8 engaging reads to learn, grow, or escape

Fall is the perfect time to spend your time off work cozied up with a pumpkin-flavored beverage and a great read. After all, reading can help reduce stress, motivate, and inspire. Following are eight books on Badgley staff’s radar, whether you want to learn, grow, or simply escape into the pages.

LITERARY FICTION

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah is an emotional read about a woman named Elsa and her family who head west to California during the Depression in search of a better life.

AUDIOBOOK

In case you missed it, Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, about boy-girl twins who spontaneously combust, is a funny and engaging listen.

SELF-HELP

Out in November 2021, we’re excited about Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience by Dr. Brené Brown, which “takes us on a journey through eighty-seven of the emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human.”

FASCINATION

American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson is the gripping story of the birth of criminal investigation in the twentieth century. 

INSPIRATION

Girl Decoded: A Scientist's Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology by Rana El Kaliouby with Carol Colman is an engrossing memoir about one Egyptian American woman’s plight to humanize technology. 

THRILLER

The Push: A Novel by Ashley Audrain is a debut featuring an unreliable female narrator (as in Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train) but this time, it’s a “bad mother” story that keeps readers guessing. 

CHILDREN

An Amazon Teachers’ Pick, The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead is a charming and accessible read about two ten-year-olds thrust into each other’s lives when their fathers decide to marry.

NONFICTION

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson “shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people ‘the art of being fearless.’”