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Recommended Reading List: Volume One

Dear Reader,

As a kid, I had a night-time routine that occurred anytime I was reading something really good.

My mom would put me to bed. I’d wait, listening for the tell-tale creak outside my parents’ room. Then I’d tip-toe over to the corner of my bedroom with my book in tow. I’d lay down on my belly beneath the glow of the wall outlet nightlight, prop open my book and get to work on figuring out what happened next.

I’d read late into the night, usually finishing the book and facing the consequence of bleary eyes and tiredness the next day.

On lazy weekend afternoons it wasn’t unusual for my parents, my older brother and I to sit around reading together, each of us lost in the worlds we were creating in our heads. (Quiet, anyone?)

Then there was a period after college where I slowed my roll around my book worm nature.

“I don’t want to live in my imagination anymore,” I thought. “I want to live in the real world.”

So I dropped my books and started learning through taking action.

The benefit of this approach was that I always learned a lesson that was exactly tailored to me and my personal errors or ignorance.

The downside was that it was a slow way to learn.

I came back to books when I realized somebody somewhere in the world had figured out a whole lot of things already. And they’d thoughtfully taken the time to write those things down! What a gift.

Nowadays I’m usually in the middle of a handful of books. The ones I love most have ideas that pop my brain open or stories that remind me of the beauty and frailty of the human condition.

The following reading list was curated from recommendations from exceptional leaders, like yourself.

I hope it helps you find your next great read.

Warmly,

Alison

Elite Coach to Visionary Leaders & Avid Reader

PS. Let me know if you read any of these or find another great book. I’ll compile additional recs into a new list.

PPS. Watch out for picking up a really good book right before bed. Take it from me, we all need our sleep. 😉

Click here for a pdf of the book list or find it below.


BUSINESS STRATEGY

Art of Action by Stephen Bungay

Blue Ocean Strategy by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim

Built to Sell by John Warrillow

Contagious by Jonah Berger

Deep Work by Cal Newport

Discipline of Market Leaders by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema

Ego vs. EQ by Jen Shirkani 

Greening Your Business by Daniel Sitarz

Hacking Marketing by Scott Brinker

How to Make Incredible Money in Technology Sales by Mike Slattery

Loonshots by Safi Bahcall

Management Consulting: A Guide to the Profession by Milan Kubr

Management Consulting: Delivering an Effective Project by Philip A. Wickham

Play Bigger by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, and Kevin Maney

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

Sales Management. Simplified. by Mike Weinberg

Start with Why by Simon Sinek

Story 10x by Michael Margolis

Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks

Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick by Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt, and Sven Smit

The Advantage by Patrick M. Lencioni 

The Employee Experience Advantage by Jacob Morgan 

The Power of Moments by Dan Heath

The Servant by James C. Hunter

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Why Simple Wins by Lisa Bodell

FICTION AND FANTASY

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Fall; or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson

His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

The Reckoning by John Grisham

The Silent Corner by Dean Kuntz

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

HISTORY AND MEMOIRS

Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years by Carl Sandburg

A Higher Loyalty by James Comey

American Icon by Bryce G. Hoffman

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

Bitcoing Billionaires by Ben Mezrich 

Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins

Cities: The First 6000 Years by Monica L. Smith

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

Five Presidents by Clint Hill and Lisa McCubbin

Help Me! by Marianne Power

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Leaders: Myths and Reality by Stanley McChrystal

One Giant Leap by Charles Fishman

Shoe Dogs by Phil Knight

Tell to Win by Peter Guber 

The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson

The End of the End of the Earth by Jonathan Franzen

The Girl Puzzle by Kate Braithwaite

The Greatest Miracle in the World by Og Mandino

The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

The Impossible Climb by Mark Synnott

The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro

Third Wave by Steve Case

Trillion Dollar Coach by Alan Eagle, Eric Schmidt, and Jonathan Rosenberg

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

LEADERSHIP AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Atomic Habits by James Clear

Barking up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker

Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Joe Dispenza

Clash of the Generations by Valerie M. Grubb 

Dare to Lead by Brene Brown

Good to Great by James C. Collins

Great Leaders Have No Rules by Kevin Kruse

Grit by Angela Duckworth

Leadershift by John Maxwell

Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman

Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi 

One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer

On Managing Yourself by HBR’s Top Reads

Presence by Amy Cuddy

Principles by Ray Dalio

Quiet by Susan Cain

Radical Candor by Kim Scott

Red Shoes Living by Lonnie Mayne

The Bee Book by Paul Rigby

The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink

The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

The Speed of Trust by Steven Covey

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson

Your First 100 Days in a New Executive Job by Robert Hargrove

MISCELLANEOUS

Prosperity Paradox by Clayton Christensen, Efosa Ojomo, and Karen Dillon

Slaying the Giants in Your Life by David Jeremiah

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Your Digital Undertaker by Sharon Hartung

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

Accelerate by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, and Nicole Forsgren

Army of None by Paul Scharre

Collapse by Jared Diamond

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport

Digital Transformation by Tom Sieble

The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, George Spafford, and Kevin Behr