I’ve really been focused on spirituality, psychology, health/wellness & business books, not quite to the point where I am reading fiction so if you want some of my book recommendations here is my 2019-2020 book list.
Principles
Life and Work
By: Ray Dalio
Dalio shares what he’s learned over the course of his remarkable career. He argues that life, management, economics, and investing can all be systemized into rules and understood like machines. The book’s hundreds of practical lessons, which are built around his cornerstones of “radical truth” and “radical transparency”, include Dalio laying out the most effective ways for individuals and organizations to make decisions, approach challenges, and build strong teams.
Zero to One
Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
By: Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
Zero to One is about how to build companies that create new things. It draws on everything Peter Thiel has learned directly as a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir and then an investor in hundreds of startups, including Facebook and SpaceX. The single most powerful pattern Thiel has noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas.
Judgment Detox
Release the Beliefs That Hold You Back from Living a Better Life
By: Gabrielle Bernstein
The Judgment Detox is an interactive process that calls on spiritual principles from the text A Course in Miracles, Kundalini yoga, meditation, EFT, and metaphysical teachings, allowing us to release the beliefs that hold us back from living a better life. Gabby has demystified these principles to make them easy to apply and commit to.
Stealing Fire
How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work
By: Steven Kotler, Jamie Wheal
Building a bridge between the extreme and the mainstream, this groundbreaking and provocative book examines how the world’s top performers – the Navy SEALS, Googlers, Fortune 100 CEOs – are using altered states to radically accelerate performance and massively improve their lives, and how we can, too.
Never Split the Difference
Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It
By: Chris Voss
Never Split the Difference takes you inside the world of high-stakes negotiations and into Voss’ head, revealing the skills that helped him and his colleagues succeed where it mattered most: in saving lives. In this practical guide, he shares the nine effective principles – counterintuitive tactics and strategies – you, too, can use to become more persuasive in both your professional and personal lives.
The Like Switch
An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over
By: Jack Schafer PhD, Ph.D. Marvin Karlins Ph.D.
The Like Switch is packed with all the tools you need for turning strangers into friends, whether you are on a sales call, a first date, or a job interview. As a Special Agent for the FBI’s National Security Division’s Behavioral Analysis Program, Dr. Jack Schafer developed dynamic and breakthrough strategies for profiling terrorists and detecting deception.
The Easy Way to Control Alcohol
By: Allen Carr
In his Easy Way to Control Alcohol Allen applies his revolutionary method to drinking. With startling insight into why we drink and clear, simple, step-by-step instructions, he shows you the way to escape from the ‘alcohol trap’ in the time it takes to listen to this audiobook. His unique method removes the feeling of deprivation and works without using willpower. Allen dispels our illusions about alcohol, removes the psychological dependence, and sets you free to enjoy life to the full.
Napoleon Hill’s Outwitting the Devil
The Secret to Freedom and Success
By: Napoleon Hill, Sharon Lechter (editor)
In 1938, just after publication of his all-time best-seller Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill revealed that he had broken the Devil’s Code, forcing him to confess his secrets. The resulting manuscript – Outwitting the Devil – proved so controversial, it was hidden for more than 70 years. Now, Sharon Lechter brings us this important book, annotating and editing it for a contemporary audience. Using his legendary ability to get to the root of human potential, Hill digs deep to identify the greatest obstacles we face in reaching our personal goals – including fear, procrastination, anger, and jealousy – as tools orchestrated by the Devil himself.
The Power of Habit
Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
By: Charles Duhigg
In The Power of Habit, award-winning business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. Distilling vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives that take us from the boardrooms of Procter & Gamble to the sidelines of the NFL to the front lines of the civil rights movement, Duhigg presents a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential.
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself
In Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, renowned author, speaker, researcher, and chiropractor Dr. Joe Dispenza combines the fields of quantum physics, neuroscience, brain chemistry, biology, and genetics to show you what is truly possible. Not only will you be given the necessary knowledge to change any aspect of yourself, but you will be taught the step-by-step tools to apply what you learn in order to make measurable changes in any area of your life.
Extreme Ownership
How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
By: Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
Required reading for many of the most successful organizations, it has become an integral part of the official leadership training programs for scores of business teams, military units, and first responders. Detailing the mindset and principles that enable SEAL units to accomplish the most difficult combat missions, Extreme Ownership demonstrates how to apply them to any team or organization, in any leadership environment.
The Charge
Activating the 10 Human Drives that Make You Feel Alive
By: Brendon Burchard
Burchard, using pioneering studies from the fields of positive psychology and neuroscience, as well as great stories from his own experience, identifies the ten simple drives of human emotion and happiness: Control, Competence, Congruence, Caring, Connection, Change, Challenge, Creative expression, Contribution, and Consciousness. The Charge provides the keys to understanding and activating these drives in clear and concrete ways that will inspire and help everyone find the one thing we all are searching for: more life in our lives.
Do You Talk Funny?
7 Comedy Habits to Become a Better (and Funnier) Public Speaker
By: David Nihill
Do You Talk Funny? shows how the key principles of stand-up comedy can be applied to your speaking engagements and presentations to make you funnier, more interesting, and better looking (or at least two of the three). Whether you are preparing for a business presentation, giving a wedding toast, defending your thesis, raising money from investors, or simply want to take on something you’re afraid of, this book will take you from sweaty to stage-ready.
Who
The A Method for Hiring
By: Geoff Smart, Randy Street
In Who, Geoff Smart and Randy Street, of the management consulting firm ghSmart, combine their experiences training thousands of managers and executives with the most revealing and comprehensive research ever on the subject of how to hire successfully, as well as advice and stories from more than 20 billionaires and 60 CEOs. The result is a simple, four-step method for hiring with confidence, designed for everyone from the CEO on down.
Influence
The Psychology of Persuasion
By: Robert B. Cialdini
Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say yes – and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion. His 35 years of rigorous, evidence-based research, along with a three-year program of study on what moves people to change behavior, has resulted in this highly acclaimed book. You’ll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader – and how to defend yourself against them. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of Influence will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success.