The Paradox of Choice
This one is on my "favorites" shelf.
More info →I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time
Can a woman truly have it all? 168 Hours author Vanderkam explores what true balance looks like, meticulously upending the dominant culture narrative that presume a woman’s professional success comes only at great personal cost. In this data-driven narrative, based on hundreds of time logs from successful professionals, she shows how women who “have it all” succeed at work, enjoy their families, and make time for themselves. An important (and readable) contribution to the ongoing discussion of work/life balance, and I’m not saying this just because a post on this blog inspired the study.
More info →Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives
Rubin’s much anticipated follow-up to her happiness books is all about habits: how we make them, why we break them, and how we can improve them. That may not strike you as poolside fare, but the chatty writing, illuminating insights, and story-driven narrative make this guidebook anything but dry and boring. Packed with relatable tales from Rubin’s life, which are easy to apply to your own. If you put them into practice, this book will change your life. Practical, engaging, entertaining.
More info →Say Goodbye to Survival Mode
Crystal is firmly in her element here. From the publisher: "Packed with straightforward solutions you'll use today and inspirational stories you'll remember for years, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode is a must for any woman who's ever longed for the freedom to enjoy life, not just survive it."
More info →The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Habits can be built, and they can be changed. Duhigg explores the science that explains how in this readable book, and explains how to put these methods into practice in your own life. His methods and insights give you the know-how to put this information to use.
More info →The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
Tharp's life revolves around an arsenal of routines because, as she says, "a dancer's life is all about repetition." This conversational book is all about setting the bones—the day-to-day structure—of a creative life. (I only just found out she wrote a follow-up: The Collaborative Habit is on my to-read stack right now.)
More info →The Talent Code
This book is all about how to get better at getting better—at anything, whether it's sports, music, math, or business. Coyle delves into the science of how the brain acquires skill, then shows dozens of ways top performers are putting those theories into practice every day. This book has changed how I work, and how I talk to my kids about their work and play.
More info →The Fringe Hours: Making Time for You
Real-life time management for the busy woman: a topic I'm always interested in, as are many MMD readers.
More info →Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Coming September 22. I haven't read any of Gilbert's books, but I adored her TED talk on the subject and have loved her short work on creativity. I'll be reading this (and maybe The Signature of All Things in the meantime).
More info →Rising Strong
Brené Brown's work will change your life, no exaggeration. I'm so excited she has another book in the works. (Such a great title!) Coming August 25, 2015.
More info →The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent A Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
THP is great summer reading because while it’s not difficult, it’s thought-provoking and a lot of fun. It’s also perfect for summer because it’s very easy to read in short chunks (by the pool, on the deck, in the coffee shop). Read this now so you’ll be ready to read Rubin’s next installment Happier at Home, due out September 4.
More info →Daring Greatly
This is the Brené Brown book best suited to the beach, and since you need to read at least one Brené Brown book in your lifetime, go ahead and throw it in your swim bag. Brown is a researcher and a storyteller: while she’s educating you about vulnerability and courage, you’ll find yourself thinking she’d make a great girlfriend. Funny, insightful, and wise.
More info →Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
This latest book from the authors of Made to Stick examines why change is sometimes hard--and what to do about it. This story-driven book is fascinating and dead-practical, focusing both on huge issues (cutting a hospital’s death rate) and small ones (getting employees to turn in expense reports on time). Switch provides lots to fascinate, and lots to apply to your personal life.
More info →Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job and Your Dream Job
Jon Acuff pioneered the successful website Stuff Christians Like while he was working IT at autotrader.com. He was tired of doing the “reverse Superman” every Monday morning--changing out of the clothes he’d worn to speak at conferences about Stuff Christians Like (his dream job) and into the khaki-and-polo corporate uniform of his day job. In Quitter, Acuff tells the story of how he left his day job for his dream job--and how you can do it, too.
(I attended the Quitter Conference last fall: head here to read my related posts about the future of the internet, relationships with "how" people and "wow" people, and balance as a game of twister.)
More info →The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had
The book provides a roadmap aka The Mother of All Reading Lists for adults who long for the classical education they never had. Bauer provides numerous suggestions for reading across 5 genres—fiction, autobiography, history, drama, and poetry—as well as numerous hows and whys. This is the grown-ups’ counterpart to The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (one of the books I read over and over again).
More info →The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
An instant classic. This is THE BOOK on the subject; everything else is derivative. Highly recommended.
More info →What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast
Successful people purposefully use their mornings to focus on things that are important, but not urgent: things like nurturing your career, nurturing your relationships, and nurturing yourself. Read this guide, keep a time diary for a week as Laura suggests, and reap the benefits. (Read about my experience with making over my mornings here.) Add Audible narration for $2.49.
More info →Dare Dream Do
Part inspiration, part action-plan, popular Harvard Business Review blogger Johnson encourages women to consider shaking up their life, to dream about new possibilities and discover their purpose in life, and to create and implement a plan to bring those dreams to life. Dare Dream Do shines for its rich storytelling and practical advice.
More info →Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
You’ve heard the buzz; maybe you’ve read the reviews. What can I say? Read it. Using equal parts memoir, instruction guide, and manifesto, Sandberg tells her story of how she built a career that made it worth staying in the workplace, and she encourages other women to do the same. A timely read, for women and men.
More info →Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work
This story-driven business book teaches you how to make better decisions, drawing on case studies on everything from whether or not to fire an employee to whether or not to undergo a risky bone marrow transplant. The Heath brothers are whip-smart and really funny, making Decisive a million times better than your typical business book. Everyone will find a useful takeaway.
More info →168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think
Vanderkam's no-nonsense, no-excuses approach to time management just might convince you that you actually have time to accomplish anything you really want to do, when you focus on your core competencies and stop frittering away your time. To get the most out of this book you must do the time diary exercise.
More info →The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need
If you just have to give a book as a graduation gift, make it this one from the always-excellent Dan Pink. This pithy career guide is written in the Japanese comic book style manga—so you know they’ll read it.
More info →The Five Love Languages
I just re-read this modern classic. Chapman's framework transforms the way you think about your most important relationships. This is a quick and easy read that has changed many lives for the better. Add Audible Narration for $3.99.
More info →Lean In for Graduates
I'm usually not a fan of gift books, but I'll make an exception for Sandberg's game-changing bestseller about making the choices necessary for long-term success early in your career. This edition has been updated with specific advice aimed squarely at new college grads.
More info →Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
High praise: I owe the library a week's worth fines because I took this to the beach despite the fact that it was due while I was 600 miles away and it was totally worth it. It deserves its own blog post: I'll figure out a way to dive a little deeper into the concepts here soon. I appreciated the concepts in Cal Newport's previous book So Good They Can't Ignore You; in this one he shares excellent ideas while seriously upping his writing game. This is an excellent read for anyone who wants to thoughtfully examine their priorities, their working habits, or their relationship with social media.
More info →Reading People: How Seeing the World through the Lens of Personality Changes Everything
We are collectively obsessed with the idea of defining and knowing ourselves and our unique place in the world. For readers who long to dig deeper into what makes them uniquely them (and why that matters), Reading People explains the life-changing insights that can be gained from the most popular personality frameworks, such as Myers-Briggs, StrengthsFinder, Enneagram, and others and shares specific, practical real-life applications across all facets of life, including love and marriage, productivity, parenting, the workplace, and spiritual life. Understanding personality can revolutionize the way we live, love, work, and pray.
More info →That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week: Helping Disorganized and Distracted Boys Succeed in School and Life
This book isn't just for boys (or kids, for that matter). The author is an educational consultant who works with bright, talented kids who bomb in school because they just can't get it together: her lightbulb moment came when she realized "chronic disorganization" was the biggest culprit in her students' underperformance. Homayaoun outlines the common sources of struggle, her plan for building incremental habits, and a quick guide to troubleshooting, so her students can devote less time to keeping their stuff together and more time to the things they really love.
More info →Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind
The title says it all: this little book is about playing to your creative strengths and natural rhythms by building daily routines. Twenty-plus luminaries from a host of people who work in creative professions—Gretchen Rubin, Steven Pressfield, Teresa Amabile, Seth Godin—weigh in on the importance of their personal habits for email, solitude, social media, multitasking, and more. This inspiring and practical guide will spur you to evaluate your schedule, create better habits, and rethink your priorities.
More info →What the Most Successful People Do on the Weekend: A Short Guide to Making the Most of Your Days Off
This isn't a sale price but it IS darn cheap and offers a potentially paradigm-shifting approach to your weekends. Add Audible narration for $2.99.
More info →