This week is the first announcement for our annual Non-Obvious Book Awards and we just published our list of the Top 100 books of the year that made our annual Longlist. As part of our judging process, I also spend some time looking for some macro themes across the many submissions we receive. In total, we consider more than 1000 books published across the past 12 months from publishers of all sizes (and a handful of submitted self-published books too).
Yesterday I published a short article featuring an inside look at the top twelve themes and trends from books. The short list of themes is noted below, and you can see the books in each category as well as a short write-up about each theme in the presentation featured on that post.
- Calming Anxiety & Burnout
- Math Mindedness
- Good Aging
- Rethinking Higher Ed
- Generosity First
- Saving Humanity
- The Female Lens
- Finding Purpose
- Climate Solutionism
- The Citizenship Imperative
- Quiet Leadership
- The Friendship Antidote
After reading these, I’d love to know what you think and if you’re an avid reader—what other themes in books stood out for you this past year?
