Books like The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact

01

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Chip Heath and Dan Heath · Psychology

Made to Stick is Chip and Dan Heath's investigation into why some ideas take hold in people's minds and spread while others, equally true and well-reasoned, vanish the moment the conversation ends.

Both dig into memory.

02

Switch

Chip Heath and Dan Heath · Business

Switch is Chip Heath and Dan Heath's framework for understanding and overcoming the central paradox of change: people want things to be different, and yet change is consistently hard.

A kindred psychology read.

03

Stumbling on Happiness

Daniel Gilbert · Psychology

Daniel Gilbert is a Harvard psychologist whose central finding, after decades of studying affective forecasting, is that humans are systematically wrong about what will make them happy.

A kindred psychology read.

04

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman · Psychology

Thinking, Fast and Slow is Daniel Kahneman's account of the two cognitive systems that govern human thought.

A kindred psychology read.

05

Atlas of the Heart

Brené Brown · Psychology

Atlas of the Heart is Brené Brown's attempt to map eighty-seven distinct human emotions and experiences — not as a clinical taxonomy but as a practical vocabulary for people who want to communicate more precisely about what they feel.

Both dig into connection.

06

Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be

Becky Kennedy · Psychology

Good Inside is clinical psychologist Becky Kennedy's guide to a parenting philosophy built around one central premise: children are fundamentally good inside, and difficult behaviors are not character flaws or manipulation but signals of unmet needs or underdeveloped skills.

Both dig into connection.

07

I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn't)

Brené Brown · Psychology

I Thought It Was Just Me is Brené Brown's first major book, written from her research on shame as a social scientist.

Both dig into connection.

08

Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)

Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson · Psychology

Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson wrote this book about the mechanisms by which people protect their sense of themselves as competent, moral, and well-intentioned after they have done something that contradicts that self-image.

Both dig into memory.

09

Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect

Matthew D. Lieberman · Psychology

Matthew Lieberman is one of the founders of social neuroscience, the field that uses brain imaging and neuroscience methods to study social behavior.

Both dig into connection.

10

Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior

Leonard Mlodinow · Psychology

Leonard Mlodinow is a theoretical physicist who writes accessible science for general audiences.

Both dig into memory.

11

The Seven Sins of Memory

Daniel Schacter · Psychology

The Seven Sins of Memory is Daniel Schacter's account of the ways human memory routinely fails, organized around a taxonomy he developed to make the failures legible.

Both dig into memory.

12

A Mind for Numbers

Barbara Oakley · Self-help

A Mind for Numbers is Barbara Oakley's guide to learning hard subjects effectively, written primarily for students struggling with mathematics and science but drawing on cognitive science principles that apply to any demanding field.

Both dig into memory.