Books That Deserve To Be Read

There are more than half a million books published each year in the US alone. Not all of them make the best seller lists. We are on a quest to find the books that deserve to be in the best seller list.

The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

In an inspiring follow-up to her critically acclaimed, #1 bestselling
memoir Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama shares practical wisdom
and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today’s highly
uncertain world. There may be no tidy solutions or pithy answers to life’s
big challenges, but Michelle Obama believes that we can all locate and lean
on a set of tools to help us better navigate change and remain steady
within flux. In The Light We Carry, she opens a frank and honest dialogue
with readers, considering the questions many of us wrestle with: How do we
build enduring and honest relationships? How can we discover strength and
community inside our differences? What tools do we use to address feelings
of self-doubt or helplessness? What do we do when it all starts to feel
like too much? Michelle Obama offers readers a series of fresh stories and
insightful reflections on change, challenge, and power, including her
belief that when we light up for others, we can illuminate the richness and
potential of the world around us, discovering deeper truths and new
pathways for progress. Drawing from her experiences as a mother, daughter,
spouse, friend, and First Lady, she shares the habits and principles she
has developed to successfully adapt to change and overcome various
obstacles—the earned wisdom that helps her continue to “become.” She
details her most valuable practices, like “starting kind,” “going high,”
and assembling a “kitchen table” of trusted friends and mentors. With
trademark humor, candor, and compassion, she also explores issues connected
to race, gender, and visibility, encouraging readers to work through fear,
find strength in community, and live with boldness. “When we are able to
recognize our own light, we become empowered to use it,” writes Michelle
Obama. A rewarding blend of powerful stories and profound advice that will
ignite conversation, The Light We Carry inspires readers to examine their
own lives, identify their sources of gladness, and connect meaningfully in
a turbulent world. Read more

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. People with a fixed mindset—those who believe that abilities are fixed—are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset—those who believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishment.

In this edition, Dweck offers new insights into her now famous and broadly embraced concept. She introduces a phenomenon she calls false growth mindset and guides people toward adopting a deeper, truer growth mindset. She also expands the mindset concept beyond the individual, applying it to the cultures of groups and organizations. With the right mindset, you can motivate those you lead, teach, and love—to transform their lives and your own.

Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa’s antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality. LONG WALK TO FREEDOM is his moving and exhilarating autobiography, destined to take its place among the finest memoirs of history’s greatest figures. Here for the first time, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela tells the extraordinary story of his life–an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph.

Living Resourcefully : A Handbook for Life

In ‘Living Resourcefully: A Handbook for Life,’ readers are invited on a transformative journey to conquer life’s challenges through the lens of resourcefulness.

From the outset, the book acknowledges the inherent struggle of existence, offering a refreshing perspective on overcoming obstacles. With a clear focus on actionable strategies, the author presents a framework centered around cultivating resourcefulness as a powerful tool for navigating life’s ups and downs. Unlike conventional self-help books filled with anecdotes and fluff, this handbook delves straight into the heart of the matter, providing practical insights and concrete steps for building resourcefulness.

Through a thoughtful exploration of various aspects of resourcefulness, readers learn to harness their inner strengths and leverage external resources to thrive in the face of adversity. Whether grappling with career transitions, relationship challenges, or personal growth, ‘Living Resourcefully’ offers invaluable guidance for anyone seeking to live a more empowered and fulfilling life.

Uneven Justice: The Plot to Sink Galleon

The inside story of a case that illustrates the horrific perils of unchecked prosecutorial overreach, written by the man who experienced it firsthand.

Raj Rajaratnam, the respected founder of the iconic hedge fund Galleon Group, which managed $7 billion and employed 180 people in its heyday, chose to go to trial rather than concede to a false narrative concocted by ambitious prosecutors looking for a scapegoat for the 2008 financial crisis. Naively perhaps, Rajaratnam had expected to get a fair hearing in court. As an immigrant who had achieved tremendous success in his adopted country, he trusted the system. He had not anticipated prosecutorial overreach—inspired by political ambition—FBI fabrications, judicial compliance, and lies told under oath by cooperating witnesses. In the end, Rajaratnam was convicted and sentenced to eleven years in prison. He served seven and a half.

Meanwhile, not a single senior bank executive responsible for the financial crisis was even charged.

Uneven Justice is the story of his bewildering and confounding prosecution by forces who, quite frankly, were looking for bigger game. When Rajaratnam refused to support the narrative that would make that happen, he and the Galleon Group became collateral damage.

A cautionary tale with implications for us all, Uneven Justice is both a riveting page-turner and an eye-opening lesson in the vagaries of justice when an unscrupulous prosecutor is calling the shots.

Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything

“There are many great books on the topic [of habits]: The Power of Habit, Atomic Habits, but this offers the most comprehensive, practical, simple, and compassionate method I’ve ever come across.” —John Stepper, Goodreads user

BJ FOGG is here to change your life—and revolutionize how we think about human behavior. Based on twenty years of research and Fogg’s experience coaching more than 40,000 people, Tiny Habits cracks the code of habit formation. With breakthrough discoveries in every chapter, you’ll learn the simplest proven ways to transform your life. Fogg shows you how to feel good about your successes instead of bad about your failures.

This proven, step-by-step guide will help you design habits and make them stick through positive emotion and celebrating small successes. Whether you want to lose weight, de-stress, sleep better, or be more productive each day, Tiny Habits makes it easy to achieve—by starting small.

The Human Calling: Three Thousand Years of Eastern and Western Philosophical History

The Human Calling is a vigorously researched and profoundly spiritual narrative history of the world’s religious movements as they relate to society’s collective understanding of the duties they have to fellow people and looks ahead to what lessons from history can be applied as people navigate a technological age.

Focusing on the rise and fall of spiritual movements in both the East and West, The Human Calling examines what the world’s major religions have historically offered, asks what people are here for outside of pure survival, and makes the persuasive argument for Christianity as the best leader to guide individuals on the path toward better caring for one another—our human calling. The Human Calling takes readers through humanity’s three great thought movements:

The first is the Axial Age, the source of the first great human reflection on public spirit and public order
The second is the 12th-17th centuries, wrestles with the question of whether people can attain individual rationality in God’s order
The third delves into the independent reasoning societies of the 20thand 21st centuries and looks forward to what people want their third great reflection on God’s plan to be during their own period of societal flux

The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER”An absolute home run! You will never
look at WWII the same way again.” ―Brad Thor, #1 bestselling author”Meltzer
and Mensch are masters.” ―Jon Meacham, author The Soul of America”A true
story that reads like a thriller.” ―Alexander S. Vindman, LT. Col., U.S.
Army (Ret.)”An outstanding and memorable reading experience….a true
page-turner from beginning to end.” ―Bookreporter.comFrom the New York
Times bestselling authors of The First Conspiracy and The Lincoln
Conspiracy comes the little-known true story of a Nazi plot to kill FDR,
Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill at the height of World War II.In 1943,
as the war against Nazi Germany raged abroad, President Franklin Roosevelt
had a critical goal: a face-to-face sit-down with his allies Joseph Stalin
and Winston Churchill. This first-ever meeting of the Big Three in Tehran,
Iran, would decide some of the most crucial strategic details of the war.
Yet when the Nazis found out about the meeting, their own secret plan took
shape―an assassination plot that would’ve changed history.A true story
filled with daring rescues, body doubles, and political intrigue, The Nazi
Conspiracy details FDR’s pivotal meeting in Tehran and the deadly Nazi plot
against the heads of state of the three major Allied powers who attended
it.With all the hallmarks of a Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch page-turner,
The Nazi Conspiracy explores the great political minds of the twentieth
century, investigating the pivotal years of the war in gripping detail.
This meeting of the Big Three changed the course of World War II. Here’s
the inside story of how it almost led to a world-shattering disaster. Read more

13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do: Take Back Your Power, Embrace Change, Face Your Fears, and Train Your Brain for Happiness and Success

Everyone knows that regular exercise and weight training lead to physical strength. But how do we strengthen ourselves mentally for the truly tough times? And what should we do when we face these challenges? Or as psychotherapist Amy Morin asks, what should we avoid when we encounter adversity? Through her years counseling others and her own experiences navigating personal loss, Morin realized it is often the habits we cannot break that are holding us back from true success and happiness. Indulging in self-pity, agonizing over things beyond our control, obsessing over past events, resenting the achievements of others, or expecting immediate positive results holds us back. This list of things mentally strong people don’t do resonated so much with readers that when it was picked up by Forbes.com it received ten million views.

Now, for the first time, Morin expands upon the thirteen things from her viral post and shares her tried-and-true practices for increasing mental strength. Morin writes with searing honesty, incorporating anecdotes from her work as a college psychology instructor and psychotherapist as well as personal stories about how she bolstered her own mental strength when tragedy threatened to consume her.

Increasing your mental strength can change your entire attitude. It takes practice and hard work, but with Morin’s specific tips, exercises, and troubleshooting advice, it is possible to not only fortify your mental muscle but also drastically improve the quality of your life.

The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire

In August 1765, the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and set up, in his place, a government run by English traders who collected taxes through means of a private army.

The creation of this new government marked the moment that the East India Company ceased to be a conventional company and became something much more unusual: an international corporation transformed into an aggressive colonial power. Over the course of the next 47 years, the company’s reach grew until almost all of India south of Delhi was effectively ruled from a boardroom in the city of London.

The Anarchy tells one of history’s most remarkable stories: how the Mughal Empire-which dominated world trade and manufacturing and possessed almost unlimited resources-fell apart and was replaced by a multinational corporation based thousands of miles overseas, and answerable to shareholders, most of whom had never even seen India and no idea about the country whose wealth was providing their dividends. Using previously untapped sources, Dalrymple tells the story of the East India Company as it has never been told before and provides a portrait of the devastating results from the abuse of corporate power.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

In today’s world, yesterday’s methods just don’t work. Veteran coach and management consultant David Allen recognizes that time management is useless the minute your schedule is interrupted; setting priorities isn’t relevant when your e-mail is down; procrastination solutions won’t help if your goals aren’t clear. Instead, Allen shares with readers the proven methods he has already introduced in seminars and at top organizations across the country. The key to Getting Things Done? Relaxation.

Allen’s premise is simple: our ability to be productive is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve stress-free productivity. His seamless system teaches us how to identify, track, and-most important-choose the next action on all our tasks, commitments, and projects and thus master all the demands on our time while unleashing our creative potential. The book’s stylish, dynamic design makes it easy to follow Allen’s tips, examples, and inspiration to achieve what we all seek-energy, focus, and relaxed control.

Man’s Search for Meaning

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl’s theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos (“meaning”)-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

At the time of Frankl’s death in 1997, Man’s Search for Meaning had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. A 1991 reader survey for the Library of Congress that asked readers to name a “book that made a difference in your life” found Man’s Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America.

From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life

Many of us assume that the more successful we are, the less susceptible we become to the sense of professional and social irrelevance that often accompanies aging. But the truth is, the greater our achievements and our attachment to them, the more we notice our decline, and the more painful it is when it occurs.

What can we do, starting now, to make our older years a time of happiness, purpose, and yes, success?

At the height of his career at the age of 50, Arthur Brooks embarked on a seven-year journey to discover how to transform his future from one of disappointment over waning abilities into an opportunity for progress. From Strength to Strength is the result, a practical roadmap for the rest of your life.

Drawing on social science, philosophy, biography, theology, and eastern wisdom, as well as dozens of interviews with everyday men and women, Brooks shows us that true life success is well within our reach. By refocusing on certain priorities and habits that anyone can learn, such as deep wisdom, detachment from empty rewards, connection and service to others, and spiritual progress, we can set ourselves up for increased happiness.

Read this book and you, too, can go from strength to strength.

A People’s History of the United States

For much of his life, historian Howard Zinn chronicled American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official version taught in schools – with its emphasis on great men in high places – to focus on the street, the home, and the workplace.

Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People’s History of the United States is the only volume to tell America’s story from the point of view of – and in the words of – America’s women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers. As Zinn shows, many of our country’s greatest battles – the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women’s rights, racial equality – were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance.

Covering Christopher Columbus’ arrival through President Clinton’s first term, A People’s History of the United States features insightful analysis of the most important events in our history.

The Satanic Verses

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “[A] torrent of endlessly inventive prose,
by turns comic and enraged, embracing life in all its contradictions. In
this spectacular novel, verbal pyrotechnics barely outshine its
psychological truths.”—NewsdayWinner of the Whitbread PrizeOne of the most
controversial and acclaimed novels ever written, The Satanic Verses is
Salman Rushdie’s best-known and most galvanizing book. Set in a modern
world filled with both mayhem and miracles, the story begins with a bang:
the terrorist bombing of a London-bound jet in midflight. Two Indian actors
of opposing sensibilities fall to earth, transformed into living symbols of
what is angelic and evil. This is just the initial act in a magnificent
odyssey that seamlessly merges the actual with the imagined. A book whose
importance is eclipsed only by its quality, The Satanic Verses is a key
work of our times.Praise for The Satanic Verses“Rushdie is a storyteller of
prodigious powers, able to conjure up whole geographies, causalities,
climates, creatures, customs, out of thin air.”—The New York Times Book
Review“Exhilarating, populous, loquacious, sometimes hilarious,
extraordinary . . . a roller-coaster ride over a vast landscape of the
imagination.”—The Guardian (London)“A novel of metamorphoses, hauntings,
memories, hallucinations, revelations, advertising jingles, and jokes.
Rushdie has the power of description, and we succumb.”—The Times (London) Read more

The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness

What makes for a happy life, a fulfilling life? A good life? According to
the directors of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest
scientific study of happiness ever conducted, the answer to these questions
may be closer than you realize. What makes a life fulfilling and
meaningful? The simple but surprising answer is: relationships. The
stronger our relationships, the more likely we are to live happy,
satisfying, and overall healthier lives. In fact, the Harvard Study of
Adult Development reveals that the strength of our connections with others
can predict the health of both our bodies and our brains as we go through
life. The invaluable insights in this book emerge from the revealing
personal stories of hundreds of participants in the Harvard Study as they
were followed year after year for their entire adult lives, and this wisdom
is bolstered by research findings from this and many other studies.
Relationships in all their forms—friendships, romantic partnerships,
families, coworkers, tennis partners, book club members, Bible study
groups—all contribute to a happier, healthier life. And as The Good Life
shows us, it’s never too late to strengthen the relationships you have, and
never too late to build new ones. Dr. Waldinger’s TED Talk about the
Harvard Study, “What Makes a Good Life,” has been viewed more than 42
million times and is one of the ten most-watched TED talks ever. The Good
Life has been praised by bestselling authors Jay Shetty (“Robert Waldinger
and Marc Schulz lead us on an empowering quest towards our greatest need:
meaningful human connection”), Angela Duckworth (“In a crowded field of
life advice and even life advice based on scientific research, Schulz and
Waldinger stand apart”), and happiness expert Laurie Santos (“Waldinger and
Schulz are world experts on the counterintuitive things that make life
meaningful”). With warmth, wisdom, and compelling life stories, The Good
Life shows us how we can make our lives happier and more meaningful through
our connections to others. Read more

Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges

Have you ever left a nerve-racking challenge and immediately wished for a do over? Maybe after a job interview, a performance, or a difficult conversation? The very moments that require us to be genuine and commanding can instead cause us to feel phony and powerless. Too often we approach our lives’ biggest hurdles with dread, execute them with anxiety, and leave them with regret.

By accessing our personal power, we can achieve “presence,” the state in which we stop worrying about the impression we’re making on others and instead adjust the impression we’ve been making on ourselves. As Harvard professor Amy Cuddy’s revolutionary book reveals, we don’t need to embark on a grand spiritual quest or complete an inner transformation to harness the power of presence. Instead, we need to nudge ourselves, moment by moment, by tweaking our body language, behavior, and mind-set in our day-to-day lives.

Amy Cuddy has galvanized tens of millions of viewers around the world with her TED talk about “power poses.” Now she presents the enthralling science underlying these and many other fascinating body-mind effects, and teaches us how to use simple techniques to liberate ourselves from fear in high-pressure moments, perform at our best, and connect with and empower others to do the same.

Brilliantly researched, impassioned, and accessible, Presence is filled with stories of individuals who learned how to flourish during the stressful moments that once terrified them. Every reader will learn how to approach their biggest challenges with confidence instead of dread, and to leave them with satisfaction instead of regret.

Seven Words You Never Want to Hear – How to Be Sure You Won’t

When life is over and you stand before God, what will he say to you?

There is no greater tragedy than for someone to go through their entire life thinking they are a Christian only to hear these seven fateful words at death: “I never knew you; depart from me” (Matt. 7:23).

A.W. Tozer said, “It is my opinion that tens of thousands, if not millions, have been brought into some kind of religious experience by accepting Christ and they have not been saved.” How can you be sure that your profession of faith is more than just words? Seven Words You Never Want to Hear explores the mystery of salvation through the Scriptures and personal stories.

Author Denise Wilson invites you to take the challenge that the apostle Paul gave to the church at Corinth—examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. The gospel changes everything—beliefs, lifestyles, and priorities. Has it changed you?

Don’t wait until death to find out if you got it right.

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike―either free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a conservative reaction to powerful critiques of European society posed by Indigenous observers and intellectuals. Revisiting this encounter has startling implications for how we make sense of human history today, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery, and civilization itself.

Drawing on pathbreaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we learn to throw off our conceptual shackles and perceive what’s really there. If humans did not spend 95 percent of their evolutionary past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time? If agriculture, and cities, did not mean a plunge into hierarchy and domination, then what kinds of social and economic organization did they lead to? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of human history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful, hopeful possibilities, than we tend to assume.

The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision, and a faith in the power of direct action.

The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation

Over thirty million people have read The Diary of a Young Girl, the journal teen-aged Anne Frank kept while living in an attic with her family and four other people in Amsterdam during World War II, until the Nazis arrested them and sent them to a concentration camp. But despite the many works—journalism, books, plays and novels—devoted to Anne’s story, none has ever conclusively explained how these eight people managed to live in hiding undetected for over two years—and who or what finally brought the Nazis to their door.

With painstaking care, retired FBI agent Vincent Pankoke and a team of indefatigable investigators pored over tens of thousands of pages of documents—some never before seen—and interviewed scores of descendants of people familiar with the Franks. Utilizing methods developed by the FBI, the Cold Case Team painstakingly pieced together the months leading to the infamous arrest—and came to a shocking conclusion.

The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation is the riveting story of their mission. Rosemary Sullivan introduces us to the investigators, explains the behavior of both the captives and their captors and profiles a group of suspects. All the while, she vividly brings to life wartime Amsterdam: a place where no matter how wealthy, educated, or careful you were, you never knew whom you could trust.

Stop Overthinking: 23 Techniques to Relieve Stress, Stop Negative Spirals, Declutter Your Mind, and Focus on the Present (Mental and Emotional Abundance)

Overthinking is the biggest cause of unhappiness. Don’t get stuck in a never-ending thought loop. Stay present and keep your mind off things that don’t matter, and never will.
Break free of your self-imposed mental prison.
Stop Overthinking is a book that understands where you’ve been through,the exhausting situation you’ve put yourself into, and how you lose your mind in the trap of anxiety and stress. Acclaimed author Nick Trenton will walk you through the obstacles with detailed and proven techniques to help you rewire your brain, control your thoughts, and change your mental habits.What’s more, the book will provide you scientific approaches to completely change the way you think and feel about yourself by ending the vicious thought patterns.
Stop agonizing over the past and trying to predict the future.
Nick Trenton grew up in rural Illinois and is quite literally a farm boy. His best friend growing up was his trusty companion Leonard the dachshund. RIP Leonard. Eventually, he made it off the farm and obtained a BS in Economics, followed by an MA in Behavioral Psychology.
Powerful ways to stop ruminating and dwelling on negative thoughts.
-How to be aware of your negative spiral triggers-Identify and recognize your inner anxieties-How to keep the focus on relaxation and action-Proven methods to overcome stress attacks-Learn to declutter your mind and find focus
Unleash your unlimited potential and start living.
No more self-deprecating talk. No more sleepless nights with racing thoughts. Free your mind from overthinking and achieve more, feel better, and unleash your potential. Finally be able to live in the present moment.
Live a stress-free life and conquer overthinking –