These are some of my favorite books:
1. Passport to the Soul: A Lifelong Journey by Beth Mende Conny (2001). This mini book contains several inspirational quotes from various sources.
2. Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker J. Palmer (2000). This book was a gift from my doctoral dissertation advisor. It’s such a source of inspiration and meaning in the midst of confusion.
3. Financial Peace Revisited by Dave Ramsey (2002). In this book Dave Ramsey presents his principles for living a debt-free life and the gazelle intensity necessary to achieve financial freedom. For most people, change only happens when it becomes important. This book teaches readers to live like no one else, so later they can live like no one else.
4. Bradshaw on the Family by John Bradshaw (1996). This book is for those familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy and have taken the path toward self-actualization. It introduces readers to the idea that family dynamics and how the scripts learned during childhood years affect adult behaviors like a tape recorder being played over and over in our minds.
5. Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller (2003). In this honest and heartfelt book, Don Miller illustrates what he learned and the ways he grew from his search to better understand God. The 2012 movie version of this book by the same name is not as good as the book, and in a lot of ways, disappointing. Isn’t that the way it goes sometimes with movies based on really good books. For instance, when I read Eat, Pray, Love by Elisabeth Gilbert (2006), I really liked her story and more importantly the characters I created in my mind based on the book. But on screen, I felt the story totally missed the mark, trying to fit the far reaches of such a great book into a two-hour format just doesn’t work sometimes. Same can be said for Blue Like Jazz the movie.
6. The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin’s Russia by Tim Tzouliadis (2008). A gripping account of US citizens who moved to Russia during the great depression in search work and the promise of a better life only to become victims of Soviet communist propaganda and the terror that killed tens of millions.
7. Loon: A Marine Story by Jack McLean (2009). A memoir about Mr. McLean’s life from a civilian—to enlisted Marine at Parris Island—to combat veteran in Vietnam—to the first Vietnam veteran to graduate from Harvard. McLean discusses the tumultuous political times of the late 1960s and the effect those events had on the average-Marine fighting in Vietnam. My cousin, Larry B. Reed was killed in action at Loon on June 6, 1968.
8. Successful Intelligence: How Practical and Creative Intelligence Determine Success in Life by Robert J. Sternberg (1996). This book is for anyone who holds to the myth that intelligence is solely determined by a construct measured on IQ tests or other standardized exams.
9. The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz (2004). Having more choices does not necessary mean more happiness. In this book, Barry Schwartz argues that having six or more choices generally creates anxiety.
10. The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism is Endangering Our Families and How to Save Them by Drew Pinsky and S. Mark Young. (2010). These authors argue that the millennial generation gets many of their ideas for living life from the constant barrage of celebrity coverage that is feed to us through the Internet. What was once considered abnormal is now presented as normal partly because of our desensitization to outlandish celebrity behavior. Pinsky and Young argue that exposure to celebrity narcissist behavior on our smartphones and Ipads is far more explicit than it ever was in the broadcast media in the past.