Christmas Book Recommendations

Based mostly on my own reading over the past 12 months, here is a list of books that would make great gifts for the special someone who could use the gift of persuasiveness and personal effectiveness (even if the giftee is yourself):

How We Learn: The Surprising Truth about When, Where and Why It Happens, by Benedict Carey.

In a rapidly changing world, personal success and well-being depends not only on being able to keep learning, but to get better at it—but much of what you learned about learning in school is wrong. I personally picked up a lot of good ideas from this book, and I put it first because it will help you get more out of the other books.

Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It, by Ian Leslie.

I reviewed this book at length in an earlier post, but the thumbnail is that that there are three forms of curiosity, two of which are good for you and one which is bad. Empathic curiosity makes you dig deeper into understanding others, which is extremely useful in any persuasive communication context, and epistemic curiosity compels you to learn for learning’s sake. If you suffer from the bad form—diversive curiosity—this next book can help.

The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in an Age of Information Overload, by Daniel J. Levitin.

We put a lot of stuff into our brains every day, but taking out what you need when you need it is the real challenge. Levitin shows you how to organize yourself, your social life, and your business life to bring some sanity to your world and maybe even get more done.

The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21^st Century!, by Steven Pinker.

Pinker is an accomplished linguist who has turned his talents to popular writing, which is our gain. In this book, he takes on outmoded advice about writing and backs up his ideas with modern science. For example, you’ll be happy to know that it’s not a felony to end a sentence with a preposition. This book will help you sound like an intelligent, reasonable human being.

The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase, by Mark Forsyth.

Most business and personal communication works perfectly well if you stick to plain, short, direct language, but if you like to have fun with words, maybe show off a little now and then, and hope people will repeat what you said, study this book closely. I just reviewed this book at length, if you’d like to learn more.

The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance—What Women Should Know, by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman.

Many extremely competent women are held back in their careers because they either lack confidence or are reluctant to show it to the extent that men do. Kay and Shipman explain why this is so and what you can do about it. It should also be required reading for men in positions to decide who gets promoted to plum positions.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain.

If being a woman can hold you back in business, so can being too introverted, in a society that is biased in favor of extraverts. Give this book to an introvert so they can learn how to apply their strengths to succeed, or to an extravert to show them how to better appreciate the introverts around them.

Strategic Sales Presentations, by Jack Malcolm.

OK, I’m biased, but it’s my blog. This timeless classic will put money into the pocket of the salesperson in your life, and even if they don’t read the whole thing, it will look good on their shelf, so I recommend that you buy one for their home and one for their office.