June, July and August promise (slightly) improved weather in the northern hemisphere. These summer months don’t always deliver the rest and relaxation hoped for — especially if you’re gearing up for an election, like our community members in the UK, France, Belgium or the United States. But it’s always a good time to pick up a new book or add one to your wishlist.

Books offer a welcome break from the endless stream of emails, Teams messages, briefing notes and urgent WhatsApp notifications that dominate our reading time. This year, we’ve organised the list around urgent policy problems facing governments today, from climate change and governing artificial intelligence to transport and infrastructure.

A special thanks to everyone in our community who sent in their suggestions. As ever, there were some perennial favorites, including: The Big Con by Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington, Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, and Recoding America by Jennifer Pahlka. These books continue to inspire countless public servants, year after year.

If there’s anything you’d like to see on the list, let us know in the comments section at the bottom. Or, if you’d like to review any of these books — or any book in general — please do so by writing an Apolitical article.

Oh, and don’t forget to share this list with your colleagues!

Digital, data and AI

Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology by Anu Bradford

“The US, China, and the EU are compared by delving deep into their domestic legal (and political) systems, analysing how they interact with each other, and underlining strengths and weaknesses that could hint at how an ultimately impossible question could be answered: How is the future of the digital world going to look? Considering the complexity of this topic, no certain answer can be given yet. However, Anu Bradford lays out a multi-layered framework through which we can navigate the intricacies of the digital regulatory system.” — LSE

Algorithms for the People: Democracy in the Age of AI by Josh Simons

“In this important book, Simons provides one of the best accounts of how advances in artificial intelligence challenge democracy and what societies can do about it. Machine learning is as profound as it is simple: a collection of techniques and methods for discovering patterns in data to make predictions. As Simons shows, in the right hands, it can be a powerful tool for governments to allocate resources and corporations to reach consumers.” — Foreign Affairs

Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI by Madhumita Murgia

“This isn’t a story about ChatGPT and the other large language models and their looming impact on everything from Hollywood to homework, though there is a bit of that. Instead, it’s an account of how the everyday algorithms we have already learned to live beside are changing us: from the people paid (not much) to make sense of vast datasets, to the unintended consequences of the biases they contain.” — The Guardian

Leadership & skills

Right Kind of Wrong: How the Best Teams Use Failure to Succeed by Amy Edmondson

“In Right Kind of Wrong, Edmondson provides the framework to think, discuss, and practice failure wisely. Outlining the three archetypes of failure—basic, complex, and intelligent—Amy showcases how to minimize unproductive failure while maximizing what we gain from flubs of all stripes. She illustrates how we and our organizations can embrace our human fallibility, learn exactly when failure is our friend, and prevent most of it when it is not. This is the key to pursuing smart risks and preventing avoidable harm.” — Harvard Business School

How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between by Bent Flyvberg and Dan Gardner

“Big bespoke projects are particularly likely to run into trouble. The more that a project can be disaggregated into replicable processes, the better its prospects. Mr Flyvbjerg’s database shows that solar-power and windpower installations stand the best chance of not going wrong, in part because standard components can be snapped together into arrays and turbines. At the other end of the risk scale lie gigantic one-off efforts like nuclear-power stations and the Olympic games.” — The Economist

Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Change by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky

“If you have been in a senior role for a while and there's a problem, it is almost certain that you had some part in creating it and are part of the reason it has not yet been addressed. Even if you are new, or outside the organization, you need to identify those behaviors you practice or values you embody that could stifle the very change you want to advance.” — Harvard Kennedy School

Street-Level Public Servants: Case Studies for a New Generation of Public Administration by Sara Rinfret

“Sara R. Rinfret's edited volume, “Street-Level Public Servants: Case Studies for a New Generation of Public Administration,” critically examines street-level public administrators’ essential yet often overlooked roles in American governance. The book underscores the challenges and pressures faced by these individuals while they work to implement policies that directly impact communities. The book comprehensively analyzes real-world cases, showcasing not only the struggles but also the resilience and dedication of these public servants, ranging from environmental inspectors facing harassment to public health officials receiving threats for enforcing COVID-19 protocols.” — The American Review of Public Aministration

Results: Getting Beyond Politics to Get Important Work Done by Charlie Baker and Steve Kadish

“The strength of the Results Framework is that it builds on a deep understanding of what makes the public sector different. It respects what otherwise might be considered “bugs” and makes them “features.” The focus on people, facts, how, and results moves the discussion from social media stories and urban myths to objective information, evaluation, and action. In the end, we believe that our approach is not just about solving problems, but also about renewing faith in public services. Strong public services are an answer to public distrust and divisiveness. They can be a bulwark for our community values and our democracy.” — Apolitical

Climate

Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant

“This telling of the 2016 inferno that engulfed the oil town of Fort McMurray, and the lives of the people who confronted it, is an urgent warning – and an all-consuming read.” — The Guardian

A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis by Vanessa Nakate

“Nakate provides an in-depth view of the challenges she has faced as a climate activist in Uganda, where such factors as government restrictions, gendered expectations, and schooling practices pose challenges to pursuing activism. She discusses how she adapted forms of climate activism used in the US and Europe toward methods that are feasible in Uganda, such as holding “climate education” sessions within school contexts rather than expecting students to leave school for climate strikes.” — Climate Lit

Not the End of the World by Hanna Richie

“In this bold, radically hopeful book, data scientist Hannah Ritchie argues that if we zoom out, a very different picture emerges. The data shows we've made so much progress on these problems, and so fast, that we could be on track to achieve true sustainability for the first time in history.” — Penguin Books

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

“The book is simultaneously meditative about the abundance of the natural world and bold in its call to action on “climate urgency.” Kimmerer asks readers to honor the Earth’s glories, restore rather than take, and reject an economy and culture rooted in acquiring more. She invites us to learn from plants and other species, nature’s teachers. “If we use a plant respectfully, it will flourish. If we ignore it, it will go away,” she writes.” — Washington Post

In the Long Run: The Future as a Political Idea by Jonathan White

“In the Long Run: The Future as a Political Idea is a book about the history of the future, and what it means for the present. More precisely, it describes how the way people think about the future has evolved over time, and the impact of these changes on democracy. Jonathan White’s central argument is that while optimism for the future once helped build democracy, economic slowdown, climate change, new technology and geopolitical tension mean that “the future no longer seems its [democracy’s] friend”.” — LSE

Transport and infrastructure

Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Graber

“In a beguiling and absurdly hilarious mix of history, politics, and reportage, Slate staff writer Henry Grabar brilliantly surveys the nation’s parking crisis, revealing how the compulsion for car storage has exacerbated some of our most acute problems— from housing affordability to the accelerating global climate disaster—and, ultimately, how we can free our cities from parking’s cruel yoke.” — Penguin Random House

Compendium of Good Practices on Quality Infrastructure 2024 by the OECD

“In an era defined by the urgent climate crisis, unpredictable weather patterns and increasingly frequent natural disasters, ensuring infrastructure resilience to such events is paramount. This report discusses ways of enhancing government capacities to prevent, react and rebuild, thereby minimising the impact of natural disasters on infrastructure assets and operations. It identifies data, collaboration and technologies as drivers of resilience, and highlights financial resources, technical skills and regulatory frameworks as key enablers. The report presents seven actionable principles to ensure infrastructure resilience, drawing from global good practices and in-depth analyses of infrastructure projects in Colombia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mozambique and the United States.” — OECD

Planes, Trains and Toilet Doors: 50 Places That Changed British Politics by Matt Chorley

“Matt Chorley has spent almost two decades covering Westminster, interviewing prime ministers, mocking ministers and chronicling the serious, and sometimes unintentionally absurd, events which act as unlikely turning points in the direction of a nation.” — Harper Collins

And, finally

If you're interested in classic fiction that delves into government and bureaucracy, a few notable books come to mind. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens offers a satirical glimpse into the fictional Marshalsea prison, where debtors were ironically imprisoned until they could pay off their debts, despite being unable to work. Franz Kafka's works are indispensable in this genre, with The Castle standing out as a poignant reminder of the public's struggle to navigate and comprehend government services. Finally, if you’re already thinking a lot about AI and technology, why not spend some time with Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun.

Done reading? Make sure to share your own summer reading recommendations by leaving a comment below ⬇️