These are your 10 top picks for Hello Monday's holiday reading list

A couple of weeks ago, I asked you for nominations for our Hello Monday holiday reading list. These aren't meant to be books written by our guests. And, they're not intended to be the newest titles in the bookstore or the ones everyone else is reading.

These are our books, the ones we can't put down. The ones that make us better at our jobs. Or better at our lives. Or just offer us a momentary escape from both so that we can rest, restore and replenish our imaginations.

Says Meredith Orr, a North Carolina listener, "The greatest compliment I can give a book is if I lose the ability to focus my eyes because I can’t put it down OR, I re-read it a couple of times and tell everyone I can think of." Yup. That.

So here is our list. It's not comprehensive, so if you want the broader list from which I drew, check out the comments where you all called out your favorites. I chose the recommendations that I heard over and over or those in which a Hello Monday listener offered a compelling case for a read. My personal goal is not to read them all, but to choose one I haven't picked up, and read it slowly this month, savoring it. Will you join me?

1: Becoming, by Michelle Obama

Alysandra Toh brought this one home from the library recently: "I find it heartwarming, heartbreaking and extremely inspirational. I couldn’t bear to put down the book at times, while having to stop reading and reflect on my own life - looking at the decisions that shaped me."

2. Losing the Nobel Prize, by Brian Keating

Lynae Cook actually had a few suggestions, but she says this one offers "a shift in perspective in how we perceive the bold and recognized in society," adding: "Dr. Keating's book specifically digs into the history of the Nobel Prize and how it doesn't foster collaborative progress across practices.

3. The Mastermind, by Evan Ratliff

Several people recommend this book, which combines excellent storytelling and exceptional reporting.

4. Educated, by Tara Westover

So many people recommended Tara Westover's memoir that I don't know where to start. I read it last year, in a day. Says Paola Bonomo: "The sheer force of will the author shows in extricating herself from an abusive family background, her relapses, and her eventual freedom build an epic tale of what it means to become oneself in today's America." Faith Brill adds: "I also had the opportunity to see Tara speak in Santa Barbara a couple of months ago, and would highly recommend her as a guest on Hello Monday." Great! Noted.

5. How to Do Nothing, by Jenny Odell

Gina Helfrich calls it: "An amazing meditation on what it means to be part of a place, entwined in an ecosystem, and enact resistance-in-place to the more malicious forces trying to harness our attention through technology."

6. Lifespan, by David Sinclair

My colleague Kirk Wheeler calls it "both technical and lofty" and says that "pairing this with Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb reminds me that while we often strive for comfort, it is in the struggle we find our strength."

7. I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, by Austin Channing Brown. 

Lauren Maffeo writes: "It's a humbling book in the literal sense. If you're a white person who believes you have the best intentions when it comes to diversity, this book will bring you to your knees by showing you how far you still have to go. Austin says that if people don't want to throw her book across the room, she hasn't done her job as an author. Her memoir about life as a black woman moving through white spaces - especially at work - is searing, important, and should be required reading."

8. Fleishman is in Trouble, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Rebecca Goldsmith writes: "The most thought-provoking novel I read this year was Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner for several reasons: 1) It was a good reminder there are at least 2 sides to any story in every relationship. 2) As a former journalist, it's fun to see those powers of observation redeployed to fiction. 3) It was especially insightful on all the different kinds of work that affluent working parents, and especially affluent working mothers, need to do (or at least think they need to do) to get by." I read this one, too, and have not stopped thinking about it. This book perfectly captures my experience of womanhood in 2019.

9. Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, by Caroline

Mary Meadows Livingston loves it. Paola Buonomo writes: "An eye-opening account of what we choose to measure, what we neglect to measure, and the impact of gaping holes in data collection practices - from medicine to urban planning, from car safety to workplace design - on women's lives."

10. She Said, by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey 

After putting it on my original list, I devoured this book over the Thanksgiving holiday. Listener Angela Brooks says it's also worth reading Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill. "I read She Said and I feel Catch and Kill is a complementary read."

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And now that we've put together our list of books, what are your favorite podcasts? Other than Hello Monday, of course. Let me know in the comments below.