At a recent company meeting, symplr leaders were asked what books they're reading. And what better way to celebrate National Read a Book Day, than to take a peek at what's on their nightstands—or in the e-readers on their nightstands.
National Read a Book Day is celebrated annually on September 6 and calls all book lovers to indulge in their favorite hobby, guilt free. Bringing new worlds to life, books enlighten us and transport us on exciting adventures. They can challenge our perspectives on the human experience in ways unmatched by other media. In a world deluged by technology, National Read a Book Day encourages us to silence the noise and turn the pages for a while.
Here are some of their recent picks
BJ Schaknowski, symplr CEO
Tomorrow's Capitalist: My Search for the Soul of Business
By Alan Murray
According to Goodreads: "In an era of political and cultural extremism, America’s corporate leaders have emerged as the pragmatic center of a movement for social and economic progress... Tomorrow’s Capitalist reveals how corporate CEOs—the ultimate pragmatists—realized that they could lose their “operating license” unless they tackle the fundamental issues of our time: climate, diversity and inclusion, and inequality and workforce opportunity."
Jeffrey Peterson, Chief Technology Officer, symplr 
Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think
By Peter H. Diamandis, Steven Kotler
According to Goodreads: "Providing abundance is humanity’s grandest challenge—this is a book about how we rise to meet it. We will soon be able to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp. This bold, contrarian view, backed up by exhaustive research, introduces our near-term future, where exponentially growing technologies and three other powerful forces are conspiring to better the lives of billions. An antidote to pessimism by tech entrepreneur turned philanthropist, Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler."
Jordan Copland, Chief Financial Officer, symplr
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering 
By Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
According to Goodreads: "Few books on software project management have been as influential and timeless as The Mythical Man-Month. With a blend of software engineering facts and thought-provoking opinions, Fred Brooks offers insight for anyone managing complex projects. These essays draw from his experience as project manager for the IBM System/360 computer family and then for OS/360, its massive software system. Now, 45 years after the initial publication of his book, Brooks has revisited his original ideas and added new thoughts and advice, both for readers already familiar with his work and for readers discovering it for the first time."
Dead Ball
By Michael Balkind
According to Bookshop.org: "Murder, mystery, elite sports, guns, greed, special ops, mafia, and glamour? Dead Ball has it all. The story takes place on the hallowed grounds of AllSport, a sports facility that houses and trains inner city athletes who have shown professional potential in various sports. Cutthroat tactics abound and the high-stakes world of professional sports makes for a thrilling read. A brazen murder is committed and the list of suspects with plenty of motive is long. Dead Ball is full-throttle action from the very first page."
Kristin Russel, Chief Marketing Officer, symplr
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
By Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein
According to Goodreads: "Every day we make choices—about what to buy or eat, about financial investments or our children’s health and education, even about the causes we champion or the planet itself. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. Nudge is about how we make these choices and how we can make better ones. Nobel Prize winner Richard H. Thaler and Harvard Law School professor Cass R. Sunstein show that no choice is ever presented to us in a neutral way, and that we are all susceptible to biases that can lead us to make bad decisions. But ... we can use sensible 'choice architecture' to nudge people toward the best decisions...."
The Overstory
By Richard Powers
According to Goodreads: "The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of—and paean to—the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe."
Brian Fugere, Chief Product Officer, symplr
Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love 
By Marty Cagan
According to Goodreads: "The basic premise of Inspired is that the best tech companies create products in a manner very different from how most companies create products. The goal of the book is to share the techniques of the best companies. This book is aimed primarily at Product Managers working on technology-powered products. That includes the hundreds of "tech companies" like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter and the like, as well as the thousands of companies moving to leverage technology (financial companies, media companies, retailers, manufacturers, nearly every industry)." (Goodreads)
The Secret Life of Secrets: How Our Inner Worlds Shape Well-Being, Relationships, and Who We Are
By Michael Slepian
According to Goodreads: "Think of a secret that you're keeping from others. It shouldn't take long; behavioral scientist Michael Slepian finds that, on average, we are keeping as many as thirteen secrets at any given time. His research involving more than 50,000 participants from around the world shows that the most common secrets include lies we've told, ambitions, addictions, mental health challenges, hidden relationships, and financial struggles....Drawing on over a decade of original research, The Secret Life of Secrets reveals the surprising ways that secrets pervade our lives, and offers science-based strategies that make them easier to live with."
Dave Arnold, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel, symplr
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup 
By John Carreyrou
According to Goodreads: "The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of a multibillion-dollar startup, by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end in the face of pressure and threats from the CEO and her lawyers. In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup 'unicorn' promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier."
Learn more about symplr's leadership team, check out our extensive library of thought leadership content, or apply for one of our open positions today!