The words “summer reading” may trigger flashbacks of racing to finish your high school booklist during the last two days of vacation. But reading during summer, especially on vacation, can help you unwind while keeping your mind sharp. As one blogger recently noted, summer reading also may prevent you from adding vacation pounds because your hands are too occupied for snacking.

We reached out to several Data Leadership Collaborative contributors to check in on what they’ve been enjoying during the hot summer of 2022. Here’s what they told us.

Merav Yuravlivker, CEO and Co-Founder, Data Society
“I just finished The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes by David Robson. I enjoyed reading this book as a way to better understand particular fallacies that people fall into and best practices that we can employ to mitigate that risk. The end of the book in particular has great information about the power of 'groupthink' and how to build successful teams that maximize each individual's contribution.”

Nate Mayfield, Vice President, Applications Services Excellence, Strategy & Operations, Oracle
“I’m reading a couple of books that I think are valuable. First is Measure what Matters by John Doerr. It’s a great book on illustrating the proper way to use the OKR (Objective and Key Results) methodology to drive impact in your organization. The other book I just started on vacation is Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear, which has been great so far in both a personal and professional standpoint.” 

Neil Richards, EMEA BI Lead, JLL  
“A lot to choose from! I was impressed by I’m not a numbers person: How to make good decisions in a data-rich world by Selena Fisk. I reviewed this, in the form of an interview with the author, for Nightingale, the Journal of the Data Visualization Society.  
Also, I have reviewed a number of data books over the last few months, most recently Functional Aesthetics by Vidya Setlur and DLC's very own Bridget Cogley.” 

Andy Cotgreave, Technical Evangelist, Tableau
“Here are three I’ve enjoyed recently:
Living in Data by Jer Thorp.
This is a manifesto for how we think about data's place in society. It challenges many assumptions anyone involved in Business Intelligence might have. It’s a great journey that takes you to places you'd never expect to go with data.
Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement by James Vincent
The book explores what it has meant to measure something, throughout human history. This is enough to challenge any data leader to question what their data measures: is it fair? Is it right? Is it accurate? 
Everything I know I learned from PowerPoint by Russell Davies
Fantastic love letter to the most popular presentation software; it's a fun look at the best and worst of PPT, with great advice, delivered in a beautiful format.”

Ryan den Rooijen, Chief Ecommerce Officer, Chalhoub Group
“I recommend On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis. It’s important to remember that digital leadership is still leadership, and this book is a masterclass on how to bring your vision to life – and a cautionary tale of what pitfalls to avoid on your journey.”