The Pausetive Reading List
These books have shaped the thinking behind the Pausetive Model.
Drawn from the best of psychology, behavior science, and emotional intelligence, each title offers valuable tools for deeper self-awareness, better decision-making, and more intentional living.
There’s no rush.
Explore them at your own pace.
Growth, after all, begins with a pause.
Psychology of Emotions
Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking
An insightful exploration into how emotions influence our decisions, behaviors, and relationships, offering tools to harness feelings for personal growth and better thinking.
How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain
Challenging traditional views, Barrett presents a groundbreaking theory that emotions are constructed by our brains, reshaping our understanding of feelings and emotional health.
The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life
Delving into the neuroscience of emotions, LeDoux uncovers how our brain processes fear and other feelings, revealing the complexities of our emotional experiences.
Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience
Brown explores 87 emotions and experiences, providing a framework to understand feelings and foster deeper connections through shared language and empathy.
Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love
Anthropologist Fisher examines the biological and evolutionary foundations of romantic love, explaining its powerful grip on human behavior and relationships.
The Courage to Be Disliked
Through a philosophical dialogue, this book presents Adlerian psychology principles, encouraging readers to embrace self-determination and personal freedom.
Psychology of Beliefs
Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious
Wilson reveals the hidden mental processes influencing our judgments and behaviors, emphasizing the limits of introspection in truly knowing ourselves.
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
Haidt bridges ancient philosophies with modern science, exploring ten great ideas about happiness and how they apply to contemporary life.
The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement
Brooks narrates the lives of two fictional characters to illustrate how unconscious influences shape our decisions, relationships, and successes.
How to Worry Less About Money
Armstrong offers philosophical insights into our relationship with money, encouraging a shift from anxiety to a more meaningful understanding of wealth.
Philosophy: Who Needs It
A collection of essays where Rand argues for the essential role of philosophy in everyday life, challenging readers to examine their beliefs and values.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Harari traces the evolution of Homo sapiens, exploring how biology and history have defined humanity and our societies.
Developing Agency
The Upside of Your Dark Side
This book argues that embracing all aspects of ourselves, including negative emotions, can lead to greater success and personal growth.
Personality Isn't Permanent
Hardy challenges the notion of fixed personality traits, offering strategies to transform one's identity and achieve personal goals.
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
Haidt explores the psychological roots of morality, explaining why people have differing views on politics and religion, and how to bridge these divides.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Cain champions the strengths of introverts, highlighting their contributions and advocating for a more balanced appreciation of different personality types.
Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious
Wilson reveals the hidden mental processes influencing our judgments and behaviors, emphasizing the limits of introspection in truly knowing ourselves.
The Art of Choosing
Iyengar examines the complexities of choice, revealing how cultural, psychological, and social factors influence our decisions.
Development Psychology
Free at Last: The Sudbury Valley School
An inspiring tale of liberation and self-discovery, this book chronicles the journey to personal freedom. Learn how to break free from societal constraints and embrace your true self.
Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work
A comprehensive biography of Maria Montessori, detailing her innovative educational methods and lasting impact on child development.
NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children
This book challenges conventional parenting wisdom, presenting surprising research findings on child development and behavior.
The Genius in All of Us
Shenk debunks myths about intelligence and talent, arguing that environment and mindset play crucial roles in human potential.
The Psychology of the Child
Piaget outlines his theory of cognitive development, explaining how children's thinking evolves through stages as they grow.
How Children Fail
Holt critiques traditional education systems, advocating for learning environments that nurture curiosity and critical thinking in children.
Cognitive Psychology
Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined
Kaufman rethinks the concept of intelligence, blending science and personal experience to show how potential can thrive outside conventional measures of IQ.
Reality Is Not What It Seems
Rovelli explores the nature of space, time, and reality, introducing readers to quantum gravity and the fascinating structure of the universe.
Exploring Language
A curated collection of readings that examine how language shapes culture, identity, and power through essays from leading thinkers and writers.
Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error
Schulz investigates why we get things wrong, revealing how embracing error can lead to growth, insight, and deeper understanding.
The Half-Life of Facts
Arbesman explains how knowledge constantly evolves, urging us to stay flexible and skeptical in a world of changing facts.
The Knowledge Illusion
This book reveals how thinking is a collective process, showing how we rely on others' knowledge more than we realize.
Corporate Work
The Hare and the Tortoise: An Informal Guide to Business Strategy
Kay uses real-world analogies to explain business strategy, highlighting the power of patient, consistent approaches over quick wins.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Lencioni outlines five common challenges teams face, offering practical strategies to build trust, accountability, and effective collaboration.
What Were They Thinking? Unconventional Wisdom About Management
Pfeffer challenges mainstream management beliefs, offering data-driven insights into power, leadership, and organizational behavior.
Leadership Without Easy Answers
Heifetz presents a powerful framework for adaptive leadership, encouraging leaders to mobilize people in times of deep change.
Making Sense of the Organization
Weick explores organizational behavior through sensemaking, showing how meaning is constructed within complex, changing systems.
Designing Effective Organizations
Mintzberg offers models for structuring organizations, emphasizing how design choices affect efficiency, adaptability, and innovation.
Systems Thinking
Systems Thinking, Systems Practice
A foundational text introducing systems thinking as a practical method for tackling complex, real-world problems.
Emergence
Johnson explores how simple interactions can give rise to complex systems, from ant colonies to cities and the brain.
Chaos: Making a New Science
Gleick tells the story of chaos theory, uncovering the hidden order in seemingly random systems across nature and science.
The Web of Life
Capra synthesizes systems theory, biology, and ecology to propose a holistic view of life and the interconnectedness of all things.
Thinking in Systems
Meadows introduces systems thinking fundamentals, offering tools to understand and influence complex systems in society and nature.
The Possibilities of Organization
Oshry examines the dynamics of organizational life, offering insights into roles, relationships, and transformative change.
Mental Clutter and Body
Overcoming Trauma Through Yoga
A guide to using trauma-sensitive yoga as a pathway for healing, focusing on reconnecting with the body in safe, empowering ways.
Scattered Minds
Maté explores the root causes of ADD and offers compassionate strategies for managing and healing this misunderstood condition.
The Body Keeps the Score
A seminal work on trauma recovery, showing how trauma reshapes the body and mind—and how healing can occur through holistic methods.
The Myth of Normal
This book critiques modern society’s impact on health, exploring how systemic stress contributes to illness and how we can heal.
Parenting
The Anxious Generation
Haidt investigates the mental health crisis in youth, linking it to smartphones and social media, and offers steps for cultural repair.
How Children Succeed
Tough argues that character traits like grit and resilience play a greater role in success than test scores or IQ.
Teach Your Own
Holt empowers parents to trust their instincts and children’s natural curiosity, offering a radical alternative to traditional schooling.
The Straight-A Conspiracy
A fun, science-based guide that demystifies academic success, showing students how to master learning without stress or fear.
Developing Talent in Young People
A landmark study on how exceptional talent is developed, revealing the roles of family, education, and deliberate practice.
Why Students Don’t Like School
Willingham explains how cognitive science can improve education by aligning teaching with how the brain learns best.