In Dare to Lead, Brené Brown first issues a nonnegotiable: in a culture that often misidentifies omniscience and imperviousness as essential leadership qualities, brave leaders must instead get comfortable with vulnerability. That may seem like an oxymoron, but Brown defines vulnerability as “the courage to show up when you can’t predict or control the outcome” and then offers her quintessential straight-talk and research-based strategies to guide us through a rigorous yet clarifying self-examination. What fears am I carrying that prevent me from taking risks or sharing ideas? In what ways do I practice Armored Leadership versus Daring Leadership in order to keep from connecting with others? What personal values do I identify as the lodestars by which I steer and communicate my decisions? Dare to Lead will break you open, if you let it, and by doing so, allow you to discover the courageous leader you are meant to be.

Hopefully, the day will come when “That’s what she said” is known less as sexual innuendo tossed around the workplace and becomes more common as the proper and immediate response of everyone in the room when a man attempts to take credit for a women’s idea in a meeting. The sooner we change that and the many other inequities in the workplace, the better it will be for women and men. Rather than fear and anxiety that our differences will lead to misunderstanding and conflict, we must learn to understand our differences and then use that diversity of perspective to make progress for everyone. The first step is awareness, which Joanne Lipman raises on a whole range of issues—from discrimination and harassment to unconscious biases ingrained in us from an early age—still embedded in the workplace.

Marketing is how we reach our customers, but it can be used as a tool for change. “If you see a way to make things better,” Seth Godin writes in This Is Marketing, “you now have a marketing problem.” While marketing has sometimes been used to nefarious ends in the past, Godin advocates for aligning the change you want to see with your desires as a marketer. “Marketing is the act of making change happen.” And, when we strive to be “better,” our companies benefit—as does society as a whole. Seeking perfection can leave you inactive, but striving for better always leaves the door open to action and improvement. Every one of us is a marketer in some way, and each person will find value from this aspirational, yet eminently practical, book.

All through our lives, our abilities ebb and flow, wax and wane, whether we are young, old, disabled, or impaired due to accident or circumstance. Kat Holmes explains that by designing for the majority, or for the nonexistent “normal,” every single person will at some time in their lives be excluded, and by doing so, we limit “who can contribute their talents to society.” Her somber but hopeful question to that problem is: “If design is the source of exclusion, can it also be the remedy?” Mismatch is a critical blueprint for how designers and creators can work against long-held ability biases so often employed when planning and problem-solving and shows how to utilize inclusion design to make things better for everyone.

The way we are talking about race in America is changing in small and large ways. For those of you who want to join the conversation but don’t have an idea of where to start, Ijeoma Oluo’s primer on the structures and effects of systemic racism is the perfect entry point for your journey. Oluo expertly combines personal storytelling with historical context and immediately actionable steps to explore the complex topic of race in a straightforward, helpful, and compassionate way. Conversations about race are difficult and uncomfortable for all involved. We will get it wrong, but that’s okay. This book is here as your guide and your reminder to keep trying. As Oluo says, “Do not fear the opportunity to do better.” The road to systemic change is step by step, and it’s time for more of us to start walking. This book is a true gift—to our workplaces, our schools, our neighborhoods, and our country.