With the holiday season upon us, we are excited to share our latest list of books we enjoyed this year. Whether you’re enjoying some extra downtime, taking a trip, or searching for a last-minute gift, we hope you’ll find something special from our list to enjoy!
As the year comes to an end, we hope you find some time to yourself this season to unwind and dive into one of our favorite reads. Our 2024 reading list captures a variety of great reads, carefully chosen by our team.
From all of us, we wish you a joyful holiday season and a fantastic New Year!
- The MERU team
The Wide Wide Sea
by Hampton Sides
The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides blends history, adventure, and human endurance, telling the extraordinary tale of Captain James Cook’s final exploration. Through vivid storytelling and meticulous research, Sides captures the challenges and triumphs of those who faced the ocean’s vast and unpredictable nature.
Invention: A Life of Learning Through Failure
by James Dyson
In Invention: A Life of Learning Through Failure, Dyson reveals how he came to set up his own company and led it to become one of the most inventive technology companies in the world. It is a compelling and dramatic tale, with many obstacles overcome. Whether you are someone who has an idea for a better product, an aspiring entrepreneur, whether you appreciate great design or a page-turning read, this books offers you inspiration, hope, and much more.
Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life
by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles
Ikigai explores the secrets to the longevity and happiness of residents in a Japanese village known for having the highest percentage of 100-year-olds—one of the world’s Blue Zones. It reveals how they live, work, eat, move, foster collaboration and community, and—their best kept secret—how they find the ikigai that brings satisfaction to their lives.
Lateral Thinking Puzzlers
by Paul Sloane
Looking for fun for the kids on those long car rides and plane trips - these lateral thinking problems will keep you and the kiddos engaged and thinking, trying to solve some curious, challenging and imaginative riddles.
Something to Do with Paying Attention
by David Foster Wallace
When David Foster Wallace died in 2008, he left behind a vast unfinished novel—some 1,100 pages of loose chapters, sketches, notes, and fragments. This material contained a finished novella that Wallace had already considered publishing as a stand-alone volume. It is the story of a young man, a self-described “wastoid,” adrift in the suburban Midwest of the 1970s, whose life is changed forever by an encounter with advanced tax law.
by Neal Stephenson
On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything
by Nate Silver
Nate Silver investigates “the River,” the community of like-minded people whose mastery of risk allows them to shape—and dominate—so much of modern life. Taking us behind the scenes from casinos to venture capital firms, and from the FTX inner sanctum to meetings of the effective altruism movement, this is a deeply reported, all-access journey into a hidden world of power brokers and risk-takers.
by Ina Garten
by Charles River Editors
Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection
by Charles Duhigg
Through real-life stories and case studies, this book explores the essential skills for meaningful communication and the emotional strategies that foster connection, empathy, and trust, to create impactful relationships across personal, professional, and societal domains.
Freakonomics - A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side of Everything
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
This book explores the unexpected and often hidden economic forces that shape our lives. Through a series of thought-provoking chapters, the authors navigate topics like crime rates, school performance, and incentives, revealing surprising connections and challenging conventional wisdom, while encouraging readers to look beyond the surface and consider how human behavior and incentives drive outcomes in unexpected ways.
The Secret Lives of Customers: A Detective Story About Solving the Mystery of Customer Behavior
by David Scott Duncan
David Scott Duncan shows how in his entertaining story of Tazza, a fictional chain of cafes with declining sales and leaders urgently seeking to understand why. The vivid characters of Tazza’s market detective force come to their aha moment when they finally understand why their most loyal customers walked out the door—and how they can get them back.