I read a variety of really great books in 2024, so here are my top 5 that I recommend:

Number 1:

My Favorite book of the year was “Civil Unity” by Shola Richards. I mentioned I heard him speak at the 2024 PLA Conference in Columbus, OH, but this book came out much later. Here is my review from Amazon: Shola Richards’ Civil Unity delivers an excellent message at a time when we need it the most. He provides practical tools and guides us in the work required to make the world a more civil place, reminding us that it all begins within. Changing our mindset is a crucial part of this process, and Chapter 4, in particular, offers a roadmap for that inner work. A final reminder that we either give life or drain it—there is no neutral exchange—stays with me.

Here are a few other parts that stuck out to me:

Chapter 2, page 39: “Sixty-two percent of adults said they don’t talk about their stress overall because they don’t want to burden others. Sixty-one percent said people around them just expect them to get over their stress.”

Chapter 4 is so full of good information and tools, I can’t pick just one thing!

Chapter 8, page 213: “Standards are fact based and are within our control, whereas expectations are fiction based and fall outside of our control.”

Number 2:

My second favorite book of the year was “Overcoming Mobbing: A Recovery Guide for Workplace Aggression and Bullying” by Maureen Duffy & Len Sperry. This book was very enlightening, and helped me better understand what has transpired over the last year and half for me. My copy has many dig ears and underlined passages. I will likely dive into this book with more detail in a future post, because there is a lot to unpack here. Thankfully I am no longer in the environment where the mobbing and bullying occurred, but I am still very much experiencing the after effects of being in that environment.

Number 3:

My 3rd favorite of the year was “QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at work and in Life” by John G. Miller

I love how this book reads more like a narrative non-fiction and is less dry when is comes to the topic of personal accountability. It really helped me reframe my thoughts and get to the feeling behind things. This is a quick read, and reminds me of other narrative non-fiction.

Number 4:

My fourth favorite is “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” by Greg McKeown. This book helped me understand the power of time to think and process, and not always be running from thing to thing to thing. I had a lot of time on my hands in 2024, and I always say that my mind can be my own worst enemy. This book helped me find things that I was truly passionate about, and where I could make a difference. I always will find it hard to say no, especially when I like being busy. This book gave me a different perspective, and was a great help.

Here is a fun video as well:

Number 5:

Rounding out my top 5 is “Making Work Work” by Shola Richards. This book was also about the inner work I needed to do to handle a toxic working environment. My copy is dog-eared and underlined heavily, which means it a book to be remembered. While I wish some of the tactics I learned from the book, and attempted to put to use in my work environment made a difference, I’m not sure they did. I will continue to try in my next work environment, because there were so many good ideas in there.

I’m going to end this with Shola’s story, that resonated so deeply with me.