There are a lot of ways to get in the Christmas mood. You can build a snowman or decorate the Christmas tree. We must say, our favorite way to experience Christmas is drinking hot chocolate, lighting up the fireplace and reading a good book.

These inspiring non-fiction classics should help you make good use of the idle-time during your holiday. 

Deep thinking: Where machine intelligence ends, and human creativity begins – Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov’s 1997 chess match against the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue was a watershed moment in the history of technology. It was the dawn of a new era in artificial intelligence: a machine capable of beating the reigning human champion at this most cerebral game.

That moment was more than a century in the making, and in this breakthrough book, Kasparov reveals his astonishing side of the story for the first time. He describes how it felt to strategize against an implacable, untiring opponent with the whole world watching, and recounts the history of machine intelligence through the microcosm of chess, considered by generations of scientific pioneers to be a key to unlocking the secrets of human and machine cognition. Kasparov uses his unrivaled experience to look into the future of intelligent machines and sees it bright with possibility. As many critics decry artificial intelligence as a menace, particularly to human jobs, Kasparov shows how humanity can rise to new heights with the help of our most extraordinary creations, rather than fear them. Deep Thinking is a tightly argued case for technological progress, from the man who stood at its precipice with his own career at stake.

Factfulness: Ten reasons we’re wrong about the world and why things are better than you think – Hans Rosling

Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends—what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school—we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers.

In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radically new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse).

Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases.

It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most.

Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future.

The Power of Habit: Why we do What we do in life and business – Charles Duhigg

If this book looks familiar to you, that might be because we posted an article on our blog about it a few weeks ago. It shows how implementing so-called keystone habits can earn billions and mean the difference between failure and success, life and death.

At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work.  Habits aren’t destiny. As Charles Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.

Read about how a small change in safety habits can have an influence on a company on our blog.

And if you feel like doing some more specialized reading here are two books focused on EHS leadership:

A supervisor’s guide to safety leadership: preventing injury in the workplace – Judy Agnew

When considering safety in any organization, there is one role tasked to ensure that the company vision and values are executed, procedures are complied with, and decisions implemented the frontline supervisor. Frontline supervisors are critical to pulling all the critical elements of safety together. They are linchpins of safety. This is a practical guide that offers clear and immediate actions for any leader to take in increasing their effectiveness of managing others and keeping workers safe. With topics ranging from engaging the workforce, eliminating hazards, encouraging near miss reporting, this book extends beyond safety and prove to be the perfect guide for anyone interested in working on improving their leadership and management of people.

EnvironmenT, Health and Safety Governance and Leadership: The making of high-reliability organizations – Waddah S. Ghanem Al HashmI

Environment, Health and Safety Governance and Leadership: The Making of High Reliability Organizations reviews the factors influencing safety/EHS leadership and governance and addresses all the areas where the role impacts on the performance and sustainability of organizations. Based on the author’s in-depth research, the book draws on much of the best-practice standards developed by many leading organizations such as the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Institute of Directors (IoD) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

This book provides exclusive insights and legal imperatives for practitioners and leaders to inform decision making, strategy and EHS governance, all of which can have a fundamental impact on business continuity, developing company value and the sustainability of large organizations around the world.

Happy Holidays and we hope you’ll have a good time going through our recommendations. If you’d like to stay in touch for more interesting articles don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

And since you might be dealing with some extra time on your hands, maybe scheduling a free trial with us would not be such a bad idea.

See you next year!