This article about the Supply Cloud by Alexis Madrigal details how any teenager can make an instant retail store using Instagram, Shopify, and Alibaba. It’s suppose to be a warning about the unreliable ads for interesting stuff in your Instagram and Facebook feeds, but it’s actually a good primer on how to make an instant legitimate store. — KK

Charles Platt’s growing series of electronics learning books are the best I’ve come across. He explains concepts very clearly, and his illustrations are excellent. His latest book in the series is called Easy Electronics. It covers voltage, resistance, capacitors, transistors, integrated circuits and more. No tools are needed to make the projects. — MF

I’m blasting through the last book in Ramez Naam’s fantastic science fiction trilogy about technological telepathy. Start with Nexus, then onto Crux and Apex. He fleshes out not only the benefits of a global mind meld but also its problems, so as the series proceeds he keeps changing my mind on whether I want this invention or not. That’s great reading. — KK

A long time ago, after a bad breakup I read If the Buddha Dated by Charlotte Kasi. By the time I had finished the book, it was covered in notes and dog-eared pages, and I felt healed and ready to move on. Now, as a newlywed, I am enjoying listening to If the Buddha Married on Audible. So many great insights and communication tips. — CD

To prepare for the holidays I’ve been reading The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living written by Meik Wiking, CEO of The Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen. Wiking shares tips on how to light your home (aim for pools of light), what to wear and eat (mostly wool and warm drinks), how to create a sense of togetherness, as well as other things that Danes do to be happy all year round. An idea I plan to adopt is to link purchases with good experiences or an important milestone in life so that I’m reminded of it each time it’s used or seen. — CD 

Every time I return to the masterpiece A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, I am rewarded deeply. It’s a source book for architectural heuristics (guidelines), such as “A balcony less than 6 feet wide will never be used” or “Make a transition between street and front door” or “Vary the illumination. Aim for pools of light”. These design patterns are illustrated with photos and explanations and they serve as remarkable fountainhead for designing any kind of space, whether a room, building, or town. — KK

To get as far away from my bubble in Silicon Valley, I am enjoying reading Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger. Written in 1959 (not that long ago) this classic travelog describes the extremely remote path of Thesiger in the Empty Quarter of Arabia. He goes native with the Bedouin, and after years of traveling with them he can convey their alien mindset. They are not just pre-modern, they are pre-literate, primeval. The book plunges me into a wholly different way of seeing the world, which is why I keep reading. — KK

You are only as young as the last time you changed your mind. Cass Sunstein compiled 10 great books. Here are 5 books to change liberal minds. And 5 books to change conservative minds. Read and see if you can change your mind. — KK

The Crimson Petal and the White, Michel Faber’s 922-page novel about a Victorian era prostitute and a soap-and-perfume industrialist, was a full-sensory immersion into 1875 London. I haven’t had this much fun reading a novel about Merrie Olde England since Pillars of the Earth. — MF

A science fiction novel I really liked is The Three-Body Problem. It is the first Chinese-written novel to win a Hugo award. It is making waves in China and, in a new English translation, with the rest of the world. Complicated, deep, and steeped in a different view of China, it’s a masterpiece. — KK