How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie →
How to Win Friends and Influence People is a book by Dale Carnegie, published in 1936. Over 30 million copies have been sold worldwide. The text should be a “must-read” for those trying to learn how to network. It is classified as a self-help book, but in addition to that, it is a book about the fundamentals of handling people.
Twelve Things This Book Will Do For You
Get you out of a mental rut, and give you new thoughts, visions, and ambitions.
Enable you to make friends quickly and easily.
Increase your popularity.
Help you to win people to your way of thinking.
Increase your influence, prestige, and ability to get things done.
Enable you to win new clients and new customers.
Increase your earning power.
Make you a better salesman, a better executive.
Help you to handle complaints, avoid arguments, and keep your human contacts smooth and pleasant.
Make you a better speaker, a more entertaining conversationalist.
Make the principles of psychology easy for you to apply in your daily contacts.
Help you to arouse enthusiasm among your associates.
“Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends & Influence People is one of the best-selling self-help books of all time. The book has influenced many people, from Warren Buffett to Charles Manson.
Those two people, Buffet and Manson, really express the weirdness of Carnegie’s book and show that you can read in a couple of different ways, dividing the book’s two intentions far more than was initially intended.
While people like Buffett praise it for its management techniques, it’s also easy to see how one could use those same techniques for evil. Which is to say, depending on who you are, you can read Carnegie’s book in two distinct ways: to win friends or to influence people.
Which route you take can change your feelings about the book, yourself, and relationships.” (see article in Lifehacker)
Split Second, by David Baldacci
Two Secret Service agents sworn to guard those under their official protection lost them in a single moment. Michelle Maxwell, against her instincts, let a presidential candidate out of her sight for the briefest moment, supposedly alone with a widow in the locked and guarded room with a coffin. Still, the man whose safety was her responsibility vanished into thin air.
Eight years earlier, Secret Service agent Sean King allowed his attention to be diverted for a split second, and the candidate he was protecting was gunned down before his eyes.
Both Agents, Michelle and Sean, see their destinies converge as the latest loss takes place, and both of the discredited agents uncover a shocking truth. Their losses were planned long ago, are connected, and far from over.
Not a surprise is the storyline, plot, and action that holds our interest to the end.
Dangerous Habits by Susan Hunter →
A very talented author who crafted a plot with characters that held my interest from the beginning to the end. Her style for this series seems a lot like Dean Koontz or even Harlan Coben, and the surprise was I thought that her book was just as good as those authors so far. How could I have missed her with books dating backsix-pluss years?
Susan Hunter's profile: "Susan Hunter is a happy introvert who lives with her husband Gary, an extreme extrovert, in rural Michigan.
She spent some years as a reporter and then as the managing editor of a small daily newspaper. From there, Susan went on to work at a university in publications and marketing, where she honed her skills at appearing engaged in academic meetings while internally composing her grocery list. She also taught a few classes in English composition, that is, not in faking your way through meetings."
One False Move, Harlen Coben →
Harlan Coben delivers a plot that grabs hold of your attention and doesn’t let go. This is his fifth novel in his Myron Bolitar series. Brenda Slaughter, a beautiful basketball star with the New York Dolphins, is a client whose sports agent Myron wants to sign up but has a problem. Before signing her, he has to protect her from the threats she’s been getting and maybe even track down her missing parents. Myron agrees to protect basketball star Brenda Slaughter and is drawn into helping her find answers to the mystery of her life, and, no surprise, she falls in love with her.
Coben doesn’t disappoint with this story.
The Neighbor, by Dean Koontz →
Some may be put off by Dean Koontz’s different approach in this novella and in the book, "The City,” from which the characters in "The Neighbor" are taken. Just because this didn't seem like a Dean Koontz approach is no reason to punish him with a lower rating, and in fact, both plots work perfectly together and are well done. Koontz’s books are mostly the same, but the relevant point is that they are good. This one was also.
The book’s period is exciting and, again, well done. The ending of "The City" was unexpected, and the profile of the two supporting characters in their own story in "The Neighbor" fits the bigger story and seems to add to it.
The City, by Dean Koontz →
The City is a novel by Dean Koontz and is a different approach that we who are fans of this author are used to. Some may have felt it was slow and spent their time thinking about how different it was. It did take some time to get into but it was a story that pulled you in more and more as your read.
It is the story of Jonah Kirk, son of an exceptional singer and grandson of an great “piano man” and on his own way to becoming a “piano man”. We meet Jonah at 8 years old and follow him closely as he grows up. Years later in his fifties he writes us the story and says:
“The city change my life and showed me that the world is deeply mysterious. I need to tell you about her and some terrible things and wonderful things and amazing things that happened… and how I am still haunted by them. Including one night when I died and woke and lived again.
I enjoyed the city of the 50’s and 60’s and 70’s and the story and experienced a very different Dean Koontz
See more about Dean Koontz in Favorite Author Section
Don't Overthink It, by Anne Bogel →
“Don’t Overthink It: Make Easier Decisions, Stop Second-Guessing, and Bring More Joy to Your Life, tackles life problems of indecision and fear of making the wrong decision. She says that people spend their lives constantly overthinking their decisions believing they are just wired to do it that way.
Anne says that you overcome negative thought patterns that are repetitive, unhealthy, and unhelpful and replace them with positive thought patterns that will bring more peace, joy, and love intoyour lifef Heranswerrjustt toosayy no. No overthinking.
The book presents things you can do that can make an immediate difference and will free up energy consumed by overthinking. Her approaches are practically based on her own life experiences.
Overthinking about things isn't just a nuisance. It can take a severe toll on your well-being. Research says dwelling on your shortcomings, mistakes, and problems increases your risk of mental health problems.
More about Anne Bogel
Anne Bogel is also the author of Reading People, and I’d Rather Be Reading and is known for her Podcast, What Should I Read Next, and her blog Modern Mrs. Darcy.
Quotes by Anne Bogel
“A good book, when we return to it, will always have something new to say. It's not the same book, and we're not the same reader.”
“People read for an assortment of reasons. Nearly forty years in, I can tell you why I inhale books like oxygen: I'm grateful for my one life, but I'd prefer to live a thousand --and my favorite books allow me to experience more on the page than I ever could in my actual life.”
”When we share our favorite titles, we cannot help but share ourselves. Shakespeare said the eyes are the windows to the soul, but we readers know one's bookshelves reveal just as much.”
“We can’t know what a book will mean to us until we read it. And so we leap and choose.”
“You’re sad because whatever you read next can’t possibly be as good as the book you just finished. You despair because nothing you read can ever be as good.”
‘“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Daylight by David Baldacci →
FBI Agent Atlee Pine's twin sister, Mercy, was abducted at six and never seen again. Pine continues to search for this sister throughout the Atlee Pine series.
After finding out that her sister’s kidnapper was Ito Vincenzo, she and her assistant Carol Blum race to Vincenzo's last known location in Trenton, New Jersey, where they find that they are in the middle of John Puller's case, disrupting his arrest during a drug ring investigation involving a military installation. Pine and Puller begin joint research and find a connection between Vincenzo's family and both cases with global implications for conspiracy.
The story, book 3 in the series, was not the best one in this series and did disappoint.
Win, by Harlan Coben →
Over twenty years ago, heiress Patricia Lockwood was kidnapped during a robbery of her family's estate, then locked inside an isolated cabin for months. Patricia escaped, but so did her captors, and the items stolen from her family were never recovered.
On New York's Upper West Side at the Beresford, one of the most prestigious buildings in Manhattan, a hermit is murdered in his penthouse apartment, alongside two objects of note: a stolen Vermeer painting and a leather suitcase bearing the initials WHL3. For the first time in years, the authorities have a lead on Patricia’s kidnapping and another FBI cold case - with the suitcase and painting both pointing them towards one man.
Windsor Horne Lockwood III - or Win as his few friends call him - doesn't know how his suitcase and his family's stolen painting ended up in this dead man's apartment. But he's interested - especially when the FBI tells him that the man who kidnapped his cousin was also behind an act of domestic terrorism and that he may still be at large.
The two cases have baffled the FBI for decades. But Win has three things the FBI does not: a personal connection to the case, a large fortune, and his unique brand of justice.
The character Win’s profile and approach to life is a story of its own and, in some ways, competes with the mystery of what happened in that cabin years ago and the outcome of events.
In contrast to the Win character, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher character comes to mind. Reacher always got his man and some women along the way, but Win seems to be a rich and sleazy version of that bold approach. We never really grew tired of Jack Reacher, but Win is just a little too much already.
The Tumor by John Grisham
THE TUMOR presents a medical fiction story about a patient Paul who is 35 years old and diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Paul’s treatment is shown, and his future looks like it will end soon.
In comparison, the potential of a different reality is shown using medical fiction based on the direction of natural science in a fictional future.
John Grisham says THE TUMOR is the most important book he has ever written. In this short book, he provides readers with a fictional account of how a real, new medical technology could revolutionize the future of medicine by curing with sound.
The book is, of course, not a legal thriller. It is short and well written. If the story offers hope, then it shows that science clearly brings hope and that hope could be considered far more valuable than just offering a well-written legal thriller. Even so, an excellent legal thriller has more value than Grishan wants to admit. Not the best statement, and the book wasn’t that great.
(2 Stars)
The Poet by Michael Connelly →
Death is reporter Jack McEvoy's beat: his calling, his obsession, and we are told that right at the start. This story is about a serial killer who is cunning and brutally savage. Stephen Kings said of the book in the introduction that he wrote that the book scared him.
Jack McEvoy is a crime reporter for the Rocky Mountain News, and this time he is searching for information about a killer who targets homicide cops, each haunted by a murder case he couldn't crack. The killers leave a signature with each victim, a quotation from Edgar Allan Poe's works.
The latest victim is McEvoy's brother, so Jack digs even more profound, making himself so visible that he becomes a target. After much investigation, Jack concludes that his brother's death was made to look like a suicide by a serial killer.
This was the 5th book written by Michael Connelly, and it was published in 1996. It clearly shows that Connelly is a master storyteller.
Later, by Stephen King →
Stephen King's book "Later" is "hard-boiled crime fiction.” The third book in the series included The Colorado Kid and Joyland.
In “Later, “The son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin, just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability, his mom urges him to keep it secret; Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can. But the cost of using this ability is higher than Jamie can imagine—as he discovers when an NYPD detective draws him into pursuing a killer who has threatened to strike from beyond the grave.”
Stephen King commented about this book “I love the Hard Case format, and this story—combining a boy who sees beyond our world and strong elements of crime and suspense—seemed a perfect fit.”
Of course, this book is worth reading.
Daylight by David Baldacci →
FBI Agent Atlee Pine's twin sister, Mercy, was abducted at six and never seen again. Pine continues to search for this sister throughout the Atlee Pine series.
After finding out that her sister’s kidnapper was Ito Vincenzo, she and her assistant Carol Blum race to Vincenzo's last known location in Trenton, New Jersey, where they find that they are in the middle of John Puller's case, disrupting his arrest during a drug ring investigation involving a military installation.
Pine and Puller begin a joint investigation and find a connection between Vincenzo's family and both cases with global implications for conspiracy.
The story, book 3 in the series, was not the best one in this series and did disappoint. 2 Stars
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green →
Maybe this is an ambitious book because it asks some challenging questions.
Who has the right to change the world forever?
How will we live online?
How do we find comfort in an increasingly isolated world?