My Most Anticipated End of Summer Reads
There are two seasons particularly enhanced by reading.
One is a lazy, gentle summer afternoon during a well-deserved holiday, and the other is when you are huddled inside during a raging blizzard in the winter.
During the in-between seasons of spring and autumn each year, I build my list of four books I want to read in the main seasons, I secure them, and then I wait with delight for the days when I can enjoy them.
My list isn’t necessarily full of bestsellers: I am just as apt to borrow a classic from the library as download the latest work onto my Kindle.
The thing they all have in common is that they take me into areas that enhance my imagination and help me grow as an entrepreneur and as a person.
For example, here is this year’s list:
Captivate by Vanessa Van Edwards
I have been interested in the work of Vanessa Van Edwards since I read about her behaviour research lab a few years ago in Fast Company Inc. She’s also been featured in Forbes and Men’s Health and is a monthly columnist in Entrepreneur. Operating out of Portland, Oregon, she is now the leading instructor in people skills on UdeMy and CreativeLive.
She also has an interesting blog on her website: http://www.scienceofpeople.com/captivate/.
She describes herself as a “recovering awkward person” and through her studies has come as close as anyone to devising a formula for charisma. In her book, which came out in April, 2017, she shares the secrets that she says have made her more likeable and comfortable in social situations. I think deep down all of us struggle a little to be comfortable in any social situation. We are all challenged to find ways to spice up small talk and make good first impressions as a major challenge. I am looking forward to reading Vanessa’s insights.
From Oral to Written: A Celebration of Indigenous Literature in Canada, 1980-2010 by Thomson Highway
Just being released this month by Talonbooks, this paperback profiles Aboriginal Canadians telling their own stories about their own people in their own voice from their own perspective.
As I attended celebrations marking Canada’s 150th anniversary of nationhood this year, I realized how little of its Indigenous literature I had read, so this is my special anniversary project. I want to make myself more aware of the message and writings of Aboriginal Canadians that are not solely historical. I want to read and consider the thoughts and imagery that emerges from these writers of the last 40 years.
Tomson Highway, a writer from northern Manitoba, writes in three languages: Cree, his mother tongue, French and English. He is also a classically trained pianist and composer who has studied with some of Canada’s finest teachers.
This latest book of his will be my summer delight, I am sure.
Insight by Tasha Eurich
So what is summer without taking one more stab at figuring ourselves out?
This year I’m going to try using the research and exercises in Tasha Eurich’s new book (May 2, 2017) Insight: Why We’re Not as Self-Aware as We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and in Life.”
Dr. Eurich is an organizational psychologist and researcher who first came to my attention with her book Bankable Leadership, in which she told the world that you can produce bottom-line results and still make your employees happy.
This is her second book, so I want to see how she has followed up. I like that she describes self-awareness as the meta-skill of the twenty-first century. I am curious how she develops that theme.
Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are by Seth Stephens
I have been eager to get my hands on this book since it came out in May, 2017. That’s because the concept of how “big data” can be used is utterly fascinating.
For example, Harvard-trained economist and former Google data scientist Stephens-Davidowitz tells us amazing things like we can predict the unemployment rate with the number of Internet searches for pornography, it doesn’t matter where you go to college, and if you really want to find someone who knows you better than you know yourself, check Netflix’s algorithm.
These are my reads for the last few weeks of summer. I think I’ll start right now!
Paula Morand, CSP is a leadership building, revenue boosting, strategy expanding keynote speaker, author and visionary. This dreaming big and being bold leadership expert and brand strategist brings her vibrant energy, humor and wisdom to ignite individuals, organizations and communities to lead change, growth and bold impact. 23 years, 25,000 clients, 19 countries, 11 books, former radio personality, 10x award winning entrepreneur and humorous emcee.
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