I record the books I read in a notebook. In part to track how many books I read in a year. In part to have a record of what I read. But neither reason is why I started this habit. Years ago one of my colleagues in China asked me about a book I had read the year before and for the life of me, I could not recall anything of substance. What?!
As soon as I finished a book, I moved on to the next one without building in any reflecting time. So, chose a pretty notebook and started to write down a short blurb for each book I read. Sometimes my blurbs are brief summaries, other times, I write down what I want to remember from a book.
Recently I was asked what I’ve read in the last four years related to leadership and communication. You know I love nonfiction, so it’s not surprising my list was long-ish, almost too long for one post. But who doesn’t love a good list? For your sake, I disciplined myself not to say too much about any one book. If you’d like to know more, just ask!
Without further ado, here are the 26 books I read in the last five years related to leadership and communication.
1. Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables by Phil Vischer — “This is a story of dreaming big and working hard, of spectacular success and breathtaking failure, of shouted questions, and, at long last, whispered answers.”
2. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World
3. Contagious: Why Things Catch On
4. slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations
5. Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences
6. Supersurvivors: The Surprising Link Between Suffering and Success by Lee Daniel Kravetz and David B. Feldman
7. Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well
8. With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God
9. The Weekly Coaching Conversation: A Business Fable about Taking Your Team’s Performance and Your Career to the Next Level
10. Sticking Points: How to Get 4 Generations Working Together in the 12 Places They Come Apart
11. David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
12. Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success
13. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
14. The Emotionally Healthy Leader: How Transforming Your Inner Life Will Deeply Transform Your Church, Team, and the World
15. Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
16. Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter
17. Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade
18. The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business by Patrick Lencioni — An absolute must read! I’m using this book with the Connection Group Facilitators this fall.
19. 
20. Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy
21. Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life
22. The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals
23. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
24. The Power of Healthy Tension: Overcome Chronic Issues and Conflicting Values
25. 5 Voices: How to Communicate Effectively with Everyone You Lead
26. The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization
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How many have you read? Any catch your eye and are now on your “to read” list? But more importantly (to me!), what have you read related to communication or leadership and would recommend I read?
and now plan to read these books, all recommended by Joann.
by Erik Larson—”The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Nazi Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.”
by Frederick Kempe—The Berlin Wall
by Giles Whittell—You might have heard of the 
by 
by Ruta Sepetys. In this Young Adult Novel, “Fifteen-year-old Lina is a Lithuanian girl living an ordinary life — until Soviet officers invade her home and tear her family apart. Separated from her father and forced onto a crowded train, Lina, her mother, and her young brother make their way to a Siberian work camp, where they are forced to fight for their lives.”
by Robert K. Massie—I read this in high school and fell in love with one of the last Czars, his wife, their son who had hemophilia, and the mystic Rasputin. On our tour, we visited the Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral, where all of the Czars are buried, including Nicholas, Alexandra, and Alexis. The next day we toured the Palace where Rasputin was murdered. I am eager to read this a second time.
by Henri Nouwen—This book is one of my favorite five books of all time. So, when I heard we would be going to St. Petersburg and go to the Hermitage, I felt quivery inside. I need to reread it. If you haven’t you must read it. Please.
by M.T. Anderson—My niece Emily read and recommended this book to our family. I now need to reread it! “In September 1941, Adolf Hitler’s Wehrmacht surrounded Leningrad in what was to become one of the longest and most destructive sieges in Western history—almost three years of bombardment and starvation that culminated in the harsh winter of 1943–1944. More than a million citizens perished.”
by Jonas Jonasson—this international bestseller is described as “A reluctant centenarian much like Forrest Gump (if Gump were an explosives expert with a fondness for vodka) decides it’s not too late to start over . . .” So, you can tell it’s fiction. I’m wondering what it is about Sweden that turns out such good storytellers? I’m thinking of 
and Fredrik Backman.
by Daniel Mason.
by Esther Emery—From my notebook where I record what I read: “Esther is the kind o f story teller people dream of being. She is deep without being preachy. She is funny without going for cheap laughs. She is in love with Jesus in a way that rings true. She is real and profound in a way that invites people into deep waters.”
by J. D. Vance—Gorgeous story teller! Many of his stories from Kentucky sounded like they came from the 40s or 50s, but he is younger than me! Read this to wrestle with learned helplessness and personal responsibility. Also to see the power of have one (or more) solid adult pour into a kid (in his case, his grandma).
by Hope Jahren—Hope writes of her 20 years of working in a science lab with her lab partner Bill. I love when I finish a book and care about a subject in a way the “pre-reading Amy” would have laughed at. Books that change me are keepers. I wrote, “Their passion for soil, plants and trees are infectious! I love plants even more. Trees are amazing.”
by 
by Helena Sorensen—Also read for Velvet Ashes book club. Sorensen interacted with us and was an absolute delight! “Helena writes in such a way that familiar topics can be seen from unfamiliar angles. The idea/reality of all we lost in The Fall hit home again.”
by Alice Broadway—Alice is in a writers group I’m in and this book was first published in the UK and unavailable in the U.S. Mutual friend Tanya made sure this book found its way into my hands and I am grateful! “This may been the next YA trilogy. Alice is super talented!” Deals with the subject of a faith crisis as one grows up. Book two is in process and I cannot wait!
by Rachel Joyce—I loved this book! So many parallels with A Man Called Ove—I sort of annoyed anyone within a seven mile range with my over analysis of Harold and Ove. Strong themes of purpose, aging, regrets, and redemption.
by Rumer Godden—First of all, 640 pages, so gold star to me. But that is not why it made my top-17 list. If you are interested in cloistered life, this is a must-read. Godden tells the story of Phillipa, an “older” convert in an insightful and sensitive way.
by Michelle DeRusha—I blogged about this here: 
by 
by Tanya Marlow—I blogged about this book here: 
by 
by Verlyn Klinkenborg—”I didn’t realize there was so much to be said about the sentence :). An engaging books that will have me over-analyzing sentences in a good way.”
by Christ McChesney and Sean Covey—
by Abbie Smith—”Filled with laughter, tears, searing honesty and gorgeous writing, this is one of the best reads of the year. Quite simply, this is a stunning book. Smith writes about motherhood in such a way that whether you have had children or not you can relate to having Stretch Marks you don’t expect. Let the gentle waves of this prose wash over you and water your soul.” Amy Young, author of Looming Transitions and Love, Amy (How fun is that!! I’ll have to tell you how I met Abbie in another post. She is delightful!!!)
by Me (Amy Young)—Being an author and having people read your offering to the world is a humbling, exciting, encouraging, awkward at times, empowering, and so vulnerable you want to throw up and never look anyone in the eye again. Above all? A complete honor. If 
by Jill Ker Conway. Okay, so half read in May, half after the challenge began. My friend (and also an author) Kay Bruner recommended this memoir for the Velvet Ashes book club. From Amazon, “Conway spent her first 11 years in the windswept grasslands of Australia, where her father owned 30,000 acres of arid land. Though his ability to understand the land was extensive, an eight-year drought finally defeated him, and he comitted suicide. A few years later, Conway’s oldest brother died in an automobile accident. The two deaths plunged her mother into depression. Out of this tale of hard work, drought, and sorrow, Conway emerges with character and personal strength.”
by Gene Luen Yang. From Amazon: “Jin Wang starts at a new school where he’s the only Chinese-American student. When a boy from Taiwan joins his class, Jin doesn’t want to be associated with an FOB like him. Jin just wants to be an all-American boy, because he’s in love with an all-American girl. Danny is an all-American boy: great at basketball, popular with the girls. But his obnoxious Chinese cousin Chin-Kee’s annual visit is such a disaster that it ruins Danny’s reputation at school, leaving him with no choice but to transfer somewhere he can start all over again.”
by William Styron. If someone you know and love has experienced or experiences depression and you don’t, this memoir is for you. Styron is able to verbalize his experience in such a way that you will go, “Oh, wow, it’s like that?” A short, but powerful read.
by Omar Saif Ghobash. I discovered this book in the library trying to find a book by or about the Dalai Lama. Ghobash is interesting because he is half-Russian, half-UAE, studied in London, and is now the ambassador to Russia from the UAE. These letters were written to his sons. He seems more of a moderate muslim. It wasn’t a bad read, but didn’t really help me understand a perspective that different from a western educated person.
by Honoree Corder. 
by Ed Cyzewski. I loved this book. Though I didn’t come out of the Catholic tradition, I found Ed to be a fellow companion in seeking to add contemplative practices to his life.
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