best books about research

10 Best Research Books For Qualitative And Quantitative Research

Are you looking for the best research books? Take a look at some of the best books on research methods below.

Research methodology comes in many shapes and forms. Regardless of whether you are interested in qualitative or quantitative research, it is essential to find a book that can help you plan your research project adequately. Research design can vary from hard sciences to social sciences, but data analysis following a case study is usually similar. Therefore, you need a practical guide that can help you complete a research project and finish your research paper.

1. Qualitative Research: A Guide To Design And Implementation, 4th Edition

2. research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches, 4th edition, 3. the research methods knowledge base, 3rd edition, 4. the craft of research, 5. doing your research project: open up study skills, 5th edition, 6. qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches, 3rd edition, 7. the essential guide to doing your research project, 2nd edition, 8. introducing research methodology: a beginner’s guide to doing a research project, 2nd edition, 9. the sage handbook of qualitative research, 5th edition, 10. research methods in education, 7th edition, the final word on the best research books, what is the difference between quantitative research and qualitative research, how do i figure out which academic journal to publish my research in, further reading.

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When someone talks about qualitative research in academia, they refer to research that focuses on overall concepts and takeaways instead of complex numbers. For those conducting academic research, understanding the basics of this process is critical. Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation, by Sharan B. Merriam and Elizabeth J. Tisdell, 4th edition, is one of the best books available because it focuses on action research, mixed methods, online data sources, and some of the latest technology that people can use to complete their projects.

A significant portion of this book focuses on data analysis software packages, which have become critically important in an era where publishing in the best academic journals is critical for every successful researcher. Finally, this book explains topics so that nearly everyone can understand.

• Merriam, Sharan B. (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 368 Pages - 08/24/2015 (Publication Date) - John Wiley & Sons (Publisher)

Suppose you are looking for a book that can teach you the best research methodology. In that case, you will want to check out Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches by John W. Creswell, 4th edition. John Creswell is one of the most well-respected writers in case study research.

As books on how to research go, this one on quantitative and qualitative research methods is a great tool that will help you learn the basics of forming a research project in every field. This book covers philosophical assumptions and research projects, theory and research approaches, and conducts an effective literature review. These elements are also crucial in helping you form a step-by-step guide for your upcoming research project, and this book will teach you the basics of data analysis.

• Research Design
• Creswell, John W. (Author)
• 273 Pages - 04/22/2024 (Publication Date) - SAGE Publications, Inc (Publisher)

The first two editions were already solid, but the third edition of The Research Methods Knowledge Base, by William M.K. Trochim and James P. Donnelly, features many updates to quantitative and qualitative research methods, teaching graduate students the basics of data collection before diving into the details for more advanced learners.

One of the significant advantages of this text is that it is a comprehensive tool that can be used for both undergraduate and graduate-level courses. It has a relatively informal style and conversational feel, which means readers will not be intimidated by walls of text. The research methods it teaches are straightforward, applicable, and relevant to anyone looking to complete a research project in the current era.

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• No quibbles returns

The Craft of Research, by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory C. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, covers various research approaches that teach everyone the basics of forming a solid research project. In particular, this book focuses on what to do with the data after it has been collected.

People need to think about how their readers will interpret the structure of the paper, proactively anticipating questions they might have. By answering the reader’s questions in the initial version of the paper, it is easier to hold their attention from start to finish.

Of course, one of the most critical questions that must be asked when writing a research paper is, “so, what? Why does this information matter?” Researchers can keep this in mind while writing the introduction and conclusion of the paper so they will have an easier time constructing a powerful academic manuscript that is more likely to be accepted into the top academic journals.

• Booth, Wayne C. (Author)
• 336 Pages - 10/18/2016 (Publication Date) - University of Chicago Press (Publisher)

Doing Your Research Project: Open Up Study Skills, by Judith Bell, is a must-read for new researchers looking to make their way in academic research. This book is helpful because it teaches people how to conduct a research project using step-by-step advice. A research project can be daunting for new learners because it’s easy to focus on the final project and feel intimidated before taking the first step.

This book is indispensable because it teaches people everything they need to know to develop a research project, draft a hypothesis, carry out the project, and finalize a research paper after conducting detailed data analysis. Furthermore, this text will dive into common mistakes, pitfalls, and obstacles researchers need to overcome. Time is your most valuable resource, and nobody wants to spend time on trials that will not be relevant to the final project.

• Bell, Judith (Author)
• 296 Pages - 05/01/2010 (Publication Date) - Open University Press (Publisher)

Qualitative Inquiry And Research Design: Choose Among Five Approaches, 3rd Edition, Is The Latest In A Line Of Best-Selling Research Books From Creswell. This Book Ties Into People’s Philosophical Underpinnings When Developing A Research Project. It Also Looks At The History Of Various Research Projects, Which Serve As An Example For The Reader.

Overall, there are five traditions in qualitative research; grounded theory, phenomenology, narrative research, case study, and ethnography. Creswell uses an accessible writing style to help the reader understand when to use each of these narratives. Then, he dives into strategies for writing research papers using each of these approaches.

• Used Book in Good Condition
• 472 Pages - 03/14/2012 (Publication Date) - SAGE Publications, Inc (Publisher)

The Essential Guide To Doing Your Research Project by Zina O’Leary is geared more toward young learners. As books on how to research, it focuses on how to develop a research project, analyze data, and write up the results. Every stage of the book is clearly explained, with the author specifying why it is essential to carry out that step correctly.

It also focuses on practical tips and tricks that learners can use to successfully carry out their research projects. The book includes helpful chapter summaries, a complete glossary, and boxed definitions for essential terms that should not be overlooked. The author also has a variety of suggestions for further reading, which is helpful for more advanced learners who may want to pick up a text that is a bit more detailed. Finally, the book also comes with access to a companion website. The website includes journal articles, real projects, worksheets, and podcasts.

• O′Leary, Zina (Author)
• 384 Pages - 12/20/2013 (Publication Date) - SAGE Publications Ltd (Publisher)

Introducing Research Methodology: A Beginner’s Guide to doing a research project, by Uwe Flick is ideal for new researchers. the author guides readers through the fundamentals that underpin a strong research project. He focuses on essential steps, common mistakes, and ways to expedite the research process.

Then, the author dives into some of the most critical skills readers need to have if they want to collect and analyze data properly. he goes into basic organizational tactics that make data easier to interpret, explains how to shorten the analytical process, and dives into real-life quantitative and qualitative research methods. He uses his research as an example, explaining to people how to pull out the essential parts of the research project before writing them up.

• Flick, Uwe (Author)
• 320 Pages - 04/14/2015 (Publication Date) - SAGE Publications Ltd (Publisher)

The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research by Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln focuses on global research. this text teaches readers how to synthesize existing literature, identify current research, and focus on caps that can be filled. the authors gather contributions from some of the most well-renowned researchers, addressing issues in research projects today. this text focuses more on research regarding social justice. therefore, this is better for people in the social sciences.

• Hardcover Book
• 992 Pages - 02/15/2017 (Publication Date) - SAGE Publications, Inc (Publisher)

Research Methods in Education, by Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manon, and Keith Morrison, is essential for students and professional researchers who want to learn how to create a comprehensive research project. It’s broken up into helpful chapters wrapped up by a convenient summary at the end, explaining to readers how to hit the high points.

Research Methods in Education also comes with a helpful companion website that contains PowerPoint slides for every chapter. This book can be read independently and discussed with a classroom full of students. The book has been written at a level that is accessible even to high school students, but the basics can be a helpful review for graduate researchers.

• Cohen, Louis (Author)
• 944 Pages - 10/27/2017 (Publication Date) - Routledge (Publisher)

Academic research comes in many shapes and forms, with qualitative and quantitative research having high points; however, the basics are the same across all fields. Researchers need to learn how to develop a hypothesis, put together a research methodology, collect their data, interpret it, and write up their findings.

It can be helpful to use the books about research above to refine your research methods . Each book focuses on a slightly different facet of academic research, so readers need to find the right book to meet their needs. With a substantial text, readers can avoid common mistakes, follow in the footsteps of successful researchers, and increase their chances of writing a solid research paper for school or getting their paper accepted into an academic journal.

Books About Research FAQs

Quantitative research focuses more on numbers and statistics. This type of research is more common in hard sciences such as biology, chemistry, and physics.

Qualitative research focuses more on overall meanings and concepts. This type of research is more common in social sciences such as anthropology, archaeology, and research topics focusing on social justice.

It would help compare prior articles in that academic journal to the article you have written. Most academic journals focus on a specific field, and you need to submit your article to a publication that shares research articles similar to your own. Be sure to consider the prestige of the journal before submitting your paper.

If you enjoyed this round-up of the best research books, you might also like our top 11 essay writing tips for students . 

You might also find our guide on essay topics for students  helpful. 

Bryan Collins is the owner of Become a Writer Today. He's an author from Ireland who helps writers build authority and earn a living from their creative work. He's also a former Forbes columnist and his work has appeared in publications like Lifehacker and Fast Company.

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100 Best Research Books of All Time

We've researched and ranked the best research books in the world, based on recommendations from world experts, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. Learn more

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Kahneman | 5.00

Barack Obama A few months ago, Mr. Obama read “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” by Daniel Kahneman, about how people make decisions — quick, instinctive thinking versus slower, contemplative deliberation. For Mr. Obama, a deliberator in an instinctive business, this may be as instructive as any political science text. (Source)

Bill Gates [On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012.] (Source)

Marc Andreessen Captivating dive into human decision making, marred by inclusion of several/many? psychology studies that fail to replicate. Will stand as a cautionary tale? (Source)

See more recommendations for this book...

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl, William J. Winslade, et al. | 4.85

Tony Robbins Another book that I’ve read dozens of times. It taught me that if you change the meaning, you change everything. Meaning equals emotion, and emotion equals life. (Source)

Jimmy Fallon I read it while spending ten days in the ICU of Bellevue hospital trying to reattach my finger from a ring avulsion accident in my kitchen. It talks about the meaning of life, and I believe you come out a better person from reading it. (Source)

Dustin Moskovitz [Dustin Moskovitz recommended this book on Twitter.] (Source)

The Craft of Research (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)

Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams | 4.81

The Art of War

Sun Tzu | 4.78

Reid Hoffman Reid read Carl von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu as a boy, which informed his strategic thinking. (Source)

Neil deGrasse Tyson Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet? [...] The Art of War (Sun Tsu) [to learn that the act of killing fellow humans can be raised to an art]. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. (Source)

Evan Spiegel After meeting Mark Zuckerberg, [Evan Spiegel] immediately bought every [Snapchat] employee a copy of 'The Art Of War'. (Source)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Skloot | 4.76

Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia — a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo — to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family — past and present — is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?

Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.

Carl Zimmer Yes. This is a fascinating book on so many different levels. It is really compelling as the story of the author trying to uncover the history of the woman from whom all these cells came. (Source)

A.J. Jacobs Great writer. (Source)

The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Susan Cain | 4.71

Simon Sinek eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'theceolibrary_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_5',164,'0','1'])); Leaders needn’t be the loudest. Leadership is not about theater. It’s not about dominance. It is about putting the lives of others before any other priority. In Quiet, Cain affirms to a good many of us who are introverts by nature that we needn’t try to be extroverts if we want to lead.... (Source)

Jason Fried A good book I’d recommend is “Quiet” by Susan Cain. (Source)

James Altucher Probably half the world is introverts. Maybe more. It’s not an easy life to live. I sometimes have that feeling in a room full of people, “uh-oh. I just shut down. I can’t talk anymore and there’s a lock on my mouth and this crowd threw away the key.” Do you ever get that feeling? Please? I hope you do. Let’s try to lock eyes at the party. “Quiet” shows the reader how to unlock the secret powers... (Source)

A Memoir of the Craft

Stephen King | 4.70

Mark Manson I read a bunch of books on writing before I wrote my first book and the two that stuck with me were Stephen King’s book and “On Writing Well” by Zinsser (which is a bit on the technical side). (Source)

Jennifer Rock If you are interested in writing and communication, start with reading and understanding the technical aspects of the craft: The Elements of Style. On Writing Well. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. (Source)

Benjamin Spall [Question: What five books would you recommend to youngsters interested in your professional path?] On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft by Stephen King, [...] (Source)

The Hero With a Thousand Faces

Joseph Campbell | 4.70

The first popular work to combine the spiritual and psychological insights of modern psychoanalysis with the archetypes of world mythology, the book creates a roadmap for navigating the frustrating path of contemporary life. Examining heroic myths in the light of modern psychology, it considers not only the patterns and stages of mythology but also its relevance to our lives today--and to the life of any person seeking a fully realized existence. Myth, according to Campbell, is the projection of a culture's dreams onto a large screen; Campbell's book, like Star Wars , the...

The first popular work to combine the spiritual and psychological insights of modern psychoanalysis with the archetypes of world mythology, the book creates a roadmap for navigating the frustrating path of contemporary life. Examining heroic myths in the light of modern psychology, it considers not only the patterns and stages of mythology but also its relevance to our lives today--and to the life of any person seeking a fully realized existence. Myth, according to Campbell, is the projection of a culture's dreams onto a large screen; Campbell's book, like Star Wars , the film it helped inspire, is an exploration of the big-picture moments from the stage that is our world. It is a must-have resource for both experienced students of mythology and the explorer just beginning to approach myth as a source of knowledge.

Ray Dalio The book I’d give [every graduating senior in college or high school] would be [...] Joseph Campbell’s 'Hero of a Thousand Faces'. It's little bit dense but it’s so rich, so it’s a good one. (Source)

Darren Aronofsky [I'm] totally part of his cult. Because I believe in that hero’s journey. (Source)

Kyle Russell Book 28 Lesson: Embedded in human psychology (and the resulting symbolism we find compelling) is a wish for our struggles to be meaningful, for our suffering to have value, for our effort to pay off for ourselves and those we love - and to then be recognized for it. https://t.co/lWgr4k7d8Y (Source)

A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari | 4.68

Richard Branson One example of a book that has helped me to #ReadToLead this year is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. While the book came out a few years ago now, I got around to it this year, and am very glad I did. I’ve always been fascinated in what makes humans human, and how people are constantly evolving, changing and growing. The genius of Sapiens is that it takes some daunting,... (Source)

Reid Hoffman A grand theory of humanity. (Source)

Barack Obama eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'theceolibrary_com-leader-2','ezslot_7',164,'0','1'])); Fact or fiction, the president knows that reading keeps the mind sharp. He also delved into these non-fiction reads. (Source)

The Psychology of Persuasion

Robert B. Cialdini | 4.68

Charles T. Munger Robert Cialdini has had a greater impact on my thinking on this topic than any other scientist. (Source)

Dan Ariely It covers a range of ways in which we end up doing things, and how we don’t understand why we’re doing them. (Source)

Max Levchin [Max Levchin recommended this book as an answer to "What business books would you advise young entrepreneurs read?"] (Source)

Don't have time to read the top Research books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.

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The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell | 4.68

Bill Gates [On Bill Gates's reading list in 2011.] (Source)

James Altucher Gladwell is not the first person to come up with the 10,000 hour rule. Nor is he the first person to document what it takes to become the best in the world at something. But his stories are so great as he explains these deep concepts. How did the Beatles become the best? Why are professional hockey players born in January, February and March? And so on. (Source)

Cat Williams-Treloar The books that I've talked the most about with friends and colleagues over the years are the Malcolm Gladwell series of novels. Glorious stories that mix science, behaviours and insight. You can't go wrong with the "The Tipping Point", "Outliers", "Blink" or "David & Goliath". (Source)

The Body Keeps the Score

Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Bessel van der Kolk M.D. | 4.63

Matthew Green Reading The Body Keeps the Score was a eureka moment for me. (Source)

How to Win Friends & Influence People

Dale Carnegie | 4.61

Dustin Moskovitz Seek to be understood. (Source)

Scott Adams [Scott Adams recommends this book on his "Persuasion Reading List."] (Source)

Daymond John I love all the Dale Carnegie books. (Source)

The New Psychology of Success

Carol S. Dweck | 4.61

Tony Robbins [Tony Robbins recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show".] (Source)

Bill Gates One of the reasons I loved Mindset is because it’s solutions-oriented. In the book’s final chapter, Dweck describes the workshop she and her colleagues have developed to shift students from a fixed to a growth mindset. These workshops demonstrate that ‘just learning about the growth mindset can cause a big shift in the way people think about themselves and their lives. (Source)

The New Jim Crow

Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Michelle Alexander, Cornel West | 4.61

Mark Zuckerberg I read The New Jim Crow, a study of how the U.S. justice system disproportionately criminalizes and jails blacks and Latinos. Making our criminal justice system fairer and more effective is a huge challenge for our country. I’m going to keep learning about this topic, but some things are already clear: We can’t jail our way to a just society, and our current system isn’t working (adapted with... (Source)

Peter Temin The new Jim Crow that Michelle Alexander is talking about is mass incarceration. (Source)

The Demon-haunted World

Science As a Candle in the Dark

Carl Sagan | 4.60

James Randi First of all, Carl was my very good friend, and we had a lot of confidences over the years. He was the epitome of the scientific mind and the scientific thinker. In The Demon-Haunted World, one of his later books, he investigates pseudoscience, frauds and fakes, and the mistakes that scientists made over the years. It’s very comprehensive. He had a whole chapter devoted to “Carlos” – or Jose... (Source)

Philip Plait He holds your hand and shows you the wonders of science and the universe. The Demon-Haunted World is probably his best book. (Source)

Dallas Campbell @TheChilterns Even if you profoundly disagree with Clarke, it’s very detailed. The classic is of course ‘The Demon Haunted World’ by Carl Sagan. When I’m Prime Minister it will be compulsory reading at school! Best book on what science is/isn’t and why we think the way we do. 👍 (Source)

The Power of Habit

Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Charles Duhigg | 4.57

Naval Ravikant I also recently finished The Power of Habit, or close to finish as I get. That one was interesting, not because of its content necessarily, but because it’s good for me to always keep on top of mind how powerful my habits are. [...] I think learning how to break habits is a very important meta-skill that can serve you better in life than almost anything else. Although you can read tons of books... (Source)

Blake Irving You know, there's a book called The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Simple read book about just how to build positive habits that can be I think I what I'd call you know whether in your personal life or whether in your business life to help you build you know, have a loop that can build your success and that's one I mean there are so many great books out there. (Source)

Santiago Basulto Another book with great impact was “The power of habit”. But to be honest, I read only a couple of pages. It’s a good book, with many interesting stories. But to be honest, the idea it tries to communicate is simple and after a couple of pages you’ve pretty much understood all of it. Happens the same thing with those types of books (Getting things done, crossing the chasm, etc.) (Source)

The Tipping Point

How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Malcolm Gladwell | 4.56

Kevin Rose Bunch of really good information in here on how to make ideas go viral. This could be good to apply to any kind of products or ideas you may have. Definitely, check out The Tipping Point, which is one of my favorites. (Source)

Seth Godin Malcolm Gladwell's breakthrough insight was to focus on the micro-relationships between individuals, which helped organizations realize that it's not about the big ads and the huge charity balls... it's about setting the stage for the buzz to start. (Source)

Andy Stern I think that when we talk about making change, it is much more about macro change, like in policy. This book reminds you that at times when you're building big movements, or trying to elect significant decision-makers in politics, sometimes it's the little things that make a difference. Ever since the book was written, we've become very used to the idea of things going viral unexpectedly and then... (Source)

The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Malcolm Gladwell | 4.54

Mike Shinoda I know most of the guys in the band read [this book]. (Source)

Marillyn Hewson CEO Marilyn Hewson recommends this book because it helped her to trust her instincts in business. (Source)

Research Design

Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches

John W. Creswell | 4.53

A Brief History of Time

Stephen Hawking | 4.51

Richard Branson Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Dan Hooper Everybody knows Hawking’s greatest contributions: understanding that black holes radiate light and other particles, that they contain entropy and all these things that no one imagined before him. Hawking and Roger Penrose also worked out the Big Bang singularity, the very moment of creation. To hear him describe some of these things with his own word choices, his own phrasing—not to mention his... (Source)

Adam Hart-Davis When Stephen Hawking wrote A Brief History of Time..his publisher told him that every equation he left in would halve the number of readers (Source)

The Elements of Style

William Jr. Strunk | 4.49

Tobi Lütke [My] most frequently gifted book is [this book] because I like good writing. (Source)

Bill Nye This is my guide. I accept that I’ll never write anything as good as the introductory essay by [the author]. It’s brilliant. (Source)

The Hot Zone

Richard Preston | 4.48

Jon Najarian I believe both the corona virus and ebola have a bat connection. Scary, but great book on ebola: Hot Zone by Richard Preston https://t.co/jGEjbrB7pZ (Source)

Pierre Haski @ChuBailiang The hot zone, it made my days during SARS in Beijing, a great book! https://t.co/8E8AYgIhp7 (Source)

Freakonomics

A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Stephen J. Levitt, Steven D.; Dubner | 4.46

Malcolm Gladwell I don’t need to say much here. This book invented an entire genre. Economics was never supposed to be this entertaining. (Source)

Daymond John I love newer books like [this book]. (Source)

James Altucher [James Altucher recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show".] (Source)

The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Mary Roach | 4.43

Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Richard H. Thaler | 4.42

Dan Ariely Nudge is a very important book. One of the reasons Nudge is so important is because it’s taking these ideas and applying them to the policy domain. Here are the mistakes we make. Here are the ways marketers are trying to influence us. Here’s the way we might be able to fight back. If policymakers understood these principles, what could they do? The other important thing about the book is that it... (Source)

Eric Ries A pioneer in behavioral economics and just recently awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, his classic book on how to make better decisions. (Source)

Ryan Holiday This might feel like a weird book to include, but I think it presents another side of strategy that is too often forgotten. It’s not always about bold actors and strategic thrusts. Sometimes strategy is about subtle influence. Sometimes it is framing and small tweaks that change behavior. We can have big aims, but get there with little moves. This book has excellent examples of that kind of... (Source)

Guns, Germs and Steel

The Fates of Human Societies

Jared Diamond Ph.D. | 4.41

Bill Gates Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history. (Source)

Daniel Ek A brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning book about how the modern world was formed, analyzing how societies developed differently on different continents. (Source)

Yuval Noah Harari A book of big questions, and big answers. The book turned me from a historian of medieval warfare into a student of humankind. (Source)

Bird By Bird

Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Anne Lamott | 4.36

Susan Cain I love [this book]. Such a good book. (Source)

Timothy Ferriss Bird by Bird is one of my absolute favorite books, and I gift it to everybody, which I should probably also give to startup founders, quite frankly. A lot of the lessons are the same. But you can get to your destination, even though you can only see 20 feet in front of you. (Source)

Ryan Holiday It was wonderful to read these two provocative books of essays by two incredibly wise and compassionate women. [...] Anne Lamott’s book is ostensibly about the art of writing, but really it too is about life and how to tackle the problems, temptations and opportunities life throws at us. Both will make you think and both made me a better person this year. (Source)

George Orwell | 4.34

Steve Jobs called this book "one of his favorite" and recommended it to the hires. The book also inspired one the greatest TV ad (made by Jobs) (Source)

D J Taylor In terms of how technology is working in our modern surveillance powers, it’s a terrifyingly prophetic book in some of its implications for 21st-century human life. Orwell would deny that it was prophecy; he said it was a warning. But in fact, distinguished Orwell scholar Professor Peter Davis once made a list of all the things that Orwell got right, and it was a couple of fairly long paragraphs,... (Source)

Emotional Intelligence

Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Daniel Goleman | 4.32

Drew Houston It’s nonfiction, but it spelled out something that I just didn’t know you could kind of break down in a logical way. And, suddenly, I had this understanding about the world that I didn’t have before. (Source)

Sharon Salzberg [Sharon Salzberg recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show".] (Source)

Roxana Bitoleanu [One of the books recommends to young people interested in her career path.] (Source)

Think and Grow Rich

Napoleon Hill | 4.31

Daymond John The main takeaway from [this book] was goal-setting. It was the fact that if you don't set a specific goal, then how can you expect to hit it? (Source)

Mark Moses [ listing the books that had the biggest impact on him] (Source)

Sa El Another book all about how to obtain financial success by changing how you think and how to change your actions based on that thinking pattern, mindset is the first thing that must change if you want to build a business. (Source)

Angela Duckworth | 4.31

Benjamin Spall [Question: What five books would you recommend to youngsters interested in your professional path?] [...] Grit by Angela Duckworth (Source)

Bogdan Lucaciu Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance - it was frustrating to read: “Where was this book 20 years ago!?” (Source)

Stephen Lew When asked what books he would recommend to youngsters interested in his professional path, Stephen mentioned Grit. (Source)

An Unquiet Mind

A Memoir of Moods and Madness

Kay Redfield Jamison | 4.30

Jonathan Glover Kay Redfield Jamison is a psychologist who has co-authored the major psychiatric textbook on manic depression. It authoritatively covers every aspect of the science, from genetics to pharmacology, and also has chapters on the links with creativity and on what the illness feels like. The chapters on the subjective experience are enriched with vivid quotations from patients. In her autobiography,... (Source)

Tanya Byron This is a divine book. A patient of mine who suffers with a bipolar illness, an absolutely inspiring young genius, recommended it to me. So I read it, and then we discussed it in a lot of our sessions together. (Source)

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

Neil Postman, Andrew Postman | 4.28

Austin Kleon Earlier this year Postman’s son Andrew wrote an op-ed with the title, “My dad predicted Trump in 1985 — it’s not Orwell, he warned, it’s Brave New World.” Postman wrote: “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.” (Source)

Steve Lance Neil Postman took the work of Marshall McLuhan – who was putting out early theories on media – and built on them. However, Postman was far more observant and empirical about the trends occurring in the media landscape. The trends which he identifies in Amusing Ourselves to Death, written in the 1980s, have since all come true. For example, he predicted that if you make news entertaining, then... (Source)

Kara Nortman @andrewchen Also a great book on the topic - Amusing Ourselves to Death https://t.co/yWLBxKumLQ (Source)

How to Be a Victorian

A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life

Ruth Goodman | 4.28

Between the World and Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates | 4.27

Barack Obama The president also released a list of his summer favorites back in 2015: All That Is, James Salter The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr (Source)

Jack Dorsey Q: What are the books that had a major influence on you? Or simply the ones you like the most. : Tao te Ching, score takes care of itself, between the world and me, the four agreements, the old man and the sea...I love reading! (Source)

Doug McMillon Here are some of my favorite reads from 2017. Lots of friends and colleagues send me book suggestions and it's impossible to squeeze them all in. I continue to be super curious about how digital and tech are enabling people to transform our lives but I try to read a good mix of books that apply to a variety of areas and stretch my thinking more broadly. (Source)

Inside the Victorian Home

A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England

Judith Flanders | 4.27

The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Daniel H. Pink | 4.27

Tobi Lütke [Tobi Lütke recommended this book in an interview in "The Globe and Mail."] (Source)

David Heinemeier Hansson Takes some of those same ideas about motivations and rewards and extrapolates them in a little bit. (Source)

Mike Benkovich I'd recommend a sprinkling of business books followed by a heap of productivity and behavioural psychology books. The business books will help you with principals and the psychological books help with everything else in your life. Building your own business can really f!@# you up psychologically. (Source)

The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers

Johnny Saldana | 4.26

Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design

Choosing Among Five Approaches

John W. Creswell and Cheryl N. Poth | 4.25

The Emotion Thesaurus

A Writer's Guide to Character Expression

Becca Puglisi | 4.25

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Thomas S. Kuhn and Ian Hacking | 4.23

Mark Zuckerberg It's a history of science book that explores the question of whether science and technology make consistent forward progress or whether progress comes in bursts related to other social forces. I tend to think that science is a consistent force for good in the world. I think we'd all be better off if we invested more in science and acted on the results of research. I'm excited to explore this... (Source)

Tim O'Reilly The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn. Kuhn introduced the term "paradigm shift" to describe the changeover from Ptolemaic to Copernican astronomy. But the book is far more than a classic in the history of science. It's also a book that emphasizes how what we already believe shapes what we see, what we allow ourselves to think. I've always tried to separate seeing itself from... (Source)

Andra Zaharia I’ve gone through quite a few experiences brought on or shaped by what I’ve learned from books. A particularly unexpected one happened in college when our public relations teacher asked us to read a book called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. As a humanities student, you can imagine that I wasn’t thrilled I’d have to read a book on science, but what followed blew my mind... (Source)

The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection

Or, the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life

Charles Darwin, Robin Field | 4.23

Neil deGrasse Tyson Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet? [...] On the Origin of Species (Darwin) [to learn of our kinship with all other life on Earth]. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. (Source)

Mark Kurlansky It is one of the most important books written, and I always urge people to read it. (Source)

Darren Aronofsky [Darren Aronofsky recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show".] (Source)

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew

From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England

Daniel Pool | 4.22

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X, M. S. Handler, Ossie Davis, Attallah Shabazz, Alex Haley | 4.22

Casey Neistat Aside from The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Casey's favorite book is The Second World War by John Keegan. (Source)

Ryan Holiday I forget who said it but I heard someone say that Catcher in the Rye was to young white boys what the Autobiography of Malcolm X was to young black boys. Personally, I prefer that latter over the former. I would much rather read about and emulate a man who is born into adversity and pain, struggles with criminality, does prison time, teaches himself to read through the dictionary, finds religion... (Source)

Keith Ellison Malcolm X is somebody that everybody in America’s prisons today could look at and say, ‘You know what, I can emerge, I can evolve' (Source)

Edith Hamilton | 4.20

Alan Kay A few more books like this, and by the time I got to first grade I had been ruined for the 'single book - single truth' ideas of school and church. (Source)

David and Goliath

Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

Malcolm Gladwell | 4.19

Catalina Penciu Business-wise, my goal for this year is to improve my collection and my mindset, but my favorite so far has been David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. (Source)

Robert Katai Buy Malcolm Gladwell’s book “David and Goliath” and read the interesting stories about how the Davids of that moments have defeated the Goliaths. (Source)

Predictably Irrational

The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

Dan Ariely | 4.18

Nick Harkaway Predictably Irrational is an examination of the way in which we make decisions irrationally, and how that irrationality can be predicted. (Source)

Jonah Lehrer Dan Ariely is a very creative guy and was able to take this basic idea, that humans are irrational, and mine it in a million different directions. (Source)

The Emperor of All Maladies

A Biography of Cancer

Siddhartha Mukherjee, Fred Sanders, et al | 4.18

Bill Gates I loved [this] brilliant book about cancer. (Source)

Timothy J. Jorgensen A tremendous amount of cancer biology comes through in that book through the eyes of the victims and the people up close and personal. (Source)

A Brief History of Tomorrow

Yuval Noah Harari | 4.18

Richard Branson I certainly wouldn’t consider myself a big reader of paleontology or anthropology – not good words for us dyslexics! – but I enjoy learning about how society has unfolded and history has developed in an exciting, easy to read way. The sequel, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, is a fascinating look into the future too. While these aren’t traditional business or leadership books, they are all... (Source)

Bill Gates Harari’s new book is as challenging and readable as Sapiens. Rather than looking back, as Sapiens does, it looks to the future. I don’t agree with everything the author has to say, but he has written a thoughtful look at what may be in store for humanity. (Source)

Vinod Khosla Not that I agree with all of it, but it is still mind-bending speculation about our future as a follow-up to a previous favorite, Sapiens. It’s directionally right. (Source)

Case Study Research

Design and Methods (Applied Social Research Methods)

Robert K. Yin | 4.18

The Design of Everyday Things

Don Norman | 4.17

Marius Ciuchete Paun eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'theceolibrary_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_5',164,'0','1'])); Question: Was there a moment, specifically, when something you read in a book helped you? Answer: Yes there was. In fact, I can remember two separate sentences from two different books: The first one comes from “The Design of Everyday Things” by Don Norman. It says: “great design will help... (Source)

Grey Baker I mainly read to decompress and change my state of mind, so it’s hard to point to an insight I read that helped me. Reading fiction has pulled me out of a bad mood more times than I can count, though, and always reenergises me to attack problems that had stumped me again. That said, I read and loved Norman Norman’s “The Design of Everyday Things”, and it’s helped me think through design problems... (Source)

Kaci Lambe These three books are about how people actually use design in their lives. They helped me understand this very basic idea: There are no dumb users, only bad designers. Take the time to create based on how your design will be interacted with. Test it. Iterate. That's how you become a good designer. (Source)

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley | 4.16

Yuval Noah Harari The most prophetic book of the 20th century. Today many people would easily mistake it for a utopia. (Source)

Ellen Wayland-Smith It is a hilarious, and also very prescient, parody of utopias. Huxley goes back to the idea that coming together and forming a community of common interests is a great idea – it’s the basis of civil society. At the same time, when communities of common interests are taken to utopian degrees the self starts to dissolve into the larger community, you lose privacy and interiority; that becomes... (Source)

John Quiggin The lesson I draw from this is that the purpose of utopia is not so much as an achieved state, as to give people the freedom to pursue their own projects. That freedom requires that people are free of the fear of unemployment, or of financial disaster through poor healthcare. They should be free to have access to the kind of resources they need for their education and we should maintain and... (Source)

Understanding Comics

The Invisible Art

Scott McCloud | 4.16

Austin Kleon Unsolicited, but here’s my advice for visual thinkers (and others) who want to be better writers: [...] Cartoonists, because their work demands work from two disciplines (writing/art, poetry/design, words/pictures), are highly instructive when it comes to visual people learning to write, writers learning to make art, etc. (Check out Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics for more.) (Source)

Will Brooker Understanding Comics is a book about how comics work, told in comic form. It’s very accessible, it’s for the general reader and is about comics in general, not just superhero comics. It explores areas like pacing and editing – how motion can be created through static panels on a page, and how arranging those panels in different ways, or drawing in different styles, or combining text and image,... (Source)

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England

A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century

Ian Mortimer | 4.16

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood | 4.15

Grady Booch I read this several years ago but — much like Orwell’s 1984 — it seems particularly relevant given our current political morass. (Source)

Cliff Bleszinski @HandmaidsOnHulu Done. Love the show, book is a classic, can't wait for season 2. (Source)

Jason Kottke @procload Not super necessary, since you've seen the TV show. This first book is still a great read though...different than the show (tone-wise more than plot-wise). (Source)

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson | 4.14

Amanda Palmer [Amanda Palmer recommended this book in the book "Tools of Titans".] (Source)

Fabrice Grinda I have lots of books to recommend, but they are not related to my career path. The only one that is remotely related is Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. That said here are books I would recommend. (Source)

David Goldberg What I really liked about A Short History of Nearly Everything is that it gives an excellent account of a lot of the personalities and the interconnectedness of important discoveries in cosmology and elsewhere. He does such a great job of bringing together our understanding of cosmology, evolution, paleontology, and geology in a very, very fluid way. (Source)

New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

Charles C. Mann | 4.14

In this groundbreaking work of science, history, and archaeology, Charles C. Mann radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492. Contrary to what so many Americans learn in school, the pre-Columbian Indians were not sparsely settled in a pristine wilderness; rather, there were huge numbers of Indians who actively molded and influenced the land around them. The astonishing Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan had running water and immaculately clean streets, and was larger than any contemporary European city. Mexican cultures created corn in a...

In this groundbreaking work of science, history, and archaeology, Charles C. Mann radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492. Contrary to what so many Americans learn in school, the pre-Columbian Indians were not sparsely settled in a pristine wilderness; rather, there were huge numbers of Indians who actively molded and influenced the land around them. The astonishing Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan had running water and immaculately clean streets, and was larger than any contemporary European city. Mexican cultures created corn in a specialized breeding process that it has been called man’s first feat of genetic engineering. Indeed, Indians were not living lightly on the land but were landscaping and manipulating their world in ways that we are only now beginning to understand. Challenging and surprising, this a transformative new look at a rich and fascinating world we only thought we knew.

Adam Conover @TheBaltimoreSon @CharlesCMann Sure it! A total revolution in my understanding of history, all in one book. Amazing stuff. (Source)

Scott Keyes It’s one of those books that takes everything you thought you knew about the history of European colonialists and indigenous groups in the Americas and turns it on its head. Just a fascinating deep-dive into early American history that questions a lot of dogma we were taught in school. (Source)

Colin Calloway The book provides a huge hemispheric overview. (Source)

The Power of Myth

Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers | 4.14

Naval Ravikant I’m rereading The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell. Sometimes I think it’s better to just to reread the greats than it is to read something that’s not as great. (Source)

Bryan Callen Joseph Campbell was the first person to really open my eyes to [the] compassionate side of life, or of thought... Campbell was the guy who really kind of put it all together for me, and not in a way I could put my finger on... It made you just glad to be alive, [realizing] how vast this world is, and how similar and how different we are. (Source)

Park Howell This is one of the books I recommend to people looking for a career in advertising. (Source)

On Writing Well

The Classic Guide To Writing Nonfiction

William Zinsser | 4.14

Tim O'Reilly On Writing Well, by William Zinsser. I wouldn't say this book influenced me, since my principles of writing were established long before I read it. However, it does capture many things that I believe about effective writing. (Source)

Derek Sivers Great blunt advice about writing better non-fiction. So inspiring. (Source)

Women Who Run With the Wolves

Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype

Clarissa Pinkola Estés | 4.14

Irina Botnari I’m reading more books at the same time. Guilty. Some of them are Tools of Titans - Tim Ferriss, My Berlin Child – Anne Wiazemsky, Women who Run with the Wolves - Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Tim is full of lessons to learn, remember & implement, I’ll see what the rest of the books will unfold. (Source)

Gender Trouble

Feminism and the Subversion of Identity

Judith Butler | 4.13

Invisible Women

Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

Caroline Criado Perez | 4.12

Konnie Huq @FenTiger697 @WokingAmnesty @CCriadoPerez @Hatchards @radioleary Brilliant book by the brilliant @CCriadoPerez 😍 (Source)

Feminist Next Door @Rockmedia Awesome book (Source)

Nigel Shadbolt Invisible Women is an exposé of just how much of the world around us is designed around the default male. Deploying a huge range of data and examples, Caroline Criado Perez, who is a writer, broadcaster and award winning campaigner, presents on overwhelming case for change. Every page is full of facts and data that support her fundamental contention that in a world built for and by men, gender... (Source)

A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations

Chicago Style for Students and Researchers

Kate L. Turabian | 4.12

Just Enough Research

Erika Hall | 4.12

Mike Monteiro Hello. @mulegirl’s revised, expanded, even more good edition of the world’s best research book, Just Enough Research, dropped today. Buy it for yourself, or buy it for everyone in your company, and you’ll make better things. https://t.co/7U4xcCu2ez (Source)

Daniel Burka Awesome! @mulegirl's excellent new book, Conversational Design, is now available from @abookapart. My blurb even made it in! "This book cuts through the fluff and buzzwords to get straight to the point..." https://t.co/0oeD5J0OSH (Source)

Tim Kastelle “A large corporation is more like Australia: it’s impossible to see the whole landscape at once and there are so many things capable of maiming or killing you.” Just Enough Research by ⁦@mulegirl⁩ is a fantastic book - highly recommended. https://t.co/t11yOVeqNc (Source)

The Prince [with Biographical Introduction]

Nicollo Machiavelli, Tim Parks | 4.11

Eric Ripert A fascinating study and still wholly relevant. (Source)

Neil deGrasse Tyson Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet? [...] The Prince (Machiavelli) [to learn that people not in power will do all they can to acquire it, and people in power will do all they can to keep it]. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. (Source)

Ryan Holiday Of course, this is a must read. Machiavelli is one of those figures and writers who is tragically overrated and underrated at the same time. Unfortunately that means that many people who read him miss the point and other people avoid him and miss out altogether. Take Machiavelli slow, and really read him. Also understand the man behind the book–not just as a masterful writer but a man who... (Source)

The Better Angels of Our Nature

Why Violence Has Declined

Steven Pinker | 4.10

Mark Zuckerberg My second book of the year is The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker. It's a timely book about how and why violence has steadily decreased throughout our history, and how we can continue this trend. Recent events might make it seem like violence and terrorism are more common than ever, so it's worth understanding that all violence -- even terrorism -- is actually decreasing over time.... (Source)

Eric Schmidt When you finish [this book], which takes a long time, you conclude that the world is in a much, much better place than it has been in the past. (Source)

Bill Gates Yong succeeds in his intention to give us a 'grander view of life' and does so without falling prey to grand, unifying explanations that are far too simplistic. He presents our inner ecosystems in all their wondrous messiness and complexity. And he offers realistic optimism that our growing knowledge of the human microbiome will lead to great new opportunities for enhancing our health. (Source)

Save the Cat

The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

Blake Snyder | 4.09

Eric Weinstein [Eric Weinstein recommended this book on Twitter.] (Source)

Bill Liao The human world occurs in language so best get good at it! (Source)

Neville Medhora It takes you through 11 different 'archetypes' of screenplays you can write, and the exact elements each needs to be a great story. (Source)

How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Jared Diamond | 4.08

Bill Gates I found this to be an interesting follow-up to the excellent Guns, Germs, and Steel. It examines the downfall of some of history's greatest civilizations. (Source)

Matthew Yglesias I wanted to get a book on my list that is actually enjoyable to read, so not everything is quite so dry and dull as a narrative. I also wanted to include something that reflects the growing importance of environmental and ecological concerns to progressive politics in America. This is relatively new to the agenda – it’s only been in the last 30 to 35 years. But going forward, one of the most... (Source)

Stefan Lessard He should read this book I’m almost finished with. Jared Diamond is one of my favorite historical authors. https://t.co/f9JLYlsc4v https://t.co/KtPgMZaWen (Source)

The Elegant Universe

Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

Brian Greene | 4.08

Mark Kurlansky I love this book. Brian Greene makes quantum physics and Einstein’s theory of relativity really make sense, so you can understand something which nobody seems to understand (Source)

Tom Clarke This book is perhaps the public debut of string theory – an attempt to explain how the best of the big and the small theories might be linked to explain the entire universe. (Source)

Steven Gubser The book works at many levels – I gave a copy to my mom when it came out, and I also received very positive impressions about the book from Norman Ramsey, who is a Nobel Prize physicist at Harvard. So it’s a great achievement, and part of why it’s a great achievement is that it covers not only string theory but also the accepted pillars of 20th-century theoretical physics, namely, quantum... (Source)

Imagined Communities

Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (Revised Edition)

Benedict Anderson | 4.08

Jon Calame We looked into divided cities not because we had a morbid fascination with these traumatised cities, but because they seemed to be a keyhole through which you could glimpse this larger phenomenon relatively clearly. (Source)

Daring Greatly

How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Brené Brown | 4.08

Chase Jarvis [Chase Jarvis recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show".] (Source)

Chelsea Frank I read everything with an open mind, often challenging myself by choosing books with an odd perspective or religious/spiritual views. These books do not reflect my personal feelings but are books that helped shape my perspective on life, love, and happiness. (Source)

AnneMarie Schindler I suggest these [books] because they really open up 'how' you think about life and in turn work, success/challenges/setbacks, and in general, yourself. I believe that the more you can understand yourself and broaden your approach to work, the easier it will be to find work that energizes you. Finally, I'm a team player at heart, and love working with others to achieve a huge goal so a portion of... (Source)

Norse Mythology

out of 5 stars4,12 | 4.08

Introducing an instant classic—master storyteller Neil Gaiman presents a dazzling version of the great Norse myths.

A People's History of the United States

Howard Zinn | 4.07

Lisa Ling I credit this book with propelling me to dig deeper, and to not always believe the narrative. (Source)

Alex Honnold Totally changed the way I look at politics. (Source)

Discipline and Punish

The Birth of the Prison

Michel Foucault, Alan Sheridan | 4.07

The Little Book of Research Writing

Varanya Chaubey | 4.07

The Gifts of Imperfection

Brené Brown | 4.07

Poverty and Profit in the American City

Matthew Desmond | 4.06

Bill Gates If you want a good understanding of how the issues that cause poverty are intertwined, you should read this book about the eviction crisis in Milwaukee. Desmond has written a brilliant portrait of Americans living in poverty. He gave me a better sense of what it is like to be poor in this country than anything else I have read. (Source)

Satya Nadella Nadella is using this season to learn more in a variety of subjects. By the looks of it, he is interested in, among other things, virtual reality, the refugee crisis, and housing for the urban poor. (Source)

Noah Kagan Surprising insights into the lives of people who were evicted. I make a lot of assumptions about these people. Turns out I was wrong WHY they get evicted. (Source)

Bad Science

Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks

Ben Goldacre | 4.06

Timothy Ferriss I agree wholeheartedly with a lot of the co-opted science, which people can read a book called Bad Science, which is by a doctor named Ben Goldacre. It’s great. (Source)

Tim Harford This book changed the way I thought about my own writing and it changed the way I thought about the world. It really is one of the best books I have ever read. (Source)

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore It’s just a brilliant book, and he’s a fearless defender of science. (Source)

Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (Llewellyn's Sourcebook Series)

Scott Cunningham | 4.05

The Republic

The Influential Classic

Plato | 4.05

Maria Popova Tim Ferriss: "If you could guarantee that every public official or leader read one book, what would it be?": "The book would be, rather obviously, Plato's The Republic. I'm actually gobsmacked that this isn't required in order to be sworn into office, like the Constitution is required for us American immigrants when it comes time to gain American citizenship." (Source)

Rebecca Goldstein Living today in Trump’s America, I am constantly reminded of specific passages in the Republic, most saliently his warnings of how a demagogue might arise in the midst of a democracy by fanning up resentments and fears. (Source)

David Heinemeier Hansson I’m about a third through this and still can’t tell whether Plato is making a mockery of Socrates ideas for the idyllic society or not. So many of the arguments presented as Socrates’ are so tortured and with so disconnected leaps of logic that it’s hard to take it at face value. Yet still, it’s good fun to follow the dialogue. It reads more like a play than a book, and again, immensely... (Source)

How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger - Second Edition with a New Chapter by the Author

Darrell Huff and Irving Gei | 4.05

Bill Gates I picked this one up after seeing it on a Wall Street Journal list of good books for investors. It was first published in 1954, but it doesn’t feel dated (aside from a few anachronistic examples—it has been a long time since bread cost 5 cents a loaf in the United States). In fact, I’d say it’s more relevant than ever. One chapter shows you how visuals can be used to exaggerate trends and give... (Source)

Tobi Lütke We all live in Malcolm’s world because the shipping container has been hugely influential in history. (Source)

Jason Zweig This is a terrific introduction to critical thinking about statistics, for people who haven’t taken a class in statistics. (Source)

The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures

The Ultimate A-Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic

John Matthews, Caitlin Matthews | 4.05

Stamped from the Beginning

The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

Ibram X. Kendi | 4.04

Bianca Belair For #BHM I will be sharing some of my favorite books by Black Authors 27th Book: Stamped from the Beginning Written by: @DrIbram When I found this book I couldn’t believe that I had never learned about the information in this book. A book everyone should read. Eye-opening! https://t.co/pLaifB8DFI (Source)

The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath, Maggie Gyllenhaal, et al | 4.04

Bryony Gordon As a teenage girl, you have to read The Bell Jar. It’s a rite of passage. (Source)

The CEO Library Community (through anonymous form) One of the best 3 books I've read in 2019 (Source)

Tim Kendall Despite its subject matter, The Bell Jar is often a very funny novel. Perhaps we miss it because the pall of Plath’s biography descends across the whole work and reputation. But The Bell Jar is viciously funny. There are people still alive today who won’t talk about it because they were so badly hurt by Plath’s portrayal of them. (Source)

White Fragility

Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

Robin DiAngelo, Michael Eric Dyson | 4.04

Elizabeth C. Mclaughlin I've recommended the book White Fragility on here many times, and this interview is a great place to start. If you're a white person who believes you're not racist, please read this article. And then go read the book. https://t.co/S5plH3wS5m (Source)

Marshall Kirkpatrick @jhagel This is a great book btw! (Source)

Todd Nesloney @SarahSuggs13 I love that book, have spoken with the author, and did an entire staff book study. Again, had you even tried to see my work that I do, you'd have learned that. You seek to divide and that is it. Great lesson for our students. (Source)

Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit

John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker | 4.04

Gödel, Escher, Bach

An Eternal Golden Braid

Douglas R. Hofstadter | 4.04

Steve Jurvetson [Steve Jurvetson recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show".] (Source)

Seth Godin In the last week, I discovered that at least two of my smart friends hadn't read Godel, Escher, Bach. They have now. You should too. (Source)

Kevin Kelly Over the years, I kept finding myself returning to its insights, and each time I would arrive at them at a deeper level. (Source)

Fermat's Enigma

The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem

Simon Singh | 4.03

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore The book is great because Simon Singh has this ability to write about the driest and most complex scientific or mathematical concepts and issues, and somehow make them come alive. (Source)

Kirk Borne New Perspective on Fermat's Last Theorem: https://t.co/YeaHQ6iadB by @granvilleDSC @DataScienceCtrl #abdsc #Mathematics See the best-selling book "Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem": https://t.co/dqenmvUw0A by @SLSingh https://t.co/deyMhQTQLU (Source)

The Signal and the Noise

Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't

Nate Silver | 4.03

Bill Gates Anyone interested in politics may be attracted to Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—but Some Don't. Silver is the New York Times columnist who got a lot of attention last fall for predicting—accurately, as it turned out–the results of the U.S. presidential election. This book actually came out before the election, though, and it’s about predictions in many... (Source)

The Brain that Changes Itself

Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

Norman Doidge | 4.02

Carol Dweck For me it was exciting to read this book because while my research shows a growth mindset is really good for you, this book shows that a growth mindset also has a strong basis in modern neuroscience. It illustrates, though fascinating case histories and descriptions of recent research, the amazing power of the brain to change and even to reorganise itself with practice and experience. (Source)

Naveen Jain I think the book that I really, really enjoy was, "The Brain That Changes Itself." It's all about neuroplasticity, you'd really love that book. (Source)

Bogdana Butnar I don't have favourite books. I equate a favourite something with wanting to do it over and over again and I've never wanted to read a book too many times. I have favourite authors and I have books that changed me in significant ways because they moved me or taught me something or changed my view of the world. So, here's some of those books... (Source)

The Artist's Way

Julia Cameron | 4.02

Anand C STARTING FROM AUTHENTICITY: by observing, showing humility and being grateful - I started being open to what’s in the sub-conscious more (30+ sessions in). Speaking your truth is a powerful result of this. One great book to help explore this. https://t.co/sOAgAHhWsO (Source)

Emma Gannon Instead of all these fast paced books saying: ‘Here’s how to be amazing, here’s how to get a side hustle, here’s how to hustle, hustle, hustle.’ This is the total opposite. It’s about slowing right down and connecting with yourself again. (Source)

The Negative Trait Thesaurus

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Angela Ackerman, Becca Puglisi | 4.02

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association(r)

American Psychological Association | 4.01

In addition to providing clear guidance on grammar, the mechanics of writing, and APA style, the Publication Manual offers an authoritative and easy-to-use reference and citation system and comprehensive...

In addition to providing clear guidance on grammar, the mechanics of writing, and APA style, the Publication Manual offers an authoritative and easy-to-use reference and citation system and comprehensive coverage of the treatment of numbers, metrication, statistical and mathematical data, tables, and figures for use in writing, reports, or presentations.

The new edition has been revised and updated to include:

Writers, scholars, and professionals will also find:

New and experienced readers alike will find the 5th Edition a complete resource for writing, presenting, or publishing with clarity and persuasiveness.

Approximately 400 pages

The Poisoner's Handbook

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Deborah Blum | 4.01

Michelle Francl Deborah Blum’s book reminds me that molecules are powerful witnesses, if only we have the skills to interrogate them, and sometimes they are killers. (Source)

A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner

Scott Cunningham | 4.01

Georgette Heyer's Regency World

Jennifer Kloester | 4.01

From Here to Eternity

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Caitlin Doughty, Landis Blair | 4.01

Dylan Thuras Caitlin Doughty is razor sharp, and writes about death with exceptional clarity and style. From Here to Eternity manages to be both an extremely funny travelogue and a deeply moving book about what death means to us all. (Source)

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

How to Edit Yourself Into Print

Renni Browne, Dave King | 4.00

Alina Varlanuta My professional path – copywriting – somehow intertwines with my unprofessional (hahaha) path – writing so I would recommend reading literature for both. Somehow reading and writing are two ways of doing the same thing: storytelling (even when you read you tell yourself a story in your own voice, bringing your personal emotion and empathy to the story you’re reading). The only difference is that... (Source)

Unmentionable

The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners

Therese Oneill | 4.00

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Best Research Methodology Books

By Med Kharbach, PhD | Last Update: May 2, 2024

Whether you’re a budding researcher, an established academic, or a scholar-in-waiting, the list of titles I’ve assembled below serves as a critical arsenal of resources designed to bolster your research endeavors.

In my own journey into the realm of academia, I often found myself wishing for a guide, a roadmap of sorts that could have provided me with valuable insights, saving me countless hours and copious amounts of energy. It is with this perspective that I share these resources with you.

Embarking on the challenging journey of crafting academic research papers requires a strong foundation firmly rooted in comprehensive review and understanding of the existing research literature.

To navigate this labyrinth, it’s essential to familiarize yourself with the diverse research paradigms (e.g., qualitative research, quantitative research, mixed methods research, and more), varied research methods (e.g., questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, observation, and so forth), and to grasp different epistemological and ontological stances (e.g., constructivism, structuralism, realism, critical realism, among others).

The research methodology books listed below are intended to help you construct this robust research foundation. They serve as comprehensive guides, unveiling the intricate facets of research methodology and assisting you through the process of structuring a research design from scratch. Links to these invaluable books can be found below the images.

If you are interested in exploring more books about research and methodology check my other blog titled Selected Reads . Here is a sample of posts I shared there on the topic of research:

• Best Books on how to Write Research and Dissertation Proposals
• 15 Great Books on How to Write a Dissertation
• Best Grant Writing Books 
• 12 Good Books on How to Write and Publish Research Papers
• Books on How to Write a Literature Review

Here are some of the best research methodology books out there:

1- Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, by John W. Creswell

Creswell is a book that illuminates the path for the uninitiated into the world of research design. This fourth edition not only champions a comparative approach to qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research design but also discusses philosophical assumptions, literature reviews, and the role of theory in research.

It underscores the importance of writing and ethical considerations in scholarly inquiry, providing a well-rounded understanding of the research process. This is a valuable asset for anyone interested in or involved with research, providing comprehensive attention to the varied approaches used in the field.

2- Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementati on, by Sharan B. Merriam, Elizabeth J. Tisdell

This book offers a detailed guide to the intricacies of qualitative research design. This updated edition has broadened its horizon to cover areas such as mixed methods, action research, and arts-based research.

It further includes discussions on the latest in data analysis, including data analysis software packages and the use of narrative and poetic analysis strategies. This guide goes beyond theoretical discussions and provides practical, real-world examples, making it an essential companion for anyone embarking on a qualitative research project.

3- The Craft of Research, Third Edition , by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams

The authors unfold the art of creating compelling arguments that are not just persuasive but also attentive to potential reader objections. They explain how to construct introductions and conclusions that adequately answer the ever-pressing question, “So what?” This guide, therefore, goes beyond simply laying out research facts—it shows you how to communicate your findings in an impactful manner, inspiring action from your audience.

4- The Research Methods Knowledge Base , by William M. K. Trochim, James P. Donnelly

“The Research Methods Knowledge Base” by William M. K. Trochim and James P. Donnelly offers an in-depth yet easily digestible guide to quantitative methods and enhanced qualitative methods. This third edition is ideal for both undergraduate and graduate-level courses, providing a conversational style that makes challenging concepts accessible and understandable. This book is your friend and mentor, gently leading you through the diverse and intricate world of research methods.

5- Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches , by John W. Creswell

John W. Creswell’s “Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design” explores the philosophical underpinnings, history, and key elements of five qualitative inquiry traditions: narrative research, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and case study.

Creswell’s writing style is incredibly accessible, allowing you to grasp complex concepts and apply them in your own research. The author compares theoretical frameworks, evaluates quality standards, and provides strategies for every stage of the research process, making it a comprehensive guide for qualitative research.

6- Doing Your Research Project , by Judith Bell

Judith Bell’s “Doing Your Research Project” provides invaluable step-by-step advice for completing an exceptional research project. Designed for first-time researchers, the book presents all you need to know to draft and finalize a methodologically sound and well-written report or thesis. It also highlights potential pitfalls, ensuring you avoid unnecessary detours on your research journey.

7- Introducing Research Methodology: A Beginner’s Guide to Doing a Research Project , by Uwe Flick

“Introducing Research Methodology: A Beginner’s Guide to Doing a Research Project” by Uwe Flick is a comprehensive textbook tailored for novice researchers. Flick guides readers through the process of producing a research project, presenting fundamental data collection and analysis skills necessary for their first undertaking. This book delivers a good understanding of both quantitative and qualitative research processes and is enriched with real-life examples from the author’s own research.

8- The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project 2nd Edition , by Zina O’Leary

“The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project” by Zina O’Leary is a guiding light for navigating the often murky waters of research projects. From inception to analysis and presentation, O’Leary provides clear, step-by-step guidance, filled with practical tips and grounded advice.

The book also features a comprehensive companion website, chapter summaries, key term definitions, a full glossary, and suggestions for further reading, offering a well-rounded approach to research that leaves no stone unturned.

9- Research Methods in Education , by Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion, Keith Morrison

“Research Methods in Education” by Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion, and Keith Morrison is a comprehensive guide for professional researchers and students in the field of education. Covering how to plan, conduct, analyze, and use research, it is an essential resource for those navigating the academic research landscape.

The book also includes a companion website offering PowerPoint slides for every chapter and a compilation of valuable internet resources. This tool enhances the reading experience and extends the learning process beyond the book itself.

10- The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research , by Norman K. Denzin (Editor), Yvonna S. Lincoln (Editor)

“The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research” edited by Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, is a tour de force of qualitative research, representing top-notch thinking from scholars around the globe. The book masterfully synthesizes existing literature, defines the current state, and sets the future direction of qualitative research.

The writings address issues of social justice and inequality, and their transformation into social policy, showcasing how qualitative research practices can influence and change the world positively.

11- Naturalistic Inquiry, by Yvonna S. Lincoln, Egon G. Guba

In “Naturalistic Inquiry” by Yvonna S. Lincoln and Egon G. Guba, the authors challenge the traditional positivistic approaches to research. This book argues for an alternative approach, highlighting the limitations of empirical, testable, and replicable research techniques. Advocating the use of the naturalistic paradigm, it provides social scientists with a strong foundation for non-positivistic methodologies.

12- The Foundations of Social Research , by Michael J Crotty

Michael J. Crotty’s “The Foundations of Social Research” untangles the maze of conflicting terminology that often plagues social research. This book links methodology and theory with crystal-clear clarity and precision, providing a thorough understanding of the philosophical origins of various schools of inquiry. This guide is essential for anyone wishing to understand how disciplines contribute to current social research practices.

13- Writing a Successful Thesis or Dissertation , by Fred C. Lunenburg and  Beverly J Irby

“Writing a Successful Thesis or Dissertation: Tips and Strategies for Students in the Social and Behavioral Sciences” by Fred C. Lunenburg and Beverly J Irby is a comprehensive guide for students embarking on the journey of writing a thesis or dissertation. Presented in a conversational style, this book covers both quantitative and qualitative research methods, providing a roadmap for successfully completing a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation. From topic selection to the final publication process, this guide is an essential companion for every graduate student.

14- The Dissertation Journey , by Carol Roberts  and Laura Hyatt 

“The Dissertation Journey: A Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Writing, and Defending Your Dissertation” by Carol Roberts and Laura Hyatt is the equivalent of a mountaineering guide for those embarking on the daunting task of writing a dissertation.

This book equips readers with the necessary tools to overcome practical, social, and psychological obstacles on their journey. The expanded and updated coverage of crucial topics, progress tracking tools, sample forms, and resource lists are just a few of the many useful tools provided in this comprehensive guide.

Final thoughts

As we reach the end of this exploration, it’s crucial to remember that the journey of academic research is as diverse and multifaceted as the resources I’ve shared. Each book on this list has been a beacon in my own scholarly endeavors, providing clarity and direction amidst the often turbulent seas of research. Whether you’re crafting a dissertation, designing a research project, or just diving into the intricacies of qualitative or quantitative methodologies, these texts are invaluable companions.

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Meet Med Kharbach, PhD

Dr. Med Kharbach is an influential voice in the global educational technology landscape, with an extensive background in educational studies and a decade-long experience as a K-12 teacher. Holding a Ph.D. from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Canada, he brings a unique perspective to the educational world by integrating his profound academic knowledge with his hands-on teaching experience. Dr. Kharbach's academic pursuits encompass curriculum studies, discourse analysis, language learning/teaching, language and identity, emerging literacies, educational technology, and research methodologies. His work has been presented at numerous national and international conferences and published in various esteemed academic journals.

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Research Methodology Best Practices for Rigorous, Credible, and Impactful Research

• Herman Aguinis - The George Washington University
• Description

See what’s new to this edition by selecting the Features tab on this page. Should you need additional information or have questions regarding the HEOA information provided for this title, including what is new to this edition, please email [email protected] . Please include your name, contact information, and the name of the title for which you would like more information. For information on the HEOA, please go to http://ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea08/index.html .

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This is an interesting, fresh approach, describing the development of research methodologies throughout the years… Much better than my current textbook.

This book is easy to read and teach. Students can understand the language and be able to use it with their own research. It is both modern and has history of research within it. Overall, students would benefit in early research to using this book.

I can think of no other research methods book I've recently used that devotes this much attention to theory and I think this attention is well-deserved.

The discussion or parsimony, falsification, and precision within this book are particularly welcomed and map precisely how I teach these topics.

I like that there is a chapter devoted to making connections to theory. This is novel. I have not seen such a chapter in similar texts, and it is important. Often junior scholars ask questions for the sake of simplicity or curiosity but lack the skills to link their inquiries to theory. This chapter is a useful contribution!

A high-level but readable textbook presenting research design and methods in an approachable way. The text would be appropriate for graduate level psychology, organizational behavior, or decision sciences courses in research methods.

I would describe this book as a long-form publication that provides knowledge on methodological best practices in social and behavioral science disciplines. The writing is explicit and bridges the gap between knowledge and applicability and presents a comprehensive review of the research process from beginning to end.

The text combines research methods and statistics and could work very well for graduate-level programs with combined coursework.

• Comprehensive, ground-breaking coverage of research methods from start to finish by renowned author, editor, and researcher Herman Aguinis.
• Research Methods "Best Practices" , synthesized from decades of work on methodological research, help students and researchers conduct rigorous and impactful research, from picking research topics to disseminating research.
• Systemic chapter formats throughout detail why the particular methodological topic is important and demonstrate that the best-practice recommendations are actionable and implementable.
• Core chapter topics—such as contributing to theory, planning your research, and sampling and measurement— clearly explain basic steps while offering cutting-edge information for experienced researchers .
• Unique chapters on Transparency, Reproducibility, and Replication and Enhancing the Impact of Your Research give time-tested advice on how to best contribute to the body of knowledge in the social and behavioral science.
• Checklists and tables throughout the book help students see best practices at each stage of the research process at a glance.
• The modular approach of this text ensures instructors and readers can cover only the topics most relevant to their students and to themselves, saving time while strengthening their research.

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 1 How to Understand the Current Methodological Landscape

Chapter 2 How to Conduct Ethical Research

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Best Research Methodology Books for Researchers and Academics

The best research methodology books can help research students, academics, and potential scholars, as academic research papers require a thorough reading of the research literature.

One must be familiar with different research paradigms, methods, epistemological and ontological stances, and more.

These books can help you start your research. They will teach you research methodology and how to build a study design.

• Table of Contents

1- Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

The Fifth Edition of the bestselling Research Methodology has reimagined, rebuilt, and completely renovated how a textbook may help students succeed in methods courses and research projects.

The book simplifies research project conception and execution for novices. It guides students from research topic to written report at their pace with clear explanations, DIY tasks, and study skills support.

2- Designing Research for Publication

The book Designing Research for Publication discusses strategies for avoiding research related issues. It is intended in particular for academics who are just starting out in their careers and who must quickly understand the fundamentals of research and publication, as well as for those who wish to support them.

3- Applied Qualitative Research Design: A Total Quality Framework Approach 

This unique publication presents a framework for designing, administering, and analyzing credible and relevant qualitative research investigations. In-depth interviews, focus group discussions, ethnography, content analysis, and case study and narrative research are used in many fields to demonstrate their strengths, limitations, and applications.

Chapters demonstrate how to apply each method within a paradigm-neutral and flexible Total Quality Framework (TQF) of Credibility, Analyzability, Transparency, and Usefulness. Unlike other texts, concept validity, InterResearch reliability, researcher bias, and verification procedures are covered extensively.

The book applies the TQF to creating, reviewing, and assessing qualitative research proposals and publications.

4- Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches

The comparison of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodologies study design was pioneered by this best-selling book. John W. Creswell provides an overview of philosophical presuppositions for each of the three approaches, as well as a look at key components of the research process, a review of the literature, an evaluation of the use of theory in research applications, and reflections on the value of writing and ethics in scholarly inquiry.

5- Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation

Qualitative Research explains, designs, conducts, and presents qualitative research studies. This fourth volume covers mixed methodologies, action research, arts-based research, internet data sources, data analysis tools, and narrative and poetic analysis strategies.

A new part presents qualitative research findings in numerous ways. This reader-friendly, jargon-free book emphasizes the relevance of a theoretical framework in study design and provides practical help.

6- The Research Methods Knowledge Base, 3rd Edition

The updated third edition of The Research methods Knowledge Base covers quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

It is suitable for introductory comprehensive undergraduate or graduate courses in many fields. Its conversational, informal manner simplifies difficult topics for students. From developing a research question through publishing, a final report, the Research Methods Knowledge Base addresses practical and technical sampling, measurement, design, and analytic difficulties.

7- Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches

John W. Creswell’s Third Edition of his bestselling text examines narrative research, phenomenology, grounded theory , ethnography, and case study’s philosophical foundations, history, and major aspects.

The author connects research designs to each inquiry tradition in his approachable writing style. He examines theoretical frameworks , quality standards, and methods for writing study introductions, collecting data, analyzing data, producing narratives, and confirming outcomes.

8- Doing Your Research Project (Open Up Study Skills)

Step-by-step instructions for a great research project. Research can be daunting, especially for first timers, but this indispensable book provides everything you need to prepare for research, draught and finalize a methodologically sound and well-written report or thesis,and warns you of potential pitfalls to avoid wasting time on false trails.

9- Research Methods in Education

‘Research Methods in Education is necessary reading for professional researchers and undergraduate and postgraduate education students who need to grasp how to plan, conduct, analyze, and use research.

Ideal for instructors and students, PowerPoint slides for each chapter define the chapter structure and summarize the major ideas. The book mentions several internet resources.

10- Introducing Research Methodology: A Beginner′s Guide to Doing a Research Project

Uwe Flick guides new researchers through research project creation in the Second Edition of this textbook. For their first assignment, the book teaches data gathering and analytic skills and the research process. It includes several examples from the author’s study and covers quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

11- The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project

The book provides step-by-step instructions for conducting your study, from beginning to end, including data analysis and writing up. Each step is carefully outlined, stressing best practices while offering helpful hints and realistic advice for actually conducting research.

12- The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research

The new edition carries on the book’s legacy of synthesizing an existing literature, defining the present, and defining the future of qualitative research by offering the greatest thinking from leading academics worldwide.

The editors and authors discuss social justice concerns and look at how the struggles of individuals can inform public issues and ultimately influence social policy. They are committed to solving inequality concerns, and their writings are supported by a critical framework.

Their goal is to demonstrate how qualitative research techniques may lead to positive change in the world, just like in earlier editions.

Their goal, like with earlier editions, is to demonstrate how qualitative research practices may lead to constructive change in the world.

13- The Foundations of Social Research: Meaning and Perspective in the Research Process  

Selecting a study methodology might be confusing. How can you be certain that the technique you have chosen is appropriate or that the methodology combination you have chosen is consistent with the theoretical angle you want to adopt?

This book makes a very clear and precise connection between methodology and theory, guiding readers through the confusing terminology minefield.

The author explains the philosophical roots of different schools of thought, outlines the main epistemological positions and theoretical views that influence and shape present social research, and demonstrates how diverse disciplines contribute to the practice of social research as it is known today.

Other articles

Please read through some of our other articles with examples and explanations if you’d like to learn more about research methodology.

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• Research Methodology Books

Comparision

• Independent vs. Dependent Variable
• Research Article and Research Paper
• Proposition and Hypothesis
• Principal Component Analysis and Partial Least Squares
• Academic Research vs Industry Research
• Clinical Research vs Lab Research
• Research Lab and Hospital Lab
• Thesis Statement and Research Question
• Quantitative Researchers vs. Quantitative Traders
• Premise, Hypothesis and Supposition
• Survey Vs Experiment
• Hypothesis and Theory
• APA vs. MLA
• Ghost Authorship vs. Gift Authorship
• Research Methods
• Quantitative Research
• Qualitative Research
• Case Study Research
• Survey Research
• Conclusive Research
• Descriptive Research
• Cross-Sectional Research
• Theoretical Framework
• Conceptual Framework
• Triangulation
• Grounded Theory
• Quasi-Experimental Design
• Mixed Method
• Correlational Research
• Randomized Controlled Trial
• Stratified Sampling
• Ethnography
• Ghost Authorship
• Secondary Data Collection
• Primary Data Collection
• Ex-Post-Facto
•   Dissertation Topic
• Thesis Statement
• Research Proposal
• Research Questions
• Research Problem
• Research Gap
• Types of Research Gaps
• Operationalization of Variables
• Literature Review
• Research Hypothesis
• Questionnaire
• Reliability
• Measurement of Scale
• Sampling Techniques
• Acknowledgements
• PLS-SEM model
• Principal Components Analysis
• Multivariate Analysis
• Friedman Test
• Chi-Square Test (Χ²)
• Effect Size
• Directional vs. Non-Directional Hypothesis

Related Posts

Survey sampling: what it is, types & tips, cluster sampling | method and examples, who is a good peer reviewer, peer review | types of peer review, ethics in research: safeguarding integrity and credibility, advantages and disadvantages of snowball sampling, exploring qualitative researcher skills: what they are and how to develop them, difference between quota sampling and stratified sampling, how effective laboratory design impacts health, safety, and productivity, why is laboratory safety important in research.

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Psychology » Psychology Research

Browse book recommendations:

• Applied Psychology
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Psychology Research

• Social Psychology

Last updated: November 17, 2023

Psychology is a thriving field of research, particularly the study of the neural correlates of thought and behaviour. Here we gather together interviews about cutting-edge psychological research and its development over recent decades, as well as popular science books that summarise complex areas of study for the general reader.

Over the last decade, we've spoken to some of the top researchers in the field, including Cambridge professor Simon Baron-Cohen, who spoke to us about empathy ; Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, who discussed the decline of violence ; Lisa Feldman Barrett, distinguished professor at Northeastern University and world-leading expert, on the science of emotions ; and the renowned Oxford neuroscientist Dick Passingham, on cognitive neuroscience .

The best books on Animal Consciousness , recommended by David Peña-Guzmán

The animal mind: an introduction to the philosophy of animal cognition by kristin andrews, what would animals say if we asked the right questions by vinciane despret, translated by brett buchanan, an immense world: how animal senses reveal the hidden realms around us by ed yong, the emotional lives of animals by marc bekoff, why look at animals by john berger.

The more we learn about the minds of other species, the more we are forced to question any assumptions that might previously have been made about their inner lives. Here, the philosopher David Peña-Guzmán talks us through the profound questions thrown up by research into animal cognition, perception and emotion, as he recommends five of the best books on animal consciousness.

The best books on Evolutionary Psychology , recommended by Chris Paley

Evolutionary psychology: the new science of the mind by david m buss, homicide by martin daly and margo wilson, the language instinct by steven pinker, death from a distance and the birth of a humane universe by joanne souza & paul m. bingham, the illusion of conscious will by daniel m. wegner.

Human traits are a product of natural selection—and the story of how we have evolved explains many of our psychological quirks today. Chris Paley , author of Unthink and  Beyond Bad , recommends five of the best evolutionary psychology books—and explains how experimental data might finally get to the bottom of the question of free will.

Human traits are a product of natural selection—and the story of how we have evolved explains many of our psychological quirks today. Chris Paley, author of Unthink and  Beyond Bad , recommends five of the best evolutionary psychology books—and explains how experimental data might finally get to the bottom of the question of free will.

The Best Books on Emotions , recommended by Lisa Feldman Barrett

The book of human emotions: an encyclopedia of feeling from anger to wanderlust by tiffany watt smith, middlesex by jeffrey eugenides, principles of psychology by william james, emotional success: the power of gratitude, compassion and pride by david desteno, stumbling on happiness by daniel gilbert.

Not every culture has a word for 'fear.' Smiling was an invention of the Middle Ages. There's a lot that will surprise you about the way we process emotions, says the neuroscientist and psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett . Here she picks five books that illustrate our understanding of how emotions work.

Not every culture has a word for ‘fear.’ Smiling was an invention of the Middle Ages. There’s a lot that will surprise you about the way we process emotions, says the neuroscientist and psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett. Here she picks five books that illustrate our understanding of how emotions work.

The best books on Consciousness , recommended by Susan Blackmore

Consciousness explained by daniel dennett, the origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind by julian jaynes, the mind's i: fantasies and reflections on self & soul by daniel dennett & douglas hofstadter, other minds: the octopus and the evolution of intelligent life by peter godfrey-smith.

The ‘hard problem’ of consciousness – of how the physical matter of the brain produces the psychological phenomenon of consciousness – has dogged psychologists and neuroscientists for decades. But what if we've been posing the question incorrectly all this time? The psychologist Susan Blackmore discusses five key texts that tackle this quicksilver concept.

The ‘hard problem’ of consciousness – of how the physical matter of the brain produces the psychological phenomenon of consciousness – has dogged psychologists and neuroscientists for decades. But what if we’ve been posing the question incorrectly all this time? The psychologist Susan Blackmore discusses five key texts that tackle this quicksilver concept.

The best books on Cognitive Neuroscience , recommended by Dick Passingham

The concept of mind by gilbert ryle, perception and communication by donald broadbent, evolution of the brain and intelligence by harry jerison, images of mind by michael posner and marcus raichle, organization of behavior: a neuropsychological theory by donald hebb.

Neuroscience has banished the problem of dualism—the 'ghost in the machine' mulled over by philosophists since the time of Descartes, says the renowned cognitive neuroscientist Professor Dick Passingham . Here, he chooses five books that signified major breakthroughs in this fast-advancing field.

Neuroscience has banished the problem of dualism—the ‘ghost in the machine’ mulled over by philosophists since the time of Descartes, says the renowned cognitive neuroscientist Professor Dick Passingham. Here, he chooses five books that signified major breakthroughs in this fast-advancing field.

The best books on Time and the Mind , recommended by Marc Wittmann

The tides of mind: uncovering the spectrum of consciousness by david gelernter, how do you feel an interoceptive moment with your neurobiological self by bud craig, why life speeds up as you get older: how memory shapes our past by douwe draaisma, the magic mountain by thomas mann, soul dust: the magic of consciousness by nicholas humphrey.

"Time is an illusion," wrote Douglas Adams. "Lunchtime, doubly so." It is certainly a subjective experience, agrees the psychologist and author Marc Wittmann —as any drug user or meditation expert can tell you. Here he picks five books that unpick our perception of the passage of time.

“Time is an illusion,” wrote Douglas Adams. “Lunchtime, doubly so.” It is certainly a subjective experience, agrees the psychologist and author Marc Wittmann—as any drug user or meditation expert can tell you. Here he picks five books that unpick our perception of the passage of time.

The best books on Emotion and the Brain , recommended by Morten Kringelbach

The children's book by a.s. byatt, on the move: a life by oliver sacks, sweet anticipation: music and the psychology of expectation by david huron, sync: how order emerges from chaos in the universe, nature, and daily life by steven strogatz, the well-tuned brain: neuroscience and the life well lived by peter c. whybrow.

We live at a time of unprecedented insight into the workings of our own minds. We can use this knowledge to improve both ourselves and humanity, argues the neuroscientist.

The best books on Fear of Death , recommended by Sheldon Solomon

The denial of death by ernest becker, escape from evil by ernest becker, frankenstein (book) by mary shelley, existential psychotherapy by irvin d yalom, clock without hands by carson mccullers.

Existential anxiety drives our lives but most of us are too frightened to think about it, says psychologist and author Sheldon Solomon . He chooses the best books to get a better understanding of our fear of death.

Existential anxiety drives our lives but most of us are too frightened to think about it, says psychologist and author Sheldon Solomon. He chooses the best books to get a better understanding of our fear of death.

The best books on Language and Thought , recommended by Daniel L. Everett

Language: an introduction to the study of speech by edward sapir, language in relation to a unified theory of the structure of human behaviour by kenneth pike, aspects of the theory of syntax by noam chomsky, on understanding grammar by talmy givón, making it explicit: reasoning, representing & discursive commitment by robert brandom.

The linguist argues that all language has a basis in culture and explains how Chomsky is like Freud: crucial, but crucially wrong. He chooses five of the best books on linguistics.

The best books on Identity and the Mind , recommended by Sebastian Seung

Mind and body by alexander bain, driving mr albert by michael paterniti, the emotion machine by marvin minsky, portraits of the mind by carl schoonover, the world, the flesh, and the devil by jd bernal.

Neuroscientist Sebastian Seung introduces us to the concept of the connectome, the ever-changing map of connections between the brain’s neurons that makes each of us who we are.

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

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© Five Books 2024

The Best Books of 2021

This Year's Must-Reads

Gift Guides

The Ten Best Science Books of 2021

From captivating memoirs by researchers to illuminating narratives by veteran science journalists, these works affected us the most this year

Joe Spring , Bridget Alex , Riley Black , Dan Falk and Katrina Miller

This year the news cycle was dominated again by stories about Covid-19, and rightly so, but other big discoveries were made throughout the sciences. NASA landed another rover on Mars, researchers discovered a new possible species of human, and scientists found ways climate change is influencing the evolution of animals—all topics that may lend themselves to future books.

In 2021, with one year of the battle against the coronavirus behind us, several books came out related to the pandemic. One of those books, The Premonition , by Michael Lewis, is on this list. Another important book that has bearing on how we fight disease, The Code Breaker , by Walter Isaacson, is instead listed among Smithsonian scholars ’ picks of the best books of the year. (We didn’t want to review it a second time here.) The books we have selected include dispatches from researchers on their scientific quests to search for an elusive physics equation and learn about the connections betwen trees and in-depth narratives from veteran science journalists exploring everything from solutions to major environmental problems to the benefits of sweat. With so many informative and entertaining works to choose from, it was hard to pick just ten, but these are the books that influenced our thinking the most in 2021.

Under a White Sky:The Nature of the Future , by Elizabeth Kolbert

Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Kolbert investigates the wild ways scientists are solving complicated environmental problems in Under a White Sky . As Kolbert notes, humans have directly transformed more than half of the ice-free land on Earth, and indirectly transformed the other half—with many negative consequences in need of fixing. She takes the reader to a canal near Chicago, where officials have electrified the water so damaging invasive carp don’t make their way up the waterway and into the Great Lakes. She heads to Hawaii and Australia, where marine biologists are trying to engineer super corals that can withstand rising water temperatures to save reefs. And she details a geoengineer’s plan to pump diamond dust into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight and reduce the impact of climate change. Late in the book, she talks to Dan Schrag, a geologist who helped set up Harvard’s geoengineering program. He says, “I see a lot of pressure from my colleagues to have a happy ending. People want hope. And I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m a scientist. My job is not to tell people the good news. My job is to describe the world as accurately as possible.’” And that is exactly what Kolbert does in her book. She paints a realistic picture of exactly where we’re at. ( Joe Spring )

Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future

That man should have dominion “over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” is a prophecy that has hardened into fact. So pervasive are human impacts on the planet that it’s said we live in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. In Under a White Sky , Elizabeth Kolbert takes a hard look at the new world we are creating.

The Premonition: A Pandemic Story , by Michael Lewis

The Premonition , by Michael Lewis, is a thriller, though you know from the start its heroes lose. The book follows several public servants and scientists who saw Covid-19 coming, and did everything within their powers to stop the virus from spreading in the United States. Lewis sticks to his brand: He parachutes readers into the lives of unconventional thinkers who challenged so-called experts. In earlier works, those insiders were Wall Street traders and pro-baseball scouts ( The Big Short and Moneyball , respectively). The Premonition’s antagonists are high-ranking government officials that ignore or muzzle our heroes, and bureaucratic systems that pose barriers to their success. In Part I, Lewis recounts the protagonists’ backstories, including a public health officer once damned to hell by hometown church leaders for attending medical school; a microbiologist who injected an Ebola cousin into the hearts of live pythons; and the Wolverines—a covert group of medical and military government insiders pushing pandemic preparedness. In Part II, mostly set in early 2020, the characters meet and try to contain Covid. Lewis’ account then becomes a maddening page-turner, as politics, optics and profits thwart our heroes and allow the virus to rampage. ( Bridget Alex )

The Premonition: A Pandemic Story

Michael Lewis’s taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.

Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest , by Suzanne Simard

Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard penned our favorite book by a scientist this year with her deeply personal and engaging Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest . Simard grew up in Canada in a logging family and, at age 20, worked as a seasonal employee for a logging company. But even early on, she had a sense that clear-cutting forests and poisoning the earth so monocultures could grow was the wrong approach. Simard suspected that forests were made up of interconnected entities that helped each other out, and so she pursued a career in science—studying silviculture for the Forest Service and eventually earning a PhD in forest sciences at Oregon State University. In experiments, she documented that birch and Douglas fir trees traded carbon underground. She established that the forest is a “ wood-wide web ,” with plants exchanging nutrients and chemical signals via their roots and fungal networks, and found that large old trees, or “ Mother Trees ,” were at the center of these networks, often helping their offspring.

Simard’s discoveries have implications for how governments should manage forests. Clear-cutting swaths and suppressing all but the desired species may not be the best approach; the ecologist instead argues for leaving Mother Trees and enabling plants to grow together and support each other. But Simard’s science alone isn’t the reason this book impresses. Throughout it, she shares personal stories as she embarks on her scientific quest—her close relationship with her brother, the breakdown of her marriage and her battle with breast cancer. In the midst of all this, Simard continues to push the limits of what is known about how forests work. She brings the reader with her—to scientific conferences where she speaks about research that many in the audience discount, to her lab at the University of British Columbia where she does field experiments with graduate students and to forests in western Canada where grizzly bears roam. By crafting a narrative that incorporates so many personal and professional relationships, she shows how connections as intricate as the root and fungal network beneath the forest floor shaped her scientific journey. ( J.S. )

Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

Suzanne Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths--that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life.

The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration , by Sarah Everts

We are all sweating, at least a little, all the time. That’s a good thing. For one thing, sweat keeps our hot-running mammalian bodies from overheating—but there’s much more to the salty discharge than that. In  The Joy of Sweat , science journalist Sarah Everts has composed a strange and wonderful tribute to the bodily effluvia that keep us cool and yet carry so much information about ourselves. Sweat, Everts writes, is “an oddly flamboyant way to control body temperature.” Every person has two to five million sweat pores, part of a built-in temperature control system. But as Everts tracks the natural and cultural history of sweat—from the ways other animals cool down to New Jersey scent manufacturers and Russian speed dates based on body odor—it comes to be so much more. Sweat gives us personal scents that play a role in attraction and may carry signals that we are sick. As the repeated reinvention of the sauna hints, sometimes it just feels good to have a vigorous sweat. What starts as an exploration turns into an ode to our ever-present secretions. “We’re going to have to learn as a species to appreciate our sweat,” Everts writes, “and, perhaps, to embrace sweating even more than we already do.” ( Riley Black)

The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration

Sweating may be one of our weirdest biological functions, but it’s also one of our most vital and least understood. In The Joy of Sweat , Sarah Everts delves into its role in the body—and in human history.

The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything , by Michio Kaku

In The God Equation , theoretical physicist Michio Kaku writes about his almost lifelong mission to find what he calls the “Holy Grail of physics,” a “theory of everything.” His ultimate goal is to write an equation that encompasses the whole of physics and that can explain everything from the Big Bang to the end of the universe. Such an idea started with Isaac Newton and stumped Albert Einstein, who couldn’t come up with a theory that would unify all of the forces at play. If that all sounds too heavy, rest assured that Kaku makes it approachable by taking the reader along on his journey and writing about science in clean, concise language.

Kaku has sought out a grand equation since, at eight years old, he saw a photo of Einstein’s desk and learned in the caption the great scientist couldn’t finish the work he started. He transitions from that anecdote to history, introducing the reader to the ideas of the Greeks and Newton. As Kaku moves through the scientists that uncovered the major forces of the world through equations, he drives home to the reader the importance of such milestones by detailing the technologies that resulted from the findings. Newton’s laws were used to perfect the steam engine. Mathematician James Clerk Maxwell’s equation on waves was tested by physicist Heinrich Hertz in 1886—using a spark and a coil of wire—and led to the unveiling of radio by Guglielmo Marconi in 1894. Eventually the history and Kaku’s quest to find “The God Equation” lead to string theory, the concept that the universe is not made of point particles but of tiny, unseen threads that vibrate with a note corresponding to a subatomic particle. That theory is untested, and Kaku has skin in the game; he started studying string theory in 1968. But neither are reasons not to read the book, as it is at its heart a clear and engaging story of a difficult scientific quest. ( J.S. )

The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything

When Newton discovered the law of gravity, he unified the rules governing the heavens and the Earth. Since then, physicists have been placing new forces into ever-grander theories.

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law , by Mary Roach

Of all of the authors on our list this year, Mary Roach is the one we most want to have a beer with. In her amusing book Fuzz , she interviews and accompanies experts—from a wildlife biologist tracking mountain lions to a biowarfare specialist studying toxic peas—to learn how they deal with instances of animals and plants “breaking the law.” Roach heads to Colorado to find out whether bears can be prevented from rummaging through garbage and breaking into homes, to India to find out why elephants kill villagers, and to Canada to see how “danger trees” that could fall and kill hikers are brought down. The book is packed with quirky facts and wild from-the-field dispatches. Her discoveries range from the lighthearted—bears in Minnesota once raided a large supply of MREs, “which bears apparently enjoy more than soldiers do”—to the macabre—effigies, or dead hanging birds, were strung up near debris recovered after 9/11 and placed at a landfill. The effigies were meant to prevent gulls from scavenging body parts as inspectors sorted through the wreckage for remains.

Roach details each subject with her characteristic wit and packs the text with unsettling stats and examples. Did you know 40,000 people die every year from snakebites in India? Or that in one breeding season, 200 men spent six to seven hours a day clubbing and killing 80,000 albatross on Midway Atoll that authorities wanted to prevent from colliding with airplanes? Throughout her journey, Roach documents human responses to plant and animal “crimes,” from measures that are comical to others more disturbing, leaving the reader occasionally shocked, and always entertained. ( J.S. )

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law

What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.

The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey Into Dark Matter, Spacetime, & Dreams Deferred , by Chanda-Prescod Weinsten

Theoretical cosmologist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein begins her visionary book The Disordered Cosmos with a tale about the origin of human existence that establishes our role in the universe as both knowledge keepers and seekers. Prescod-Weinstein then masterfully communicates her deep admiration of the night sky, what is known about the structure of space and what is left to discover about the cosmos. Throughout the book, she weaves groundbreaking discoveries made in physics with pivotal moments from her own career as the first Black woman to hold a tenure-track faculty position in theoretical cosmology—a journey to decipher the universe in a field that too often perpetuates harm in ways that are both racist and sexist. She dives into the historical context of scientific breakthroughs, challenges the notion of who gets to be named a scientist and asks what responsibility researchers owe to society. In the same way Prescod-Weinstein teaches that matter shapes the spacetime around it, she also details how the choices physicists make shape societal futures. The Disordered Cosmos is a fierce reminder that science does not exist in a vacuum; rather, it is a practice firmly rooted in humanity—and access to the night sky is perhaps the most fundamental human right of all. The book is a love letter to the wondrous universe we call home, and an urge to think critically about how we explore its depths. ( Katrina Miller )

The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred

From a star theoretical physicist, a journey into the world of particle physics and the cosmos—and a call for a more just practice of science.

Deep Time: A Journey Through 4.5 Billion Years of Our Planet , by Riley Black

Our top pick for a coffee table book this year is Riley Black’s Deep Time . Conceiving of the stretch of time since the formation of the universe is difficult. This book helps the reader do so by picking out key historical moments—like the dawn of the dinosaurs and the disappearance of Doggerland, connecting Great Britain to continental Europe—and offering digestible explanations for them with compelling imagery. Black is an expert guide as she has written several books about paleontology—and articles on the subject for Smithsonian for years. But this book doesn’t just stick to fossils and dinosaurs, it also covers key concepts in astronomy (The Hubble Deep Field), geology (the formation of the Grand Canyon) and biology (mitochondria), all in chronological order. For example, an entry titled “Tongue stones” with the accompanying date of 450 million years ago—the beginning of sharks’ existence on Earth—describes the evolution of how European experts thought about shark teeth, and how study of the remnants led to a key scientific concept. Black explains that naturalists originally believed such fossils were the petrified tongues of serpents. Not until a great white shark was brought to an anatomist in 1666 did experts imagine that the relics came from ancient sharks—and that the teeth must have drifted down to the seafloor and been covered by sediment. (Many Indigenous cultures had already identified fossils as coming from animals that lived long before.) That realization led to the geological principle now known as superposition—in layers of rock, the oldest are at the bottom. An anatomist’s 1668 sketch of a shark, an image of a great white shark and a photo of fossilized shark teeth dating from the Upper Cretaceous illustrate this entry. The book consists of 50 such informative entries, which allow the reader to grasp how scientists learned about key milestones in the evolution of our planet. ( J.S. )

Deep Time: A journey through 4.5 billion years of our planet

Deep time is the timescale of the geological events that have shaped our planet. Whilst so immense as to challenge human understanding, its evidence is nonetheless visible all around us.

Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive , by Carl Zimmer

We seem to intuitively know the difference between living things and inorganic matter—but as award-winning science writer Carl Zimmer makes abundantly clear in Life’s Edge , that boundary is not as sharp as one might imagine. Is a blood cell alive? What about a virus? Or a fertilized egg? The notion of death turns out to be equally fuzzy. Tiny tardigrades that grow to no more than one-fifteenth of an inch can be dried out and frozen, but add water and warmth and they spring back to life after years or even decades. Scientists know life took hold on our planet some 3.5 billion years ago, based on the oldest known fossils—but how exactly did it happen? Zimmer revisits a famous experiment carried out in the early 1950s by scientists who tried to simulate the conditions thought to prevail on the early Earth. While no creatures crawled out of their apparatus, the experiment did produce amino acids, which are among life’s building blocks. Zimmer also explores a recent idea known as assembly theory, which tries to give a precise measure of the complexity of chemical compounds as a way of honing in on life’s origins. And yet, no precise moment when chemistry gives rise to biology has been found. After reading Zimmer’s engaging book, the reader might even wonder if categories like “alive” and “not alive” are labels we impose on nature, rather than objective features of the world. ( Dan Falk )

Life's Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive

We all assume we know what life is, but the more scientists learn about the living world—from protocells to brains, from zygotes to pandemic viruses—the harder they find it is to locate life’s edge.

Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction , by Michelle Nijhuis

In Beloved Beasts , Michelle Nijhuis takes a compelling look at the history of the conservation movement since the late 19th century. The author weaves an intricate story by detailing the efforts of key conservationists—complex individuals who Nijhuis writes sometimes “did the wrong things for the right reasons, and the right things for the wrong reasons.” The reader learns of William Temple Hornaday, who killed a number of rare bison in the West in 1886 for a D.C. diorama before starting a captive breeding program to save the species. Nijhuis shares the story of Rosalie Edge , a bird lover who fought the Audubon Society in the 1920s and 1930s to gain more support for raptors and bought Hawk Mountain, a key migration spot in Pennsylvania that has become an important place for counting birds. As Nijhuis introduces new characters, from Rachel Carson to Aldo Leopold, she establishes their connections to conservationists that preceded them and packs the book with interesting facts. Did you know, for example, that the U.S. adopted DDT during World War II after losing access to the Japanese grown chrysanthemum that had been a source of the insecticide pyrethrum? Or that most species protection by state wildlife agencies is funded by hunting license fees and taxes on hunting equipment? Today, as Nijhuis writes, more than one million species are threatened with extinction, and in the last two decades more than 1,800 conservationists have been murdered protecting species and habitat. To better understand how conservation might move forward to address these dire conditions, it helps to have this comprehensive history detailing the failures and successes of notable practitioners. ( J.S. )

Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction

In the late nineteenth century, humans came at long last to a devastating realization: their rapidly industrializing and globalizing societies were driving scores of animal species to extinction. In Beloved Beasts , acclaimed science journalist Michelle Nijhuis traces the history of the movement to protect and conserve other forms of life.

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Joe Spring | READ MORE

Joe Spring is the associate digital science editor for Smithsonian magazine.

Bridget Alex | | READ MORE

Bridget Alex is an anthropologist and science writer based in Pasadena, California. Her stories can be found in outlets including Discover , Science , and Atlas Obscura . She tweets @bannelia .

Riley Black | | READ MORE

Riley Black is the author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs and many other books. She is a science correspondent for Smithsonian  magazine covering fossils and natural history, and she writes about the prehistoric past for a variety of publications. 

Dan Falk | | READ MORE

Dan Falk is a science journalist based in Toronto. His books include The Science of Shakespeare and In Search of Time .

Katrina Miller | READ MORE

Freelance Journalist

Research Voyage

Research Tips and Infromation

10 Must-Read Books for Researchers That Changed My Life

Introduction

• 1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey
• 2. "Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds" by Carmine Gallo
• 3."The Compound Effect" by Darren Hardy
• 4. "Atomic Habits" by James Clear
• 5. "The Brain Audit" by Sean D'Souza
• 6."Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals" by Cole Nussbaumer
• 7. "The Professional" by Subroto Bagchi
• 8. "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson
• 9. "Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life" by Jim Kwik
• 10. "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda

Before You Conclude

Embarking on the path of a research scholar is an extraordinary journey that demands dedication, perseverance, and a thirst for knowledge. As researchers, our quest for excellence knows no bounds, and we are constantly seeking ways to enhance our skills, improve productivity, and make a lasting impact on our work. In this pursuit of academic growth, books become our loyal companions, guiding us through uncharted territories and offering profound insights that shape our perspectives.

In this blog post, I have curated a collection of ten exceptional books, carefully selected to inspire and empower research scholars on their academic odyssey. These books transcend the conventional reading lists, providing not only invaluable wisdom for academic life but also lessons that extend far beyond the realm of research. From personal development to communication skills and innovation, each book offers a unique and transformative experience.

So, whether you are a seasoned researcher seeking fresh perspectives or an aspiring scholar eager to embark on this scholarly expedition, these books hold the keys to unlocking your true potential. Join us as we delve into the pages of these literary treasures, drawing lessons from visionaries, leaders, and thinkers who have left an indelible mark on their respective fields.

Get ready to elevate your research prowess, enhance your personal growth, and embrace a new world of possibilities. Without further ado, let’s dive into the top ten books that will reshape the way you approach academia and life itself.

1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey

“ The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People ” by Stephen R. Covey is a seminal self-help and personal development book that has had a profound impact on individuals and organizations worldwide. First published in 1989, the book continues to be a bestseller, and its principles remain highly relevant in various aspects of life, including academia and research.

The book is structured around seven essential habits that Stephen Covey identifies as the key to personal and interpersonal effectiveness. Covey advocates that true success comes from aligning one’s actions with timeless principles and values, rather than resorting to quick-fix solutions or external factors. By adopting these habits, individuals can transform their lives, become more proactive, and develop a deep sense of personal responsibility and accountability.

Here is an overview of the seven habits:

• Be Proactive: Taking Initiative for Change The first habit encourages individuals to take control of their lives and be proactive in shaping their destinies. It emphasizes focusing on what can be controlled and taking responsibility for one’s actions and choices, rather than being reactive to external circumstances.
• Begin with the End in Mind: Defining Your Life’s Mission Habit two urges individuals to clarify their long-term goals and values, ensuring that their actions align with their ultimate purpose. By visualizing and defining their life’s mission, researchers can work with purpose and direction, staying committed to their academic pursuits.
• Put First Things First: Prioritizing and Time Management Habit three is all about time management and prioritization. Covey introduces the Time Management Matrix, which categorizes tasks into four quadrants based on urgency and importance. By focusing on Quadrant II tasks (important but not urgent), researchers can dedicate time to strategic planning and long-term research goals.
• Think Win-Win: Collaborative Problem-Solving Habit four promotes a mindset of win-win collaboration, where researchers seek mutually beneficial solutions and value the contributions of others. In academic settings, this habit fosters constructive teamwork and promotes an atmosphere of support and cooperation.
• Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood: Empathetic Communication Habit five emphasizes empathetic listening and understanding before seeking to convey one’s own perspective. Effective communication is vital for researchers to build strong relationships with peers, mentors, and research participants, enabling them to connect more deeply with their academic community.
• Synergize: Creativity and Collaboration Habit six encourages researchers to leverage the diverse strengths and perspectives of their colleagues to create innovative solutions. By fostering a culture of synergy, researchers can collectively achieve more significant results and generate groundbreaking insights.
• Sharpen the Saw: Continuous Renewal and Growth The final habit emphasizes the importance of self-renewal and continuous growth in four dimensions: physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual. Researchers can enhance their productivity and well-being by investing in self-care, learning, and personal development.

“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is more than just a self-help book; it is a roadmap for living a principled and purposeful life. By applying these habits to their academic journey, research scholars can improve their time management, communication skills, and ability to work effectively with others. Covey’s timeless principles provide a solid foundation for researchers to make a lasting impact in their academic pursuits and beyond.

2. “Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds” by Carmine Gallo

“Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds” by Carmine Gallo: Effective communication and presentation skills are crucial for researchers to disseminate their findings, engage their audience, and inspire others with their work. In “Talk Like TED,” Carmine Gallo analyzes some of the most popular TED Talks and identifies the key elements that make them compelling and impactful. The book highlights nine public-speaking secrets that researchers can apply to elevate their presentation style and effectively communicate their research.

By learning from successful TED speakers, researchers can refine their storytelling abilities, use compelling visuals, and convey complex ideas in an engaging and memorable way. This book provides practical tips on delivering powerful narratives, using humour effectively, and connecting with audiences on an emotional level. Researchers can apply these strategies to enhance their conference presentations, research seminars, and even classroom lectures, making their work more accessible and relatable to various audiences.

Including “Talk Like TED” in your reading list can help you to build confidence in public speaking, making you more effective in research and increasing the impact of your work. Whether you are presenting in front of peers, funding agencies, or the public, you can benefit from the communication techniques shared in this book, elevating your speaking skills to captivate and influence your listeners.

3.”The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy

“The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy is a compelling guide that underscores the transformative power of consistency and perseverance in achieving extraordinary results. At its core, the concept of the compound effect is simple yet profound: small actions, consistently practised over time, can yield remarkable and exponential outcomes. For research scholars, this philosophy holds immense promise as they navigate the intricate terrain of academia.

In the realm of research, where progress can sometimes appear slow and incremental, understanding the compound effect becomes a potent tool for success. By committing to small, daily improvements in their research practices, scholars can witness the gradual accumulation of knowledge, expertise, and breakthroughs. Whether it’s dedicating a few extra minutes each day to reading relevant literature, fine-tuning research methodologies, or nurturing collaborative partnerships, these consistent efforts create a snowball effect that ultimately propels their work to new heights.

“The Compound Effect” instils in researchers the invaluable virtue of discipline and unwavering perseverance. Research endeavours often demand patience and the ability to navigate challenges with resilience. By internalizing the concept of compounding, researchers can resist the allure of quick fixes and instead invest in the steady, deliberate progress that sets the foundation for lasting achievements.

In an era where instant gratification is prevalent, embracing the compound effect can be a transformative mindset shift. By recognizing that each seemingly small effort contributes to a greater whole, researchers can find motivation and satisfaction in the process of growth, even during times of uncertainty or setbacks. This steadfast commitment to continuous improvement fuels a sense of purpose, driving researchers to push boundaries, explore uncharted territories, and discover innovative solutions.

Moreover, “The Compound Effect” empowers researchers to become architects of their own success. By taking ownership of their choices and acknowledging the impact of daily decisions, researchers can make intentional adjustments that steer their work in a more meaningful direction. Embracing this principle also fosters a culture of accountability, encouraging researchers to hold themselves responsible for their progress and to celebrate the achievements, however small, along the way.

4. “Atomic Habits” by James Clear

“Atomic Habits” by James Clear is a transformative book that delves into the mechanics of habit formation and offers actionable strategies to build positive habits while breaking free from negative ones. For research scholars seeking to optimize their daily routines and enhance their productivity, this book serves as a powerful resource that unravels the intricacies of habit formation.

At the heart of “Atomic Habits” lies the idea that small changes, when consistently practised, can lead to remarkable transformations. James Clear introduces the concept of “atomic habits,” where the term “atomic” refers to the tiny, fundamental units that make up more significant changes. By breaking down habits into their elemental components, researchers gain a profound understanding of how habits are constructed, empowering them to engineer their routines for greater effectiveness.

One of the key takeaways for researchers from “Atomic Habits” is the concept of habit stacking. This technique involves attaching a new habit to an existing one, creating a powerful chain of positive actions that reinforces consistency. For instance, researchers can stack the habit of reading relevant research articles immediately after having breakfast each morning. Over time, this small addition becomes an integral part of their daily routine, bolstering their knowledge and expertise.

Additionally, “Atomic Habits” emphasizes the importance of habit tracking as a means to measure progress and stay accountable. For researchers, this could involve keeping a research journal to record their daily activities, insights, and breakthroughs. Regularly reviewing these records not only provides valuable insights into their progress but also helps researchers identify patterns and areas that require improvement.

The book also delves into the concept of habit cueing, which involves creating environmental triggers that prompt positive habits. For example, researchers can place a notepad and pen next to their desks, signalling the habit of jotting down research ideas as they arise. Such cues serve as gentle reminders to engage in desired behaviours, ultimately leading to more consistent and productive work habits.

By incorporating the principles from “Atomic Habits” into their academic lives, researchers can create a conducive environment for sustained productivity and growth. The book encourages researchers to view habits not as isolated occurrences but as interconnected elements that shape their entire academic journey. As researchers cultivate a habit of continuous improvement, they set the stage for a transformative academic experience, where the cumulative effect of small positive actions yields substantial and lasting outcomes.

5. “The Brain Audit” by Sean D’Souza

“The Brain Audit” by Sean D’Souza: While conducting research is a cognitive and analytical process, understanding human psychology and communication is equally essential. “The Brain Audit” delves into the minds of customers and readers, explaining the psychological triggers that influence decision-making and engagement. For researchers, this book can be invaluable in crafting compelling research proposals, presentations, and papers that resonate with their audience. By applying the principles outlined in the book, such as targeting the right problem, presenting evidence, and addressing objections, researchers can effectively communicate their findings and ideas to a broader audience.

Including “The Brain Audit” in their reading list can help researchers develop their persuasive communication skills, making their research more accessible and impactful to fellow scholars, industry professionals, and the general public. By understanding the psychological triggers that drive engagement and decision-making, researchers can create content that captures the attention and interest of their audience, increasing the likelihood of their work being shared and recognized within their academic community and beyond.

6.”Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals” by Cole Nussbaumer

“Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals” by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic: In the age of data-driven research, effective data visualization is essential for researchers to communicate their findings clearly and persuasively. “Storytelling with Data” is a practical guide that equips researchers with the skills to create compelling and impactful data visualizations. Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic emphasizes the importance of presenting data in a coherent and narrative-driven manner, allowing researchers to turn complex information into actionable insights.

This book provides valuable lessons on choosing the right chart types, avoiding clutter in visuals, and incorporating storytelling techniques into data presentations. By following the principles outlined in “Storytelling with Data,” researchers can create data-driven narratives that resonate with their audience and facilitate better understanding and decision-making.

Incorporating data visualization best practices from this book into their research process can help researchers present their findings more effectively during conferences, seminars, and in research publications. Clarity in data visualization ensures that research is accessible to a broader audience, increasing the chances of recognition and impact within the academic and professional communities.

By understanding the art of data storytelling, researchers can present their work in a compelling and memorable way, making their research more engaging and influential in the academic world and beyond.

7. “The Professional” by Subroto Bagchi

“The Professional” by Subroto Bagchi: “The Professional” is a transformative book that provides valuable insights into personal and professional development. Subroto Bagchi shares practical wisdom on building a successful and fulfilling career by emphasizing the importance of continuous learning, dedication to excellence, and a commitment to ethical conduct.

For researchers, “The Professional” can serve as a source of inspiration and guidance. The book encourages researchers to approach their work with a sense of purpose and integrity. It emphasizes the value of honing one’s expertise, staying curious, and constantly striving for growth in their chosen field of research.

By adopting the principles outlined in “The Professional,” researchers can foster a mindset of continuous improvement, which is vital for staying ahead in the ever-evolving world of academia. The book also emphasizes the significance of building meaningful relationships and effective communication skills, enabling researchers to collaborate more effectively with peers, mentors, and other stakeholders.

Moreover, “The Professional” highlights the importance of self-awareness and emotional intelligence in managing personal and professional challenges. For researchers dealing with the pressures of academia, these insights can be particularly beneficial in maintaining a healthy work-life balance and managing stress.

Including “The Professional” in their reading list can help researchers gain a broader perspective on their academic journey, allowing them to grow not only as scholars but also as well-rounded professionals. By applying the principles discussed in the book, researchers can foster a successful and impactful career while maintaining their passion for their field of study.

8. “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson

“Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson : “Steve Jobs” is a biography of the co-founder of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs. Although not directly related to academia or research, this book offers invaluable lessons for researchers in terms of innovation, creativity, and visionary thinking. Walter Isaacson presents a detailed account of Jobs’ life, including his entrepreneurial journey, leadership style, and approach to problem-solving.

For researchers, “Steve Jobs” serves as an inspiring example of thinking beyond conventional boundaries and taking risks to achieve groundbreaking results. Jobs’ relentless pursuit of excellence, attention to detail, and focus on user experience are all qualities that researchers can aspire to emulate in their own work.

The book also highlights the importance of combining technology and the arts, a lesson that can be applied in various research fields. By embracing interdisciplinary approaches and incorporating creative elements into their work, researchers can create innovative solutions and address complex challenges in new and transformative ways.

Additionally, “Steve Jobs” showcases the significance of perseverance and resilience in the face of setbacks. Researchers often encounter obstacles in their pursuit of knowledge, and Jobs’ story serves as a reminder of the power of determination and the potential for breakthroughs even in the most challenging circumstances.

9. “Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life” by Jim Kwik

“Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life” by Jim Kwik is a game-changing book that taps into the immense potential of the human brain, offering research scholars invaluable tools to elevate their cognitive abilities and optimize their learning experiences. As researchers, where knowledge acquisition and problem-solving are constant endeavours, “Limitless” becomes an indispensable resource for unlocking the true potential of the mind.

At the core of “Limitless” lies the belief that the human brain is incredibly malleable and capable of continuous growth, a concept known as neuroplasticity. Jim Kwik, a renowned brain coach, distils complex neuroscience research into practical and actionable strategies that empower researchers to supercharge their cognitive function.

One of the central pillars of “Limitless” is memory enhancement. Jim Kwik demystifies memory techniques used by memory champions, demonstrating how these same methods can be harnessed by researchers to absorb and retain vast amounts of information more effectively. From the art of creating vivid mental images to mnemonic techniques that improve recall, these memory-enhancing strategies can revolutionize the way researchers absorb, process, and recall research findings and critical concepts.

Moreover, “Limitless” delves into the realm of focus and concentration—a precious commodity in a world filled with distractions. Jim Kwik shares insights on how to cultivate laser-like focus and eliminate mental clutter, allowing researchers to immerse themselves fully in their work and engage in deep, uninterrupted contemplation. By optimizing focus, researchers can make the most of their time, leading to more profound insights and innovative research outcomes.

The book also addresses the common learning obstacles faced by researchers, such as information overload, stress, and multitasking. Jim Kwik offers practical solutions to overcome these challenges, equipping scholars with the ability to navigate complex academic pursuits with clarity and ease.

“Limitless” extends its influence to problem-solving as well. By enhancing cognitive abilities, researchers can approach complex research questions with heightened analytical skills and creativity. Kwik’s insights on unlocking mental blocks and fostering innovative thinking can lead to breakthroughs and revolutionary contributions to their respective fields.

Implementing the techniques from “Limitless” goes beyond academic benefits; it can have a profound impact on researchers’ personal and professional lives. Improved memory and cognitive function lead to greater confidence and efficiency, enabling researchers to excel in various aspects of their academic and personal endeavors.

10. “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda

“Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda: “Autobiography of a Yogi” is a spiritual classic that provides profound insights into the life and teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, a renowned spiritual guru and yogi. While not directly related to academic research, this book can be a source of inspiration and perspective for researchers.

For researchers, “Autobiography of a Yogi” offers valuable lessons on introspection, mindfulness, and the pursuit of knowledge beyond the material realm. The book delves into the deeper aspects of human consciousness and spirituality, which can be relevant to researchers exploring topics related to human behavior, cognition, and well-being.

Yogananda’s journey in seeking spiritual truth and understanding the mysteries of life can inspire researchers to approach their work with curiosity, open-mindedness, and a sense of wonder. By embracing a holistic view of knowledge and integrating spiritual insights into their research, scholars may uncover new avenues of exploration and innovative ways of approaching complex problems.

Moreover, “Autobiography of a Yogi” touches upon themes of self-discovery, resilience, and the interconnectedness of all living beings. These ideas can resonate with researchers seeking a sense of purpose and meaning in their academic pursuits, reminding them of the significance of their contributions to the world.

As an avid researcher, I am passionate about sharing knowledge and insights through my blog posts, which focus on various research topics, including research journals, conferences, PhD programs, patents, grants, research careers, research tools and Research Internships. Please visit my blog posts for further details.

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These ten must-read books for research scholars hold the key to unlocking untapped potential and fostering academic and personal growth. From cultivating effective habits to harnessing the power of storytelling, from embracing innovation to finding purpose amidst challenges, each book offers invaluable insights that transcend the boundaries of academia. As researchers, we are poised to make a profound impact on the world, and these literary treasures provide the guidance and inspiration needed to navigate this scholarly journey with wisdom, resilience, and a sense of purpose. So, let us embark on this transformative adventure armed with knowledge and equipped to leave an indelible mark on the realms of research and beyond.

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Twenty Best Books for Researchers

Are you looking for an inspiring read, and that can benefit your career as a researcher? For those of you who follow my blog, you may have noticed from  my Goodreads profile , that I am an avid reader. I read both fiction and non-fiction, and of course,  I actively work towards keeping up with the scientific output in my field .

Needless to tell you, my love for the written word is large. Therefore, it is my pleasure today to share with you a list of twenty books that I recommend for researchers:

1.  Building a Successful Career in Scientific Research: A Guide for PhD Students and Postdocs by Phil Dee

Phil Dee wrote about life as a scientist since 2000 as a columnist for Science's Next Wave. This book is a fast and entertaining read, that focuses on tips and quick wins to help you move your career forward.

2.  Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

Part memoir, part non-fiction book about trees - this book gives you an insight in the life and work of Hope Jahren. Especially if you carry out experimental work, this book is for you. Dr. Jahren built up a lab three times, resettling at universities as her career meandered - and there is both tons of honesty and wisdom in this book.

3.  On Writing: A memoir of the craft by Stephen King

On Writing is a classic read about writing. Combined with the memoir of one of the most successful authors, there is plenty of advice about writing and how to develop your writing in this book. The good, the bad, and the ugly of writing all are part of this book. Entertaining and insightful.

4.  Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson is an incredibly gifted biography writer. Besides Einstein's biography, I've read Franklin's and Jobs' biographies, and the ease with which Isaacson finds the right voice for each different book is impressive. Aside from the quality of this writing, there is also the topic: the life and work of Einstein, one of the most iconic scientists ever to live. A must-read for every scientist.

5.  An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield

Who's not fascinated by astronauts? Their combination of scientific savvy and pioneering spirit make many children and adults wonder what it is like to be an astronaut. Col. Hadfield talks about his adventures as an astronaut (he has logged close to 4000 hours in space), but also leaves plenty of space for reflection and advice for life on earth.

6.  So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport

Regardless of your career choice, So Good They Can't Ignore You is splendid advice on how to build up a solid career (the short answer: do the work, do all the hard work). Since Cal Newport is an academic himself, there are plenty of examples from academia on successful careers of researchers, and which choices were crucial for their success.

7.  168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam

I'm a huge fan of Laura Vanderkam's method of analyzing time based on chunks of 168 hours (one week). I, too, think of my time in chunks of a week, and plan all my activities on a weekly basis, using a weekly template. 168 hours is about more than just time management. Some of her advice may not be suited for those of us with low incomes (hiring services, for example), but the general idea of how to track your time and then optimize the way you spend it, is universally applicable.

8.  The Talent Code: Unlocking the Secret of Skill in Sports, Art, Music, Math, and Just About Everything Else by Daniel Coyle

Daniel Coyle asked himself what it really takes to get good at something. Your first reaction could be: you have to practice. But the way in which you practice, with deep concentration, called "deliberate practice" is what really moves skill forward. The main idea of applying deliberate practice is valid for all fields: whether you want to learn to play the violin, or learn to code software. If you want insight in how you develop skills, this book is for you.

9.  Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World by Rachel Swaby

An inspiring read consisting of short profiles of 52 female scientists that did breakthrough research, but that are generally not very well-known. I recommend this book for both men and women: not just to learn about the contributions of women in science and inspire aspiring female scientists, but also to learn about the significant contributions these women made.

10.  A Scholar's Guide to Getting Published in English: Critical Choices and Practical Strategies by Mary Jane Curry, Theresa Lillis

If English is not your native language, this book will help you reflect upon your use of language for your academic work. Through this reflection, you will be able to improve your English academic writing. This book is not so much of a how-to guide, or a language course - it assumes you manage the level of academic English required to publish. The interesting element of this book is its reflection on our use of language: when do we publish in our native language, and when do we select English?

11.  Open Up Study Skills: The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research by Marian Petre, Gordon Rugg

This book covers all the things you want somebody to tell you when you start an academic career, but that nobody ever bothered telling you. Reading this book feels like sitting down for a cup of coffee with a senior PhD student or a post-doc, and learning all the ins and outs of life in academia. If you are a PhD student, I highly recommend you read this book.

12.  Mastering Your Phd: Survival And Success In The Doctoral Years And Beyond by Patricia Gosling, Lambertus D. Noordam

The first book I ever read about doing research, and I still recommend it to every first year PhD student. While the chapters are rather short, this book gives an excellent introduction into PhD research, and all the steps you can expect to go through. In my first year, we all received this book as a welcome gift at university, and it helped me shape my expectations and planning.

13.  Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman

The autobiography of Richard Feynman is a joy to read. Not only does he combine observations about how to do research when you are stuck (start with something, do something, and eventually your ideas will move forward), he also describes his endless curiosity (which takes us along with him through the world of science, strip clubs, and playing bongo in Brazil), and the depression he felt after working on nuclear weapons. If your friends and family think your choice for a career in science is boring, this book may convince them of the opposite.

14.  Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg talks about her career, how she combines everything (marriage, motherhood, career), and her insights and advice on the challenges women face on the workfloor. While not immediately dealing with academic positions, there is plenty advice for young female researchers in this book who want to lean in to their careers.

15.  The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte

The most powerful way to share data and research insights with the rest of the world is through visuals. Tufte teaches you how to show data in the clearest way. If you never took a class that used this book (or any other book by Edward Tufte), you should order all four Tufte books, and read them. Your presentations, posters, and figures in written documents will improve significantly.

16.  Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

It's not a secret that academia has relatively more introverts than other workplaces. Still, extroverted is the norm in our society. Susan Cain explores introversion, its advantages, and gives advice on how introverts can honor themselves in their work and careers, and take advantage of their typical traits.

17.  Are You Fully Charged?: The 3 Keys to Energizing Your Work and Life by Tom Rath

While I didn't find new ideas in this book when I read it, Are You Fully Charged is a good introduction to the basic concepts of improving your health and well-being. If you currently are not taking proper care of yourself, pick up this book for a brief introduction on how to do better in this regard. Yes, you probably know that you should exercise, eat, and sleep. This book can serve as good reminder on why taking care of yourself is important, and give you practical advice. It's a nice and easy read, too.

18.  Focus: A Simplicity Manifesto in the Age of Distraction by Leo Babauta

Finding yourself often distracted during work? Is the internet always calling for your attention? This book is dedicated to focus: how to find more focus, how to cultivate your focus, and how to get rid of distractions that stand between you and your focus.

19.  The Shadow Scholar: How I Made a Living Helping College Kids Cheat by Dave Tomar

If you are teaching, you probably should read this book. The writing is not excellent (even though the author spent years writing the essays and homeworks of lazy students), but the information in this book is important. As a teacher, you need to be aware of the entire academic shadow industry out there, and see how you can tailor your assignments so that you don't leave much space for cheating.

20.  Debunking Handbook by John Cook

If your cousin announces over the Christmas dinner that vaccinations are harmful, or your neighbor laughs at your hybrid car because climate change is a hoax, don't get upset about their lack of insight in scientific research. Instead, download this book - it is a freely available guide that teaches you how to debunk the broscience out there.

Bonus: The PhD e-book: Top PhD Advice from Start to Finish

AcademicTransfer and PhD Talk worked together on this e-book to give you a short guide full of information for your PhD, and with practical information for those of you who move to the Netherlands for their PhD studies.

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National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Food and Nutrition Board; Alper J, Vorosmarti A, editors. The Role of Advanced Computation, Predictive Technologies, and Big Data Analytics in Food and Nutrition Research: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2024 Apr 24.

The Role of Advanced Computation, Predictive Technologies, and Big Data Analytics in Food and Nutrition Research: Proceedings of a Workshop.

• Hardcopy Version at National Academies Press

1 Introduction 1

Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and deep learning (DL) have shown promise toward aiding in developing algorithms to better understand and predict interactions between food- and nutrition-related data and health outcomes, particularly when large amounts of data need to be structured and integrated. However, additional research is needed to identify areas where AI/ML are likely to have an impact and their limitations. In addition, federal agencies are interested in exploring criteria around how to best use AI/ML in nutrition research.

To explore current knowledge and practice related to the application of advanced computation, big data analytics, and high-performance computing to support scientific advances in food and nutrition research, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (the National Academies’) Food and Nutrition Board convened experts to discuss this and related subjects in Washington, DC, on October 10–11, 2023. The speakers and participants discussed definitions and methods; the appropriate use of evidence generated from these methods to inform food- and nutrition-related programs and policies; considered issues related to diversity, equity, inclusion, bias, and privacy; identified opportunities and challenges related to capacity building and training; and explored the future potential of these methods in food and nutrition research. The workshop sessions highlighted applications and lessons learned from studies of AI, ML, and DL methods in both food and nutrition research and other fields. Box 1-1 provides the statement of task for the workshop.

Workshop Statement of Task.

• INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

Rodolphe Barrangou, the Todd R. Klaenhammer Distinguished Professor at North Carolina State University and workshop planning committee cochair, welcomed participants and said that the workshop would focus on the future of food and nutrition research and the role that advanced computation, predictive technologies, and big data analytics will play. “We have to talk about challenges and opportunities. We have to talk about building the systems we need to implement that technology,” said Barrangou.

Sharon Kirkpatrick, associate professor in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo and workshop planning committee cochair, summarized what was ahead. The workshop would start by laying a solid foundation in terms of key concepts related to data science; introduce the theme of ethics, privacy, bias, and trust to be considered; explore how data science and AI/ML are being used in nutrition and food sciences; and outline some of the related promises and challenges. The first day would include a session on applications and lessons learned from work on wearables, the microbiome, and metabolomics. The day would end with a session on capacity building and inclusivity. Day 2 would include a second session on applications and lessons learned, focusing on designing nutrition studies for AI data analysis, how to gain farmers’ trust in AI, and the application of AI to supply chains. The following session would focus on the potential applications of AI and data science to large-scale initiatives. The final session would feature a broad discussion of the workshop’s key themes.

Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture

Patrick Stover, director of the Institute for Advancing Health through Agriculture (IHA) at Texas A&M University, said that IHA was created to use systems approaches to reimagine the connections between food and the health of the nation. IHA focuses on precision nutrition, understanding the variability in the diet and disease relationship, responsive agriculture, and healthy living. He defined responsive agriculture as “an agriculture system and food environment that supports health through nutrition for all while ensuring the system is economically robust and environmentally sustainable for future generations” and healthy living as “translating advancements in precision nutrition and responsive agriculture into evidence-based practices and policies to make food and agriculture the solution to skyrocketing health care costs.”

This is a critical time for nutrition science and public health nutrition, said Stover. Dietary patterns are a major driver of rising health care costs affecting everyone. Over 70 percent of people in the United States have overweight or obesity, and 60 percent have at least one chronic health condition. “But we also know that we can bring the very best science to bear to achieve solutions to agriculture, food, and nutrition,” he said, noting that agriculture has always responded to societal expectations. For example, agriculture and food systems were successfully engineered after World War II to produce calories in abundance, making hunger and food insecurity rare for most households and not the result of insufficient food production. In subsequent decades, research led to understanding nutritional deficiency disorders—“hidden hunger”—and developing population-based guidance and policies that largely prevented them.

The nation faces the challenge of addressing diet-related chronic diseases and has new expectations for food, agriculture, and nutrition. “Including health and chronic disease reduction as goals of food and agriculture will require transformational advances across the entire food and agriculture value chain,” said Stover. “The science and policies we use to address hunger and nutritional deficiency disorders are comparatively simple; the diet-related chronic disease connection includes multiple interacting health behaviors and environmental exposures.”

At the individual level, one size does not fit all regarding diet–disease or diet–health relationships, adding to the complexity of the challenge. Thus, the same approaches used to address nutritional deficiencies are inadequate to address the variability and dynamics that define the connection between agriculture, food, nutrition, and health. “Making food and agriculture the solution for chronic disease reduction will require new approaches, new types of data, and better ways of communicating dietary information of the public,” said Stover. “The expectations are high, and the rigorous science we are going to address today must lead the way.” It is critical, he added, to avoid overpromising and get this right to maintain public support.

Stover said that although data science is transforming society and offering solutions to address complexity, the field of food and nutrition is a late adopter. However, advances in AI, including layering numerous associations on validated, physiological, metabolic, or social computational networks, offer the possibility of establishing true causal relationships that underpin connections among agriculture, food, and health.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Human Nutrition Program

Cindy Davis, national program leader for the USDA-ARS Human Nutrition Program, said that the workshop’s topic is exceedingly relevant to her program, whose mission is to define the role of food and its components in optimizing health throughout the life cycle for all Americans by conducting high-national-priority research. AI/ML, she said, has shown promise for developing algorithms to better understand and predict interactions between food- and nutrition-related data and health outcomes, particularly when large amounts of data need to be structured and integrated. However, additional research is needed to identify areas where AI/ML is likely to have an impact and understand their limitations.

ARS, said Davis, is USDA’s chief in-house scientific agency focused on finding solutions to agricultural problems and conducting research on individual barriers to consuming a healthy diet and achieving a healthy body weight. Its six human nutrition research centers have a core capability for long-term, multidisciplinary, translational research in high-priority areas to improve the nation’s health. Its five priorities for 2024–2029 are

Bridging the gap between food production and human health by identifying the agricultural practices influencing the nutritional quality and composition of food and conducting multidisciplinary research to understand the complex interactions within the food system and their effects on human health.

Monitoring food composition and the nation’s nutrient intake to provide food composition data, determine national food consumption and dietary patterns, and develop improved methods to analyze food and determine food and nutrient intake.

Developing the scientific basis for dietary guidance by improving the scientific basis for updating national dietary standards and guidelines, identifying mechanisms whereby food, food components, and physical activity promote health, and using advanced technology to develop and integrate multiple data sources to more precisely inform nutritional requirements.

Preventing diet-related chronic disease by identifying mechanisms by which food, food components, and physical activity can help and developing and evaluating diet and physical activity strategies.

Understanding life-stage nutrition and metabolism.

Davis noted an increasing recognition that understanding the connections and synergies between nutritional health and agriculture can be achieved only through the broad framework of food systems and simultaneous research across all pillars of the food system. Consensus is emerging that food systems contain four primary, interactive, and interdependent components: human nutrition/health, food production and agriculture, food technology’s effects on the environment and vice versa, and consumer choices and attitudes. Understanding the complex interactions within the food system related to human health requires multidisciplinary teams that assess inputs and effects from all sectors. Davis stated that advanced computation, predictive technologies, and big data analytics, of which AI and ML are examples, are necessary to integrate these data.

The U.S. food supply, said Davis, is fluid, and providing timely and accurate food composition data is complex because of constant changes in food regulations and policy, food choices and consumer preferences, production and processing methods that induce compositional variability, and demographic changes in the population. In addition, food composition and food intake data are only as accurate as the methods used to obtain them, making advances in instrumentation, analytical procedures, and methodology necessary to provide high-quality data.

Davis noted that the field’s understanding of the food-related physiologic processes underlying health and the prevention of disease is expanding constantly. “We are faced with the need to accumulate new information relating to how dietary patterns, specific foods, nutrients, bioactive components, and physical activity influence these processes,” she said. In addition, emerging evidence suggests that many subpopulations have differential responses to diet and chronic disease risk and that the large interindividual variability and individual responses to diets and environment are not well characterized.

The increase in diet-related chronic diseases is complex and has multiple etiologies, said Davis. The field appreciates that individual, genetic, epigenetic, phenotypic, social, and microbiome differences influence how dietary intake and physical activity affect health. “Decades of human nutrition research and advances in information technology have left us with substantial amounts of data potentially relevant to human nutritional requirements, but assimilating and using these data has been problematic,” said Davis. Recent advances in information technology, including AI/ML, now offer possibilities of searching massive and disparate datasets and integrating multidimensional data on diet, genetics, epigenetics, microbiome, environmental factors, and other factors into a coherent framework.

Science Informing Policy

Jennifer Tiller, deputy staff director for the House Committee on Agriculture, said that her work operationalizing workforce development programs showed her that sometimes policy makers and agencies with the best intentions do not always get policies right because they were not supported by data. While considering reauthorization of the Farm Bill, Congress will deliberate, debate, and draft policies that will affect every part of the agricultural value chain. The House committee chair, she said, firmly believes that policy should use the best science—not political science—and has called for improved nutrition policies that can mitigate increasing instances of diet-related chronic disease among the population served by the programs the committee authorizes.

Tiller said that the largest of these is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which serves over 41 million people at an annual cost of $115 billion. Previous testimony before the committee explained that the right resources, research, data, modernized programming, technology, and appropriate and effective federal dietary policy will enable USDA, the states, communities, and academia to improve the nutrition of the millions of Americans who rely on this program. “Every corner of the value chain needs to ensure there is a range of tools to help individuals from all walks of life prevent and conquer instances of disease,” said Tiller.

She noted that obesity costs the nation approximately $147 billion in annual health care costs. It also affects quality of life, general longevity, and everything from employment to military readiness. “What we consume matters, and strong, scientifically rigorous federal dietary policy is important to course correct,” she said, “No more are programs under the [House] committee’s jurisdiction only about hunger. They are now about health, and I think everyone in this room welcomes that evolution.”

Something equally important to what Americans consume is educating those who consume, said Tiller. Millions of low-income families participate in a range of nutrition education programming every year. Each program has different rubrics to capture data and measure outcomes, resulting in a questionable effect on those who need this information and education the most. “There exists a critical need for common metrics and an evaluation framework that allows the agencies with oversight of these important programs to house a repository of data that can change our programming for the better,” said Tiller. AI/ML have the potential to streamline and synthesize scientific advances that can increase the credibility and transparency of dietary guidance to improve the health of our nation.

• ORGANIZATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS

This Proceedings of a Workshop summarizes the presentations. The speakers, panelists, and participants presented a broad range of views and ideas. Following this introductory chapter, Chapter 2 summarizes three presentations that set the stage for the workshop. Chapter 3 recounts the discussions about applications of advanced computation, big data analytics, and high-performance computing and lessons learned. Chapters 4 and 5 report on the discussions about capacity building and potential AI applications to large-scale food and nutrition initiatives, respectively. The final chapter presents a synthesis of the workshop’s key ideas to move the field forward. Appendixes A and B contain the agenda and biographical sketches of the speakers and session moderators, respectively. The speakers’ presentations (as PDF and video files) have been archived. 2

The planning committee’s role was limited to planning the workshop, and the Proceedings of a Workshop was prepared by the workshop rapporteurs as a factual summary of what occurred at the workshop. Statements, recommendations, and opinions expressed are those of individual presenters and participants and are not necessarily endorsed or verified by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and they should not be construed as reflecting any group consensus.

Available at https://www ​.nationalacademies ​.org/event/40460 ​_10-2023_the-role-of-advanced-computation-predictive-technologies-and-big-data-analytics-related-to-food-and-nutrition-research-a-workshop (accessed January 9, 2024).

• Cite this Page National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Food and Nutrition Board; Alper J, Vorosmarti A, editors. The Role of Advanced Computation, Predictive Technologies, and Big Data Analytics in Food and Nutrition Research: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2024 Apr 24. 1, Introduction.
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Bribing the Navy Is Easier (and More Entertaining) Than You Might Think

In “Fat Leonard,” Craig Whitlock investigates one of the worst corruption scandals in U.S. military history.

Rear Adm. Samuel Locklear III, left, pretending to lift Leonard Francis off the floor at a dinner party in 2003. Locklear has denied having any involvement in Francis’ misdeeds and was cleared of wrongdoing by the Navy. Credit... NCIS-DCIS

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By Nicolas Niarchos

Nicolas Niarchos is a freelance journalist whose writing on military matters has appeared in The Nation and The New Yorker. He is at work on a book about the supply chain for battery metals.

• May 13, 2024
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FAT LEONARD: How One Man Bribed, Bilked, and Seduced the U.S. Navy, by Craig Whitlock

In ports throughout the Western Pacific, the brave officers of the United States Navy gulped down lobster thermidor , truffle royale, Osetra caviar, white asparagus custard and kombou seaweed jelly; they guzzled gallons of Cristal and Dom Pérignon; they puffed boxes of Cohiba cigars.

Near the end of a meal, they sometimes received what Leonard Glenn Francis , the venal military contractor who was picking up the tabs, called “oriental dessert”: an “armada” of sex workers hired to flash their breasts and perform intimate acts.

An attendee described one of Francis’ dinners as a “Roman orgy.” At one of Francis’ most sordid parties, in Manila in 2007, a replica of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s corncob pipe was used as a sex toy. At least one of Francis’ dinners cost more than $3,000 a head. In return, Navy officials looked the other way as his companies charged far above the regional rate to service American vessels.

In “Fat Leonard,” a masterly investigation into one of the Navy’s worst scandals in modern times, the Washington Post journalist Craig Whitlock brings to bear 10 years of research to show how Francis came to be known as Leonard the Legend, Mr. Make-It-Happen, Fat Bastard, and, most of all, as Fat Leonard.

Francis rose from fairly comfortable origins on the Malaysian island of Penang and followed his father into the family business in the 1980s as a “husbanding contractor,” providing services like food and water delivery, bilge pumping, tugboat hiring and a whole manner of other prosaic but important logistical tasks that fleets need to operate.

His plan, Whitlock writes, was to become the Malaysian Aristotle Onassis. He learned early that the captains of merchant ships, “after weeks at sea, gladly accepted his offers to get drunk and meet women” in return for “all sorts of favors.” When the U.S. Navy came into the equation, in the early 1990s, Francis went into overdrive. “The Navy’s byzantine accounting policies made it easy for Francis to jack up his prices with minimal resistance,” Whitlock notes. (While no one knows exactly how much Francis stole, he has admitted to making at least $35 million off the U.S. taxpayer.)

The word “farce” comes from the French word for “stuffing” and originally referred to the stuffing of comedies into serious religious plays. Whitlock’s book is a farce of the highest order, as richly stuffed as the liver of a foie gras goose. His reporting is astonishingly detailed, thanks to the “several terabytes” of leaked government data he was able to obtain. Reading “Fat Leonard,” you almost feel sick at the amount of consumption that Francis visited upon the U.S. sailors who became his lap dogs in exchange for champagne, sex and cash.

By 2013, he was on a first-name basis with captains and admirals and even had the power to redirect U.S. Navy ships to ports where he could make the most money off them. As Francis became wealthier, his weight ballooned to almost 500 pounds. Whitlock tracks this detail with perhaps too much glee, but he also usefully makes clear that the magnate’s girth was yet another tool in his box: Francis repeatedly used tales of his gastric bypass surgery to show his vulnerable side and build a rapport with officers.

Whitlock is particularly good at revealing the way that Francis profited from the “entitlement” of Navy officers who seemed to think that they had a God-given right to accept freebies in return for wasting U.S. government funds and leaking classified information, including ship schedules. In 2011, a captain’s wife returned a Versace handbag she was gifted by Francis not because of ethics concerns but because the gold lettering was cracked. Before a dinner in 2007, an officer wrote that rather than having one type of champagne, he’d “like to compare”: “Dom Pérignon, Cristal and Bollinger’s.” At another party, that same officer poured champagne off the top of a skyscraper in Singapore, just to show that he could.

Unsurprisingly, Francis led a squalid existence. As Whitlock notes, he “treated women as expendable objects,” rotating between multiple mistresses and sequestering one of his partners away from her children.

In 2015, two years after Francis was finally arrested, he pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracy charges and faced up to 25 years in prison. He eventually managed to barter and charm his judges and prosecutors into letting him live in a luxury mansion in San Diego while he awaited sentencing. He even hired his own guards, Pablo Escobar-style. Francis made a mistake, however: He escaped to Venezuela, where he was captured and used as collateral in a 2023 prisoner exchange with the United States.

In many ways, Francis is the antihero of Whitlock’s book, with the Navy and its officers filling the role of villains. Francis collected kompromat on his clients, photos of officers carousing and signed dinner menus, but he doesn’t seem to have needed to use much of it while he was in business, so willing were his marks to receive gifts.

After Francis’ arrest, the Navy stymied scrutiny and tried to protect culprits, despite the serious national security implications of the leaks that Francis was able to extract. As one of Whitlock’s sources tells him, “Leonard Francis would have made a wonderful intelligence officer.”

In the end, scores of Navy top brass were let off lightly while lower ranks were thrown under the bus. Francis is set to be sentenced soon , but, as Whitlock makes clear, the culture of entitlement he exploited has gotten off scot-free.

FAT LEONARD : How One Man Bribed, Bilked and Seduced the U.S. Navy | By Craig Whitlock | Simon & Schuster | 460 pp. | $32.50

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

As book bans have surged in Florida, the novelist Lauren Groff has opened a bookstore called The Lynx, a hub for author readings, book club gatherings and workshops , where banned titles are prominently displayed.

Eighteen books were recognized as winners or finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, in the categories of history, memoir, poetry, general nonfiction, fiction and biography, which had two winners. Here’s a full list of the winners .

Montreal is a city as appealing for its beauty as for its shadows. Here, t he novelist Mona Awad recommends books  that are “both dreamy and uncompromising.”

The complicated, generous life  of Paul Auster, who died on April 30 , yielded a body of work of staggering scope and variety .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

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Age-by-Age Guide to Reading to Your Baby

When should you start reading to your baby? Now! Here's the easiest way to get your child in love with reading at a very early age.

The Benefits of Reading to Your Baby

How to start reading to your baby.

• Top Books for Infants and Toddlers

When should you start reading to your baby? The answer is it is that it's never too early to start. In fact, some parents start as early as pregnancy, and others start as soon as birth. Reading to your baby is a wonderful opportunity to bond, but it's also an impactful way to help your baby build early pre-literacy skills, including a robust vocabulary, and develop a lifelong love of reading.

Reading is a healthy habit that parents should encourage well before their baby's first birthday. The bonding experience is unbeatable, says Patricia Cowan, national program coordinator for Reach Out and Read , a project that gives children books during medical checkups. When you read to children, they're getting your full attention, and that's what they just love. No TV show or toy is better than that.

Research confirms the value of reading to young kids. For example, babies and young children who are not read to at home by a relative will face a "million-word gap" by the time they go to school. That's because reading out loud creates the opportunity for kids to build their vocabulary, and without that precious time to hear, say, and build pre-literacy skills to eventually read those words, they may lose out.

But while it is important to read to your child every day, what you read may be equally important. We know that reading to babies and toddlers helps them develop logical thinking as well as pre-literacy, communication, and emotional intelligence skills—and much of that happens by choosing age-appropriate books that challenge your child.

Reading to babies is also a great way to immerse them in the sounds and rhythms of speech, which is crucial for language development. Compelling research shows that when parents read to babies under a year old, those same children grow to have larger, more complex vocabularies than their peers by the age of 3.

The research is in: Reading to kids is amazing for their development, and it's never too early to start reading to your baby. With that in mind, here's an age-by-age guide to getting your kids hooked on books.

Birth to 6 months

Since an infant's vision is still developing , you can start reading your baby books with little or no text and big, high-contrast pictures. Also, consider books with interactive features, such as puppets, mirrors, or peepholes, recommends Pamela High, M.D. , professor of pediatrics and author of the Brown University reading study.

The more ways you both have to enjoy a book, the better. If you'd like, read to your baby from grown-up books or magazines too. Comprehending the words isn't really the point with babies this young.

For infants, reading is about the tone of your voice and cuddling up to you. Here are a few books to read the next time you're snuggled up together:

• Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni
• Look! Look! by Peter Linenthal
• Baby Beluga by Raffi
• Little Poems for Tiny Ears by Lin Oliver

7 to 12 months

Halfway through their first year, babies may begin to grasp some of the words read to them, says Cosby Rogers, Ph.D., a professor of human development at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. The most meaningful words are the names and things from their everyday life—words like "doggy," "mommy," "daddy," "milk," or "bottle."

Books with just one object or person per age are best; hearing you name something they can recognize reinforces your baby's vocabulary and slowly helps them realize that illustrations stand for real things. Point to the pictures your baby shows interest in. And act out what you read with your face, hands, and voice. Let your baby babble back to you in return, suggests Dr. Rogers. This "conversation" helps them learn to take turns and teaches them about focusing on the same thing as someone else.

As a practical tip, babies this age tend to be hard on their playthings, so try sticking mostly to board books , which can take rough handling (and even chewing!). Cloth or vinyl books are good, too, though turning the pages can be challenging for a baby. Touch-and-feel type books are super fun, but be sure to avoid any with ribbons, buttons, or other small choking hazards that can easily detach with a good yank.

Here are a few board books that are sure to capture your baby's attention:

• Llama Llama Nighty-Night by Ann Dewdney
• Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt
• You're My Little Baby by Eric Carle
• Where Is Baby's Belly Button? by Karen Katz

13 to 18 months

At this age, you can begin to introduce books with a sentence or two per page. The sillier you are while acting out the story, the better. For instance, if you're reading about animals, make animal noises. Your baby will think it's really funny, Cowan says. Sooner or later, they will "moo" or "baa" back to you, and you'll be ready to fall off the couch laughing together.

Invite your baby's participation by asking questions such as "What does the dog say?" or "Do you see the cat?" Ask your baby to point to real-life examples of what's pictured (such as, "Where's your nose?"). At this age, you can show more pictures of things your baby doesn't encounter every day.

Also, at 15 to 18 months, your baby may be able to answer questions with a word, so give them the opportunity by asking them, "What's that?" If they answer, you can help boost their vocabulary by expanding on their thought: "Yes, car. That's a big green car."

Here are a few great books to get your baby interacting with the story:

• Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Seuss
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• First 100 Words by Roger Priddy
• Babies Love Colors by Michelle-Rhodes Conway

19 to 24 months

Many toddlers find the familiar routine of reading reassuring and calming. The same goes for familiar books. This helps explain why starting at about 18 months, children may ask for the same book over and over and over—and why they won't let you change your reading performance by a single "meow" or "vroom." However, this dogged repetition has a learning benefit as well: Experts think it helps children make sense of and then remember new words.

Here are a few books that you might not mind reading over and over again:

• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
• Just Go to Bed (Little Critter) by Mercer Mayer
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle
• Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems

More Book Picks for Infants and Toddlers You Might Love

When we asked our readers to tell us their baby's favorite book, the titles that got the most mentions weren't surprising: Goodnight Moon and anything by Dr. Seuss, followed closely by Sam McBratney's Guess How Much I Love You .

Here are some other raved-about books to add to your wish list:

• Moo, Baa, LA LA LA by Sandra Boynton: "At under 2 years, my son can recite the entire book just by looking at the pages." —Michelle Speer, Edwardsville, Illinois
• Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear ? by Nancy White Carlstrom and Time for Bed by Mem Fox: "I've read to my 5-1/2-month-old since birth, and he gets so excited when he sees these books, kicking his feet and waving his arms." —Judy James, Miami, Florida
• Maisy's Colors by Lucy Cousins: "My daughter Grace is 11 months old, but she's enjoyed this particular book since about 4 months. I don't know if she likes the mouse or the colors, but it's already completely worn out!" —Catherine Brainerd
• Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown: "My 4-1/2-month-old daughter, Cara, loves Big Red Barn . She even helps us turn the pages." —Sandra Schneider, Berthoud, Colorado
• I'm a Little Caterpillar by Tim Weare: "My 8-1/2-month-old son's favorite book is I'm a Little Caterpillar . He finds it so exciting because it has a cute little finger puppet attached." —Denise McKnight, Metairie, Louisiana
• On the Day You Were Born by Debra Frasier: "I still get chills when I read that one." —Cindy Long, Wellfleet, MA
• Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch: "It's the most heartwarming book I've ever read." —Gail Denker, Bayside, New York

Key Takeaways

Start reading to your baby as soon as pregnancy or birth to reap the most benefits of early literacy development. If you missed that early window, don't worry—anytime is a great time to begin a family habit of reading together. Find books that your children enjoy and help them develop a love of reading that will last them a lifetime.

When Children Are Not Read to at Home: The Million Word Gap . Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics . 2019.

Shared Reading at Age 1 and Later Vocabulary: A Gene-Environment Study . The Journal of Pediatrics . 2019.

Why Do Little Kids Ask to Hear the Same Story Over and Over? . Front Young Minds . 2017.

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The Best Books of the 21st Century (So Far)

Rebecca Joines Schinsky

Rebecca Joines Schinsky is the executive director of product and ecommerce at Riot New Media Group. She co-hosts All the Books! and the Book Riot Podcast. Follow her on Twitter: @rebeccaschinsky .

View All posts by Rebecca Joines Schinsky

Welcome to Today in Books, where we report on literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.

The Brag is Coming From Inside the House

Book Riot’s Kelly Jensen has spent the last few years becoming a leading name in book banning coverage, and we couldn’t be prouder to see her named as one of  Library Journal’s 2024 Movers & Shakers.  Subscribe to Kelly’s (free) Literary Activism newsletter to stay up-to-date on book banning efforts and learn about the most effective ways to get involved in your community. Kelly’s work has changed the way I think about the book banning movement and what it’s really about, and I know I speak for all of us here at BR when I say we are deeply grateful for her dedication, intelligence, and ability to get to the heart of an issue. May her efforts continue to succeed.

The Best Books of the Century (So Far)

The New York Times  has taken  a page from NPR’s book  and  aggregated their best books of the last 23 years into a cool interactive tool . Filter by year and/or genre and make your way to a read that’s almost guaranteed to be great. The  NYT ’s end-of-year lists of 10 best books and 100 notable books are consistently varied and interesting, and they’ve informed more than a few of my reading choices over the years. Nice to see them finding creative ways to repurpose content that continues to be relevant and helpful.

What’s the Point?

Why seek a traditional publishing deal when you have the internet and direct access to audience? Does anyone even read anymore? What makes books so special? Author Emma Gannon reflects on these questions and more.

New Legislation Aims to Ban Librarians from Joining the ALA

Yep, you’re reading that right. Louisiana’s House Bill 777 would criminalize libraries and library workers who use taxpayer funds to join the American Library Association. Why?  I’ll let Kelly tell.

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New Healthy Community Center transforms historic library into beacon of wellness

Senior Staff Writer, Photographer Ohio State Wexner Medical Center

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On a bright, sunny afternoon in early May , nearly 300 members of Columbus’ Near East Side gathered to celebrate their new community center. Among the first to arrive was Ann B. Walker, a centenarian deeply woven into the fabric of the neighborhood.

Seated in the front row at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Healthy Community Center, Walker looked thoughtfully at the transformation of the building located on Long Street in the historically Black neighborhood. Once bustling with readers as the Martin Luther King Jr. branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, the structure has been turned into a hub of health and wellness, thanks to a $5.1 million investment from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center , which will operate the community center.

Walker, who will turn 101 this year, had good reason to reminisce. As an award-winning TV journalist, she once interviewed Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“I was just thinking about how much things have changed,” Walker shares, her gaze lingering on an image of King Jr. installed in the building. “It’s great that it can now be used as a health center. There are people in the area who need services and don’t have access to them.”

The Healthy Community Center is more than just a building: it’s a hub for the neighborhood, focusing on promoting healthier lifestyles. With plans to host dietary and exercise workshops, health screenings  and educational health programming, it’s a gathering space that’s geared to meet the real needs of the community.

From books to health: A legacy reimagined

“The history of this place begins with a longing to learn,” says Joshua Joseph, MD , the center’s medical director, at the opening ceremony.

He shared the center’s journey from its origin as the city’s East Side library in the 1960s. He recalled the words of Martin Luther King Sr., who spoke at the library’s dedication in 1969:

“You have a beautiful space conducive to reading, but books are worth nothing unless you read them.”

Dr. Joseph says those words are reflected in the building’s new purpose: “It’s a beautiful building, but it means nothing if it’s not filled every day with programming and people improving health and wellness."

Read about the events and programming taking place at the Healthy Community Center

Programming geared for a healthy community

The transformation was a true community effort, says the center’s director, Javonte McDonald. It required a commitment to understanding and meeting community needs, which influenced every aspect of the center, from the state-of-the-art teaching kitchen for nutrition classes to the café that supports local entrepreneurs to an art gallery that spotlights area artists.

“It will help address pressing needs in creative and collaborative ways to improve the health of the communities that we serve,” says John J. Warner, MD, chief executive officer of the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and executive vice president at Ohio State.

Local artists contribute artwork displayed in the Healthy Community Center.

The Healthy Community Center helps fill a gap in providing access to healthy foods to area residents.

A demonstration kitchen will be used to teach healthy cooking and nutrition skills to community members.

Members of the community and leaders from the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center cut the ribbon for the grand opening of the Healthy Community Center.

The Healthy Community Center honors the legacy of the building's former use as the Martin Luther King Jr. branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library.

Community members at the grand opening of the Healthy Community Center.

Dr. Joseph says his team is working closely with community partners to match services with community needs. “Ohio State has a vested interest in supporting healthy lifestyle changes so everyone has the opportunity to lead longer, healthier lives,” he says.

The Healthy Community Center will have a café with indoor and outdoor seating. The space will serve as a business incubator for an independent restaurant owner. The center’s partners include the Mid-Ohio Food Collective, Partners Achieving Community Transformation and the Growing and Growth Collective.

Longtime resident Pamela Shields, who founded the Urban Aging Residents Coalition, emphasized the center’s role in bridging health disparities .

“Our focus is health, wealth and wellness. We aim to get African Americans, people of color and marginalized groups healthy, attending their medical appointments and involved in research studies,” she says.

A neighborhood cornerstone

As the community looks ahead, the Healthy Community Center is set to become a bedrock of the Near East Side.

“My greatest hope is that the entire community sees this center as a resource,” says Julialynne Walker, with the Bronzeville Growers Market. She’s also Ann B. Walker’s daughter. “If everyone welcomes, embraces and uses it fully, we will see a change in our community’s health over time.”

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