I always say that one of the nicest things you can do for an author is to tell someone else about their book. In keeping with that spirit, here’s a big list of books I absolutely adore. You’ll find some novels mixed in with the non-fiction, so please don’t dismiss the importance of reading non-fiction as part of your professional development.

What these books all have in common is that they are each awesome, they each made me think, and they each stuck with me long after I got to the final page. I hope you enjoy scanning through this list and you’re sure to find something good to read here.

1. Crossing The Unknown Sea, David Whyte
2. Disrupters, Patti Fletcher
3. Orbiting The Giant Hairball, Gordon MacKenzie
4. Imaginable, Jane McGonigal
5. The Icarus Deception, Seth Godin
6. Fight Like A Girl, Kate Germano
7. The Pentagon Wars, James Burton
8. The Heart of War, Kathleen McInnis
9. How Come Every Time I Get Stabbed In The Back, My Fingerprints Are On The Knife, Jerry Harvey
10. Zilch, Nancy Lublin
11. Lab Girl, Hope Jahren
12. The Excellence Dividend, Tom Peters
13. Yes To The Mess, Frank Barrett
14. Reality is Broken, Jane McGonigal
15. The Reflective Practitioner, Donald Schon
16. Intertwingled, Peter Morville
17. Space Opera, Catherynne Valente
18. To Engineer is Human, Henry Petroski
19. Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud
20. Art Thinking, Amy Whitaker
21. Presentation Zen, Garr Reynolds
22. Faster, Better, Cheaper, Howard McCurdy
23. Just For Fun, Eric Torvalds
24. How To Be Fearless, Jessica Hagy
25. Complications, Atul Gawande
26. Progress In Flying Machines, Octave Chanute
27. Ignore Everybody, Hugh MacLeod
28. The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal
29. Snowcrash, Neal Stephenson
30. Everything All At Once, Bill Nye
31. Tilt, Nicholas Shrady
32. Wood, Wire, Wings, Kirsten Larson
33. A Dream of Flight, Rob & Jef Polivka
34. Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir
35. Syllabus, Lynda Barry
36. Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud
37. The Next 100 Years, George Griedman
38. 2034, James Stavridis
39. Ghost Fleet, August Cole & Pete Singer
40. How to Write One Song, Jeff Tweedy

photo credit Dan Ward