Every July, I love creating space to read deeply — to sit with ideas long enough for them to truly settle in. This year, I’ve curated a summer reading list built around one powerful theme: regeneration, and what it truly means for leaders, organizations, and the living systems we’re all part of.
This selection brings together five complementary perspectives: a landmark title on regenerative leadership, a foundational book on systems thinking, a pioneering work in regenerative economics, a beautiful exploration of relational ecology, and a novel that brings the whole theme to life through story and imagination.
Here are my five picks, why each one belongs on your shelf this summer, and the ideal order to read them in.
1. Regenerative Leadership — Giles Hutchins & Laura Storm
Why read it: This is the perfect starting point for leaders ready to align their teams, organizations, and strategy with the principles of living systems. Hutchins and Storm offer clear, practical frameworks alongside genuine vision, making regenerative leadership feel both inspiring and achievable.
Why in summer: It offers a rich balance of big-picture thinking and hands-on tools, staying warm, accessible, and engaging from start to finish, ideal for a season that invites deeper reflection.
2. Thinking in Systems: A Primer — Donella H. Meadows
Why read it: A true classic, and essential reading for anyone building a regenerative mindset. Meadows offers the clearest possible language for understanding relationships, feedback loops, delays, and leverage points, the building blocks of systems thinking.
Why in summer: Best enjoyed with a pencil in hand, this concise, elegant book has a way of transforming how you see complexity, with insights that stay with you well beyond the season.
3. Doughnut Economics — Kate Raworth
Why read it: Raworth reimagines economics through the lens of human wellbeing and ecological health, offering a hopeful, regenerative vision for how economies can truly thrive.
Why in summer: Concrete, stimulating, and full of practical clarity, this book connects sustainability, justice, and systems design in ways that feel immediately relevant and energizing.
4. Braiding Sweetgrass — Robin Wall Kimmerer
Why read it: Kimmerer beautifully weaves together science, Indigenous wisdom, and poetic sensitivity, illuminating reciprocity as a living, breathing practice of regeneration.
Why in summer: A contemplative, luminous read, perfectly suited to a season when the natural world feels especially close and vivid, best savored slowly, ideally outdoors.
5. The Overstory — Richard Powers
Why read it: The single novel on this list, chosen deliberately. Through richly interwoven human and arboreal stories, Powers brings regeneration to life as relationship, deep time, and interdependence, an experience you feel as much as understand.
Why in summer: More narrative and immersive than the others, this novel invites you into the theme through imagination and emotion, making it a beautifully rounded close to your summer reading journey.
Suggested Reading Order
For a coherent path through these five books on regeneration, I recommend this order:
Regenerative Leadership → Thinking in Systems → Doughnut Economics → Braiding Sweetgrass → The Overstory
This sequence guides you from vision and leadership, into systems understanding, through applied regenerative economics, and finally into a more contemplative, narrative experience, a natural arc for a summer dedicated to growth.
Wishing you a slow, regenerative summer, filled with pages that give back as much as they inspire.