Once again I am putting together a reading list for 2026! Just like last year's list (see "2025 Leadership Reverie Reading List"), I included five books that I have read and highly recommend, as well as five books that I am planning on reading. As I look over last year's list, I did pretty well. The only two books that I didn't get to finish were Collapse by Jared Diamond and Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. Hopefully I will finish both this coming new year!
Here is the official 2026 Leadership Reverie Reading List:
I checked this book out at our library because (1) the topic sounded interesting and (2) Dr. Szabo actually worked in the Division of Critical Care Medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center right before I started my fellowship there. Dr. Szabo discusses what he thinks is a major problem in biomedical research (and I agree) - researchers who publish questionable or incomplete data (probably very common according to Dr. Szabo and others) or even outright fraudulent data (more common than perhaps realized).
The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy
I saw the 1983 movie based on Conroy's novel when I was still in high school. The book (and movie) explores the topics of loyalty, honor, racism, and courage in a story partially based on Conroy's own experiences at a military academy. The movie was fantastic, and I've always wanted to read the novel. Here's my chance!
The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything by Stephen M.R. Covey
I posted about this great book earlier this year (see my post, "Change happens at the speed of trust..."). It's probably one of the best books that I read in 2025. Given the importance of trust (and the unfortunately widespread lack of trust in society today), I think this is one of those books that should be read by every leader.
The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times by Jane Goodall
The English scientist Jane Goodall died on October 1st this past year after an incredible career studying chimpanzees in Tanzania. I read (and thoroughly enjoyed) Frans de Waal's book Chimpanzee Politics a few years ago, which appeared on my 2022 Leadership Reverie Reading List, so I know that the animal world has a lot to tell us about group dynamics, group politics, and leadership. I am hoping (no pun intended) that Goodall's book will tell me a lot about hope.
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
It seems like this book appeared on a number of "Reading Lists" in the past year, including President Barack Obama's 2025 Summer Reads and Bill Gates' 2025 Holiday Book List. I attended an event here in Chicago in which Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson were promoting the book, and one of the benefits was a "free" copy of the book (we had to pay for a ticket to the event). I would have gladly paid for the book. Klein and Thompson argue that many of America’s biggest problems—such as unaffordable housing, stagnant infrastructure, delays in clean-energy rollouts, and slow scientific progress—aren’t due to lack of resources or innovation, but to self-imposed scarcity. They claim that the U.S. has the wealth, talent, and technologies it needs, but decades of well-intentioned rules, bureaucratic hurdles, and political gridlock have created barriers that slow or block progress. What once protected communities or the environment has become a system that often prevents building and improving what society needs. It's definitely a different take on what our country needs to do to address some of its biggest problems.
The Explorer's Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map by Alex Hutchinson
Someone once asked the legendary British mountaineer George Mallory why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, which at the time had never been done before. His simple answer, "Because it's there" has become famous and became the subject of a New York Times article published on March 18, 1923. Mallory went on to explain, "Everest is the highest mountain in the world, and no man has reached its summit. Its existence is a challenge. The answer is instinctive, a part, I suppose, of man’s desire to conquer the universe." Mallory never made it to the summit and would die during his attempt to climb the world's highest mountain. The author Alex Hutchinson may have found a better answer to the question, which is why I am looking forward to reading his book this year.
The Circle by Dave Eggers
I recently watched the 2017 film "The Circle", starring Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, and John Boyega. While the movie was enjoyable, the book was so much better. If you've ever worried about how powerful and ubiquitous technology companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple have become in today's society, then this book is definitely going to worry you even more! It's fiction, but it comes fairly close to describing at least one potential scenario. I couldn't put the book down.
The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by The Dalai Lama
We could all do with more happiness in our lives. I read Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier by Arthur Brooks and Oprah Winfrey last year and really enjoyed it. Since that time, I've wanted to read The Art of Happiness and The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama (the latter was co-written with Desmond Tutu).
I've mentioned this book a couple of times in posts over the years (see in particular my post "A tale of two leaders" from February 26, 2020). Druett tells the story of two shipwrecks that miraculously occurred at about the same time and in the same remote location. The story takes place in a group of islands in the South Pacific (nearly 300 miles south of New Zealand), known as the Auckland Islands around the time of the U.S. Civil War. The shipwreck of the schooner Grafton and its crew of five men occurred on January 3, 1864, while the shipwreck of the much larger (1100 tons) sailing ship, Invercauld and its crew of 25 men occurred on May 11, 1864. The two ships wrecked at opposite ends of the island, the two crews never interacted (and really had no idea that they were both on the same island). The way that the two captains and their crews handled this series of rather unfortunate events couldn't have been more different. As Florence Williams writes in her New York Times book review, "Their divergent experiences provide a riveting study of the extremes of human nature and the effects of good (and bad) leadership."
Life After Power: Seven Presidents and Their Search for Purpose Beyond the White House by Jared Cohen
I have Jared Cohen's previous book Accidental Presidents sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. I should probably read that one before I move to his most recent book. Both books have been very well received and highly recommended.
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