ARC, Books

Book 511: The Path to Personal Power (The Mental Dynamite Series #1) – Napoleon Hill

Once you start reading self-help novels, you open the floodgates to anything and everything. From journals and experiential books like How to be Happy (Or at Least Less Sad) to the more spiritual books like The Power of Forgiveness the broadness of the genre is breathtaking. Check out my nonfiction page, most of those are self-help with a few biographies/history book sprinkled throughout.

When the publisher reached out to me about this and I saw on Goodreads (of all places – it’s also on the back cover) that Napoleon Hill is the “grandfather of self-help” how could I turn it down?* It looks like Tarcher Perigee might be turning these into a series, The Mental Dynamite Series, but I’m not sure I would the next one. Even before they’d reached out to me I added Hill’s Think and Grow Rich book to my list as it’s one of the personal finance books to read.

Continue reading “Book 511: The Path to Personal Power (The Mental Dynamite Series #1) – Napoleon Hill”

ARC, Books, Professional Development

Book 503: Win at Losing – Sam Weinman

I’m still making headway on my pile of galleys/ARCs from the end of 2016 and early 2017.* Now this one is read I think I’m down to under five!

This is another one of those Tarcher Perigee books that I wouldn’t necessarily go out of my way to read, but the publisher reached out to me and it sounded interesting enough that I figured why not through it into the mix and thankfully, it covered a lot more than just sports (which I was really worried about at first).

The entire premise of this book is Weinman’s son throws a fit after a tennis match he “clearly” should’ve won, but didn’t and Weinman pondered the idea of losing and not just losing, but losing in such a way that it became iconic in certain aspects of our culture.

Continue reading “Book 503: Win at Losing – Sam Weinman”

Books, Personal Project

Book 501: The Automatic Millionaire – David Bach

I came across this book when I started listening to the Better Off podcast (Apple link), which is sponsored by Betterment (more on that later – including a referral link ;-D). David Bach, the author, was the guest on the very first episode. I was intrigued enough by his interview that I wanted to read the book. It sounded a lot like what I discovered on my own, but I wanted to verify and see what other tips or tricks he offered. But before I talk about the book, first the back story:

After completing my 30×30 project a few years ago and getting rid of my credit card debt, I’ve become much more interested in personal finance and making sure that I am planning for the future, whether it’s mine, that of any future children I have, or the fact that my mom, dad and step-mom (and at least one aunt) are all rapidly approaching retirement age.

Continue reading “Book 501: The Automatic Millionaire – David Bach”

ARC, Books, Professional Development

Book 485: Your One Word – Evan Carmichael

I received a copy of this from the publisher* late last year and am only just now getting around to reading a responding to it. There are a couple like that, and you’ve seen a few already. Even though I don’t generally read business books, but did read quite a few last year about managing up, I said yes to this because it sounded a bit less business and a bit more personality than the usual books.

What sucks is that I’m sure what I write later in my response is going to make it sound like I didn’t enjoy the book, but I really did. There were just a few things that weren’t to my #Taste, like that, and I should’ve noticed it from the cover of the book I mean there’s a big example of it on the front cover with #Believe. But honestly, what else could I expect from someone who has a huge social media presence for their first work.

Continue reading “Book 485: Your One Word – Evan Carmichael”

Books, Personal Project, Professional Development

Book 475: Difficult Conversations – Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton and Sheila Heen

Now that it’s been almost a month I figured I might as well catch up on some books. I’ve actually made quite a bit of progress reading this month, given the facts of everything that’s going on and  affects my day-to-day work life (thanks Trump).

This book came to me from my current Human Resources Director when I spoke with her about how not-so-great Miguel Ruiz’s books were. Based on our few previous conversations she was like you should try this one because it’s more of a practical guide and less “worldly wisdom.” And boy was she right!

Even though the two books say basically the same thing, this one was so much easier to identify with and take action points away from it. This could have to do with the fact it was written by a group of Harvard University associated individuals, or it could also have to do with the fact that it was less spiritual and more practical.

Continue reading “Book 475: Difficult Conversations – Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton and Sheila Heen”