Every season, Next Big Idea Club curators Adam Grant, Susan Cain, Daniel Pink, and Malcolm Gladwell review dozens and dozens of upcoming books to identify the new must-read nonfiction titles. And this season, we’re inviting our members to help with the discovery process—if you’re passionate about a nonfiction book coming out in August, September, October, or (at the latest) November of 2020, we invite you to nominate it for inclusion in the Next Big Idea Club!
The books currently under consideration for Fall 2020 are listed below, and to send in your own recommendation, simply fill out this form by Monday, August 31st. Books that receive five or more recommendations will become official nominees, and will be added to the list on this page. Thank you so much for your input—we can’t wait to see which new books you’ll send our way!
Fall 2020 Nominees
2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything
By Mauro F. Guillén
Publication Date: August 25, 2020
The world is changing drastically before our eyes―will you be prepared for what comes next? A groundbreaking analysis from one of the world’s foremost experts on global trends, including analysis on how COVID-19 will amplify and accelerate each of these changes. View on Amazon
Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live
By Nicholas A. Christakis
Publication Date: October 27, 2020
Featuring new, provocative arguments and vivid examples ranging across medicine, history, sociology, epidemiology, data science, and genetics, Apollo’s Arrow envisions what happens when the great force of a deadly germ meets the enduring reality of our evolved social nature. View on Amazon
Building for Everyone: Expand Your Market with Design Practices from Google’s Product Inclusion Team
By Annie Jean-Baptiste
Publication Date: September 1, 2020
Building for Everyone will show you how to infuse your business processes with inclusive design. You’ll learn best practices for inclusion in product design, marketing, management, leadership and beyond, straight from the innovative Google Product Inclusion team. View on Amazon
Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World
By Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin D. West
Publication Date: August 4, 2020
Bullshit isn’t what it used to be. Now, two science professors give us the tools to dismantle misinformation and think clearly in a world of fake news and bad data. View on Amazon
Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation
By Anne Helen Petersen
Publication Date: September 22, 2020
An incendiary examination of burnout in millennials—the cultural shifts that got us here, the pressures that sustain it, and the need for drastic change. View on Amazon
Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America
By Laila Lalami
Publication Date: September 22, 2020
Pulitzer Prize–finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to U.S. citizen, using it as a starting point for her exploration of the rights, liberties, and protections that are traditionally associated with American citizenship. View on Amazon
Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide
By John Cleese
Publication Date: September 8, 2020
The legendary comedian, actor, and writer of Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and A Fish Called Wanda fame shares his key ideas about creativity: that it’s a learnable, improvable skill. View on Amazon
Decoding the World: Roadmap for the Questioner
By Po Bronson and Arvind Gupta
Publication Date: October 6, 2020
Find out where our world is headed with this dazzling first-hand account of inventing the future from a #1 New York Times bestselling author and the founder of science accelerator IndieBio. View on Amazon
Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women
By Kate Manne
Publication Date: August 11, 2020
With wit and intellectual fierceness, Cornell philosopher Kate Manne sheds new light on gender and power and offers a vision of a world in which women are just as entitled as men to our collective care and concern. View on Amazon
Fault Lines: Fractured Families and How to Mend Them
By Karl Pillemer
Publication Date: September 8, 2020
In an era when powerful outside forces such as technology and mobility are lessening family cohesion, Dr. Pillemer combines dramatic stories, science-based guidance, and practical repair tools to help people find the path to reconciliation. View on Amazon
Friday Forward: Inspiration & Motivation to End Your Week Stronger Than It Started
By Robert Glazer
Publication Date: September 1, 2020
At once uplifting and deeply thought-provoking, these stories will challenge you to propel yourself outside your comfort zone to unlock your innate potential. View on Amazon
The Hidden Habits of Genius: Beyond Talent, Grit, and IQ—Unlocking the Secrets of Greatness
By Craig Wright
Publication Date: October 6, 2020
Looking at the 14 key traits of genius, from curiosity to creative maladjustment to obsession, Professor Craig Wright, creator of Yale University’s popular “Genius Course,” explores what we can learn from brilliant minds that have changed the world. View on Amazon
How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World’s Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs
By Guy Raz
Publication Date: September 15, 2020
Based on the highly acclaimed NPR podcast, How I Built This with Guy Raz, this book offers priceless insights and inspiration from the world’s top entrepreneurs on how to start, launch, and build a successful venture. View on Amazon
Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them
By Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini
Publication Date: August 18, 2020
In their provocative and practical new book, world-renowned business thinker Gary Hamel and expert coauthor Michele Zanini lay out a detailed blueprint for creating organizations that are fully human and free from the shackles of bureaucracy. View on Amazon
The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health—and How We Must Adapt
By Sinan Aral
Publication Date: September 15, 2020
A landmark insider’s tour of how social media affects our decision-making and shapes our world in ways both useful and dangerous, with critical ideas on how to protect ourselves in the 2020 election and beyond. View on Amazon
I Have Something to Say: Mastering the Art of Public Speaking in an Age of Disconnection
By John Bowe
Publication Date: August 11, 2020
A veteran journalist discovers an ancient system of speech techniques for overcoming the fear of public speaking—and reveals how they can profoundly change our lives. View on Amazon
The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most
By Lee Vinsel and Andrew L. Russell
Publication Date: September 8, 2020
Vinsel and Russell explain how we devalued the work that underpins modern life—and, in doing so, wrecked our economy and public infrastructure. They offer a compelling plan for how we can shift our focus away from the pursuit of growth at all costs, and back toward neglected activities like maintenance, care, and upkeep. View on Amazon
Just Us: An American Conversation
By Claudia Rankine
Publication Date: September 8, 2020
As everyday white supremacy becomes increasingly vocalized with no clear answers at hand, how best might we approach one another? Claudia Rankine, without telling us what to do, urges us to begin the discussions that might open pathways through this divisive and stuck moment in American history. View on Amazon
The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science
By Michael Strevens
Publication Date: October 13, 2020
Like Yuval Harari’s Sapiens or Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 classic, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, The Knowledge Machine overturns much of what we thought we knew about the origins of the modern world. View on Amazon
Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius
By Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Publication Date: September 29, 2020
From the bestselling authors of The Daily Stoic comes an inspiring guide to the lives of the Stoics, and what the ancients can teach us about happiness, success, resilience and virtue. View on Amazon
Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain
By David Eagleman
Publication Date: August 25, 2020
Acclaimed neuroscientist David Eagleman covers decades of the most important research into the functioning of the brain and also presents new discoveries from his own research: about synesthesia, dreaming, and wearable devices that are revolutionizing how we think about the five human senses. View on Amazon
Making Sense: Conversations on Consciousness, Morality, and the Future of Humanity
By Sam Harris
Publication Date: August 11, 2020
This book includes a dozen of the best conversations from the Making Sense podcast, including talks with Daniel Kahneman, Timothy Snyder, Nick Bostrom, and Glenn Loury, on topics that range from the nature of consciousness and free will, to politics and extremism, to living ethically. View on Amazon
Master of None: How a Jack-of-All-Trades Can Still Reach the Top
By Clifford Hudson
Publication Date: October 13, 2020
In this revelatory memoir, the former CEO of Sonic challenges established thinking, offering counterintuitive career advice essential for every professional at all levels, whether you’re just starting out or in the middle of your career. View on Amazon
The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South
By Chip Jones
Publication Date: August 18, 2020
Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Chip Jones exposes the horrifying inequality surrounding the 1968 death of Bruce Tucker, and how he was used as a human guinea pig without his family’s permission or knowledge. View on Amazon
Powerful Purpose of Introverts: Why the World Needs You to Be You
By Holley Gerth
Publication Date: September 15, 2020
In this eye-opening book, Holley Gerth shares everything you need to know, from brain science to the psychological, relational, and spiritual aspects of being an introvert. View on Amazon
The Practice: Shipping Creative Work
By Seth Godin
Publication Date: November 3, 2020
From the bestselling author of Linchpin, Tribes, and The Dip comes an elegant little book that will inspire artists, writers, and entrepreneurs to stretch and commit to putting their best work out into the world. View on Amazon
The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness
By Morgan Housel
Publication Date: September 8, 2020
Award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics. View on Amazon
Right/Wrong: How Technology Transforms Our Ethics
By Juan Enriquez
Publication Date: October 13, 2020
From the TED stage to the page, Juan Enriquez, author of As the Future Catches You and Evolving Ourselves, presents a lively and engaging guide to ethics in a technological age. View on Amazon
Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain
By Lisa Feldman Barrett
Publication Date: November 17, 2020
In seven short essays (plus a bite-sized story about how brains evolved), this slim, entertaining, and accessible collection reveals mind-expanding lessons from the front lines of neuroscience research. View on Amazon
The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers
By Eric Weiner
Publication Date: August 25, 2020
The New York Times bestselling author of The Geography of Bliss embarks on a rollicking intellectual journey, following in the footsteps of history’s greatest thinkers and showing us how each—from Epicurus to Gandhi, Thoreau to Beauvoir—offers practical and spiritual lessons for today’s unsettled times. View on Amazon
Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World
By Fareed Zakaria
Publication Date: October 6, 2020
Covering topics from natural and biological risks to the rise of “digital life” to an emerging bipolar world order, CNN host Fareed Zakaria helps readers think beyond the immediate effects of COVID-19 to see a surprising new world taking shape. View on Amazon
Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day
By Jay Shetty
Publication Date: September 8, 2020
Jay Shetty, social media superstar and host of the #1 podcast On Purpose, distills the timeless wisdom he learned as a monk into practical steps anyone can take every day to live a less anxious, more meaningful life. View on Amazon
Too Much Information: Understanding What You Don’t Want to Know
By Cass Sunstein
Publication Date: September 1, 2020
Renowned Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein explains how information can make us happy or miserable, and why we sometimes avoid it and sometimes seek it out. View on Amazon
Unapologetically Ambitious: Take Risks, Break Barriers, and Create Success on Your Own Terms
By Shellye Archambeau
Publication Date: October 6, 2020
Full of empowering wisdom from one of Silicon Valley’s first female African-American CEOs, this inspiring leadership book offers a blueprint for how to achieve your personal and professional goals. View on Amazon
Uncharted: How to Navigate the Future
By Margaret Heffernan
Publication Date: September 8, 2020
From former CEO and popular TED speaker Margaret Heffernan comes a timely and enlightening book that equips you with the tools you need to face the future with confidence and courage. View on Amazon
Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All
By Martha S. Jones
Publication Date: September 8, 2020
From the earliest days of the republic to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and beyond, Jones excavates the lives and work of black women who were the vanguard of women’s rights, calling on America to realize its best ideals. View on Amazon
The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous
By Joseph Henrich
Publication Date: September 8, 2020
Harvard anthropologist Joseph Henrich explores how culture, institutions, and psychology shape one another, and explains what this means for both our most personal sense of who we are as individuals and also the large-scale social, political, and economic forces that drive human history. View on Amazon
What Girls Need: How to Raise Bold, Courageous, and Resilient Women
By Marisa Porges
Publication Date: August 4, 2020
A former White House strategist and fighter jet pilot now at the helm of one of the premier schools for girls in the country illuminates the ways parents and educators can support audacity and ambition in girls everywhere. View on Amazon
When More Is Not Better: Overcoming America’s Obsession with Economic Efficiency
By Roger L. Martin
Publication Date: September 29, 2020
With lucid analysis and engaging anecdotes, Martin argues that we must stop treating the economy as a perfectible machine and shift toward viewing it as a complex adaptive system in which we seek a fundamental balance of efficiency with resilience. View on Amazon
Work Mate Marry Love: How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny
By Debora L. Spar
Publication Date: August 18, 2020
Harvard Business School professor and former Barnard College president Debora L. Spar offers an incisive and provocative account of how technology has transformed our intimate lives in the past, and how it will do so again in the future. View on Amazon
