1. Option B, by Sheryl Sandberg, Adam Grant, Knopf
2. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, by Neil Degrasse Tyson, Norton - Debut
3. Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance, Harper
4. Shattered, by Jonathan Allen, Amie Parnes, Crown
5. Hallelujah Anyway, by Anne Lamott, Riverhead
6. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann, Doubleday
7. This Fight Is Our Fight, by Elizabeth Warren, Metropolitan
8. The American Spirit, by David McCullough, S&S
9. The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck, by Mark Manson, HarperOne
10. The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben, Greystone Books
11. The Book of Joy, by The Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Avery
12. You Are a Badass at Making Money, by Jen Sincero, Viking
13. When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi, Random House
14. Get Your Sh*t Together, by Sarah Knight, Little Brown
15. Make Your Bed, by William H. McRaven, Grand Central
On the Rise:
17. Last Hope Island, by Lynne Olson, Random House
Olson's groundbreaking account of how Britain became the base of operations for the exiled leaders of Europe in their desperate struggle to reclaim their continent from Hitler.
Mark Sappenfield
Dear Reader,
About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:
“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”
If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.
But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.
The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.
We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”
If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.
