By Scott Ronalds

I read a lot in this job, out of both necessity and interest. I often find it refreshing to take a break from the likes of The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, the Report on Business, etc., to read something lighter, inspirational, controversial, or just offbeat. I usually gain an interesting insight or perspective, or if nothing else, fodder for the dinner table.

Below are some of the books I’ve enjoyed over the past year or so. If you’re looking for a spring or summer read, you may find something here that piques your interest.

The Art of Thinking Clearly (Rolf Dobelli). Short insights and interesting stories on how our minds work. Chapters include confirmation bias, the overconfidence effect, groupthink and cherry picking.

Born to Run (Christopher McDougall). A fascinating read that intertwines the barefoot running movement, human evolution and a little-known tribe of Mexican super athletes.

The Signal and the Noise (Nate Silver). This one’s all about the field of predictions, from weather forecasting to earthquakes to politics to investing.

Mick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger (Christopher Andersen). The title says it all.

Damn Good Advice (George Lois). Pithy stories, lessons and anecdotes from the “original mad man of Madison Avenue”.

Linchpin (Seth Godin). From the author of Purple Cow and Tribes, this one’s all about the future of work and exceling without a rule book. We’re regular consumers of Seth’s missives at Steadyhand.

Flash Boys (Michael Lewis). This one’s waiting on my bedside table. It’s a post-financial crisis look inside Wall Street and high frequency trading. Lewis tells a good story (Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Big Short) and I’m looking forward to this one. Tom says it’s great.

If you’ve read something lately that you think should be in the Steadyhand library (elective or mandatory reading), we’d love to hear about it.