What’s the book you tend to pick up again and again to go back to that one quote or chapter, that made you think differently? What book makes you want to get up and do something positive or try something new? Who inspired you to give back to your community?

We asked around in our community to hear about the books that changed your view on the world, that make you feel more powerful or just keep you going! So, here are a few of them for your Summer reading list. Check them out here, buy them in your local book shop and share them in a Free Wee Library. 😀

 

How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas

by David Bornstein
Recommended by Paul O’Hara, founder and CEO of ChangeX

“An idea is like a play. It needs a good producer and a good promoter even if it is a masterpiece. Otherwise the play may never open; or it may open but, for a lack of an audience, close after a week. Similarly, an idea will not move from the fringes to the mainstream simply because it is good; it must be skilfully marketed before it will actually shift people’s perceptions and behaviour.”

 

 

 

 

The Alchemist 

by Paulo Coelho
Recommended by Harpreet Gill via Facebook

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”

 “No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn’t know it.”

 

 

 

 

 

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

Recommended by John Evoy, Founder of the Irish Men’s Sheds Association

“Action is about living fully. Inaction is the way that we deny life. Inaction is sitting in front of the television every day for years because you are afraid to be alive and to take the risk of expressing what you are. Expressing what you are is taking action.”

 

 

 

 

 

Wonder

by R.J. Palacio

Recommended by Caroline Casey, who works to create a world where no one gets left out, first with Kanchi, now binc.

“If every person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary – the world really would be a better place.” 

“I think there should be a rule that everyone in the world should get a standing ovation at least once in their lives.”

 

 

 

 

Caroline recommended more great books:

Travels on my Elephant by Mark Shand; Rising Strong by Brené Brown and Quiet by Susan Cain https://t.co/GvZ9COFXdb

— Caroline Casey (@CarolineBinc) July 24, 2017

 

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

by Daniel H. Pink

Recommended by Jeff Meeks, starter of The Grays Harbor Men’s Shed in the US

“Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.” 

“Effort is one of the things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it. It would be an impoverished existence if you were not willing to value things and commit yourself to working toward them.”

 

 

 

Reinventing Organizations  

Recommended by Jill Vialet, the founder and CEO of Playworks, advocate for #playmatters and cultivating empathy in children and our society.

“Could we invent a more powerful, more soulful, more meaningful way to work together, if only we change our belief system?”

“The most exciting breakthroughs of the twenty-first century will not occur because of technology, but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human.”

 

 

 

 

Everybody Matters: My Life Giving Voice 

by Mary Robinson
Recommended by Ali Sheridan, working to mainstream sustainability. Blogging on PurposeHub.ie

“May I have the fortune to preside over an Ireland at a time of exciting transformation when we enter a new Europe where old wounds can be healed, a time when, in the words of Seamus Heaney, ‘hope and history rhyme’.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

by Sri Sami Satchidananda

Recommended by Ricky Harris, Director of bigO, Yoga teacher and along with his team an indispensable supporter of ChangeX.

“Undisturbed calmness of mind is attained by cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and indifference toward the wicked.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ireland Says Yes: The Inside Story of How the Vote for Marriage Equality Was Won

by Gráinne Healy, Brian Sheehan & Noel Whelan

Recommended by Niall O’Hara, Head of Product and Growth at ChangeX

“A fast-paced, narrative account of the last 100 days of the campaign for a Yes vote in the 2015 Marriage Equality referendum in Ireland.”