This just in from the Next Big Idea Club: Curators Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink have carefully read through our list of newly nominated books, and have hand-picked the most exciting nonfiction titles of the season. We’re proud to announce that the six finalists for the summer of 2020 are…
The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
By Maria Konnikova
Publication Date: June 23, 2020
How a New York Times bestselling author and New Yorker contributor parlayed a strong grasp of the science of human decision-making and a woeful ignorance of cards into a life-changing run as a professional poker player, under the wing of a legend of the game. View on Amazon
Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk
By Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke
Publication Date: May 1, 2020
Drawing from work in psychology, economics, and political science, the authors dive deeply into why and how we grandstand. Using the analytic tools of psychology and moral philosophy, they explain what drives us to behave in this way, and what we stand to lose by taking it too far. View on Amazon
Humankind: A Hopeful History
By Rutger Bregman
Publication Date: June 2, 2020
From the bestselling author of Utopia for Realists comes Humankind, which argues that humans thrive in crisis, and that our innate kindness and cooperation have been the greatest factors in our long-term success on the planet. View on Amazon
The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move
By Sonia Shah
Publication Date: June 2, 2020
A prize-winning journalist upends our centuries-long assumptions about migration through science, history, and reporting, predicting its lifesaving power in the face of climate change. View on Amazon
The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices
By Casper ter Kuile
Publication Date: June 23, 2020
Harvard Divinity School fellow Casper ter Kuile explores how we can nourish our souls by transforming common, everyday practices—yoga, reading, walking the dog—into sacred rituals that can heal our crisis of social isolation and struggle to find purpose. View on Amazon
You’re About to Make a Terrible Mistake!: How Biases Distort Decision-Making and What You Can Do to Fight Them
By Olivier Sibony
Publication Date: July 14, 2020
You’re About to Make a Terrible Mistake! distills the latest developments in behavioral economics and cognitive psychology into actionable tools for making smart, effective decisions in business and beyond. View on Amazon