2021 Release Radar: The Nonfiction Books We’re Excited To Read Next Year

2020 may have been a dramatic let-down for most people, but at Blinkist we managed to take some solace in how many great books were released this year–and how much time we now had to read them! With the new year fast approaching, we’re now looking forward to 2021 to see what’s coming down the line. Here’s a list of books we’re already getting really excited about.

Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone by Sarah Jaffe

Have you ever found yourself working for less than you’re worth, enduring an awful boss, or pushing through burnout just to progress your career? Work Won’t Love You Back by Sarah Jaffe, a vital dissenting voice on labor, inequality, and social movements, explores how the myth of ‘doing what you love,’ creates an all-consuming work life that is closer to tyranny than living the dream.

The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person by Frederick Joseph

In The Black Friend, Frederick Joseph looks back on the racism he experienced as a transfer student in a predominantly white school and considers how he might handle such situations now. On top of his own experiences, each chapter includes a section written by activists or artists which scrutinize everything racism-related, from white privilege to microaggressions to cultural appropriation and much more. The book also includes an encyclopedia of racism, which offers more detail on historical events and clears up the terminology. A necessity for anyone looking improve their awareness and to be actively anti-racist.

A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload by Cal Newport

Email was once exciting, but now that we take it with us wherever we go, there’s no getting away from work and it’s overwhelming us. Out in March 2021, Cal Newport’s A World Without Email, outlines strategies that can help move away from this reliance on email and towards more transparent processes that minimize task overload and noisy inboxes.

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates

Bill Gates, as well as being the founder of Microsoft and a leading philanthropist, has spent the past ten years researching the world climate crisis. In this new book coming in February 2021, Gates draws in help from experts across a range of fields. Using their expertise, he interrogates what can be done in order to avoid complete climate breakdown. The challenges Gates lays bare in the book are by no means sugar-coated, but are countered by an in-depth examination of the role of technology and how it does, and can, play a role in helping to save the planet.

Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious by Antonio Damasio

What is human consciousness? That is a question that many people consider unknowable, but this new book by one of the world’s leading neuroscientists, Antonio Damasio, looks to solve the mystery. Combining scientific and philosophical findings with his own personal research, this transformative book offers a modern illuminating guide to understanding what goes on inside our brains.

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant

Hitting our shelves in February, Adam Grant’s forthcoming book, Think Again, questions the validity of how we assess intelligence, proposing that it’s our ability to unlearn what we know and rethink our opinions that is the mark of true smarts. More often than not our default is defense mode, where we live in bubbles and surround ourselves with those who agree with us. This vital book teaches us how to undo this conditioning.

Noise: How to Overcome the High, Hidden Cost of Inconsistent Decision Making by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass Sunstein

Have you ever counted how many decisions you make per day? From the time you wake up, to what you eat, decisions are how we show up in the world. With a powerhouse of authors behind it, Noise sets out to examine the external factors which sit behind every single decision, or the ‘noise’ surrounding them. This book, coming out in April, is filled with proposals and recommendations to raise the standards of decision-making.

This is just a small selection of great nonfiction coming our way in 2021. Key insights from all of these titles will be available on Blinkist so watch this space for more!