Book Lists, Notes, & Reviews
Our Read Ensemble book reviews and book lists for the inspired changemaker. Catch what our Grow Ensemble team is reading and thinking about. Learn more. Dive into a new book that’ll inspire you to change the world.
The Latest Read Ensemble Lists & Reviews:
The Social Entrepreneur’s Book List: Getting Introduced, Inspired, and Started in the World of Change-Making (2020)
The Social Entrepreneur’s Book List: Introduced, Inspired, and Started in the World of Change-Making (2020)Want the audio that goes with this post? Listen here:Subscribe:hat’s better than a new book, right? Maybe a new book that also challenges...
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman When the waves are good, surf. When there’s powder on the mountains, ski. Patagonia Founder Yvon Chouinard didn’t set out to be a businessperson. As he mentions in this very book, Let My People Go...
The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World
The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World Want the audio version of this post? Listen here:Subscribe:n this post, we’ll share with you our experience of reading and digesting Jacqueline Novogratz’s The Blue...
Don’t Miss Another Read Ensemble List, Write-Up or Review
Every. Single. Monday. We send out our Better World Weekly Newsletter to change-makers and innovators from all sectors all over the world. In it, we share our latest ‘Read Ensemble Reads,’ be them new articles, books, or essays that we feel are worth chatting about. Don’t miss the conversation.
Reading Lists for the Changemaker:
Our Grow Ensemble team is full of voracious readers! And so, below you can find some of our most recent curated lists of the ‘best reads’ by topic, interest, or type of changemaker. Happy reading!
Book Notes & Reviews:
For more lengthy discussions, reviews, and notes of some of our favorite Read Ensemble Reads, we publish longer-form write-ups. If you are interested in a deeper dive into any of the books you know we’ve read before, these are for you. Warning: there are spoilers! Maybe read the book first. Or not, your choice.
(Jacqueline Novogratz)
In autobiographical fashion, Novogratz shares her journey from a career in international banking to supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses in African communities in her book, The Blue Sweater.
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
(Yvon Chouinard)
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman is part biography, part compilation of Chouinard’s philosophies that underlie what has become one of the most successful and well-regarded outdoor apparel brands in existence: Patagonia.
More to come!…
Read Ensemble Recent Recommendations:
For many of the best books our team hasn’t had the opportunity to write-up or discuss further yet, you can find those here. A few titles we think you might like if you, like us, want to leave the world better than you found it.
Notes on Better Book Buying…
Founded in 2002, our friends at Better World Books are truly…well…’better’ booksellers. Their B Corporation Certification says so. As does the fact that at Better World Books, they “believe profit is not the only way to measure business success.”
It wouldn’t be unreasonable to consider these folks one of the most ‘socially responsible’ online bookstores.
Each time you buy a book, Better World Books donates a book to someone in need. Simple.
The Better World Books team offers to offset the carbon emissions from the shipping and handling of your book sale, they’ve donated well over $28,000,000 to fund literacy and libraries and have reused or recycled over 300 million books!
Buy better when buying online books, and shop with Better World Books. We do!
In 2008 Indiebound was launched by the American Booksellers Association to help book buyers support local, independent bookstores.
Independent bookstores play an essential role in local communities and economies.
Contrast that with buying books with Amazon or another national chain…if you spend that $100 with them (a ‘big’ bookseller), only $43 will go back into your local community’s economy.
Indiebound connects YOU with the local independent bookstores nearby, see how you can start supporting local books!