For students, staying ahead often requires more than just keeping up with coursework. It is important to prepare for the challenges that lie beyond the classroom.
To help you navigate this landscape, we’ve compiled a selection of five recently published books that offer invaluable insights across various subjects, ranging from how to stay creative and maintain your focus to understanding the significant societal shifts occurring.
(1) “1000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round” by Jami Attenberg
In 2018, author Jami Attenberg was up against a tight deadline and needed a spark of creativity. So, she and a friend decided to write 1,000 words every day for two weeks. They invited others to join in online, using the hashtag #1000WordsofSummer. What started as a small challenge blossomed into a big literary movement where writers supported one another to write without worrying about judgment or writer’s block.
This book was inspired by that literary movement, and showcases brief, encouraging essays about writing, motivation, creativity and productivity from 50 acclaimed writers. They include New York Times bestsellers and Pulitzer Prize winners, such as Roxane Gay, Lauren Groff, Celeste Ng, Meg Wolitzer and Carmen Maria Machado.
Filled with lively word art illustrations, “1000 Words” is an easy-to-use book that allows you to just flip to any page for a quick burst of inspiration.
(2) “Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection” by Charles Duhigg
“Supercommunicators” by Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of “The Power of Habit”, delves into how we can become exceptional communicators both professionally and personally. He teaches us how to find and use the hidden parts of every conversation.
Every time we talk, we’re having one of these three kinds of conversations: the practical stuff (like what’s really going on), emotions (how we feel), and social stuff (who we are). You will learn how to identify and understand each type of conversation, pick up the feelings, negotiations and beliefs hidden in each conversation, and how you can have better conversations with other people.
(3) “Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense” by Saul Perlmutter, Robert MacCoun and John Campbell
The influx of conflicting information on social media or mass media makes it difficult for us to differentiate between what is meaningful and what is insignificant. Robert MacCoun, a social scientist and Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, collaborated for five years with his former UC Berkeley colleagues Saul Perlmutter, a Nobel-Prize-winning physicist, and John Campbell, a philosophy professor, to write “Third Millennium Thinking”. This book teaches us how to effectively manage information overload and collaborate with others to address urgent global issues.
The authors advocate a scientific mindset, so you’ll learn about tools and methods that scientists use to avoid mistakes, understand the world and make decisions. These techniques can help us all solve problems, no matter how big or small. In summary, this book provides us with a new way to make sense of confusing or contradictory information.
(4) “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” by Jonathan Haidt
Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist known for his bestseller “The Coddling of the American Mind”, released a new book expanding on his earlier ideas. In it, he suggests that today’s young people are affected by significant changes in childhood culture, resulting in negative impacts.
These youngsters have been raised with almost constant adult supervision as they were born to overprotective parents. They were also the first cohort of teens to undergo adolescence with smartphones, which became part of their identities. This dangerous combination of “overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world” has made them particularly prone to anxiety and depression.
Hence, in this book, Haidt explores the effects of modern technology and parenting styles on the rising rates of anxiety and mental illness among young people. Through detailed analysis, he offers valuable tips on how to address the challenges that this mental health crisis presents.
(5) “Music and Mind” edited by Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming, a well-known soprano and arts/health advocate, has curated this collection of essays about the powerful effects of music and the arts on health and the human experience. Such effects can provide pain relief, alleviate anxiety and depression, and help patients regain speech after experiencing a stroke or brain injury.
Written by leading scientists, artists, educators, healthcare providers and creative arts therapists, the book includes topics such as “How to Fall in Love with Opera”, “Nature, Culture, and Healing”, and “Musicality, Evolution, and Animal Responses to Music”.
This field of study is quite groundbreaking, thanks to recent improvements in brain imaging technology. It is backed by reputable organisations like the National Institutes of Health, big hospitals and universities. As a result, there’s a growing interest from the public in how music and the arts can improve mental health.
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