A Curated Reading List for the Holidays from Your Personal Book Whisperer 🌟🎁🎉✨

A Curated Reading List for the Holidays from Your Personal Book Whisperer 🌟🎁🎉✨

I told everyone back in June that this holiday was right around the corner. Unfortunately, I didn’t take my own advice to plan ahead for it, and now I’m scrambling. But I still find time to bake the cookies!

Since it is that ‘time of year’ – and a lot of people and businesses take off, close down, or scale back a bit for these last two weeks – I thought you might all take up reading. At least, I recommend it. It’s relaxing, sometimes educational, and often entertaining.

Happy Holidays to all. And to all a good night.

Nighttime is when I read. After a long day working on client work (which also requires reading), and preparing LinkedIn posts, and meeting with new writers, I read fiction. The only fiction I will share today is from our client, Dr. Bruce Farmer. If you like thrillers, his book is definitely for you. The rest of the list is nonfiction and is what I call required reading.

Hmmm, I am sharing a unique book about a dog, also. Read on to the end to discover that one. I think it’s worth adding to any reading list this holiday season. You might be surprised by it.

What authors do you read? Do you have a favorite? I have several and the books listed today are among them. You can easily find all of these authors on LinkedIn. They would all be happy to connect.

Here’s the thing – I read books from people I know, like, and trust. What a concept. In today’s reading world, you can get to know the author of a book more easily than ever before. You can meet them virtually and have a conversation. Over time, they can become friends.

The books I’m going to share today – and there are a lot of them – are from people I know, like, and trust. People who recognize the value of writing a book and who have generally gifted me their precious time.

I have bought a few of these books because, again, these are people I trust to teach me what I need to know about the topic they write about.

I have included our most recent clients’ books in this list. Three of those clients will be coming out with new books very soon!

I am separating the list not by genre or category but by my own personal thoughts about them.

Business Books

The Phoenix Career Principles: Rising from Employee Ashes to the Flame of Entreprneurial Success by Tony Pisanelli. Tony is a client. An award winning client. An international bestselling client. He writes about career change and transformation. Whether you want to keep the job you have, safely leave the career you hate, or find purpose in your working life, The Phoenix Career Principles is your blueprint to do so.

This book is under 140 pages and easy to read in an afternoon. You will want to highlight a lot of content from chapter two and chapter five. Tony’s next book, Career by Design, will be out shortly. Stay tuned for that announcement. 😎

A Better Message in a Mess-Age: Audio Optometry by Michael Coleman. Also a client. This is an introduction to advertising and marketing. You won’t want to miss reading the Preface. Inspirational! 🤩

▶ Can you sound TALL?
▶ Can you see with your ears?
Michael tells us that these are the questions you should be asking about your current marketing and sales strategies. Michael’s second book, A Better Message in a Mess-Age: The Future of Messaging will be coming out soon. Stay tuned for that announcement.

The Leader You Don’t Want To Be: Transform Your Leadership Style from ‘Comand and Control’ to ‘Transformative Visionary’ by Mary T. O’Sullivan. Mary has taken this book to conferences, networking meetings, business events of all kinds, and everyone raves about it. Everyone has a story of a leader that wasn’t.

❗ This book is a daring callout to today’s business leadership. ❗

Chapters I found illuminating: Chapter 2 – “The Paradox of Women in Leadership”

And Chapter 8 – ” Death by Meetings.”

Mary’s new and revised edition of The Leader You Don’t Want To Be will be coming out in the new year. You’ll want to get your copy as soon as it’s announced.

Read ‘Em & Reap: 6 Science-backed Ways Reading Puts You on the Road to Achieving More and Living Longer by Tom Collins. Yep, he’s the other part of Master Book Builders. Tom wrote this book in 2019 and it’s still as relevant today as it was then.

Read ‘Em & Reap addresses two transformative questions for for leaders, coaches, parents, teachers, and lifelong learners:

• Why is reading critical to our personal and professional growth, brain health, emotional intelligence, happiness, and yes, even our longevity?
• What simple techniques can we use to get more reading into our lives – and help those we serve do the same – even when we’re “too busy”?

Tom is working on a new book about perfectionism and what’s wrong with it, with co-author executive coach and hypnotherapist, Michele Molitor. Stay tuned for that announcement.

Confidence Boosters for Your Soul

From my friend, Linda Sherwin, we have All the Workplace is a Stage: Acting Techniques to Create Award-Winning Business Performance.

Act 1 Scene 1 “The actor’s nightmare. The wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time. Is this how you feel in your organization?

“As a leader in your workplace on your stage, what character are you portraying? What role have you chosen to play or have you even made a conscious choice?”

This is why you need Linda’s book. You need to discover what character you’re playing, and what role, at any given time. It could spell the difference between a great 2024 or a so-so 2024.

How to Grasp Confidence & Own Your Power: Become the Most Confident Version of Yourself in 5 Easy Steps by Tara LaFon Gooch. This is a woman on a mission! To get you and your business the attention it deserves. I have come to admire her for her energy, her vitality, and her outlook on life.

In her book, Tara shares this gem on page 20,

“Diamonds are created through a dance of pressure and heat and like our own journeys, they emerge as radiant beacons of resilience and beauty, reminding us that even amidst life’s pressures, we have the power to shine and transform into something truly extraordinary.”

Need I say more? Tara knows what’s she’s talking about. She’s made the journey. A tough one that she shares in the book. This will change your outlook on life, I promise.

Stop Boring Me! How to Create Kick-Ass Marketing Content, Products, and Idea Through the Power of Improv by Kathy Klotz-Guest. Kathy is not a client. She’s a LinkedIn friend. Her book is similar to Linda Sherwin’s book, but Kathy has a whole different approach.

From her Amazon description:

“Your content-weary audience is saying ‘Stop Boring Me!’ You cannot connect meaningfully with your audience if you bore them. It doesn’t have to be that way because everyone is creative. Your inner kid is smart because it knows how to play.” 

And, 

“Don’t worry – this is not about theatricality, so you don’t have to perform. It is about playfulness, however, and unleashing your inner kid.” 

Interestingly, Kathy is a performer. A comedian. And her playful, humourous side is evident throughout the book. But the value is in understanding how to use improv to be more successful. In time for 2024 – so get your copy now.

This next book is one you’ll want to buy not only for yourself, but for all of your friends.

Ask Outrageously! The Secret to Getting What You Really Want by Linda Byars Swindling is the best guide on the market to understand how to ask for what you want and how to get it. Linda has become a friend via our group, BOSS Academy.

This book is:

“Based on Linda Swindling’s original research and her experience helping people make high-stakes requests in everything from business negotiations to marriage proposals, this book offers proven approaches to improve your asking and boost your chances of success.”

From p. 25: “Asking is a brave act.”

I believe this to be true.

From p. 73: “Manners matter. Turns out your momma was right. Good manners are important.”

From p. 81: “Learn to be comfortable with silence.”

Shhh….

Don’t Blow It! The Right Words for the Right Job! by Deborah Brown-Volkman. Deborah is a certified coach and works with people at many levels. Her specialty is exactly what this book is about: helping you get the best job out there by using the right words on both your resume and in your interview.

Deborah tells us up front,

“This is a how-to book. It’s not a lot of fluff, but quick, straight-forward ideas and concepts, which you can pick up and implement quickly.”

From “Getting Ready for the Conversation” to “What to Say,” Deborah covers all the bases for you. I included this book here not just because Deborah is a friend, and a member of BOSS Academy, but because I see so many people searching for jobs, on Linkedin.

My advice is to get this book and you’ll have a leg up on your competition, for sure.

💗 Inspirational Books 💗

These are books that will change your thinking about life, about yourself, and about how to plan for your future. Each of them touched me in different ways. I have shared them on LinkedIn posts many times, but now I want to share them here, for the whole world. They’re that important.

Checkmate:Tips and Lessons to help you Make the Right Moves to Achieve Happiness by Greg Davis.

You’ll want to read and reread Chapter 1: “Cherish Family Time!”

Each of the other chapters offer insight into how Greg, an ‘elderly’ gentleman, retired from Hershey (yes, the chocolate company), decided to share his story. A story that could be yours or mine. A story that has tears and laughter, and comes out okay on the other side.

A story of how to be happy.

More Joy: 52 Weeks of Moving Forward Joyfully by Cindi Cohn. In a world where talking heads are constantly murmuring in our ears about life’s darkness, this book is a joyful voice.

Cindi lifts us out of the chaos and says,

“JOY is within you. It is for you and it is a choice to choose joy.”

In Week 1 she advises,

“It’s not the circumstances that create joy. It’s you.”

In Week 19 she quotes H. Jackson Browne,

“The happiest people aren’t the ones getting more…they are giving more.”

Get the book and begin your 52 week journey to joy.

Embracing the Unknown: Exploring the Pathways to Change by Lisa DeAngelis is a book I have nearby all the time. I was literally transformed by this book.

On page 11, Lisa tells us,

“Change is a fluid process of stretching ourselves.” I have that underlined.

On page 29, a quote that rocked me to my core,

“Famed drama critic Brooks Atkinson said, ‘The most fatal illusion is the settled point of view. Since life is growth and motion, a fixed point of view kills anybody who has one.”

Get the book. Read it. Or, listen to it – Lisa did the audiobook and it’s terrific. I have almost a dozen colored tabs in this book – to pages with messages the resonate over and over.

Content Marketing Books

They say you save the best for last. These next two books are from the same author. Pamela Wilson has been a friend for many years and everything she does is golden.

Today she’s the Chief Marketing Officer at DCS. In her 35 years of marketing, she’s helped businesses of all sizes boost profits with targeted, effective marketing messages. I can attest to this because she has helped Tom and I more than once.

Pamela recently released the Second Edition of her books, Master Content Marketing: A Simple Strategy to Cure the Blank Page Blues and Attract a Profitable Audience and Master Content Strategy: How to Maximize Your Read & Boost Your Bottom Line Every Time You Hit Publish.

What else do you need to know? I have the first editions of these books and the Second Editions are full of even more updated, relevant content to help you build a strategy and master your content marketing in 2024.

These are so new, I haven’t read them yet! But Pamela is a professional. I trust her implicitly. And Tom tells me the new material on using AI in your marketing is worth the price alone. Get these books and read them. Have your entire sales and marketing team read them. Now. 2024 is not far off and you need to be prepared.

I have two books left. My fiction book and my dog book.

Blood Sapphire’s Revenge by Dr. Bruce Farmer, a client, is an award-winning and international best-selling military thriller inspired by the genre that brought us Jason Bourne and Jack Reacher. In a globe-spanning tale of adventure, this gripping story full of twists and turns, and secrets from the grave that may just trigger the end of the world, will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout.

And interestingly enough, the hero is a woman. Haddy Abrams, an Israeli special ops sniper on the trail of an extremist bent on global nuclear annihilation.

Bruce spent years researching and studying to write this book. He is now working on a sequel to be out late in 2024, perhaps. (These things take time!)

Next, let’s talk about I am Bunny by Alexis Devine. Subtitle: How a “Talking Dog” Taught Me Everything I Need To Know About Being Human.

This is a memoir about the journey Alexis and Bunny are taking, told from Bunny’s point of view, much of the time. I follow Alexis and Bunny on Instagram . NOTE: The book was sent to me by Alexis’s publicist.

I don’t review books I don’t like. No matter who sends them to me. This book…I 💗💗💗!

I’m a dog person. Yes, we have a cat at the moment, and she’s my treasure, but I have been a dog person since I was in grade school.

That’s why I took this book. That’s why I recommend it. Bunny is an adorable – yes, very adorable – black and white sheepadoodle. Her antics are hilarious but her intelligence is remarkable.

This is why this book is worth your time. Not merely for the great pictures, all in color, by the way (mega costly to put color inside a book, just saying), but because Alexis took time to share the story about the buttons on the floor and how she taught Bunny to use them.

She also has essays like “Nim Chimpsky” about a chimpanzee – and his language skills. I won’t ruin the story for you, it’s compelling, so get the book to read it.

And an essay about dolphins. And language. I won’t go into details. Suffice it to say, we humans must stop believing our ability to ‘talk’ makes us better than other species.

You may be getting the idea this is more than a book about a ‘talking dog’ and it is. It’s about love and devotion but also about rethinking our belief that because we ‘talk’ we’re superior to the lower species, so names because of their lack of language.

Well, Bunny has language now. And, I’ve seen stories and videos of some cats that are using buttons, also. So, where does that put us?

In exploration mode, I think.

Get the book, you’ll enjoy it. And you may learn something. Correction, you will learn something.

I’m a bit worn out now, writing about all these books. And there are hundreds more on my bookshelf that I could share, but this is enough for today.

Buy them all. Or buy the ones that seem most compelling to you. Share with friends. Don’t hog the good news.

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Happy Holidays! From the Book Coach with the Purple Hair.