One of the things I have liked to do in recent years is to review books related to social change that I liked and/or that I thought were important. For example, I reviewed Rupert Scofield’s The Social Entrepreneur’s Handbook and Jacqueline Novogratz’s The Blue Sweater and you can find my analysis here. Similarly, I commented on Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel’s book More than Good Intentions and published my views of it here. And I wrote a comprehensive review of David Roodman’s book Due Diligence which the author praised as “thorough and thoughtful” despite not being uniformly positive; you can find it here.
I have also enjoyed it when people have reviewed my books, such as this lovely review of Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind. (Like most authors, I appreciate it when people take the time to write short reviews of my books on Amazon – just yesterday another one appeared.)
Earlier this week, I had a review of the much talked about critique of philanthropy Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World published. I have been encouraged by the response it has gotten, including this tweet by the founder of BRAC USA. You can find the review here.
And speaking of Susan Davis, the founder of BRAC USA, no post like this would be complete without a mention that her book (with David Bornstein) Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know is one of my favorites of all time.
I encourage people to dive into any and all of these books and reviews during final summer reading pushes.