The Books That Got Us Through 2020

Kristin Hillery

December 10, 2020

With just a few weeks of 2020 left, we’re already starting to let out a sigh of relief. It’s been a long year.

A bright spot? There was no shortage of great books to read. And we’re especially grateful for that because they offered a much-needed escape from reality when it felt like the walls were closing in, or even when we just wanted a quick distraction or quiet way to end our day.

We were curious to know what’s at the top of everyone’s personal “best of” books list this year, so we asked the OpenView community to tell us their favorite. Take a look and consider adding a few of these to your 2021 reading list.

The Culture Map
–Lisa Campbell, CMO at Autodesk

Liar’s Poker
–Francesca Krihely, Senior Director, Growth Marketing at Snyk

Brick by Brick
–Mike Tria, Head of Platform at Atlassian

Obviously Awesome
–Ryan Dunagan, VP of Marketing at Spotio

The Infinite Game
–Graeme Wilson, Founder at Morphed

Purple Cow
–Pranav Kashyap, Group Product Manager at Mixpanel

House of Leaves
–Dylan Berno, Client Success Team Lead at New Breed

Rework
–Ross Andrews, Founder at Talkin’ SaaSy

High Output Management
–Miguel Fernández Larrea, CEO at Capchase

Why We Sleep
–Chase Doelling, Director Strategic and Technical Alliances at JumpCloud

Empowered
–Steffen Bilde, VP of Product Strategy at Dixa

Time Rich
–Brett Trainor, Host of the B2B Founder podcast

In Search of Stupidity
–Anthony Morris, Head of Marketing at Linx Software

When Things Fall Apart
Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube
She Said
Whistleblower
–Paige Paquette, Co-Founder at Calyx Consulting

Minor Feelings
–Abbas Faiq, CIO at PTC

Sula
–Shruti Kapoor, CEO at Wingman

The Punch Escrow
–Bobby Brown, Global Head of Customer Success at MessageBird

The Power of Habit
–Lawrence Schwartz, CEO at Trivie

The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King
–Martin Roth, CRO at Levelset

What’s the best book you read this year? Comment on our LinkedIn post with your answer.

Where to order books

Our local book stores need us right now more than ever, so please order from one near you (find yours here). If you’d like some suggestions, here are just a few of many that offer online ordering:

Frugal Bookstore (Boston)
Mahogany Books (Washington, D.C)
Semicolon Bookstore (Chicago)
Harriet’s Bookshop (Philadelphia)
Black Pearl Books (Austin)

Kristin Hillery

Managing Editor
OpenView

Kristin joined OpenView after spending over four years at InVision managing their Inside Design publication and helping build brand love as chief storyteller, lead producer and editor. Before InVision, she co-founded the digital strategy agency Four Kitchens, spent several years in the restaurant industry as a chef, and was Editor-in-Chief of the nation’s largest college humor publication, the Texas Travesty, as an undergrad at the University of Texas at Austin.

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