Books About Leadership
Looking to round out a syllabus for a government or business class? Need inspiration and advice on how to lead with integrity, empathy, and bravery? Read on to discover analyses and discussion topics on titles focusing on leadership, self-help, and management.
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2018) is Jordan B. Peterson’s second book. Peterson’s self-help book seeks to provide practical and virtuous rules to live by for a wide audience and general readership. The book streamlines, simplifies, and reimagines some of the more traditionally academic topics of Peterson’s first book, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief. Each non-fiction work aims to explain human history and human nature according to universal frameworks. 12... Read 12 Rules for Life Summary
A Few Good Men is a play written by Aaron Sorkin and first performed in 1989. The story involves a military lawyer who defends two Marines accused of murder. The play was well-received, and Sorkin adapted it into a screenplay for the film of the same name (released in 1992), which was a popular and critical success.Plot SummaryA Few Good Men opens as two Marines, Downey and Dawson, recall the details of a nighttime incident... Read A Few Good Men Summary
Alas, Babylon is a 1959 novel by Pat Frank. Written during the Cold War, it is one of the earliest post-apocalyptic novels to deal with the potential consequences of nuclear war. It examines themes of nationalism, natural selection, deterrent force, and resilience and contains elements of dystopian literature.Plot SummaryAs the novel begins, Mark Bragg sends a telegram to his brother, Randy. The telegram includes the words, “Alas, Babylon,” their code for the onset of a... Read Alas, Babylon Summary
Elbert Hubbard’s essay “A Message to Garcia” tells of the heroic journey of an Army soldier who must deliver a letter to a freedom fighter, and of the need for a similar spirit of determination in the workplace. The work first appeared as a magazine article in 1899 and became a pamphlet and book that reached millions of readers. “Carry a message to Garcia” (3) was a commonly used phrase in America during the first... Read A Message to Garcia Summary
James Clear’s Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones is a guide to adopting good behaviors through incremental changes to your everyday routines. Avery first published the book in 2018, and this guide refers to the ebook edition. The book has unique pagination, with the page numbers beginning again at the start of each new chapter. Clear likely numbered his book this way because of his emphasis... Read Atomic Habits Summary
Daniel H. Pink’s A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, released in 2005, considers and challenges society’s history of valuing left-brained attributes over creative and empathic right-brained thinkers. Pink, an author of several books on business and human behavior, argues that the age of left-brain supremacy is over, making way for whole-minded thinkers who will define and thrive within the coming Conceptual Age. Pink offers six essential whole-minded aptitudes that are key... Read A Whole New Mind Summary
Band of Brothers is a nonfiction history of one World War II company of paratroopers, Easy Company of the 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne. Through a combination of narrative, interviews, maps, and excerpts from letters, Stephen E. Ambrose follows the lives of this group of soldiers from their training in 1942, their deployments in Europe, and their lives after the war. By focusing on the lives of members of one particular company, Ambrose reveals the reality... Read Band of Brothers Summary
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell's 2005 New York Times bestseller, describes how snap judgments, first impressions, and intuitions can be more useful than painstaking rational thought.Blink contains three central ideas: “fast and frugal" thinking is a natural attribute of the human mind and often works better than slow-and-careful reasoning; this ability can be distorted or misled; and fast cognition can be trained and improved. The book’s six chapters provide examples from... Read Blink Summary
Published in 2017, Brené Brown’s Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone presents insights and strategies for finding what Brown refers to as true belonging in a time of increasing cultural polarization in America. Based on Brown’s grounded theory research, true belonging is a practice that involves believing in and belonging to oneself so fully that one can share one’s innermost, authentic self with the rest of the... Read Braving the Wilderness Summary
Catching Fire (2009) is the sequel to The New York Times bestseller The Hunger Games (2008), and the second novel in author Suzanne Collins’s trilogy of the same name. Catching Fire is a young adult dystopian science fiction novel that takes place in the future, amidst the ruins of what was once America. Catching Fire details the aftermath of Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark’s victory in the 74th Hunger Games from the first novel. Despite... Read Catching Fire Summary
Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs is a 2015 work of investigative nonfiction by British-Swiss author Johann Hari. Hari explores the so-called international war on drugs by looking deeply into its historical roots, its legal and social implications, and the possibility for reform. He examines addiction and the consequences of past and present drug laws across nine continents and 30,000 miles. A major focus is the criminalization and... Read Chasing the Scream Summary
The Chronicle of the Narváez Expedition by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was originally written in 1542, with a reprint in 1555. The chronicle follows Cabeza de Vaca’s memories of his survival after the expedition (led by Pánfilo de Narváez) failed and broke apart, and his subsequent peregrinations through the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. His chronicle stands as an important primary document of the age of the conquistadores. Of particular importance are Cabeza... Read Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition Summary
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes Are High (2002) was written by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Al Switzler, and Ron McMillan. It has become a cornerstone of the field of interpersonal communication and self-improvement, offering insights into the dynamics that govern our most vital conversations. Both Kerry Patterson and Joseph Grenny are leading authorities on organizational change and have advised some of the world’s largest organizations. Al Switzler is a renowned speaker and... Read Crucial Conversations Summary
Malcolm Gladwell’s 2013 book David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants is an investigation of the relationship—often distorted, in Gladwell’s view—between underdogs and giants. Taken from the Biblical account of David and Goliath, underdogs are cast as those battling (and overcoming) seemingly overwhelming odds, and giants are their adversaries. David and Goliath was a bestseller, but some critics and scholars found Gladwell’s conclusions unsatisfying and the stories he draws from unsubstantiated... Read David And Goliath Summary
In Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Daniel Goleman discusses how The Components of Emotional Intelligence, like self-awareness, empathy, and social skills, shape an individual’s life. He explores key themes, such as The Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Personal and Professional Success, The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Traditional IQ, and Emotional Intelligence Affecting Mental Health and Interpersonal Relationships. This guide refers to the 1995 Bantam Books hardcover edition. Content Warning: The... Read Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ Summary
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage is a 1959 work of historical nonfiction by journalist and writer Alfred Lansing. The book describes explorer Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 overland expedition across Antarctica; the mission failed when his ship, the Endurance, became trapped in ice, but Shackleton and all of his crew were able to survive and escape against long odds. Lansing researched the book extensively, drawing on diaries kept by crewmembers as well as interviews with survivors. The work... Read Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage Summary
In the 2015 military and business book Extreme Ownership: How US Navy SEALs Lead and Win, two of the most highly decorated US Navy SEALs of the Iraq War describe the lessons of leadership learned during combat and how those lessons apply to companies and organizations. Authors Jocko Willink and Leif Babin explain that the single most important element of a team is its leader and that the team succeeds in its mission only if... Read Extreme Ownership Summary
Gang Leader for a Day is Sudhir Venkatesh’s account of the six years he spent doing research in Chicago’s housing projects as a Sociology graduate student. Early in his time at the University of Chicago, Venkatesh stumbles across the Black Kings, a powerful gang heavily involved in Chicago’s crack trade. While he is interested in studying urban poverty, Venkatesh cannot pass up the opportunity to learn more about how gangs operate and what role they... Read Gang Leader For a Day Summary
Getting to YES: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (1981) is a business and self-help book by Roger Fisher and William Ury. It teaches a principled method of settling disputes so that both sides win. Revised in 1991 and 2011, the book has sold 15 million copies in 35 languages, spent several years on the BusinessWeek bestseller list, and is one of the most commonly cited works on lists of the best negotiation books. Authors Fisher... Read Getting to Yes Summary
Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success, by Adam Grant, explores the concept of reciprocity in the workplace and how it can lead to personal and professional success. First published in 2013, the book bridges the genres of business psychology and self-help, providing readers with actionable strategies to enhance their careers and professional relationships. Grant, an organizational psychologist and professor, draws on his extensive research and real-world examples to demonstrate the power of... Read Give and Take Summary
Good to Great, published in 2001, serves as both a follow-up and thematic prequel to author Jim Collins’s 1994 best seller, Built to Last. Comprehensive in the scope of its research, Good to Great is an examination of the defining qualities of greatness in companies that have made a pivotal transition from “good” (performing relatively consistently) to “great” (performing exceptionally). In making his arguments, Collins brings his expertise as a faculty member at the Stanford... Read Good to Great Summary
Angela Duckworth’s best-selling 2016 book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance describes how persistent practice, and not mere talent, is the key to success among students and professionals. Duckworth’s extensive research demonstrates that young people do best in activities that hold their interest and give them a sense of purpose. This encourages them to practice hard and overcome obstacles until they achieve mastery and success in school and, later, in their professional lives. The... Read Grit Summary
First published in 1936, Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People launched the American self-help industry, sold over 30 million copies, and became a template for the thousands of self-improvement books that followed. It asserts that success with others depends on listening, showing appreciation, and empathizing with them. The book was revised in 1981; the 2020 eBook re-issue of that edition is the basis for this study guide. The book is divided... Read How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t (2014) is inspirational speaker Simon Sinek’s second book, a follow-up to Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (2009). The book’s title is derived from a practice in which Marine Corps Officers eat last, sacrificing their own needs for those in their care. Sacrifice is key. Sinek explores the ways in which successful individuals and companies develop cultures built on... Read Leaders Eat Last Summary
Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun is a self-improvement and business leadership book by Wess Roberts, who was a human resources manager at Fireman’s Fund Insurance when he published the book in 1989. Using the historical figure of Attila the Hun as his mouthpiece, Roberts outlines his management style and approach to business. This guide refers to Attila’s “persona” when quoting words that Roberts imagines Attila might have said. In the introduction, Roberts discusses Attila... Read Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun Summary
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (2013) is a nonfiction book written by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Drawing on both research and her own experiences, Sandberg describes how and why gender inequality continues to operate in the modern workforce, and offers advice for women seeking to balance a career and family. Ultimately, Sandberg argues that full equality will only come about when women "lean in," pushing past their own fears and misgivings to... Read Lean In Summary
The novel Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, published by Random House in 2017, offers a portrait of an American legend in mourning, surrounded by a poignant but funny cast of 166 characters. It is Saunders’s debut novel, though he has been a notable author of short story collections for decades. The novel won the prestigious Man Booker Prize and was a New York Times best seller.Set in 1862, Lincoln in the Bardo is... Read Lincoln in the Bardo Summary
Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…and Maybe the World is a work of self-help psychology by Admiral William H. McRaven. The book is a continuation and expansion of a commencement speech McRaven delivered at the University of Texas at Austin in 2014, which went viral on the internet. Formerly a high-ranking officer of the US Navy and Commander of US Special Operations Command, McRaven relates his experiences in Navy SEAL training to... Read Make Your Bed Summary
In 2006, psychologist Carol S. Dweck, PhD, the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, released the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, as a layperson’s guide to her decades of academic research. Initially interested in areas of motivation, personality, and development, the author gravitated toward research in cognitive motivation theory. She eventually discovered that the concepts of “fixed” and “growth” mindsets explain what motivates some people to embrace challenges and... Read Mindset Summary
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It is a 2016 nonfiction book cowritten by Chris Voss, an international hostage negotiator turned business consultant and professor, and journalist Tahl Raz. In this book, which straddles the line between the business and self-help genres, Voss shares principles gleaned from decades of experience in high-stakes negotiations. Citations in this guide correspond with the first edition published by Harper Collins. Although Raz is credited... Read Never Split the Difference Summary
Florence Nightingale was an English nurse commonly known as the founder of modern nursing practices. Born in Italy, she became an experienced nurse and formed many of her opinions while serving in the Crimean War, enrolling in nursing school at age 24 in Germany. She penned Notes on Nursing: What It Is, and What it Is Not in 1859, just a few years after serving in the war, and the work was first published in... Read Notes on Nursing Summary
The nonfiction book Outliers: The Story of Success is Malcolm Gladwell’s third book, published in 2008. Gladwell is a prolific writer for the New Yorker, where he has been on staff since 1996. His writing often incorporates research from the social sciences, as in Outliers, in which he makes the case that the way we understand and portray success is wrong. Before joining the staff of the New Yorker, Gladwell was a reporter for the... Read Outliers Summary
Profiles in Courage articulates and argues for the significance of the idea of "political courage" in American political history. Through four parts, the author, President John F. Kennedy argues that the preeminent value of a senator is "political courage," which he defines from drawing from the lives of eight former American senators.The first of these Senators is John Quincy Adams, the son of President John Adams. Considering an embargo against Britain over its aggression on... Read Profiles in Courage Summary
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking is a nonfiction book by Susan Cain, published in 2012. It is considered part of the psychology and self-help genres. The book made several bestseller lists, including those of the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and National Public Radio. It also was voted the best nonfiction book of 2012 by the Goodreads Choice Awards and has been translated... Read Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking Summary
Redwall is a middle-grade fantasy novel by British author Brian Jacques. It is the first book in a series of the same name that spans 22 volumes. The initial book was originally published in 1986, while the final installment, entitled Rogue Crew, wasn’t published until 2011, after the author’s death. Redwall was named to Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time. Aside from the Redwall Series proper, Jacques also published a three-book series... Read Redwall Summary
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by American author Jennifer Armstrong is a work of narrative non-fiction that tells the story of the survival of explorer Ernest Henry Shackleton and the crew of the ship Endurance after they were shipwrecked in the Antarctic Circle. Published in 1998, the book was the winner of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction and was also named an... Read Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World Summary
Shoe Dog is a first-person memoir written by Nike cofounder Phil Knight. It was published in 2016. Shoe Dog primarily recounts the events from 1962, the year Knight traveled around the world as a young man, to 1980, the year Nike went public and Knight became a multimillionaire. The years in between are comprised of the struggles and challenges Knight faced as he worked to build the company that would ultimately be known worldwide as... Read Shoe Dog Summary
In Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, Simon Sinek explores the fundamental question of why some individuals, organizations, and movements succeed while others do not. Published in 2009, this book has been particularly impactful in the spaces of leadership and business strategy, offering a fresh perspective on how leaders can both inspire and motivate others. At the heart of Start With Why is the concept of the “golden circle,” a... Read Start With Why Summary
Steve Jobs (2011) is an authorized biography written by Walter Isaacson about the life of the late Apple founder and tech revolutionary. Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs, the book is an in-depth exploration of who Jobs was, from the story of his birth and subsequent adoption to his massive success at the helm of Apple. Jobs himself personally requested that Isaacson write his biography on a phone call in 2004. By the... Read Steve Jobs Summary
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, published in 2005, is an historical study of the events surrounding Abraham Lincoln’s nomination as the Republican candidate for US president in 1860 and his tenure in office from 1861 to his assassination in 1865. The sixth book by Pulitzer Prize winner Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals won the 2006 Lincoln Prize and the inaugural Book Prize for American History from the New... Read Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln Summary
Tecumseh and the Quest for Indian Leadership by R. David Edmunds is both a biography of the titular Shawnee war chief Tecumseh and an overview of the political movement he started in the early 19th century.From roughly 1805 until his death in October 1813, Tecumseh played a pivotal role in establishing relations between the United States and Native Americans in the Old Northwest Territory (now part of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota). Along... Read Tecumseh and the Quest for Indian Leadership Summary
Robert Greene (1959) is an American self-help book author with a focus on strategy and power. After training in Classical Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, Greene worked numerous jobs before pitching The 48 Laws of Power to book packager Joost Elffers in 1995. The book was inspired by Greene’s time as a writer in Hollywood, where he learned that today’s powerful people share common traits with historic princes, leaders, and tyrants. As he... Read The 48 Laws Of Power Summary
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Aug 1989) by Stephen R. Covey is one of the most influential self-help books of the late twentieth century. To date, the title has sold over 40 million copies and has been a New York Times bestseller. Covey was named as one of Time Magazine’s 25 Most Influential Americans of 1996. His book is classified under the categories of Business Management, Organizational Behavior, and Personal Success in Business... Read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Summary
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey was first published in 1998 but was revised in 2014 to meet the changing needs of its audience of tech-savvy teenagers. (This study guide refers to the 2019 Simon and Schuster trade paperback edition.) While the genre is self-help, the book’s focus on young adult readers is evident from Covey’s informal tone, which he uses to narrate entertaining stories about teenagers, as well as the... Read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens Summary
Priya Parker’s book The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters (2018) is a series of chapter-length essays that provide a guide to organizing effective gatherings as well as a persuasive argument for thinking about them as tools for social transformation. As a highly experienced group facilitator, advisor, podcast host, and expert in conflict resolution, Parker brings a specialist’s insight to her topic. At the same time, she organizes and presents the... Read The Art of Gathering Summary
The Art of War, written in China during the fifth century BCE by military expert Sun Tzu, has been favored reading among soldiers and strategists for two millennia. Its concise 13 chapters, studied to this day by world leaders and generals from Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong to US Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell, teach victory through studying the opponent, building impregnable defenses, confusing the enemy with diversions, and attacking forcefully its weak spots. The book... Read The Art of War Summary
“The Battle of Maldon” is a heroic poem, also classified as an epic, dating from the 10th century. Originally written in Old English, the text details a violent battle between the Anglo-Saxon warriors and the raiding Vikings. The Anglo-Saxons are led by Earl Byrhtnoth, who held land in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Essex and fought for his ruler, King Æthelred the Unready. The poem depicts some of the central tenets of Anglo-Saxon culture, praising loyalty... Read The Battle of Maldon Summary
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics is a work of narrative nonfiction written by Daniel James Brown and published in 2013. Brown is known for his nonfiction works, including The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride (2009) and Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II (2021). The Boys in the Boat... Read The Boys in the Boat Summary
The Competitive Advantage of Nations is a 1990 work of economics by American author Michael E. Porter, a Harvard Business School professor and expert in corporate competitive strategy whose influential works are frequently cited in business and economics. In this book, Porter dismantles traditional economic theories about how well a nation fares in global competition (factor costs and macro-economic policy) and proposes a model that focuses on active and malleable factors of business rather than... Read The Competitive Advantage Of Nations Summary
Book Details & Major ThemesJon Gordon’s 2007 self-help book The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy was a Wall Street Journal best-seller and tells the fictional tale of a man named George who, after a chance meeting with a unique bus driver, triumphs over serious career and marital problems using the power of positive energy. Both a work of fiction and a how-to manual on team-building, The... Read The Energy Bus Summary
The Goal, originally published in 1984 by North River Press, is part of a subset of business writing intended for managerial training. In the tradition of Who Moved My Cheese? and Surviving Your Serengeti: 7 Skills to Master Business and Life, The Goal is a fictional fable directed at executives to help them improve organizational culture and productivity. The Goal was one of the first such publications and introduced the idea of the Theory of... Read The Goal Summary
Andrew Carnegie wrote “The Gospel of Wealth” in June 1889. Carnegie begins his treatise by identifying what he sees as the most significant problem of modern-day times: “the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship” (1).Carnegie mentions that, in the past, “there was little difference” (1) between the living situations of a leader of a community and those of the members... Read The Gospel Of Wealth Summary
Published in 2012, The Mark of Athena is the third novel in Rick Riordan’s young adult fantasy series The Heroes of Olympus, his second series in the Percy Jackson universe inspired by Greek and Roman mythologies. The Mark of Athena picks up the narrative where The Son of Neptune left off, with a Greek warship from Camp Half-Blood approaching Roman Camp Jupiter in hopes of collaborating to stop Gaea from waking up and destroying the... Read The Mark Of Athena Summary
The New One Minute Manager (Scribd digital edition) is a business manager’s leadership guide. Though originally published as a best seller in 1982, the authors—Ken Blanchard, PhD and Spencer Johnson, MD—released an updated version of the text for contemporary times in 2015, incorporating philosophies that reflect modern trends and techniques for today’s business leadership. Considered influential figures in business and management, the co-authors wrote the story as a fictional parable (a short and simple tale... Read The New One Minute Manager Summary
The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph (2014) is a self-help book by American author Ryan Holiday. Holiday identifies three aspects of confronting obstacles: “Perception,” “Action,” and “Will.” Weaving Stoic philosophy with historical and contemporary anecdotes, Holiday argues that people can turn obstacles into opportunities by changing their perceptions of their problems. Holiday points to role models such as former American president and general Dwight D. Eisenhower, American aviator... Read The Obstacle is the Way Summary
Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business investigates the science behind habit formation in the human brain. Drawing on corporate case studies and pioneering scientific experiments, Duhigg analyzes how individuals, organizations, and societies can use the knowledge of habit formation to change their behaviors. Published in 2012 by Random House, the nonfiction book has reached a broad public readership and landed on the New York Times... Read The Power of Habit Summary
The Prince is a 16th-century political treatise of the Renaissance period written by Italian diplomat and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli. The work, which was likely distributed for years prior to its official publication in 1532, is one of the most influential works of political philosophy in human history. Machiavelli wrote The Prince as a guide for new and future rulers, instructing them on how to seize and hold onto power, frequently citing specific examples from history... Read The Prince Summary
David Brooks’ The Road to Character, published in 2015, is a philosophical treatise and self-help book hybrid. Brooks believes that in an ego-obsessed, achievement-focused society, our focus is constantly on self-promotion and desire-fulfillment rather than on spiritual enrichment, strength of character, and moral compass. Brooks contrasts the outward-facing, more shallowly motivated self with the inward-facing, more introspectively driven self. After a significant amount of time spent reflecting on his own life experiences as a high-achieving... Read The Road to Character Summary
Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point (2000) is an interdisciplinary work of popular sociology and psychology that explores the concept of the tipping point, a moment of sudden change that occurs in social epidemics. Gladwell explores how social epidemics work and offers many case studies and illustrative research to bolster his novel arguments about how epidemics “tip.” The book began as an article for The New Yorker. This guide refers to the first edition of the... Read The Tipping Point Summary
The Titan’s Curse (2007) is the third installment in Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, following The Lightning Thief (2005) and The Sea of Monsters (2006) and preceding The Battle of the Labyrinth (2008) and The Last Olympian (2009). The series centers around the adventures of Percy Jackson, a boy who is the son of the Greek god of the sea Poseidon and a mortal woman named Sally Jackson. Percy learns that he... Read The Titan's Curse Summary
Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), written by Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman, examines how people exercise judgment and make decisions. It draws from Kahneman’s long career—particularly his collaboration with fellow psychologist Amos Tversky beginning in 1969—identifying the mechanisms, biases, and perspectives that constitute human decision-making. Its 38 chapters provide detailed information affecting disciplines ranging from mathematics to law. The book was named one of the best books of 2011 by The New York Times and The... Read Thinking, Fast and Slow Summary
UnWholly (2012) by Neal Shusterman is Book 2 in the Unwind Dystology. Shusterman originally planned the series to be a dystopia trilogy, but the third book, UnSouled, was split into two for publication due to length. While it was nominated for several awards in Young Adult literature, it did not win any, in contrast to the first book of the series, Unwind, which won nearly a dozen awards and prizes. UnWholly is science fiction, specifically... Read UnWholly Summary
John Lewis’s 1998 memoir, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, written with Mike D’Orso, is an intimate firsthand account of the US Civil Rights Movement (CRM). Lewis, the child of sharecroppers, grew up in Pike County, Alabama, during the heyday of segregation in the American South. From a young age, Lewis questioned the injustices of segregation, yet never imagined that he would become one of the key leaders of the civil rights... Read Walking with the Wind Summary
War and Peace is a historical fiction novel by Russian author Leo Tolstoy that was first published between 1865 and 1869. The story charts the alliances and wars between Russia and France at the beginning of the 19th century, following the lives of characters swept along by historical events and examining key themes like Living a Meaningful Life, The Purpose of Suffering, and History and Free Will. Heralded as one of the most important novels... Read War and Peace Summary
Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, MD, is an inspirational advice book on how people and businesses can respond to changing times and situations by learning how to adapt quickly and successfully. The book centers on a parable about two mice and two people who live in a maze and search for cheese—the things each wants in life—and what happens when the cheese they’ve been enjoying disappears. First published in 1998, the book proved... Read Who Moved My Cheese? Summary
Social Intelligence
by Daniel Goleman
... Read Social Intelligence Summary