Best book to give to a graduating senior off to grad school?

This is such a sweet thought!

For practicality, I wish someone would have introduced me to Zinsser's On Writing Well and Silvia's How to Write a Lot before I started grad school. Both are very readable.

I think every grad student should read Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions and Popper's Logic of Scientific Discovery, although they're both very dense. Those are the books that helped me understand what science really is. Kauffman's Reinventing the Sacred is also great for that, and very readable, although it would have the most impact if they read Kuhn and Popper first.

In my opinion, Katz and Khan's Social Psychology of Organizations is one of the bibles of social psych, although it's also a dense read.

For the phd student, the professor is in is a good read & resource book for existing in a phd program

What about popular books? Dreamland (Quinones) and anything Oliver Saks.

Don't forget that these students are embarking on a life and career. It's nice to pick something topical, but I recommend "An Open Life" by Joseph Campbell to every human alive. 'Follow your bliss' is fantastic advice in everything you do, even research.

Ms. Mentor's Guide to academia or the Compleat Academic. Both are a bit dated but still really good guides.

Check out The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons. It's light enough to read without having to make too much of an effort but provides a fascinating and perspective giving account of the development of psychology/neuroscience. 

My two book recommendations for your social psych PhD student are “Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me” by Carol Tavris & Elliot Aronson or “Whistling Vivaldi” by Claude Steele. The former is about cognitive dissonance and the mental gymnastics people go through to pass the blame. The latter is about how stereotypes can negatively affect groups and what to do about it.

Aronson and Steele are great social psychologists and known for their research on stereotype threat. Both books are much shorter than “Sapiens” but they are easy to read and very engaging.

Yalom!

for speech path it depends on their interests! medical or kids/school? medical: my stroke of insight, the diving bell and the butterfly (read authors story behind it), school- the heartbeat of speech language pathology, but my speech is fine! tales from a slp

Crucial Conversations is a good book and has definitely helped me become a better communicator in all areas including grad school

Oh the places you'll go :)

The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy by Cozolino or Dan Siegel’s The Developing Mind?? Art therapy books are good for both majors too :)

I would say nearly anything by Robert Sapolsky would be thought provoking and enjoyable. Sapiens is fantastic as well.

As a psych major I loved reading “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion”

Steven Pinker is a great writer and has some books that focus on language (The Language Instinct, The Stuff of Thought) as well as some books with a more general psych focus.

For the speech path student, maybe look for a memoir of someone with a speech/language disorder?

The bluffers guide to psychology

Infinite Jest

The dark side of social media: consumer psychology perspective!

So they can focus better on courses:)

Cheque book