Globalization
1. The World is Flat.
2. Making Globalization Work.
3. Culture and Prosperity: this incorporates, obviously, culture along with economics.
4. *The Achieving Society: while this book was written in the 1960s, I believe, it's really good for how early life influences shape what children believe and how that affects their subsequent motivations.
History/Society
1. A Century's Journey: How the Great Powers Shape the World
2. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World: this is fascinating concerning worldwide development and the balance between innovation, economy, politics, and military application.
3. The Civil Sphere. Very important book on how to get beyond cultural relativism without ignoring the positive, pluralistic aspects of postmodernism. This helps address some of the culture clash between various types of fundamentalists as well as addressing the fears and confusion around losing a central majority in America.
Psychology/philosophy
1. A Brief History of Everything: Ken Wilber is the author who most revolutionized my thinking. I think his book Sex, Ecology, Spirituality may be the best I've read, and this one is an abbreviated version.
2. The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force. If you can handle the brain science in this one, it's excellent for covering obsessions and compulsions, mindfulness, and agency.
3. The Wisdom Paradox: this author talks about how our brains begin deteriorating sometime in our thirties. The paradox is that our decisions and mental health overall often improve while, by biological measurements, our brains are on the downhill slope.
4. *Focusing (by Eugene Gendlin): if this information was understood by everyone, it would probably be the simplest way to have the biggest positive impact on human culture--basically for free. This is stuff I think every kid should be exposed to. The website is focusing.org.
5. Healing Trauma: a small self-help book that is the easiest introduction I've seen to the most important and universal type of psychological disturbances. Trauma and various similar influences (like extreme family of origin pressures) are hugely influential in derailing the develpment of people's potential.
6. The Study of Man. If this brief book can't be found at a reasonable price (try powells.com), Personal Knowledge covers the same material in a more expanded version. I think the smaller book is really helpful in putting to bed some of the relativistic philosophy that has shaped the last fifty years and created too much confusion.
7. Gifted Grownups. It's good for "gifted" people to know others are out there, some of what those others encounter, and how to deal with it--or at least to be able to see some of the consistent problems so as to begin formulating solutions for oneself.
Science
1. Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another. On applying statistical physics principles to understanding social change. This is less "sexy" than some of the quantum mechanics material, but more applicable.
2. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
3. Diffusion of Innovations.
Business
1. Quiet Leadership. The psychology in this book is imperfect, but the recommendations for dealing well with others are really good.
2. The Leadership Pipeline. Business leaders today are having difficulties with training enough qualified executives. While this book is probably irrelevant to what you'll do in education, it is still good material. It might be helpful to stellar high school students who are trying to figure out what a career in the 21st century might involve. Choosing companies to work with can be as important as choosing a career focus, and brilliant folks can always use a little help with their decision-making.
Religion
1. The Essential Rumi. This is a collection of Coleman Bark's translations of beautiful Sufi (Muslim mystics) poetry.
2. Passion for Creation: the Earth-honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart. The translator of Eckhart's sermons--Mathew Fox--strikes me as kind of nutty, but the translations of these sermons and some of the explanations are pretty good. This book, along with Ken Wilber's stages of development, helped me understand what can come after the genuine experience of being born again. I've met a few people who consider themselves "born again and saved" who still feel like there is something about personal growth in one's relationship with God and others that could be more something. Eckhart's work gets into contemplative readings of Biblical verses. While most of the benefits of contemplative prayer can come from simply, "Be still and know I am God" (Psalm 46:10), there are ways to educate one's thinking and experience of constantly finding, or being found by, God. Eckhart's work helped me realize how that hard-to-speak-of something can be shaped within Christianity.
3. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. This is a collection of talks from a Zen teacher on how to calm one's mind.
4. The Three Pillars of Zen. This book describes actual Zen practices for meditation and overall discipline, etc.
5. Mind at Ease.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Idea, language, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense.
--Rumi