Books We Trust

Communicating Effectively:

Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style, by Virginia Tufte

Beautiful Evidence; The Visual Display of Quantitative Information; Envisioning Information; and Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative, all written by Edward Tufte

The Five Love Languages, by Gary Chapman

The Superior Person’s Book of Words, by Peter Bowler

When Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes, by Andy Goodman and Cause Communications

Compelling History of Business, Cultures, Politics, Sports, and War:

The Ascent of Money:  A Financial History of the World, by Niall Ferguson

The Best Game Ever:  Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL, by Mark Bowden

The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team, by Wayne CoffeyThe Ethics of Authenticity, by Charles Taylor

The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, by David Halberstam

Curry: A Tale of Cooks & Conquerors, by Lizzie Collingham

Gandhi & Churchill:  The epic rivalry that destroyed an empire and forged our age, by Arthur Herman

Over the Edge of the World, by Laurence Bergreen

Patton:  A biography, by Alan Axelrod

Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic, by Tom Holland

Growing Your Spirit:

Epic, by John Eldridge

Disappointed with God and Where is God When it Hurts? both by Phillip Yancey

Healing Yourself and Healing Others

Eat to Live, by Joel Furman, M.D.

Fatland, by Greg Critser

Redefining Health Care, by Michael Porter and Elizabeth Olmstead Teisberg

Thryoid for Dummies, 2nd edition, by Alan Rubin, M.D.

Leading and Managing for Excellence:

Competing Values Leadership, by K. S. Cameron, R. E. Quinn, J. DeGraff, A. V. Thakor

First, Break All the Rules, by Marcus Buckingham and Curt CoffmanHershey : Milton S. Hershey’s Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams, by Michael D’Antonio

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni

Leading Innovation:  How to Jump Start Your Organization’s Growth Engine, by  Jeff DeGraff and Shawn Quinn

Lean Solutions: How Companies and Customers Can Create Value and Wealth Together, by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones

Making the Impossible Possible: Leading Extraordinary Performance, by Kim S. Cameron and Marc Lavine

Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton

Outliers:  The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell

Positive Leadership:  Strategies for Extraordinary Performance

Strengths Based Leadership:  Great Leaders, Teams and Why People Follow, by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie

What Got You here Won’t Get You There:  How Successful People Become Even More Successful, by Marshall Goldsmith

Making the World A Better Place:

The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of LIke-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart, by Bill Bishop

The Dumbest Generation:  How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future (Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30)

Independents Day:  Awakening the American spirit, by Lou Dobbs

Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door, by Lynne Truss

Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, by Annette Lareau

Value Shift: Why companies must merge social and financial imperatives to achieve superior performance

Who Really Cares: American’s Charity Divide, Who Gives, Who Doesn’t, and Why it Matters, by Arthur Brooks


Marketing and Media:

The Influentials, by Keller & Berry

Let my people go surfing: the education of a reluctant businessman by Yvon Chouinard

Naked conversations, by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel

Natural Capitalism, by Hawken, Lovins & Lovins

The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, by Barry Schwartz

Pour your heart into it: How Starbucks built a company one cup at a time, by Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang

Just for Fun:

The Comic Strips Bloom County; Outland; Opus; and ANYTHING by Berkeley Breathed

Who Moved My Blackberry? by Kellaway with Lukes

5 Responses

  1. Aneil & Karen:

    You might consider linking your book titles to their Amazon descriptions (or to another book retailer that you trust). While I might find the title and author of interest at the moment, these things tend to slip out of my realm of consciousness rather quickly, and days later I find myself thinking . . . “hmm, there was a book that sounded like that that someone I trust mentioned. Oh well.”

    Your own brief synopses might be of interest as well (you don’t necessarily have to provide a recommendation, if you’re not comfortable doing so). Just a suggestion.

  2. Greg:

    Good idea, and we’re exploring the Amazon link. But wordpress.com is strict about advertising, and we need to make sure we’re staying within its guidelines. Stay tuned.

    Aneil

  3. You might want to search “ethics” on my blog. I’ve been following the ethical trials of the “ethical” drug companies and health care providers for years. I’ve yet to see a good article that explains why smart people do dumb things ethically.

    Very nice site.

  4. Donald:

    You might try “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariely for some insight into dishonest behavior by otherwise honest people; this is covered in a chapter or two of the book. Overally, I recommend the book as well for a non-academia treatment of behavioral economics. I’d provide an amazon link, but I’m afraid of what Aneil would do if I did . . . .

  5. The books on your list that I know suggest that the books I don’t know would definitely be worth checking out. So it looks like I can definitely trust your book recommendations. Thanks.

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