The 40 books on this year's list of best business books provide a bastion against the tide of overwhelm that we all feel, grounding us with clear-eyed practical and practiced ways to do the work that will effectively bring positive change to our own personal and professional spaces and places.
Of the 40, we've selected eight as the winners of the 2024 Porchlight Business Book Awards.
Matt Holt is Editor-in-Chief of the BenBella imprint Matt Holt Books. Holt was previously Senior Vice President and Executive Publisher at John Wiley & Sons, where he oversaw a team of 85 staff. Over his 29-year career, Matt has acquired over 1,000 and published 10,000 titles.
The eight winners of the 2024 Porchlight Business Book Awards are:
Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation by Greg Epstein, MIT Press
The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers by Zeke Hernandez, St. Martin's Press
The Vagina Business: The Innovative Breakthroughs that Could Change Everything in Women's Health by Marina Gerner, Sourcebooks
Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World by Alison Taylor, Harvard Business Review Press
The Problem with Change: And the Essential Nature of Human Performance by Ashley Goodall, Little, Brown Spark
Say It Well: Find Your Voice, Speak Your Mind, Inspire Any Audience by Terry Szuplat, Harper Business
Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank by Justene Hill Edwards, W.W. Norton & Company
Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully by Elaine Lin Hering, Penguin Life
Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation by Greg Epstein, MIT Press
Big Ideas & New Perspectives longlist
• The Art of the Interesting: What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It by Lorraine Besser, Balance
• Rebels with a Cause: Reimagining Boys, Ourselves, and Our Culture by Niobe Way, Dutton
• Relationality: How Moving from Transactional to Transformational Relationships Can Reshape Our Lonely World by David Jay, North Atlantic Books
• Slow Burn: The Hidden Costs of a Warming World by R. Jisung Park, Princeton University Press
• Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation by Greg Epstein, MIT Press
The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers by Zeke Hernandez, St. Martin's Press
CURRENT EVENTS & PUBLIC AFFAIRS longlist
• Build: Investing in America's Infrastructure by Sadek Wahba, Georgetown University Press
• Holding It Together: How Women Became America's Safety Net by Jessica Calarco, Portfolio
• How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Supply Chain by Peter S. Goodman, Mariner Books
• The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers by Zeke Hernandez, St. Martin's Press
• What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, One World
The Vagina Business: The Innovative Breakthroughs that Could Change Everything in Women's Health by Marina Gerner, Sourcebooks
INNOVATION & CREATIVITY longlist
• Born to Create: How Creativity Sparks Connection, Innovation, and Belonging in our New World of Work by Anne Jacoby, Fast Company Press
• From Pessimism to Promise: Lessons from the Global South on Designing Inclusive Tech by Payal Arora, The MIT Press
• Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There by Tali Sharot & Cass R. Sunstein, One Signal
• Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future by Mike Maples Jr. & Peter Ziebelman, PublicAffairs
• The Vagina Business: The Innovative Breakthroughs that Could Change Everything in Women's Health by Marina Gerner, Sourcebooks
Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World by Alison Taylor, Harvard Business Review Press
LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY longlist
• Burnt Out to Lit Up: How to Reignite the Joy of Leading People by Daisy Auger- Domínguez, Wiley
• Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World by Alison Taylor, Harvard Business Review Press
• The Mac and Cheese Millionaire: Building a Better Business by Thinking Outside the Box by Erin Wade, Wiley
• Modern Achievement: A New Approach to Timeless Lessons for Aspiring Leaders by Asheesh Advani & Marshall Goldsmith, Amplify Publishing
• This is Strategy: Make Better Plans by Seth Godin, Authors Equity
The Problem with Change: And the Essential Nature of Human Performance by Ashley Goodall, Little, Brown Spark
MANAGEMENT & WORKPLACE CULTURE longlist
• The Canary Code: A Guide to Neurodiversity, Dignity, and Intersectional Belonging at Work by Ludmila Praslova, Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make Right Things Easier and Wrong Things Harder by Robert I. Sutton & Huggy Rao, St. Martin's Press
• Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture Is Bad for Business—and How to Fix It by Malissa Clark, Harvard Business Review Press
• The Problem with Change: And the Essential Nature of Human Performance by Ashley Goodall, Little, Brown Spark
• Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport, Portfolio
Say It Well: Find Your Voice, Speak Your Mind, Inspire Any Audience by Terry Szuplat, Harper Business
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS/SALES & INFLUENCE longlist
• Earn It: Unconventional Strategies for Brave Marketers by Steve Pratt, Page Two
• Everybody Needs an Editor: The Essential Guide to Clear and Effective Writing by Melissa Harris & Jenn Bane, Simon Element
• Say It Well: Find Your Voice, Speak Your Mind, Inspire Any Audience by Terry Szuplat, Harper Business
• Shareworthy: Advertising That Creates Powerful Connections Through Storytelling by Robin Landa & Greg Braun, Columbia Business School Publishing
• Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg, Random House
Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank by Justene Hill Edwards, W.W. Norton & Company
NARRATIVE & BIOGRAPHY longlist
• The Everything War: Amazon’s Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power by Dana Mattoli, Little, Brown and Company
• The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America by Elizabeth Dias & Lisa Lerer, Flatiron Books
• I Hate It Here, Please Vote for Me: Essays on Rural Political Decay by Matthew Ferrence, West Virginia University Press
• Life and Death of the American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America's Largest Meatpacking Company by Alice Driver, Atria/One Signal Publishers
• Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank by Justene Hill Edwards, W.W. Norton & Company
Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully by Elaine Lin Hering, Penguin Life
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT & HUMAN BEHAVIOR longlist
• Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness by Jamil Zaki, Grand Central Publishing
• Microskills: Small Actions, Big Impact by Adaira Landry & Resa E. Lewiss, Hanover Square Press
• Tribal: How the Cultural Instincts That Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together by Michael Morris, Thesis
• Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully by Elaine Lin Hering, Penguin Life
• When We Are Seen: How to Come into Your Power and Empower Others Along the Way by Denise Young, Crown
PORCHLIGHT BOOK COMPANY'S CONSTITUTION
For the second year in a row, Porchlight asked the authors whose books we selected as the best business books of 2024 the question, "Why do you believe in books?" Their responses were thoughtful, sentimental, reflective, and forward-looking.
"I believe in books as teachers that inspire, inform and challenge us," said Robin Landa, co-author of Shareworthy.
"Books are the things that not only allow us to share information. It allows us to share humanity," remarked Charles Duhigg, author of Supercommunicators.
"I think that stories are what makes us human," remarked Marina Gerner, author of The Vagina Business. "Everything we create in this world is the outcome of a story."
For these, and so many more reasons that you'll learn in the video, we believe in books.
Here's to living, telling, and sharing stories.
