Contributors to the April 2023 issue of TD magazine offer their book recommendations.

Brandon Burtner

Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel

Make It Stick is an excellent resource for anyone looking to improve learning durability and knowledge retention in their organization. The book is packed with practical, evidence-based learning strategies as well as common learning misconceptions and myths.

Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon

By Colin Bryar and Bill Carr

If you’re looking for best practices on scaling innovation and operational excellence, Amazon is a pretty obvious starting point. Working Backwards contains a wealth of actionable approaches to grow your team’s effectiveness, velocity, and data literacy.

Stephanie Hubka

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

by David Epstein

Time and time again, we are told that success is tied to specialization; that is, to become a leader, you must pick just one area in which to focus. Range flips that advice around and gives voice to the generalists—the people who know the benefits of building knowledge, skills, and capabilities in numerous professional areas. I love how this book highlights those of us who thrive when we're pursuing multiple interests and celebrates multidisciplinary work.

Jennifer Zach

Outsmart Your Brain: How to Master Your Mind When Emotions Take the Wheel

by Marcia Reynolds

I recommend this book because it offers the reader new degrees of freedom to make better decisions and build better relationships by consciously choosing how they want to feel and act.

Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself

By Kristin Neff

I recommend this book because we can only live in love and compassion toward one another to the degree that we live in love and compassion toward ourselves. Neff introduces an alternative to self-esteem that many experts believe is a better and more effective path to happiness: self-compassion.