Summer reading lists are scattered all over the internet.  New and old it doesn’t take but a few clicks to find top ten lists with topics running from updating your sales pitch to being a better leader.  Maybe you have several in your Amazon cart right now with titles boasting top sales hacks and how to think bigger.  Perhaps you need a change of pace.  Perhaps focusing your brain on something different might be a welcome refresh.  And when you do return to work, you will be clear minded and motivated to jump back in.  If you are on the hunt for something a bit different, here are 8 books you might not think to add to your summer reading list.  

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Malcolm Gladwell https://amzn.to/2YIW5yR

Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing"-filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.

Kabloona

Gontran De Poncins https://amzn.to/2VxBRTK

De Poncins relates his 15 months spent among the Inuit people of the Arctic. He is initially appalled at their uncivilized lifestyle but eventually morphs from a "Kabloona" (a white man) to an Eskimo. A good volume for public and academic sociology collections. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. The New Yorker -- No other book about the Far North is written with so much sympathy, vividness and dramatic imagination.

Great by Choice

James Collins and Morten Hansen https://amzn.to/2Z9RRvB

Ten years after the worldwide bestseller Good to Great, Jim Collins returns with another groundbreaking work, this time to ask: why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? Based on nine years of research, buttressed by rigorous analysis and infused with engaging stories, Collins and his colleague Morten Hansen enumerate the principles for building a truly great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous and fast-moving times. This book is classic Collins: contrarian, data-driven and uplifting.

The Gypsies

Jan Yoors https://amzn.to/2OFRW8K

In a rare publishing event, Jan Yoors' The Gypsies became an instant classic upon its original publication. Yoors vividly describes the texture of daily life: Gypsies as lovers, spouses, parents, healers, and mourners; loyalties and hostilities; moral and ethical beliefs and practices; language and culture; and history and traditions behind their fierce pride. The exultant celebrations, daring frontier crossings, yearly horse fairs, and convoluted business deals are brought to life in this memorable portrait of the most romanticized yet most maligned and least-known people on earth.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

Oliver Sacks https://amzn.to/2B1M9lB

In his most extraordinary book, “one of the great clinical writers of the twentieth century” (The New York Times) recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders.

The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage

Daniel Paisner and Daymond John https://amzn.to/2YRzhwR

When your back is up against the wall, your bank account is empty, and creativity and passion are the only resources you can afford, success is your only option. Here you’ll learn how to tap into that Power of Broke to scrape, hustle, and dream your way to the top.

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves

Matt Ridley https://amzn.to/2z5fyKY

In his bold and bracing exploration into how human culture evolves positively through exchange and specialization, bestselling author Matt Ridley does more than describe how things are getting better. He explains why. An astute, refreshing, and revelatory work that covers the entire sweep of human history, from the Stone Age to the Internet. The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.

Thinkertoys

Michael Michalko https://amzn.to/31JdkwX

With hundreds of hints, tricks, tips, tales, and puzzles, Thinkertoys will open your mind to a world of innovative solutions to everyday and not-so-everyday problems.