If you have a feeling that 2025 could be a year of small shifts or bold changes but need some solid guidance to make it happen, you may want to look to old-fashioned ink-on-paper and your local library or bookstore (or Kindle, your call!).

The career and lifestyle coaching site, The Muse, is out with its annual list of book recommendations to support your desire to move onward and upward this year.

Don’t be surprised to see long-standing suggestions in the mix. Believe it or not, that copy of What Color Is Your Parachute? that you received for graduation 25+ years ago is STILL relevant, and Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life by a pair of Stanford professors still tops the list as the current darling of career books. (I personally know a career coach who mandates every new client read this book before he will work with them.)

But there are some fresh titles, too, that go beyond standard resume writing and salary negotiation and address topics like curiosity and courage.

And for women in print, recommendation #3 on this list (and the entire concept of “switchers”) offers a lot of applicability to those who are taking on sales roles in new customer verticals or embracing new opportunities in a different function (say, going from commercial to in-plant or from wide-format to digital packaging).

Regardless of your career development or work-life balance goals for 2025, you’re sure to find something impactful on this list. For super achievers: 12 books = 12 months: tackle each title on the list!