Tag: reading list

My 2020 Reading List

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2020 was not kind on my reading. I remember when confinement began in March, I thought, “this will give me so much more time to read, it will be amazing.” Not so. My brain was so overwhelmed by COVID-19, by not going out of business, by BLM and social unrest, I had less mental space to read. 

Here is my reading list – 30 books in 2020, in the order I read them. It says a lot about what happened over the last 12 months! 

American Chica by Marie Arana. This was for Book Club, and the author came. One of the best books I read, in particular being from “two countries” myself.  

Nine Lies About Work by Marcus Buckingham. I heard him speak at a conference in 2019, and this was my follow-up homework. 

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra. Because we should all read this once. 

The 71/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. Also for Book Club. First fiction book of 2020, filled with twists and unexcepted turn of events. 

The Disruptors’ Feast by Fits Van Paaschen. A challenging read, but super interesting.  

Free, Melania by Kate Bennett. Last indoor Book Club. I love Kate Bennett, and her book is both informative and entertaining. 

The Only Place in the Sky by Garrett Graff. My #1 book of 2020. I started it early March, and finished it early April. I remember reading it during the first few weeks of the pandemic wondering if this timing was opportune or not… 

Those Who Are Loved by Victoria Hislop. Second fiction book… and lots more fiction to follow. My brain needed to travel and Victoria Hislop knows how to transport her readers to Greece! 

Carte Postales From Greece by Victoria Hislop. Because I couldn’t get enough. 

Writers & Lovers by Lily King. Virtual book club with a book everyone was talking about. 

And They Called it Camelot by Stephanie Marie Thornton. Because I needed to travel to an era of political elegance. Enough said. 

A Hundred Suns by Karin Tanabe. I call Karin a friend, and love all of her books and she has been a guest at our Book Club for all of them; this was our first outdoor book club and it was amazing. 

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo. Well, because I needed to read it. 

Desperate in DC by Phoebe Thompson and Crystal Walker. A super interesting exercise in collaborative writing, using social media as the primary form of communication.

The Guest List by Lucy Foley. A great thriller for a fast read and an immediate escape. 

Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. More racism education for me. Beautifully written, brought me to tears. 

The Culture Code by Cloraire Rapaille. Because this had been on my “to read” pile for years. Hard to get into, but oh so insightful. 

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley. More escape by the same author as The Guest List. 

L’Énigme de la Chambre 622 by Joel Dicker. A gift from my godmother, who gifts me two books in French per year to make sure I don’t entirely forget my mother tongue. I loved it!

Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry by Mary Higgins Clark. The ultimate guilty pleasure (I have read every single one of her books). 

The Island by Veronica Hislop. Here we go again. 

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. Set in Louisiana, and very much about race. 

Tiny Hot Dogs by Mary Giuliani. Another favorite of 2020, this memoir is filled with humor, entrepreneurial insights, and delicious-sounding recipes. 

Bluff by Jane Stanton Hitchcock. Jane is a neighbor in Georgetown and attended Book Club for her book Mortal Friends oh so long ago. I want to be like her when I grow up, and I adore all her books. 

The Grace Kelly Dress by Brenda Janowitz. I saw this book on Instagram… a beautiful story spanning three generations, and an easy read. 

The Power of Ritual by Casper Ter Kuile. Seth Mattison recommended this book during one of his talks. And in general, I try to do what Seth Mattison says I should do. 

Living the Sutras by Kelly DiNardo. Kelly gifted me this book the day she invited me to a yoga class at her studio… it is filled with wisdom and advice. Reading this was almost like meditating. 

Atomic Habits by James Clear. I read this book as 2020 was coming to a close, with the goal of refreshing and relooking at my habits, including some habits acquired during 2020 which I did not want to bring in to the New Year. Very powerful book. 

Start with Why by Simon Sinek. I had started this book years ago, but could never get into it. I still could not, but I forced myself to read it. Now I can say I read it (and did not really enjoy it). 

La Femme Révélée by Gaelle Nohant. The second 2020 book in French from my godmother. Set in Paris and Chicago, this book ends during the 1968 race riots in the Windy City. Surprisingly good and relevant to what is happening today in our country. 

How to do Nothing by Jenny Odell. Recommended by my super smart friend Marc Ross, creator of Brigadoon. This book was not what I imagined it would be, is a bit more “manifesto-y” than I like. As all books recommended by Marc, this one stretched me out of my comfort zone…  

Recommitting to Reading

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This is week 42 of year 2020, yet I am only on my 23rd book… While I usually read an average of one book every week or ten days, I have had a harder time reading over the last couple of months. This may have to do with the fact that I fell into the black hole of Mankell’s Kurt Wallander series (the original version, in Swedish, based on the amazing crime novels by Henning Mankell). Or it may have to do with the fact that my brain is so tired from dealing with our current reality that it has no bandwidth for reading.  

Regardless of why, I am recommitting to reading. And I have lots of books I am really excited to get in to. 

This week, I am reading Bluff by Jane Stanton Hitchcock. I met Jane a few years ago, when she attended book club in Georgetown for her book Mortal Friends (still one of my favorites from book club), and she fascinates me – for many reasons including the fact that she is a professional poker player (and yes, Bluff features a female poker player…). 

Then, I will read the following (in which order I don’t yet know). 

Richard Branson: Losing my Virginity. This book has been traveling with me between DC, Hammond, Geneva, and Tinos for the last six months. It may be the best travelled book I own… 

Kelly DiNardo: Living the Sutras. Kelly gifted me this book over a year ago after she invited me to her studio Past Tense to attend a yoga class. And boy do I need more yoga and more calm in my life… 

Victoria Hislop: three more books because I love her writing that much and need to travel in my head… preferably back to Greece. The Last Dance (a collection of ten short stories set in Athens and various Greek villages), The Thread (set in Thessaloniki in northern Greece), and The Sunrise (set in Cyprus… I am really venturing out of my comfort zone with this one!).

Brenda Janowitz: The Grace Kelly Dress. Because I need a “summer read” even though we are technically in fall. (Note: this is not in the photo because it is on its way to me from Amazon even though I promised myself not to buy any new books until I had read all others…). 

Casper ter Kuile: The Power of Ritual. This was recommended by Seth Mattison on a webinar I listened to a few weeks ago, and is about crafting rituals that promote connection and wellbeing. 

Bill Murphy Jr.: The Intelligent Entrepreneur. This tells the stories of ten Harvard Business School grads who started their own businesses, and how they became super successful. One of them is Marla Malcolm Beck of Bluemercury. 

What are you reading right now?

2019 Books

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“Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading.” – Lena Dunham. 

As 2019 draws to a close, I realize I have read 31 books this year. Fiction, non-
fiction. Short, long. Great, less great. For book club, not for book club. Here are my favorite, in the order that I read them.

  1. Le Petit Prince by Antoine de St. Exupéry. I started 2019 with this book, which I have read a dozen times at least. There is a reason why this novella of love, loss, friendship, and loneliness is one of the best-selling and most translated books ever published.
  2. On Becoming by Michelle Obama. I miss the Obamas. That is all.
  3. Love you Hard by Abby Maslin. I don’t often cry while reading, but this memoir of love, loss, and marriage is a real tear-jerker (in the best sense of the word).
  4. The Banker’s Wife by Christina Alger. The author is a friend of a friend and a fellow Harvard graduate, and discovering her writing is one of my 2019 highlights.
  5. The Darlings by Christina Alger. I am addicted.
  6. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou.The best book I read this year, this Theranos exposé is proof that reality is indeed stranger than fiction.
  7. Profits Aren’t Everything, They’re the Only Thing by George Cloutier. A powerful reminder that profitability enables the mission.
  8. Girls Like Us by Christina Alger. Christina, please write more faster.
  9. The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy by Michael Lewis. A must read in today’s political climate. (Truly, anything by Michael Lewis is a must read).
  10. The Friends We Keep by Jane Green. A touching book about friendship.
  11. The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins. A lovely story about a small town and the power of books.

My goal for 2019 was to read a book per week. I did not quite get there – although I do plan on reading four more books before 2020:

This has been on my reading list since this past summer. It is time.

Tinos Reading List – 2019 Edition

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One of my biggest pleasures on vacation is the ability to read during the day for hours on end. I try to consume a book every day or two. Fiction, non-fiction, recently published books, older publications. Always paper books – no e-book for me, even though it does mean all of these traveled in my suitcase from DC to Tinos, via Geneva. 

Here is my (very ambitious) reading list for this year’s time in Tinos. 

Bad Blood by Jon Carreyrou. I have been fascinated by Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos for as long as I can remember, thinking of her as an example of what a woman entrepreneur can accomplish. Her company’s demise makes her all that more fascinating to me. And this book reads like fiction – and is the perfect example of reality being stranger (and more stressful!) than fiction. 

The Next Girl; Her Pretty Bones; and Her Final Hour by Carla Kovach. These three will be my guilty pleasures, crime thrillers that will be hard to put down. 

Profits Aren’t Everything, They’re the Only Thing by George Cloutier. I have been meaning to read this for some time after my husband gave it to me as a reminder that while a company’s mission is everything, profits make the mission possible. 

The Naked Truth by Leslie Morgan. This is our next Book Club book, a memoir of a woman in her 50s who gets divorced and decides to actively date for a year (aka have sex with five guys) to get over her sorrows. 

Atomic Habits by James Clear. My friend Jenny gave me this book as she knows one of my favorites is The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. I can’t wait to dive into this one! 

Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You’ve Got by Jay Abraham. A Brigadoon-recommended book, these never disappoint. 

Building a Great Business by Ari Weinszweig. Adam Ross, co-founder of Heyday, with whom I enjoy trading book recommendations, said this was the best book he read in 2018. “Unconventional, but awesome,” I believe were his exact words. 

Le Prophète by Khalil Gibran. My sister Cyrille gave me this book (one of her personal favorites) last week. I guess she thought I needed to add something less prosaic than all my business books to my reading list…  

Le Nouveau Féminimse by Barbara Polla. It’s not a Tinos reading list without my Mom’s latest non-fiction… and this one will be quite the controversial read. 

What are you reading this summer? 

The Power of Words

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I love to read, and I love to talk about books. I look forward to weekends (including music festival weekends!) so I can dive in a book and spend two days reading. If you want to speak my love language, send me a book recommendation you think I will enjoy or ask me about a recent book I read. At home, I have bookshelves full of books I loved, and piles of books I am looking forward to reading.

Yesterday, I added a new book on my list of books to read, thanks to the recommendation of Debra Neill Baker of Neill Corporation.

She opened our day-long strategy meeting by reminding us of the power of words, and by sharing three sentences we should all incorporate in our conversations more frequently to build connection and love:

  • “Tell me more”: this helps us listen better. I like to “end” a conversation with “what else?” – yet this verbiage is so much more powerful.
  • “I was wrong”: because “I am sorry” is over-used and not powerful enough. This will be a hard one for me to incorporate in my language…  
  • “I don’t know”: because it is ok not to know. As a colleague added, another nice way of saying that is “I haven’t learned that yet.”  

These phrases came from a book Debra read recently, which I immediately ordered: Tell Me More by Kelly Corrigan. This book is about “12 essential phrases that turn the wheel of life.” (I think “No” is on that list and that is certainly a word I need help with!)

Today, I commit to using these three more frequently. And this weekend, I am going to read this book!