30 Books I Read in 2018 + First Thought

Packback recently moved into the neighborhood of DePaul University's Chicago Loop Campus, near the Barnes & Nobles at Jackson & State. Naturally, I soon found myself standing in front of a bookshelf one evening when my meandering thoughts were interrupted by a student who asked, out of the blue, “hey, you recommend anything good from this shelf?”. I loved the question, and had actually never been asked that as a fellow customer in a bookstore. A great conversation of mutual recommendations ensued. 

This got me thinking: I love talking about, and applying knowledge from books. I’m fortunate to work at Packback where I’m surrounded by fearlessly curious, lifelong learners equally passionate to do the same. I decided to type up a simple summary list of the books I read in 2018, accompanied by the first thought ~however rough or even incomplete~ that comes to my mind when I write down the book name. 

If you’ve read any of the same books, or have new recommendations for me, I’d love to chat. These aren’t in any particular order other than the single top book in each list tends to be my favorite for the category. Here are my 30 for 2018, with my overall #1 unveiled at the end! 

Leadership Growth: 

1.) Deep Work, Cal Newport

• Enthusiastically deepened my appreciation and understanding of the power of uninterrupted focus ("Deep Work"), while striking fear and awareness in me of the detrimental impact that a reality of constant distractions can have across a lifetime of goals. Deep Work > Shallow Work as much as possible! This book changed many of my work habits. Call me twice, my phone is now often on "do not disturb" mode : )

2.) Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg

• Value of "Safe Space" communication, positive impact of vulnerability in working relationships, greater perspective on the path to gender equality, importance of equal partnerships in personal relationships/marriage. Such a good book.

3.) Who Moved My Cheese? , Spencer Johnson

• Engaging and embracing change! I’m excited for our upcoming book club discussion on this one at Packback as our team has doubled, office moved, roles have shifted, and we engage that change to lean into our greatest year yet in 2019!

4.) To Sell Is Human, Daniel Pink

• Humanizes the profession of selling, while providing a realistic depiction that to "sell" is part of nearly every role in today’s economy, from teaching to politics to sales to management. 

5.) Mindset, Carol Dweck

• Don’t tell the kid she’s “smart”. Positively reinforce the effort/practice/work that went into the results. ... + so much more value from this book. ..Internal Locus of Control!

6.) The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle

• Cultivating great teams is an art. ..."You are a part of this team. We share a future together. This team has high standards. I believe you can meet these standards."... Gregg Popovich insisting on taking the team + families (San Antonio Spurs) out for dinner & wine immediately after a heartbreaking last-second NBA Finals loss to the Heat.
• #1 gifted book by Alida Miranda-Wolff, who constantly inspires me to read more : )

7.) Don’t Shoot the Dog, Karen Pryor

• Positive reinforcement. ...Super cool book written by, believe it or not, a Sea World dolphin trainer, with fantastic application to leadership & management. Dolphins can't be trained by cracking a whip, so positive reinforcement is used -- positive feedback provided as quickly as possible when the desired action is performed. One action at a time. ...While I'm still improving, this book helped me increase my awareness and inclination to speak when seeing/hearing amazing actions taken at work that ought to be recognized.
• Thanks for the reccomendation, coach Michael Balchan

8.) Better, Atul Gawande

• "Wash your hands". ...The small details of excellence that add up to major progress and execution. (Appreciate you, Molly Tidrick, who brought this book up in one of Packback’s monthly “personal growth tactics” lunch discussions and then launched a book discussion with our CS team!)

9.) High Output Management, Andrew Grove

• Prioritizing my actions in order of "highest leverage".

10.) The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker 

• Manage thyself. Helps me to more regularly ask myself, "do I actually know where my time goes?"

11.) Startup Boards, Brad Feld

• A helpful manual of sorts that provided guidelines as Packback added two new ~ highly strategic ~ board members in 2018 and engaged a tightened cadence of company governance upon raising our Series A in January '18. ...Transparency & systematic information dissemination.

12.) Getting Things Done, David Allen

• "In-tray" + “next action”. ...I appreciated this book as a manual that helped me to further optimize a productivity "system", putting into process learnings from books such as "High Output Management" and "The Effective Executive".

13.) Bad Blood, John Carreyrou

• A cautionary tale of the importance of honest transparency and recognition of failures while building a business. 

14.) O Great One! : A Little Story About the Awesome Power of Recognition, David Novak (audio book) 

• Power of positive recognition! Inspired a weekly segment at the Packback All Hands meeting called “I See You”. 

15.) The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. , Clayborne Carson

• **Note - I haven’t quite finished this entirely; I've been reading piecemeal in between books as it’s a compilation of individual letters written by MLK. I had to include it here, however, because even reading one letter from MLK makes the book worth owning and sharing.
• I realized the many different approaches to the Equal Rights Movement, and the challenge MLK gracefully took on of unifying people into a shared vision of the non-violence movement, which was not easy. ...Incredibly graceful-while-tactical writing ~ especially MLK's "Letter From Birmingham Jail", literally written on scraps of newspaper addressing a group of Church ministers who had called for an end to his demonstrations. ... I’m finding this book to be equally as relevant as any management book for “leadership growth”. Seriously, in edition to their core value towards human rights awareness & improvement, MLK’s writings ought to be taught in business writing classes and leadership workshops at every school.

Expanding My Perspective

16.) Born A Crime, Trevor Noah

• Favorite book I read in 2018. Wonderfully written, humorous recollection from Trevor's upbringing, while providing a grassroots depiction of Apartheid and institutional racism in general. Equal parts educational & entertaining. #1 book - of any category - I gifted/recommended in 2018.

17.) Americanah & We Should All Be Feminists, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

• Fictional novel providing perspective of American life, and the often overlooked difficulties of cracking into its proclaimed comforts, through the lens of a Nigerian female immigrant. I appreciated the author's use of humor to deliver a realist view at these discomforts and difficulties that I wouldn't have personally experienced with my upbringing. ...+ "We Should All Be Feminists" (very brief separate read summarizing the author's TED Talk) captures Adichie's positive positioning of the word "feminist", true to it's actual definition. ...Both expanded my perspectives in a positive way.

18.) The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen

• Looking at the concept of America, and especially our military presence, from an outside lens, in this case during the Vietnam War. The thought I'm left with: the concept and identity of "America" is unique to the eye of the beholder, and shaped by whatever actions are taken when America is being represented. In this case, if a soldier is being a jerk, such is America. While I might've been taught that we were in ABC War for XYZ good reason, the kid on the other side of the world was taught - or may have experienced first hand - something else. Thus I may be worlds apart in perspective from my generational global peers.

19.) Sex, Money, Murder , Jonathan Green

• Perspective on the culture and deep rooted socioeconomic planning behind the rise of one of New York’s most dangerous gangs and proliferators of the drug trade. Humanizes the kid who grows up to be the feared "drug dealer" and "gang banger", drew out a lot of sympathy from me and frustration thinking about how to fix these problems.

20.) White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Robin DiAngelo (audio book)

• Strengthened my awareness of unconscious biases, further motivated me to lean into the conversation of addressing racism in America.

21.) The Brief & Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz

• Another good perspective-expanding book from an immigrant family viewpoint, in this case a fictional Dominican family. Tragic and humorous at the same time, very impressive work of writing.

Education / Curiosity Related

22.) Curious, Ian Leslie

• Research-backed book outlining the power and mega-importance of curiosity in life & education. A must-read at Packback. Best read I’ve found thus far specific to enlightening + firing us up for Packback’s mission to Awaken & Fuel the Lifelong Curiosity in Every Student.

23.) The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William Kamkwamba

• Holy wow, the resilient power of Curiosity. William provides a hugely inspiring first-hand tale of overcoming dire adversity (famine throughout African droughts), which triggered his unbelievable innovation armed with pretty much nothing but an old textbook found in a shabby library and access to a junkyard between labor shifts as his family struggled to survive. ...You read this book as an entrepreneur and realize, "Oh. I don't actually have any insurmountable problems. Keep going." ...How can I help empower the next William?

24.) The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, Jeff Hobbs

• The tragic difficulties - socially & economically - of transcending beyond the gravity of poverty, even if armed with a Yale degree. ..How can I help the next Robert?

25.) A Curious Mind, Brian Grazer

• Engage in more "Curiosity Conversations"!

26.) Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

• Appreciation for the value of books. It's helpful to imagine a world where books (and, as implied, curiosity) are banned to appreciate the abundance we have available to take advantage of today.

Trump-related

27.) The Fifth Risk, Michael Lewis

• A frightening look at the risk(s) inherent to neglect of aspects of government such as the Department of Energy (I had no idea how much was covered by the DoE!) , left by the Trump Administration.

28.) Fear, Bob Woodward

• Example of how not to act as a leader, and a frightening depiction of chaotic operations in the current White House. If "The Fifth Risk" is an overview of the outcome risks of the madman in office, this is an up-close depiction of the bizarrely ill-tempered behaviors occurring in the palace that lead to them.

Pure fun!

29.) Origin, Dan Brown

• Fun read. AI + art history + conspiracy. 

30.) Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

• Sci fi, AI that has a collective conscious deployed as an army. I was looking for a honeymoon sci-fi book that depicted a future view of AI. Not my favorite personally, but mildly entertaining.

In reflection, I want to read more in 2019! I think I have an opportunity to take advantage of more audio books. My wife, Morgan, is the master of audiobooks. I also find audio "book summaries" to be particularly useful for the leadership/growth/performance category. My favorite source for summaries is Brian Johnson’s “Philosophers Notes”, which I was introduced to via growth coach Michael Balchan.

At last, my favorite book of the year: Born A Crime, by Trevor Noah. …Hilariously entertaining, while Trevor also provides an educationally real and unfiltered depiction of growing up as a mixed-race child during Apartheid South Africa. Fascinating on every level, can’t-put-down writing quality, inspiring and educational story. #1 book I’ve gifted or recommended this year.