I’m pleased to share what I consider the most promising, must-read nonfiction titles scheduled for release in March of 2024. These titles make up our first group of nominees for Season 24 of the Next Big Idea Club.
Our Next Big Idea Club curators—Susan Cain, Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink—will narrow the list down to a handful of finalists and, ultimately, two official season selections.
Authors will also be invited to create a “Book Bite”, a 15-minute audio self-recording that features 5 key insights from their book. Imagine chatting with a stranger on an airplane—only that person just happened to write a fascinating nonfiction book!
And now, the March 2024 titles are…
Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives―and How We Break Free
By Tricia Rose
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
The definitive book on how systemic racism in America really works, revealing the vast and often hidden network of interconnected policies, practices, and beliefs that combine to devastate Black lives. View on Amazon
Beautiful People: My Thirteen Truths About Disability
By Melissa Blake
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
Well-known disability activist and social media influencer, Melissa Blake, offers a frank, illuminating memoir and a call to action for disabled people and allies. View on Amazon
The Heart and the Chip: Our Bright Future with Robots
By Daniela Rus & Gregory Mone
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
An exploration of how we can use a new generation of smart machines to help humankind. View on Amazon
Here After: A Memoir
By Amy Lin
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
A love story and a meditation on the ways in which Kurtis’ death shatters any set ideas Amy ever held about grief, strength, and memory. View on Amazon
Imagine Freedom: Transforming Pain into Political and Spiritual Power
By Rahiel Tesfarmariam
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
A bold path to liberation and healing for people of African descent struggling in the shadows of the American Dream. View on Amazon
Purpose: What Evolution and Human Nature Imply about the Meaning of Our Existence
By Samuel Wilkinson
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
By using principles from a variety of scientific disciplines, Yale Professor Samuel Wilkinson provides a framework for human evolution that reveals an overarching purpose to our existence. View on Amazon
The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle
By Anna Shechtman
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
A renowned puzzle creator’s compulsively readable memoir and history of the crossword puzzle as an unexpected site of women’s work and feminist protest. View on Amazon
Waiting for the Monsoon
By Rod Nordland
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
A legendary New York Times war correspondent delivers his unforgettable final dispatch: a deeply moving meditation on life inspired by his sudden battle with terminal brain cancer. View on Amazon
The Trading Game: A Confession
By Gary Stevenson
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
A memoir that takes readers inside the high-stakes drama and hubris of the trading floor, a rags-to-riches tale of Citibank’s one-time most profitable trader, and why he gave it all up. View on Amazon
A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America
By Richard Slotkin
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
As culture wars pit us against each other, A Great Disorder looks to the myths that have shaped American identity and reveals how they have brought us to the brink of an existential crisis. View on Amazon
Catastrophe Ethics: How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices
By Travis Rieder
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
How to live a morally decent life in the midst of today’s constant, complex choices. View on Amazon
The Only Constant: A Guide to Embracing Change and Leading an Authentic Life
By Najwa Zebian
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
A wise and tender guide to coming to terms with impermanence and recognizing that change is the force that allows you to become you. View on Amazon
Women Money Power: The Rise and Fall of Economic Equality
By Josie Cox
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
From an experienced financial journalist, the story of how women have fought for financial freedom, and the social and political hurdles that have kept them from equality. View on Amazon
Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking―How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age
By Caroline Paul
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
A funny, inspiring, deeply researched exploration into the science and psychology of the outdoors and our place in it as we age. View on Amazon
Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
By Cal Newport
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
A groundbreaking philosophy for pursuing meaningful accomplishment while avoiding overload. View on Amazon
Think Remarkable: 9 Extraordinary Habits that will Transform Your Life and Illuminate the World
By Guy Kawasaki
Publication Date: March 6, 2024
Learn how to make a difference to just one life, or the world, by embracing what makes people remarkable. View on Amazon
Cultures of Growth: How the New Science of Mindset Can Transform Individuals, Teams, and Organizations
By Mary Murphy
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
Award-winning social psychologist Mary Murphy offers a definitive reconsideration of teamwork—showing how to better achieve a growth mindset together as part of any organization’s culture. View on Amazon
Your Best Financial Life: Save Smart Now for the Future You Want
By Anne Lester
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
Anne Lester—former head of retirement solutions for J.P. Morgan and award-winning investor—blends science and experience to provide Millennials and Gen Z with the key steps to set up for a successful retirement and achieve their biggest life goals. View on Amazon
Irreplaceable: How to Create Extraordinary Places that Bring People Together
By Kevin Ervin Kelley
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
Do we still need physical places like grocery stores, restaurants, and office buildings? Or will the “Replacement Economy” led by the tech titans and retail giants wipe out these venues in their rapid ascent to unicorn status? View on Amazon
AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI’s Future and Save Our Own
By Verity Harding
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
A humanist manifesto for the age of AI. View on Amazon
The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China, and the Next World War
By Jim Sciutto
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
The essential new book by CNN Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto, reporting from the front lines of political hotspots and warzones across the globe. View on Amazon
The Menopause Brain: New Science Empowers Women to Navigate the Pivotal Transition with Knowledge and Confidence
By Lisa Mosconi
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
How to navigate menopause successfully and come out the other side with an even better brain. View on Amazon
Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans
By Jane Marie
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
Journalist Jane Marie expands on her popular podcast The Dream to expose the scourge of multilevel marketing schemes and how they have profited off the evisceration of the American working class. View on Amazon
Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom
By Grace Blakeley
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
This timely manifesto illustrates how corporate and political elites have used planned capitalism to advance their own interests at the expense of the rest of us—and how we can take back our economy for all. View on Amazon
Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age
By Frank McCourt Jr.
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
The internet as we know it is broken. Here’s how we can seize back control of our lives from the corporate algorithms and create a better internet—before it’s too late. View on Amazon
Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality
By Venki Ramakrishnan
Publication Date: March 19, 2024
A groundbreaking exploration of the science of why and how we age and die—from Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist Venki Ramakrishnan. View on Amazon
The Ancient Art of Thinking For Yourself: The Power of Rhetoric in Polarized Times
By Robin Reames
Publication Date: March 19, 2024
How rhetoric—the art of persuasion—can help us navigate an age of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and political acrimony. View on Amazon
The Black Box: Writing the Race
By Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Publication Date: March 19, 2024
How Black Americans have used the written word to define and redefine themselves, in resistance to the lies of racism and often in heated disagreement with each other, over the course of the country’s history. View on Amazon
Who’s Afraid of Gender?
By Judith Butler
Publication Date: March 19, 2024
A bold, essential account of how a fear of gender is fueling reactionary politics around the world. View on Amazon
Paper Soldiers: How the Weaponization of the Dollar Changed the World Order
By Saleha Mohsin
Publication Date: March 19, 2024
From Bloomberg News reporter Saleha Mohsin, the untold story of how one of America’s most invincible institutions—the Treasury—has used the U.S. dollar to define America’s role in the world, and our economic future. View on Amazon
Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully
By Elaine Lin Hering
Publication Date: March 19, 2024
A paradigm-shifting book looking at the pervasive influence of silence and how we can begin to dismantle it in order to find our voices at home and at work. View on Amazon
Beyond Discomfort: Why Inclusive Leadership Is So Hard
By Nadia Nagamootoo
Publication Date: March 26, 2024
A new model with four leadership belief systems and associated emotional responses to diversity, equity, and inclusion. View on Amazon
Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense
By Saul Perlmutter, John Campbell & Robert MacCoun
Publication Date: March 26, 2024
Based on a wildly popular UC Berkeley course, a primer on how to think critically, make sound decisions, and solve problems—individually and collectively—using scientists’ tricks of the trade. View on Amazon
Shine: How Looking Inward Is the Key to Unlocking True Entrepreneurial Freedom
By Gino Wickman & Rob Dube
Publication Date: March 26, 2024
It’s possible to be a driven entrepreneur and have inner peace. With 10 simple disciplines, this guide will help you make a bigger impact while increasing your freedom and creativity. View on Amazon
On the Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America
By Abrahm Lustgarten
Publication Date: March 26, 2024
A vivid, journalistic account of how climate change will make American life as we know it unfeasible. View on Amazon
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
By Jonathan Haidt
Publication Date: March 26, 2024
An essential investigation into the collapse of youth mental health—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood. View on Amazon
There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension
By Hanif Abdurraqib
Publication Date: March 26, 2024
A poignant, personal reflection on basketball, life, and home. View on Amazon
Nuclear War: A Scenario
By Annie Jacobsen
Publication Date: March 26, 2024
There is only one scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end the world as we know it in a matter of hours: nuclear war. View on Amazon
Raising Mentally Strong Kids: How to Combine the Power of Neuroscience with Love and Logic to Grow Confident, Kind, Responsible, and Resilient Children and Young Adults
By Daniel Amen & Charles Fay
Publication Date: March 26, 2024
Practical tools for parents to help children go from behavioral problems like defiance, meltdowns, and power struggles to being mentally strong. View on Amazon
Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present
By Fareed Zakaria
Publication Date: March 26, 2024
The CNN host explores the revolutions―past and present―that define the polarized and unstable age in which we live. View on Amazon
Says Who?: A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words
By Anne Curzan
Publication Date: March 26, 2024
A kinder, funner usage guide to the ever-changing English language and a useful tool for both the grammar stickler and the more colloquial user of English, from linguist Anne Curzan. View on Amazon
Space Oddities: The Mysterious Anomalies Challenging Our Understanding of the Universe
By Harry Cliff
Publication Date: March 26, 2024
Experimental physicist at CERN and acclaimed science presenter Harry Cliff offers an eye-opening account of the inexplicable phenomena that science has only recently glimpsed, and that could transform our understanding of the fundamental nature of reality. View on Amazon
Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World
By Nick Bostrom
Publication Date: March 27, 2024
Suppose that we develop superintelligence safely, govern it well, and make good use of the cornucopian wealth and near magical technological powers that this technology can unlock. In such a solved world, what is the point of human existence? What do we do all day? View on Amazon
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