We firmly believe that a book is one of the finest things in life.
Some change your emotions, others change your perspective, and a special few have the power to change your life.
Especially through tumultuous years of lockdowns and empty diaries, reading has been a real lifeline to us all. Research in the Business Insider claims that reading can reduce feelings of stress by a huge 68%, while the Journal of Applied Social Psychology states that reading literary fiction improves our ability to reflect on our own situation and issues.
So we decided to ask around the Create Health team and share what we’ve got our noses stuck in right now. From satire to science, business to brain development, it turns out we’re a pretty varied bunch!
Without further ado, let’s begin.
Polly Buckland – Planning Partner
Social by Matthew Lieberman is a book about how our brains are hard wired to be social and how depriving them of that can cause genuine anguish, pain and deprivation. As well as being a fascinating account of how our brains work, it’s a particularly poignant book at this time, when we’ve all been starved of that genuine in person social contact and connection we so crave.
Anna Joseph – Account Director
I Am Not Your Baby Mother by Candice Brathwaite is a beautifully written book about becoming and being a black British mother. She writes about how she experienced first hand the systemic racism that runs through medical institutions and how motherhood is represented as a white, middle-class, able-bodied domain more generally. Such a wonderfully written, enlightening book I’d recommend to anyone and everyone!
Phil Blackmore – Creative Partner
The Future of Medicine by James Temperton. Lush short read packed with loads of fascinating facts and medical breakthroughs. It’s exciting to think how personalised our health treatments could be if the data and care infrastructures could work together more openly.
Lucy Harrison – Copywriter
The Happiness Trap by Dr Russ Harris is about a revolutionary form of psychological therapy called ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy) that challenges the methods of more traditional cognitive therapies. So far I’m loving it.
Ollie Davies – Finance Manager
James Acaster’s Classic Scrapes. I’m currently reading a book by comedian James Acaster, full of short stories of embarrassing situations he’s got himself in over the years. Each chapter’s guaranteed to make you chuckle along with giving you insight into the weird happenings of his world.
Carrie Fick – Marketing Manager
The Key to Happiness by Meik Wiking. I picked this book up last year when I was in need of a bit of light reading. The author is the founder and CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Denmark and has packed this book with scientific evidence exploring the factors that contribute to a happier society – environmentally, socially and culturally for the people, places and systems we live and work in. An enlightening read highlighting the power of equality and inclusivity and the value that brings to humanity. Something I think the pandemic has really shone a light on.
Ed Hudson – Managing Partner
Alchmey – The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense by Rory Sutherland. A great read. Full of case studies proving we don’t make decisions rationally, but emotionally. As David Ogilvy said: “Consumers don’t think how they feel. They don’t say what they think, and they don’t do what they say.”
If your interest has been sufficiently piqued by our reading recommendations, the best is yet to come.
Our Novel Thinking Book Club offers more illumination than even Thomas Edison could produce. Most prominent on our reading list are the books that inform our whole strategy and position as a business; the books that back up why Creativity is the cure™.
Sign up to Novel Thinking for free on our website and we’ll send you the cream of the crop of everything we read – especially for healthcare brands.
