As the Leadership Learning Community (LLC) marks its 25th anniversary, we find ourselves reflecting on the journey, the learning, and the relationships that have enriched our journey and sustained our work. In the midst of uncertainty and challenges, we’ve remained deeply committed to evolving, learning, and celebrating our communities.

Part of our evolution and learning has always involved sharing ideas and the stories that challenge us to see the world differently. As a learning community, we know that leadership it’s a collaborative process that relies on our collective ability to reflect, grow, and act.

In honor of our anniversary, we’ve curated a list of 25 book recommendations that have resonated with our team. This collection includes books that relate to social change, liberatory leadership, and those that have simply moved us. 

We invite you to dive into this list, use it as a resource for growth, and maybe even read and discuss a book with a friend or your team. We believe in the power of shared reflection, and we hope this collection helps you, as it has helped us, to keep dreaming and asking questions about the world we want to create. 

Enjoy the list! And if you have a story from your time with LLC you’d like to share, we’d love to hear it.

  1. Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
  2. My Government Means to Kill Me * A Novel by Rasheed Newson
  3. Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen
  4. The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea
  5. Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So
  6. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
  7. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
  8. Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
  9. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
  10. Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
  11. Calling In by Loretta J. Ross
  12. When No Thing Works by Norma Wong 
  13. Flourishing Kin: Indigenous Wisdom for Collective Well-Being by Yuria Celidwen 
  14. Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes by Elizabeth Lesser
  15. Milk and Honey by  kaur 
  16. The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan
  17. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
  18. The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.
  19. Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch
  20.  Deacon King Kong by James McBride
  21. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
  22. Emergent Strategies: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds  by adrienne maree brown
  23. The Art of Mindful Living by Thich Nhat Hanh
  24. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer
  25. Management in a Changing World