Reading list

100+ Must-Read Books In 2022.

Written by The DO TeamEducation
Books are cool. Learning is cool. They are the bargain of the century. Throughout the year we make a note of the books that we come across. That you tell us about. And we turn that into our annual list. Here it is in all its imperfection.

Wellbeing

By Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy

Big Feelings

Having big feelings doesn’t mean there is something wrong with you. It means you are human. This book helps us to understand our emotions.

By Seyi Akiwowo

How To Stay Safe Online

A powerful, comprehensive guide for digital self-care and allyship. This book teaches us how to spot and respond to online abuse.

By Jenn Kutcher

How Are You, Really

To put it simply, this book is for the one who is ready to live a life outside the tired cliche of “having it all.”

By Davina McCall

Menopausing

A book of clear facts so that women can make informed decisions about their experience, removing fear, shame and misinformation around menopause.

By Donna Ashworth

I Wish I Knew

A beautiful collection of poems to help guide us through life. Ashworth shares lessons learnt from her struggles and gratitude on each page.

By Camilla Cavendish

Extra Time

Explores how different countries are responding to the challenges brought about by an ageing population, with a positive approach to longevity.

By Russell Foster

Life Time

Learn about your body clock and how attuning to your natural circadian rhythm can improve your sleep, health and quality of life. Insightful, practical advice.

By Ruth Allen

Grounded

We all have a different experience with nature. Grounded helps us learn how we can benefit from a deeper connection with it and our own wild voice.

By Michael Pollan

This Is Your Mind on Plants

In a unique blend of history, science, memoir and reportage, Pollan shines a fresh light on plant drugs and our relationship to them.

By Miles Richardson

Reconnection

This timely book offers simple, practical, positive steps for how we can all reconnect with nature and work towards a better world.

By Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli

Wonder Drug

Two doctors team up to explain how serving others is a secret superpower. Kinder people not only live longer, they live better.

Money

By Scott Kupor

Secrets of Sand Hill Road

Whether you’re trying to get a new company off the ground or scale an existing business to the next level, you need to understand how venture capitalists think.

By David Willetts

The Pinch

In this fascinating and provocative book, Willetts shows how the baby boomers took their children’s future, and why they should give it back.

By Scott Page

Your Epic Money Adventure

Displayed in a unique visual format, your kids will roll up their sleeves, get their hands dirty, and learn the value of money the old-fashioned way.

By Jon Alexander

Citizens

The headlines of our time are enough to make anyone feel helpless. But when we start to think and act like Citizens, not Consumers, everything changes.

By Alice Ross

Investing To Save The Planet

How can your money make a difference? Learn how you can turn your savings and pensions, however big or small, into a force for change.

By Rahim Taghizadegan, Ronald Stoeferle and Mark Valek

Austrian School for Investors

The financial system is shaking. The Austrian School’s approach provides a needed respite for investors caught in inflationary treadmills.

By Gigi

21 Lessons

A reflective personal journey of lessons learned by falling down the rabbit hole. Like Bitcoin, these lessons aren’t a static thing, they are evolving.

By David Graeber

Debt

An encyclopaedic journey through global history with stories of grand civilisations, revealing more about human condition than you might imagine.

By Saifedean Ammous

The Fiat Standard

An explanation of the technology behind the current analog global monetary system. Examining the 20th century monetary technology and its many failures.

By Ray Dalio

Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order

A timely addition, putting into perspective the ‘Big Cycle’ driving the successes and failures of all the world’s major countries throughout history.

By Kate Raworth

Doughnut Economics

Exploring the mindset and ways of thinking for humanity to thrive in the 21st century, and drawing together insights from diverse economic perspectives.

By Allen Farrington and Sacha Meyers

Bitcoin is Venice

What if a global, digital, open-source, programmable currency was monetising from zero? A crash course through the errors of modern economic theory.

Creativity

By Leidy Klotz

Subtract

Our mindset is always to add more to achieve more. But what if that was not true. What if you could achieve more, but with less.

By Kinfolk

Kindling Magazine

A new magazine for people with children from the team who make Kinfolk. A place to explore the fresh perspectives that come with raising a child.

By Jean Jullien

Jean Jullien

The debut monograph on the globally-lauded artist, filled with his joyful, witty paintings, illustrations, collaborations, and more.

By Apartamento

At A Distance

At a Distance, a podcast of conversations focused on long-view, planetary-scale concerns, was born. 100 conversations curated into a book.

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency

Two of the world’s most influential design figures. Meet the visionary designers whose innovations and ingenuity give us hope for the future.

By Miranda Keeling

The Year I Stopped To Notice

Inspired by her popular Twitter account, Keeling’s observations of the magic, humour, strangeness and beauty in ordinary life through the changing seasons.

By Lynsey Addario

It’s What I Do

A memoir of how the relentless pursuit of truth, in virtually every major theatre of war in the twenty-first century, has shaped Addario’s life.

By Dominic Bradbury

21st Century Houses

People dream of commissioning an architect to design their perfect home. Having a space built around your needs, interests and desires can be life-changing.

By Julia Watson

Lo — TEK. Design By Radical Indigenism

In an era of high-tech and climate extremes, we are drowning in information while starving for wisdom. Enter this design movement.

By Laura Hoptman, Erik Verhagen, et al.

Ugo Rondinone

The definitive monograph on the work of one of the most prolific, versatile, and exciting artists of the last three decades.

By Harry Baker

Unashamed

A collection of poems taken from Baker’s live performances that have captivated audiences and sold out shows up and down the country.

By Nick Liddell

You Are A Fish

Featuring original and witty illustrations, this book is for anybody with an interest in how to elevate brands from merely average to sublime.

Environment + Sustainability

By Giles Hutchins

Leading By Nature

Exploring the tools and techniques to help us lead organisations capable of transforming and thriving in a fast-emerging future.

By George Monbiot

Regenesis

Regenesis weaves the poetry of soil into the politics of farming to shake the ground on which we all grow. An urgent and exhilarating journey.

By Naomi Klein, Timothy Morton et al.

Green Ideas Series

In twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement. These words have defined the environmental movement today.

By Jason Hickel

Less Is More

The world has finally awoken to the reality of climate breakdown and ecological collapse. Now we must face up to its primary cause.

By Charles Clove

Rewilding The Sea

This essential read is propelling us to rethink our relationship with nature and reveals that saving our oceans is easier than we think.

By Marieke Eyskoot

This Is A Good Guide

If there’s anything that this time has made very clear, it’s that we can’t continue as we are. Change is needed, but how? This book has the answers.

Foreword by Seth Godin

The Carbon Almanac

A source of reliable and easily understandable knowledge on climate change that you can share to create meaningful impact, right now.

By Lucy Siegle

Be the Ultimate Friend of the Earth

Tackling 10 big topics involved in our quest to reach net zero through stories, revealing questions, and probing our understanding of what we can all do.

By Katharine Hayhoe

Saving Us

This is not another doomsday narrative about a planet on fire. It is a multilayered look at science, faith, and human psychology.

By William MacAskill

What We Owe The Future

A guide for making the future better. Humanity’s written history spans only 5000 years. Our future could last for millions more or end tomorrow.

By Greta Thunberg

The Climate Book

You might think securing a safe future for life on Earth, at a scale and speed never seen, against all odds is impossible. But there is hope.

Productivity

By Denise Duffield-Thomas

Chill and Prosper

Feeling burned-out by your business? Sick of the ‘hustle and grind’ culture of your industry? There’s a better way. Get over your perfectionism.

By Ryan Holiday

Discipline is Destiny

Drawing on the stories of historical figures we can emulate as pillars of self-discipline. Without self-discipline, all our plans fall apart.

By Manuel J. Smith

When I Say No, I Feel Guilty

Are you letting your kids get away with murder? Are you embarrassed by praise or crushed by criticism? Learn the answers in this book.

By Luke Burgis

Wanting

A groundbreaking exploration of why we want what we want, and a toolkit for freeing ourselves from chasing unfulfilling desires.

By Michael Watkins

The First 90 Days

Strategies for getting up to speed faster and smarter, whilst conquering the challenges of transitions no matter where you are in your career.

By Carina Maggar

How to Make Work Not Suck

A straight-talking guide to the real world of work. Discover genuinely useful advice that will help find confidence in reaching your career goals.

By Ed Smith

Making Decisions

A unique approach to finding success in a fast-changing and increasingly data-reliant world. Whatever the power of data, humans aren’t finished yet.

By Lynda Gratton

Redesigning Work

Based on 30 years of research into the technological, demographic, cultural and societal trends, Gratton presents her innovative framework for redesigning work.

By Erica Dhawan

Digital Body Language

Ambiguous text-messages. Weird punctuation you can make head nor tail of. How did we lose our innate capacity to understand each other?

By Lake Bell

Inside Voice

Discovering how a vital piece of our identity, our voice, serves as an x-ray of our personal histories. Bell explores this topic in the most deeply personal way.

By Eric Barker

Plays Well With Others

The surprising science behind why everything you know about relationships is mostly wrong. From our highs to our lows, our relationships determine a lot.

Food + Drink

By The Lea-Wilson Family

Sea Salt

After 20 years of making award-winning sea salt, the Lea-Wilson family have put together recipes showcasing an often misunderstood and misused ingredient.

By Kitty Tait and Al Tait

Breadsong

A story of 14 year old Kitty Tait who suffered from depression and anxiety, and withdrew from the world until she found baking. These are her favourite recipes.

By Jessie Inchauspé

Glucose Revolution

Drawing on science and her own pioneering research, biochemist Inchauspé offers simple hacks to help you reverse your symptoms.

By Sally Pinhey and Margaret Tebbs

Plants for Soil Regeneration

A beautifully illustrated guide to the plants which farmers, growers and gardeners can use to improve soil structure and restore fertility.

By Tim Spector

Spoon-Fed

Taking a revelatory look at the misinformation about the food we eat, by questioning policies in short and accessible bite-sized chapters.

By Amanda Haas and Dr. Bradly Jacobs

The Anti Inflammation Cookbook

Eating certain foods and avoiding others can be a highly effective way to diminish and manage inflammation. 65 delicious, simple recipes.

By Sophie Gordon

The Whole Vegetable

130 creative plant-based recipes organised by season. This book shares several enticing ways to get the most out of your fruit and vegetables.

By Noor Murad and Yotam Ottolenghi

Ottolenghi Test Kitchen

Exploring all the tools and skills needed to build up your creative repertoire and refill your shelves and fridges, and accessorise your next meal.

By Olia Hercules

Home Food

This charming and extremely personal book offers irresistible recipes, charming storytelling and boundless heart no matter where we are from.

By Camper English

Doctors and Distillers

Camper English reveals how and why the contents of our medicine and liquor cabinets were, until surprisingly recently, one and the same.

By Stephen and David Flynn

The Veg Box

Take 10 of the most common veg and 10 delicious ways to cook them. A cookbook laid out by veg rather than meals, aiming to tackle food waste.

By Hasan Semay

Big Has HOME

Grounded, honest and talented North-London based chef shares the dishes, the places and the people that have made him who he is today.

Sport + Adventure

By Alastair Humphreys

The Girl Who Rowed The Ocean

Step aboard and join a life-changing adventure of a girl who rowed the ocean. A book based on Humphrey’s experience of the Atlantic.

By Rick Ridgeway

Life Lived Wild

Ridgeway shares his stories about relationships with fellow travellers and their commitments to protecting the wild places they shared.

By Guirec Soudée (translated by David Warriner)

A Sailor, A Chicken, An Incredible Voyage

When Soudée was 21 years old, he bought a 30-foot sailboat and set out across the Atlantic, with only his companion a plucky pet hen, Monique.

By Alex Scott

How (Not) To Be Strong

From the football cages of East London to broadcasting to millions. Inspiring memoir of strength and resilience from former Arsenal captain.

By Mike Sielski

The Rise

More than a basketball book. This is an exploration of the identity and making of an icon and the effect of his development on those around him.

By Beth Mead

Lioness

Empowering and inspirational. Mead shares the challenges that shaped her, her journey to the top, and the life events that made her stronger.

By Travis Elborough

Atlas of Improbable Places

The truths and myths behind these hidden lairs, forgotten cities and improbable wonders that are as varied as the destinations themselves.

By Dan Good

Playing Through the Pain

The powerful story of an athlete who changed baseball forever, being the first player to confess to having used performance-enhancing steroids.

By Gail Muller

Unlost

A rollercoaster of pain, laughter and recovery. Muller shows us that even in our darkest times, it’s possible to find our inner grit, face our fears and feel hopeful.

By Nimsdai Purge

Beyond Possible

What happens when ambition meets limitless imagination? An incredible journey of an elite soldier conquering 14 of the world’s toughest peaks.

By Sam Walker

The Captain Class

The secret to winning is not what you think it is. It’s not the coach. It’s not the star. It’s not money. It’s not a strategy. It’s something else entirely.

Business

By Alec Leach

The World Is On Fire But We’re Still Buying Shoes

A manifesto for a slower, more intentional approach to fashion. This pocket-sized paperback is full of infographics, diagrams and quotes.

By Russell Brunson

Traffic Secrets

The big secret about traffic on the Internet is you don’t really have to create it. The challenge is to figure out where they are and provide value.

By Joe MacLeod

Endineering

There is a gap in the consumer lifecycle that needs attention. Endineering explores how to reveal new opportunities and design for better consumer endings.

By Gary Vaynerchuk

Twelve And A Half

Exploring twelve essential emotional skills that provides today’s leaders with critical tools to acquire and develop these traits.

By Monocle

The Monocle Book of Entrepreneurs

A handbook designed to encourage, inspire and perhaps even gently prod readers into taking the plunge and starting something for themselves.

By Richard Shotton

The Choice Factory

Before you can influence decisions, you need to understand what drives them. Investigating how behaviour is shaped by psychological shortcuts.

By Steve Case

The Rise of the Rest

A journey into the startup communities that are transforming cities nationwide. Includes dozens of stories of struggle and achievement.

By Tony Fadell

Build

An advice encyclopaedia. A mentor in a box. You don’t need to reinvent how you lead and manage, just what you make.

By Bredan Kane

Hook Point

How to stand out in a 3-second world by breaking down the most effective strategies to generate new opportunities, innovate and scale your business.

By Vijay Vaitheeswaran

Power to the People

How the coming energy revolution will transform our lives. Turn energy business upside down and perhaps even save the planet.

By Timo Kiuru

I See Something Special In You

This book is about more than business, it’s about the experience that make us who we are and the challenges that bring out the best in us.

By Russ Laraway

When They Win You Win

Managers are failing, and no one is helping. A leadership approach that delivers more engaged employees and better business results.

By Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman and Kaley Klemp

The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership

You’ll never see leadership the same way again .These 15 commitments are a distillation of decades of work with CEOs and other leaders.

By Will Guidara

Unreasonable Hospitality

Through sparkling stories of Guidara’s journey through the restaurant industry, this book urges us to find the magic in what we do.

By Dr Michelle Mazur

3 Word Rebellion

A simple approach to creating not only a message that works to grow your business 24/7, but a movement that’s bigger than your business.

By Kelly Wendorf

Flying Lead Change

Underneath the challenges of our modern age, we find a common cause of disconnection from each other, the earth, and lives of purpose.

Technology

By Claire Jarrett

Rapid Google Ads Success

If you want to get more leads than you could have ever expected, this book is for you. A toolbox of condensed experience with practical methods and checklists.

By Jane McGonigal

Imaginable

By seeing what’s coming, you can adapt to new challenges, reduce anxiety, and build hope and resilience. Learn to imagine the unimaginable.

By Kevin Kelly

Four Favorite Tools

The 150 best past responses from the Cool Tools podcast are presented in this book. Enjoy 300 pages of concentrated goodness and tool fandom.

By Matthew Ball

The Metaverse

From the leading theorist of the Metaverse comes the definitive account of the next internet. What does the Metaverse means for all of us?

By Martina Dove

The Psychology of Fraud, Persuasion and Scam Techniques

Providing an in-depth explanation of not only why we fall for scams but how fraudsters use technology and other techniques to manipulate others.

By Vitalik Buterin

Proof Of Stake

This book reveals Buterin’s invention that will guide future generations of Ethereum’s community of radicals and builders.

By Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley

The Digital Mindset

A digital mindset will future-proof you, your career, and your organisation. Learn how to develop one with this book.

By Tripp Mickle

After Steve

A dramatic, untold story inside Apple after the passing of Jobs, and how the fading of the former and the rise of the latter led to Apple losing its soul.

By DK

How Technology Works

Discover the hidden workings of everyday tech with this graphic guide. This book demystifies the machinery that keeps the modern world going.

By Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Rene Pickhardt, and Olaoluwa Osuntokun

Mastering the Lightning Network

This practical guide explains how this advancement will enable the next level of scale for Bitcoin, increasing speed and privacy while reducing fees.

Change Makers

By Samira Ahmed, Lydia Miller et al.

Inspirational Women

Published to celebrate Women’s History Month, and focusing on stories of pioneering women whose work has changed the course of British history.

By Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Circular Design For Fashion

Written in recognition of fashion’s huge potential to move towards a circular economy and in homage to its creatives.

By Maggie DoYne

Between The Mountain And The Sky

Showing us the goodness that is possible when a single person takes action to help another and, in the process, changes the lives of hundreds.

By Laetitia Ky

Love And Justice

A deeply personal story told through the powerful sculptures Ky creates with her hair, embracing Black culture and the fight for social justice.

By Edward Enninful

A Visible Man

From a childhood bedroom in Ghana to the ground zero of grunge in 1990s London, the unseen arbiter of fashion and culture tells his story.

By Jonathon Porritt

Hope In Hell

A powerful call to arms from on of Britain’s most eloquent and trusted campaigners. This is one of the hardest book Porritt has written.

By Timur Kuran

Private Truths, Public Lies

Kuran uses theoretical argument to illuminate an array of puzzling social phenomena, and draws on diverse intellectual traditions.

By Claudia Goldin

Career and Family

This book traces how generations of women have responded to the problem of balancing career and family in the twentieth century.

By Richard Walker

The Green Grocery

The ultimate guide to helping all businesses to recognise the value of pursuing ethical policies and how to achieve them.

By Will Page

Tarzan Economics

The most important thing you can do in business is change the fundamentals of what you do, rather than fighting a battle that’s already lost.

By Julia Hobsbawm

The Nowhere Office

This book will help organisations understand how to use this extraordinary moment to completely rethink and reimagine the way they organise work.

By Annie Proulx

Fen, Bog and Swamp

A lifelong acolyte of the natural world, Proulx brings her witness and research to the subject of wetlands and the vitally important role they play.

By Barbara Walter

How Civil Wars Start

A call-to-action to action for those who want to preserve multiethnic democracy and the values that America is supposed to stand for.

By Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

His Name Is George Floyd

Reclaiming the life of the man from the political totem that his name has become. This book shines a light on systemic racism and inequality.

2022 DO Book Co Releases

By Angelo Morgan-Somers

DO Bitcoin

A concise guide to digital currency that focuses on Bitcoin. Written in a jargon-free style by self-taught analyst and advisor.

By Richard Hoare & Andrew Gummer

DO Deal

Sharing a refreshed approach to negotiation. Whether it’s a creative partnerships, or building a reputation for getting the deal done.

By Lucy Gannon

DO Drama

The how and why of writing drama as a lively conversation with one of Britain’s most prolific and successful screenwriters.

By Rob Poynton

DO Improvise 2.0

This new approach to work and life, is an updated edition of our 2013 title with new material and new ‘improvised’ illustrations.

By David Hieatt

Propósito

Why you do something keeps you doing when the tough times come. And, they will. DO Purpose is now available in Spanish. Disfrutar!

Phew

Thank you for making it all the way to the bottom of the list. Our aim is to share insightful and inspiring books that will help you on your journey from here, to where you want to be.

Written by
The DO Team
Relentless progress needs a certain kind of mindset. It is in the walls of our buildings. It is in the hearts of everyone that works here. It turns up every day to make amazing things happen. One team in pursuit of one goal; to help you close the gap between where you are now, and where you want to be.

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