My Ten Favorite Books From 2019 (Out Of The 43 Books I Finished)

I am lucky to get dozens of free books each year since my consulting work includes writing advice columns, and publicists send me review copies to hopefully feature their clients in my columns.

I try to read as many review books as I can, and I also pick up books on my own dime and time. I particularly love business, personal finance and self-improvement books. You won’t see any fiction in my list.

I used to read more in the leadership development category but as I have weaned myself off of working with large institutions and focus more on individuals and small organizations, I find these books less relevant to my work. I am also not interested enough in corporate dynamics to read these books for fun (hence the shift in client base, a perk of being in business for yourself!).

Of course, I still plan to read more, with 6+ weeks left to go in 2019. However, books make great gifts, and with Black Friday coming up, I thought it best to curate my recommendations now. There is something for most everyone on your list, and don’t forget to give something to yourself!

Top ten books for 2019

The books are listed in the order I cover them in this post, not by my preference. They’re very different books from each other, so ranking them doesn’t really make sense. All of these books are worth a read if you like the subject matter:

1. Stories That Stick by Kindra Hall
2. How To Be A Capitalist Without Any Capital: The Four Rules You Must Break to Get Rich by Nathan Latka.
3. A Very Public Offering: The Story of theglobe.com and the First Internet Revolution by Stephan Paternot
4. The Sponsor Effect by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
5. Humor That Works by Andrew Tarvin
6. The Dumb Things Smart People Do With Their Money by Jill Schlesinger
7. It’s All About Relationships by Karen Rancourt
8. The 12-Week Year by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington
9. Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by Rajeev Balasubramanyam
10. What Game Are You Playing? By Robin Moriarty

Stories That Stick is my favorite book of 2019

Stories That Stick by Kindra Hall is about telling better stories. This is useful to everyone – the entrepreneur, the corporate professional, the FIRE enthusiast who needs a compelling story to stay on track!

You will have a deeper appreciation for the art of storytelling. You will know how to tell better stories yourself. My personal favorite were the story examples peppered throughout the book. The book opens with a fascinating story about JFK and cologne – you won’t even care if it’s true or not.

For the entrepreneur:

How To Be A Capitalist Without Any Capital: The Four Rules You Must Break to Get Rich

For ideas on side hustles and other non-traditional money-making ideas, check out How To Be A Capitalist Without Any Capital: The Four Rules You Must Break to Get Rich by Nathan Latka. If you like “The Four-Hour Workweek”, Latka has a similar Type A tone with some interesting insights in building low/ no capital streams of income.

Latka is a college dropout who started a software company at 19 that he sold for several million. He currently runs a private equity firm that generates $100k in passive income per month on companies he invests in, and he posts his tax returns as proof. His productivity tips are sound, his ideas are creative, and you can’t argue with the results.

A Very Public Offering: The Story of theglobe.com and the First Internet Revolution

For a behind-the-scenes look at a more traditional journey to building a business, check out A Very Public Offering: The Story of theglobe.com and the First Internet Revolution by Stephan Paternot.

This is the real-life account of the rise and fall of theglobe.com, as told by one of its co-founders. The book is a strange, twisty memoir, and I enjoyed it immensely. I didn’t know the history of the theglobe.com, from Internet darling to spectacular crash, and the business story was fascinating.

This book revisits the story 20 years later, and Paternot has since become a successful angel investor and co-founder of Slated, a film financing company. While the Slated story is relegated to the Epilogue, it’s fascinating too, so this book is like a 2-for-1.

For the corporate professional:

The Sponsor Effect

If your FIRE journey still includes a day job, you’ll want to manage your career well. My favorite leadership/ professional development expert hands-down is Sylvia Ann Hewlett. Her new book, The Sponsor Effect, is a must-read if you career advancement is important to you.

The real-life examples are very detailed and interesting – LeBron James gets a mention, so it’s not all corporate jargon.

Humor That Works

A fun and important book about navigating humor in the workplace is Humor That Works by Andrew Tarvin. A computer engineer and longtime stand-up comic and improviser, Tarvin now runs a company that coaches companies on how to use humor to improve workplace productivity and morale.

You may keep the book on your reference shelf for the jokes alone – there’s a whole section on knock-knock jokes.

For the self-improvement junkie:

The Dumb Things Smart People Do With Their Money

For overall money advice, I turn to Jill Schlesinger, who not only was a financial adviser in an earlier life but also has a no-nonsense, funny way of delivering what could be pretty dry material. If you want a good personal finance primer, check out The Dumb Things Smart People Do With Their Money by Jill Schlesinger.

It’s All About Relationships

For relationship advice — all relationships not just the romantic kind — no one dishes it out better than Karen Rancourt. She writes an advice column for grandparents which I read as soon as it comes out, and I’m not even a grandparent –her writing and advice is that good.

It’s All About Relationships by Karen Rancourt will help you navigate office collaboration, tense family situations, friendships you have outgrown and more.

The 12-Week Year

For productivity and time management, check out The 12-Week Year by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington. It’s a very catchy concept and a quick book to read (saving time on your pursuit to saving time!).

For the creative thinker:

Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss

I said I don’t read fiction, and Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by Rajeev Balasubramanyam is technically fiction. But it’s an allegory about a single-minded, ambitious professor who loses out on the Nobel prize and embarks on self-discovery, and as a result, finds a more balanced life.

So it’s really a self-help book and a good choice for the reader looking for encouragement to think more introspectively.

What Game Are You Playing?

For encouragement to think differently, check out What Game Are You Playing? By Robin Moriarty. Moriarty cobbled together a nontraditional career around her love for travel.

The premise is simple but inspiring – design your own rules for your own game. Since we’re starting on our own year of travel, Moriarty’s own travel-fueled story particularly resonated.

Most books give you at least one idea or insight so reading is always time well-spent

I only highlighted my favorites above, but there is something to recommend in every book I read (listed in order that I read them):

• Reducing Your Cancer Risk by Carl Helvie – this book lists multiple resources for alternative wellness.
• Truthful Living by Jeffrey Gitomer based on an early manuscript of Napoleon Hill – If you are a diehard Napoleon Hill fan, you will appreciate this book.
• The Having by Suh Yoon Lee and Jooyun Hong – for fans of the Law of Attraction, this book is about a Korean guru of Attraction.
• The Book of Mistakes by Skip Prichard – Chock full of motivational quotes
• Generating Business Referrals Without Asking by Stacey Brown Randall – recommended for entrepreneurs, this is a thorough discussion of business referrals and made me think differently about this overlooked business strategy
• Purpose and A Paycheck by Chris Farrell – great source of positive success stories for career longevity in your 50’s, 60’s and beyond.
• The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks – recommended for challenging your mindset on thinking big. This is a nuanced book, and I want to revisit it myself and re-read it. It’s the kind of book you can pull different lessons from depending on when you come to it.
• Money Mastery, a collection of books by David Neagle – Neagle is big in life coaching circles, and his message is also about thinking big.
• Employee Millionaire by HJ Chammas – a real estate investing book, specifically about keeping your day job and investing in rental real estate on the side. This one is strictly for beginners.
• Choose To Win by Tom Ziglar – if you like Zig Ziglar, this book is by his son, who took over the business. It’s a solid motivational book, if you don’t mind the frequent Christian references.
• Maybe It’s You by Lauren Handel Zander – Zander has built a very successful coaching business, and her life coaching approach is taught at leading universities.
• I’m Possible by Jeremy Cowart – fascinating autobiography of a struggling student who ultimately graduated with an art degree and built a successful career over multiple career changes as a graphic designer, web developer, celebrity photographer, and now hotel start-up entrepreneur. This is a fun, inspiring story. The anecdotes of Cowart’s volunteer work in Africa were particularly moving.
• The Altman Close: Million-Dollar Negotiating Tactics from America’s Top-Selling Real Estate Agent by Josh Altman – because it’s real estate, I wrote a longer review in an earlier post.
• Breathe In/ Cash Out by Madeleine Henry – if you want to feel like a banker without putting in the hours, read this book. A chick lit novel about an investment banking analyst at the fictionalized Anderson Shaw, who dreams of becoming a yoga teacher. She also accidentally sleeps with her boss, comes to terms with the fact that her parent’s dreams are not her own, and meets her yoga idol, who turns out to be not as zen as she seems. It’s a funny, fast read by a former Goldman Sachs analyst who clearly lifted a lot of her banking tales straight from her time there.
• Wealth Made Easy by Dr. Greg Reid with Gary Krebs – Dr. Greg Reid interviewed millionaires and billionaires to compile the 74 wealth hacks that he shares in this book. The 74-hack structure makes the book easy to read, and there are many inspiring quotes in the book. My favorite hack was #54 about buying a gumball machine instead of a sofa – i.e., if you need a sofa, buy a gumball machine that earns you enough money to eventually buy a sofa. The wealthy buy assets that create income, rather than simply stuff.
• How To Learn A Foreign Language by Paul Pimsleur – I’m struggling with learning Spanish, and this book gave me some helpful tips and most importantly the motivation to keep going.
• The Ultimate Guide To Travel Hacking by Nomadic Matt Kepnes – this book is well-organized and shares a lot of tips. It’s overwhelming, but I did learn a handful of immediate takeaways (e.g., flight deal newsletters to sign up for and flight deal websites to scour). One of the flight deal sites pointed me to cheap tickets that we ended up buying for France in July!
• Who’s In Your Room by Ivan Misner, Rick Sapio and Stewart Emery – if you want a networking primer, this book provides a great overview.
• Zen Bender by Stephanie Krikorian – interesting compilation of different methods of self-care. It’s like the self-help version of Eat, Pray, Love.
• Miracle Minded Manager by John Murphy – if you have read A Course In Miracles then this one is a good review with some insights specific to managing using the same principles. If you haven’t read Course, read that first.
• Billy Bullshit Talks Business by Steve Blakerman and Mike Adams – this is a hilarious compilation of corporate jargon. Someone should make this book into a calendar.
• Believe by Adrian Falk – there are some helpful coaching paradigms in this self-help book. For example, time is like a magic bank account that renews each day but must be spent each day. If you had a magic bank account like that, you would be very choosy about spending your money, but what about your time?
• You Deserve It by Dr. Josh Wagner – a practical approach to meditation and unlearning negative beliefs, my favorite line is a mantra the author uses to make better choices: “Why would life give me what I want if I can’t or won’t give it to myself?”
• Running With My Head Down by Frank Fiume II – like Paternot’s account of theglobe.com, this is a fun, behind-the-scenes look at a successful business.
• Work In Progress by Leanne and Steve Ford – this book is by the siblings behind the HGTV show, Restored By The Fords. It’s more about career than real estate, however. Still a fun read but not if you’re looking for real estate-related insights.
• Start Finishing by Charlie Gilkey – excellent time management book. Just missed my top ten list.
• Elevate by Robert Glazer – this book has a lot of common coaching paradigms, so it’s like a Cliff Notes supplement for the self-help canon.
• You Don’t Have To Be Ruthless To Win by Jonathan Keyser – similar to “Elevate” this is a feel-good book full of success coaching platitudes.
• 21 Days To Effective Communication by Ian Tuhovsky – this book uses a clever structure – a lesson per day, plus exercises – and provides a good overview for communication tips
• The Sphere of Silence by Vijay Eswaran – this book encourages being totally silent for at least one hour a day and talks about the many benefits of silence. If you like meditative and motivational prompts, this book is full of them.
• Disrupt Yourself by Whitney Johnson – a breezy, accessible professional development book that encourages you to rethink where you might be complacent in your career.
• Mindfulness at Work by Maria Arpa – written by a mediator, this book has useful strategies on finding calm amidst frenetic, even toxic work environments.
• Confessions of a Crypto Millionaire by Dan Conway – if you want to go on a real-life investment roller coaster ride, this memoir follows the author’s journey from middle age corporate drone to crypto day trader. This is a very fun book, and while I envy the millions Conway made, he describes in excruciating detail his difficult journey to get there.

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What did you read in 2019? What would you recommend?