Books to engage your mind

A good book makes the best travel buddy – whether you’re jetting off to faraway seas or holiday on home turf. Here, a few of our faculty share their top picks for what you should pack in your suitcase.

 

Gray Areas by Adia Wingfield.

Recommended by Aneeta Rattan

Gray Areas is a compelling read from start to finish because it shares the real stories of Black professionals navigating different, complex, and fraught dynamics of race at work - and what each individual does to overcome them. In this, her latest book, Sociologist Adia Harvey Wingfield draws on a decade of interviews with Black workers to explore how the “gray areas” of discrimination have impacted their careers. She looks at how organisational cultures that promote diversity as a concept but fall short of tackling underlying attitudes continue to fail Black Workers. Crucially, she also puts forward practical strategies and approaches that show managers and employees how to address these issues and create truly equal workplaces.

 

The Scout Mindset: Why some people see things clearly and others don’t by Julia Galef

Recommended by Jonathan Berman

There is a large gulf between believing that we see things clearly and actually seeing things clearly. We all think we see things clearly, but do we really? In this practical and insightful book, Julia Galef, co-founder for the Center for Applied Rationality, argues that too often we are blinded by our motivations. That is, we are too easily swayed by what we want to be true over what actually is true. And this hurts our ability to thrive in our own lives. How do you overcome this? By adopting, what she refers to as a “Scout Mindset.” This book is an easy read, but it is powerful. It’s changed the way I think and reason, and if you read it, it will surely change the way you do too.

 

Chip War by Chris Miller

Recommended by James Dow

An excellent account of the chip industry, from the early beginnings in 1950s California to the current political tensions over Taiwan. It explains very well how TSMC in Taiwan and ASML in the Netherlands came to be so important for the global supply chain. Chris Miller is good at introducing the characters in his story, without lingering on irrelevant details. The book is well edited and avoids repetition. Great for understanding how the world economy is evolving and for getting insights into the geopolitical tensions in South China Sea.

 

The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt

Recommended by Dafna Goor

In The Righteous Mind, moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt delves into the emotional underpinnings of our moral judgments, arguing that they stem from stories rather than reason. This book explores why liberals and conservatives often talk past each other, lacking a shared moral language, which exacerbates political polarisation. Haidt traces the evolution of our diverse moralities, highlighting that morality encompasses more than just fairness. He provides thought-provoking insights on how we can transcend our natural self-righteousness to reduce political divides. This is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the roots of our moral and political differences and finding ways to bridge them.