Merit’s New Year Reading List

Written By Christine Dormeier

Paperback, hardcover, Kindle, or audiobook… We love tucking into a carefully crafted compilation of words, sentences, paragraphs, and stories. Here are top titles our team recommends to inspire you in 2024!

Must reads:

  1. "Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away" by Annie Duke. This book is less about quitting and more about forcing informed decisions (and action!)—navigating grit versus unproductive stubbornness.

  2. ”The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion” By Jonathan Haidt. A thought-provoking deep dive into moral psychology and ethics.

  3. "Ikigai: The Japanese Secrets to a Long and Happy Life" by Héctor Garcia. This gem is gushing with great centering mantras—elevating purpose, intention, and balance.

  4. “All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis” by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katherine K. Wilkinson. A courageous look at the environment and rally cry to join embrace sustainable practices and innovative solutions.

  5. “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari. A new way of looking at what it means to be “human.” And it begs the question, “As humans, where have we been, and where are we going?”

  6. ”Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” by Atul Gawande. Dying is a natural part of living, yet it’s something we tend to forget or ignore until we come face to face with it. Gawande compassionately questions the status quo around end-of-life care in this thought-provoking look at aging, dying, and medicine.

  7. “The Creative Act” by Rick Rubin. Rick has decoded some of the vagueness and mysteriousness of the Creative Process and succinctly put into words what creatives intuit and feel when they do their “work.”

  8. "On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good" by Elise Loehnen. A look at hidden and not-so-hidden societal expectations for women.

  9. ”The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures” by Anne Fadiman. This is the meticulously researched and heartbreaking story of Lia Lee, a young Hmong girl whose family immigrated to California after the Vietnam War. It makes a moving case for cultural humility in the medical system and the life-saving force of empathy in everyday life.

  10. ”Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden” by Camille Dungy. Exploring diversity, agriculture, soil health, and food systems.

  11. ”Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech” by Sara Wachter-Boettcher. A powerful argument for diversity and empathy in the tech industry, this book uncovers the sexism, racism, and hidden biases that form the foundation of many of the products we all use and take for granted in our daily lives.

  12. "They All Saw a Cat" by Brendan Wenzel. A children's exploration of perspectives— how encounters with the same object can lead to wildly different experiences.

  13. “North River” by Pete Hamill. A fun historical NYC fiction to round out the list.

Christine Dormeier
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