
Publication Date: April 11, 2025
Fairweather fixes her expertise and service on navigating the earliest economic inflection points of adult life: whether to go to college and for how long; partnering, having kids, both, or neither; getting, keeping, and changing jobs; and where to live and how to pay for it. View on Amazon
The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward
By Melinda French Gates
Publication Date: April 15, 2025
In a rare window into some of her life’s pivotal moments, Melinda French Gates draws from previously untold stories to offer a new perspective on encountering transitions. View on Amazon
No New Things: A Radically Simple 30-Day Guide to Saving Money, the Planet, and Your Sanity
By Ashlee Piper
Publication Date: April 15, 2025
From award-winning sustainability expert, a witty, no-nonsense guide to regaining control over your time, consumerist impulses, and financial and mental wellness. View on Amazon
How to Fall in Love with Questions: A New Way to Thrive in Times of Uncertainty
By Elizabeth Weingarten
Publication Date: April 15, 2025
Journalist and applied behavioral scientist Elizabeth Weingarten charts a new path to embrace the questions of our lives instead of seeking fast, easy answers. View on Amazon
The Psychology of Leadership: Timeless Principles to Perfect Your Leadership of Individuals and Teams
By Sébastien Page
Publication Date: April 15, 2025
A fresh take on leadership through the lens of groundbreaking research in positive, sports, and personality psychology. View on Amazon
The Gut-Brain Paradox: Improve Your Mood, Clear Brain Fog, and Reverse Disease by Healing Your Microbiome
By Steven Gundry
Publication Date: April 15, 2025
Compelling evidence that our gut microbiome is driving our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and our mental, emotional, and neuronal health—and how to heal our microbiomes to take back control of our minds. View on Amazon
Taming the Molecule of More: A Step-by-Step Guide to Make Dopamine Work for You
By Michael Long
Publication Date: April 15, 2025
It’s easy to get stuck in a cycle of never being truly satisfied because dopamine can only promise happiness. It can never deliver. That part is up to us. View on Amazon
Finding Focus: Own Your Attention in an Age of Distraction
By Zelana Montminy
Publication Date: April 15, 2025
A guide to reclaiming your mind in a world designed to exploit it. It’s for those who are ready to simplify and reconnect with their potential, and ultimately, ready to live fully. View on Amazon
What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis
By Malcolm Harris
Publication Date: April 15, 2025
A vital guide for collective political action against the climate apocalypse, from progressive intellectual Malcolm Harris. View on Amazon
More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity
By Adam Becker
Publication Date: April 22, 2025
How Silicon Valley’s heartless, baseless, and foolish obsessions—with escaping death, emergent AI tyrants, and limitless growth—pervert public discourse and distract us from real social problems. View on Amazon
Click: How to Make What People Want
By Jake Knapp
Publication Date: April 22, 2025
A guide for starting big projects the smart way—based on firsthand experience with more than three hundred new products and businesses. View on Amazon
Change the Recipe: Because You Can’t Build a Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs
By José Andrés with Richard Wolffe
Publication Date: April 22, 2025
A unique collection of life lessons from renowned chef and humanitarian José Andrés. View on Amazon
On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters
By Bonnie Tsui
Publication Date: April 22, 2025
A mind-expanding exploration of muscle—from our ancient obsession with the ideal human form to the modern science of this amazing and adaptable tissue—that will change the way you think about what moves us through the world. View on Amazon
Unforgettable Presence: Get Seen, Gain Influence, and Catapult Your Career
By Lorraine Lee
Publication Date: April 22, 2025
This practical guide reframes what we need today to succeed in a competitive corporate landscape and defines professional presence for the modern workplace. View on Amazon
The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life
By Suleika Jaouad
Publication Date: April 22, 2025
A guide to the art of journaling—and a meditation on the central questions of life. View on Amazon
Rise Above: Overcome a Victim Mindset, Empower Yourself, and Realize Your Full Potential
By Scott Barry Kaufman
Publication Date: April 22, 2025
An empowering call to reject the victim mindset and become the hero of your life, by the renowned psychologist and host of The Psychology Podcast. View on Amazon
Please Yell at My Kids: What Cultures Around the World Can Teach You About Parenting in Community, Raising Independent Kids, and Not Losing Your Mind
By Marina Lopes
Publication Date: April 22, 2025
Acclaimed journalist Marina Lopes travels the world to learn how diverse cultures embrace communal parenting, bringing home practical strategies for American parents. View on Amazon
Conquering Crisis: Ten Lessons to Learn Before You Need Them
By William McRaven
Publication Date: April 22, 2025
Stories from Admiral McRaven’s life and career that illustrate the principles of effective leadership during times of crisis. View on Amazon
Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI
By John Cassidy
Publication Date: April 29, 2025
A sweeping, dramatic history of capitalism as seen through the eyes of its fiercest critics. View on Amazon
Earthly Materials: Journeys Through Our Bodies’ Emissions, Excretions, and Disintegrations
By Cutter Wood
Publication Date: April 29, 2025
A delightfully weird, richly informative, and unexpectedly lyrical tour of our bodily emissions—revealing that the very parts of us that we seek to hide in embarrassment are actually an essential part of human health, with fascinating social history. View on Amazon
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