Here is a valuable article from TED that provides excellent suggestions for summer reading.  Those who co-created the list are among the most thoughtful people who continue to generate “ideas worth spreading.”

Here’s an excerpt.

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We asked TED speakers, TED-Ed educators and TED Fellows: “What books would you bring with you to a desert island?” In their deliciously diverse responses, you’ll find there’s something for every kind of reader.

They offered up recommendations — please use the following links to jump around the sections you’re interested in — for when you’re hungry for advice and insight on a very important topic: you; when you’re willing to put in personal time to be your best self at work; when you long to lose yourself in a thrilling, page-turning read; when you enjoy reading about other people’s families; when laughing while you read is your favorite thing to do; when you’re curious about the people who changed the world; when you crave an extra bit of beauty and poetry in your life; when you’re filled with questions about the Earth and its creatures; when you need books that you can enjoy along with your kids; when you’re looking for books about being a woman; when you want to expand your understanding of religion and spirituality; when you’re itching to get creative; when your fantasy summer vacation is a trip into a sci-fi world; when you’re ready to return to the classics you never got around to reading; when you’re wondering how our society got to where it is today; when you aspire to change our society – and the world – for the better; when books are your favourite way to meet real people and learn about their lives; and when you’re just searching for a really great rutabaga recipe.

When you’re hungry for advice and insight on a very important topic: You

The Traveler’s Gift: Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success by Andy Andrews

This book demonstrates how you can have a not-so-ideal situation teach you key life lessons through positive thinking. It revisits key points in history and depicts a takeaway for personal success to be learned from each event. These lessons can be applied to both personal and professional aspects of one’s life. It’s a great book for reflection and for helping one plan for resiliency.

— Olympia della Flora (TED Talk: Creative ways to get kids to thrive in school)

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain (TED Talk: The power of introverts)

Regardless of where you happen to fall on the introvert-ambivert-extravert spectrum, I highly recommend this insightful and accessible book. Touchingly personal and well-researched, this book is what inspired me to pursue social psychology during my doctoral program. At this crossroads in US history, it is particularly relevant to understand and celebrate the traits that define each of us as leaders. I am so happy I consumed Quiet via the audio version, since the book’s takeaways really come to life through the understated yet powerful delivery of the narrator.

— Dana Kanze (TED Talk: The real reason female entrepreneurs get less funding)

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think and Do by Jennifer Eberhardt

Stanford University professor Eberhardt draws on years of her own rigorous academic research and the work of others to effectively break down how bias insidiously operates in each of our lives — as perpetrators, victims, bystanders and helpers — every day. The deeply moving personal and professional experiences that she shares help facilitate a tangible connection to this important subject matter. A must read for scholars and laypeople alike, this book reaches beyond the merely descriptive to prescribe courses of action that have been found to be effective in combating our unconscious bias.

— Dana Kanze (TED Talk: The real reason female entrepreneurs get less funding)

Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert (TED Talk: The psychology of your future self)

It’s hard to walk through a library without stumbling on a book about happiness, but this one is my all-time favorite. Gilbert shares fascinating insights from scientific research on happiness and shows us how our most fundamental assumptions about what will make us happy often turn out to be wrong. This book is so entertaining and funny that I can’t read it in public because it makes me laugh out loud (so it’s perfect for a desert island!).

— Elizabeth Dunn (TED Talk: Helping others makes us happier — but it matters how we do it)

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Here is a direct link to the complete article.

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