Book Summaries 2024

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is a way of interacting with ourselves and others that’s rooted in empathy and compassion. The ultimate goal of NVC is to foster authentic connections between people regardless of their differences. That focus on human connections makes NVC a powerful conflict resolution tool—once there is a genuine human connection, the original problem tends to solve itself. You can use NVC in almost any relationship or environment, including in families, schools, governments, businesses, and personal relationships. NVC can also help you reshape your inner dialogue to promote self-compassion, improving your relationship with yourself.

What makes a good leader? Some say you’ll know one when you see one; others confuse being a leader with simply having a title. In The 5 Levels of Leadership, John C. Maxwell gives a shape and form to something seemingly indefinable and provides a roadmap to help you reach your full leadership potential.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to go from being a boss to a real leader, how to get people to follow you without using your rank, and how to use your leadership to build a legacy that stands the test of time. We’ll also explore Maxwell’s definition of leadership, expand his tips for maximizing each level, and compare his model to Good to Great author Jim Collins’s version of the five levels.

While many business books tell you how to manage other people, this 1966 classic by management expert Peter F. Drucker explains how to manage yourself to be effective. Effectiveness is key to individual and organizational success. Without it, other attributes, such as talent, intelligence, knowledge, and hard work, are useless.

Drucker says anyone can learn five practices for effectiveness: managing your time, focusing on just a few key tasks, making a unique contribution, maximizing your strengths, and making sound decisions. He explains how to implement these practices, which have remained relevant for over 50 years, even as technology and organizations have evolved. This guide examines how Drucker’s ideas on effectiveness hold up today and how others have built on them.

Do you belong to a community you care about and want to improve? If not, have you ever wondered how to establish or join a new community? In either case, community expert Charles Vogl can help you achieve your goals with the advice in his 2016 book, The Art of Community. Vogl covers everything from the beginning stages of community development to the roles and responsibilities of community leaders.

In this guide, we’ll explain what a community is, explore some of the fundamental guidelines all communities should follow, and discuss Vogl’s advice for instituting a community meeting place and set of customs. Then, we’ll talk about how you can use lore, emblems, and mementos to enhance belonging within your community. Finally, we’ll discuss community growth, including best practices for incorporating new members and managing community ranks. In our commentary, we’ll explore other experts’ opinions about what makes a community worthwhile and how to make the most of your community experience.

Positive behavior change is one of the most persistent challenges of personal growth—and in How to Change, Katy Milkman draws from the latest research and presents a powerful strategy for creating lasting change. She argues that real behavior change comes from a deliberate, scientific understanding of how human nature gets in our way and how we can leverage it to our advantage.

Milkman, an economist and professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, explains how to tailor solutions to your specific challenges, subvert common human failings, and cement lasting change. In this guide, we’ll detail her evidence-based approach to behavioral change and discuss her “playbook” for overcoming human foibles ranging from a lack of self-confidence to forgetfulness and procrastination. In commentary, we’ll look at adjacent perspectives on behavioral change from books such as Atomic Habits, Nudge, Awaken the Giant Within, and Hooked.

Your baby won’t stop crying. The screams start up at any time of day or night and continue for hours, no matter what you do. The doctor says you just have to wait it out; your friends and family give conflicting advice, none of which works. You’re pretty sure you’re going to lose your mind. Luckily, you don’t have to: In The Happiest Baby on the Block, pediatrician Harvey Karp offers a solution to your problem.

In our guide, we’ll outline Karp’s theory about why babies develop colic—crying for hours a day multiple times per week—and how caregivers can manage it. Through our commentary, we’ll offer extra advice and research from parenting experts and pediatricians on how to keep your baby happy and healthy—and get some sleep for yourself in the process.

In Fix This Next, entrepreneur and business author Mike Michalowicz introduces the Business Hierarchy of Needs, a system for determining which of your company’s problems you should fix next. Michalowicz created this system because many entrepreneurs struggle with prioritization. They’re often overwhelmed by problems, so they focus on fixing the most immediate problem instead of identifying the most impactful approach that’ll fix the problem’s root cause. Since the root cause isn’t resolved, problems continue to appear.

In this guide, we’ll discuss how Michalowicz’s prioritization system works and how you can use it to make your business more successful. In our commentary, we’ll compare his advice to that of other business experts like Simon Sinek and Seth Godin, as well as explore concrete tips for implementing Michalowicz’s ideas.

Do you have the power to shape your own future? Popular yogi and spiritual guide, Sadhguru argues that you do—if you correctly understand the concept of karma. In Karma, Sadhguru demystifies this ancient concept, explaining that it’s not an external system of reward and punishment, as many believe; rather, it’s a way of living rooted in your actions, thoughts, and emotions.

In this guide, we’ll begin by explaining Sadhguru’s definition of karma before elaborating on the four types of karma and how they impact you. Finally, we’ll explain what you can do with karma and offer practical strategies for those who wish to release themselves from the cycle of karma altogether. Since Sadhguru discusses karma largely based on his experience as a yogi, we'll also put karma in the context of its philosophical and religious traditions and examine his assertions from a scientific perspective.

If you want to start a successful business, many would argue that Amazon is the one to imitate. In just a few decades, Amazon has grown from an obscure internet startup to a household name, raking in hundreds of billions of dollars by offering a vast range of products and services. In Working Backwards, Amazon insiders Colin Bryar and Bill Carr explain how the company achieved its meteoric growth and argue that any organization can do the same.

In this guide, you’ll learn the specific tools Amazon used to rapidly scale their startup into an online empire. You’ll see how Amazon designs its meetings to facilitate rigorous thinking and how they use narrowly focused teams to execute their plans. In our commentary, we’ll expand on Bryar and Carr’s advice with tips from business books like What You Do Is Who You Are and The Lean Startup. We’ll also offer counterpoints to Amazon’s business philosophy with alternative strategies from books like Range and It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work.

Have you ever wondered how platform businesses like Spotify and Amazon became so successful? In Platform Revolution, a team of economists and businesspeople—Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Paul Choudary—offer some insight: Platform businesses harness their unique characteristics to drive competitiveness and transformation, resulting in profound economic, societal, and political impacts. Parker, Van Alstyne, and Choudary also highlight the distinct skill set required to operate such a business and provide practical tips for aspiring platform entrepreneurs.

In our guide, we’ll compare the platform business model to the traditional business model known as a pipeline, explain why platforms are becoming dominant, and explore their wide-ranging effects. We’ll also outline essential design and management strategies for platform developers. Our commentary will provide additional insights on economic concepts, discuss tips from business experts, and explore real-world applications of Platform Revolution principles.