Favorite Have Fun Do Good Books of 2010

Below is my 6th annual list of favorite have fun, do good books that I read this year.  You can also check out my lists from 2005-2009:

• Favorite Do Good Books of 2009
• Favorite Do Good Books of 2008
• Favorite Do Good Books of 2007
• Favorite Do Good Books of 2006
• Favorite Do Good Books of 2005

Favorite Have Fun Do Good Books of 2010(in alphabetical order)


I always enjoy Anna Lappe's books.  She does a great job of being positive and practical.  You can listen to my interview with her about Diet for a Hot Planet on the Big Vision Podcast via iTunes, or read it on Have Fun, Do Good.



We read Farm City as part of my virtual social change book club.  It inspired most of us (including me) to grow something, even if it was just one little tomato plant.



I loved the range of women profiled in Farmer Jane and had many laughs interviewing the author, Temra Costa, for the Big Vision Podcast.  You can listen to our chat via iTunes, or read the interview on Have Fun, Do Good.


I can't say that I enjoyed reading Half the Sky.  It's the book that inspired me to start our virtual book club because I knew that I didn't want read about slavery, prostitution, rape, maternal mortality and female genital mutilation alone.  That said, it's an extremely important book that everyone should read.


I mentioned Lovingkindness in a lot of my Reverb 10 posts this month.  I'd never had much luck with meditation until I read this book.  It has truly been life-changing. 


Play is actually a repeat from my  2009 list.  I re-read it this year and underlined all over the place.  It has confirmed for me that having fun really is a key to doing good.  As Brown writes:

"The great benefits of play, as I've said, are the ability to become smarter, to learn more about the world than genes alone could ever teach, to adapt to a changing world."

"When we stop playing, we stop developing, and when that happens, the law of entropy take over--things fall a part. . . . When we stop playing, we start dying."

Although I'm not crazy about some of things Susan G. Komen for the Cure does (see this HuffPo piece), I was engrossed by Promise Me's story of how Nancy Brinker, Susan G. Komen's sister, built an international movement, as well as by the history of breast cancer treatment and research.



Fascinating book about how leaderless circles of circles (the starfish), rather than hierarchical pyramids (the spider) can grow powerful companies and social movements.

Honorable Mention



Radical Homemakers gets an honorable mention because I thought a lot about the ideas in the book after reading it (basically that we need to value homemaking over consumerism), but the tone was a bit too judgemental for me to add it to my list of favs.

What were some of your favorite have fun do good reads this year?

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