Browse by topic
Career
Designing Your Life
Bill Burnett and Dave Evans · Career
The most practical career-change book of the last decade.
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What Color Is Your Parachute?
Richard N. Bolles · Career
The durable standard for job hunting; dated in spots, sound in method.
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The Defining Decade
Meg Jay · Career
Blunt, useful and best read at twenty-three; a solid gift for one.
CLICK TO SEECharacter
No Excuses!
Brian Tracy · Character
Unglamorous and reliable; a drill sergeant you can keep on the shelf.
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The Carpenter
Jon Gordon · Character
Pleasant, brief and forgettable in the details; the spirit sticks.
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The Go-Getter
Peter B. Kyne · Character
A brisk classic about getting it done; short enough to read on a lunch break.
CLICK TO SEEConfidence
The High 5 Habit
Mel Robbins · Confidence
Soft, sincere and surprisingly sticky; the practice outlasts the skepticism.
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Quiet
Susan Cain · Confidence
An important, slightly overlong book; validating for half the population.
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Self-Compassion
Kristin Neff · Confidence
Research-backed and gentle; a corrective many high performers need and avoid.
CLICK TO SEEEntrepreneurship
Unreasonable Hospitality
Will Guidara · Entrepreneurship
Warm, energizing and useful for anyone who serves customers.
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Setting the Table
Danny Meyer · Entrepreneurship
A thoughtful, generous business memoir; the source of much that followed.
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The E-Myth Revisited
Michael E. Gerber · Entrepreneurship
A repetitive classic with one idea every owner needs.
CLICK TO SEEFocus
Deep Work
Cal Newport · Focus
Demanding, slightly preachy, and one of the few productivity books that changes how a week feels.
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Free to Focus
Michael Hyatt · Focus
Clean, executive-friendly and immediately applicable; a well-built system.
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Getting Things Done
David Allen · Focus
The definitive system for people with too much on their plate; adopt the parts that fit.
CLICK TO SEEFreedom
Choose Yourself
James Altucher · Freedom
Messy, honest and energizing; a wake-up call written by someone who overslept.
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The 4-Hour Workweek
Timothy Ferriss · Freedom
Overpromising title, genuinely useful middle; a provocation worth reading once.
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Company of One
Paul Jarvis · Freedom
Calm and useful; permission to stay small, with a method.
CLICK TO SEEGoals
Goals!
Brian Tracy · Goals
A nuts-and-bolts goals workshop in paperback form; do the exercises or do not bother.
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Girl, Stop Apologizing
Rachel Hollis · Goals
More useful than its predecessor; a decent starter kit for guilt-free goals.
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Finish
Jon Acuff · Goals
Light in tone, sharp in substance; the best book here on not quitting.
CLICK TO SEEGratitude
Build the Life You Want
Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey · Gratitude
Gentle, grounded and readable; a good introduction to happiness as practice.
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The Daily Stoic
Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman · Gratitude
A good daily companion; the practice matters more than the prose.
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In Praise of Slowness
Carl Honoré · Gratitude
An enjoyable, thoughtful survey; a philosophy more than a method.
CLICK TO SEEHabits
Atomic Habits
James Clear · Habits
The clearest operating manual for habits in print; read it once, then keep it near the desk.
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The Compound Effect
Darren Hardy · Habits
A short, sales-flavored classic whose tracking exercise is worth the cover price alone.
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Million Dollar Habits
Brian Tracy · Habits
Personal finance fundamentals, repeated until they stick; nothing clever, nothing wrong.
CLICK TO SEEHealth
The Miracle Morning
Hal Elrod · Health
A useful template with a lot of marketing around it; take the routine, leave the rest.
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Why We Sleep
Matthew Walker · Health
Persuasive and occasionally overheated; the behavior change it prompts is worth it.
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Dopamine Nation
Dr. Anna Lembke · Health
Clear, compassionate and timely; a strong explanation of why moderation feels so hard.
CLICK TO SEELeadership
The Power of Positive Leadership
Jon Gordon · Leadership
Upbeat and approachable; a first leadership book, not a last one.
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First, Break All the Rules
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman · Leadership
The original data-backed management book; still the one to read first.
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Crucial Conversations
Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson and others · Leadership
A dependable toolkit for the conversations that matter; worth rereading before each one.
CLICK TO SEEMindset
The Power of Positive Thinking
Norman Vincent Peale · Mindset
Dated, devotional and still quietly effective for readers who meet it on its own terms.
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Everything Is Figureoutable
Marie Forleo · Mindset
Cheerful and practical; a good book for people who think too long before beginning.
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Money
The Science of Getting Rich
Wallace D. Wattles · Money
A curious, compact antique with one hard-headed principle hiding inside.
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Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
T. Harv Eker · Money
A useful mirror and a shallow map; take the diagnosis, verify the prescription.
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I Will Teach You to Be Rich
Ramit Sethi · Money
The best starter manual for money in a decade; practical, specific, a bit loud.
CLICK TO SEEMotivation
See You at the Top
Zig Ziglar · Motivation
The warmest book on this list; outdated in its details, timeless in its tone.
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Unlimited Power
Tony Robbins · Motivation
Big, uneven and energetic; useful in parts, best read with a skeptical pencil.
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Be Obsessed or Be Average
Grant Cardone · Motivation
A shot of adrenaline with no nutritional value; sometimes that is the right prescription.
CLICK TO SEEParenting
The Anxious Generation
Jonathan Haidt · Parenting
Urgent and debated; whatever the final science, the norms are reasonable.
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Good Inside
Dr. Becky Kennedy · Parenting
Warm, specific and practical; a strong parenting book for the early years.
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The Daily Dad
Ryan Holiday · Parenting
Simple and steadying; a good daily companion for parents.
CLICK TO SEERelationships
Set Boundaries, Find Peace
Nedra Glover Tawwab · Relationships
Clear, specific and immediately useful; a workbook for the conflict-avoidant.
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The Good Life
Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz · Relationships
The science behind a truth most people already suspect; worth the reminder.
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Boundaries
Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend · Relationships
The foundational boundaries book; faith-based, broadly applicable.
CLICK TO SEEResilience
Transitions
William Bridges · Resilience
Wise, calm and underrated; the book to read when nothing else makes sense yet.
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The Dip
Seth Godin · Resilience
An hour-long essay that makes one decision clearer; worth it for that.
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Who Moved My Cheese?
Spencer Johnson · Resilience
A short, simple parable; harmless as a read, grating as a corporate mandate.
CLICK TO SEETime
Eat That Frog!
Brian Tracy · Time
Brief, repetitive and effective; a pocket drill for mornings.
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The Now Habit
Neil Fiore · Time
The kindest and perhaps most effective book on procrastination written.
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