Georgia College Leadership Programs announces Must-Reads of 2025

Georgia College's Office of Leadership Programs today announced its "Must-Reads of 2025," a selection of 12 books designed to equip leaders with insights for navigating today's challenges. 

The collection spans contemporary works and classics. Each selection has been chosen for its relevance to leaders in 2025. 

"Our goal with this list is to offer 12 recommendations for our unique historical moment," says Dr. Harold Mock, director of leadership programs. "While many of these books reflect our contemporary challenges, we've also chosen classics that provide interpretive depth to leadership in 2025 and beyond." 

The complete Must-Reads of 2025 list includes:

• Choosing Civility: The Twenty-five Rules of Considerate Conduct by P.M. Forni
• The Middle Daughter by Chika Unigwe
• Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman
• The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge by Abraham Flexner
• Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
• The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens by Richard Haass
• Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull
• Resilience that Works: Eight Practices for Leadership and Life by Marian N. Ruderman, Cathleen Clerkin, and Katya C. Fernandez
• Truth in Public Life by Vernon White, Stephen Lamport, and Claire Foster-Gilbert
• Family by Pa Chin
• Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life, One Conversation at a Time by Susan Scott
• The World in 2050: How to Think About the Future by Hamish McRae

To enhance engagement with these works, Georgia College Leadership Programs is launching a Virtual Book Club series. These sessions will provide guided conversations and shared insights in a welcoming space where guests will connect with fellow leaders while deepening our understanding of how to serve the public good. 

The first installment in the Virtual Book Club series will be Chika Unigwe’s ''The Middle Daughter' on Thursday, March 27, at 7 p.m. The session will be facilitated by the author, Chika Unigwe, who is assistant professor of creative writing at Georgia College. Registration is available online. 

"These aren't just books to read and shelve," noted Mock. "They're starting points for conversations about how we lead, serve and create positive change."

The Virtual Book Club sessions will help participants apply insights to their leadership challenges while building connections with fellow leaders.

For the complete list of Must-Reads, book club registration and additional information about Georgia College Leadership Programs' initiatives, visit leadcreatively.org. 

About Georgia College Leadership Programs: Georgia College's Office of Leadership Programs provides teaching, research and public service related to leadership, citizenship, democracy and public affairs. With the support of distinguished faculty and practitioners, we educate the next generation of Georgia's leaders for the public good. Our programs bring together scholars and students, as well as business leaders, non-profit executives, journalists and public officials and offer a trusted forum on citizen-leadership and pressing issues of the day.