My Top Recommendations
In my role as a clinician and a teacher, the most apt way to describe my role in helping people is that of a librarian.
Artist Austin Kleon said,
I try to parent like a librarian.
I really feel that my role as a parent is less about having a lesson plan or things that are going to be on the test later. I’m not saying that this is what teachers do. I’m saying that this is our cartoon of teaching. My mental map of what I do as a parent is not that I have all this knowledge in my head that I want to transfer to my kids. The map I have in my head is that I see myself as a kind of resource for them.
I see less of my role in guiding people as an “expert” but more of a person who has devoted my life not only to learning, but organising and structuring what can be helpful to different people at different times. This applies both to the therapy room and training rooms.
That’s why the idea of being a librarian suits me.
When you walk into a library, you wouldn’t read every book. Likewise, in this list of recommendations and resources, some would speak to you and some not so. That’s fine.
TOP 10 BOOKS BY CATEGORY
Top of the Pops (Top 10 Books That Shaped Me)
Big Idea Books
1. The End of Average by Todd Rose
2. The Good Ancestors by Roman Kranazic
3. Upstream by Dan Heath
4. Dougnut Economics by Kate Raworth
5. Play by Stuart Brown
6. Visual Intelligence by Amy Hermann
7. The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath
8. Ascent of Humanity by Charles Einsentein
9. A More Beautiful World Our Hearts Knows It’s Possible by Charles Einsentein
10. Sacred Economy by Charles Einsentein
Business
- The Four Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney
- Dip by Seth Godin
- Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman
- Rework
- You, Inc.
- The Lean Start Up
- The E-Myth (Revisited)
- Good to Great by Jim Colins
- Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
- Zero to One by Peter Thiel
- Principles by Ray Dalio ????
- Talk Triggers ???
- What Do You Want Your Customers to Become by Michael Schrange
- Company of One by Paul Jarvis
Creativity
1. Yes to Mess
2. Creators of Creating
4. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
5. Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield
6. Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
7. Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
8. The Path of Least Resistance by Robert Fritz
9. The Frustrated Songwriter
10. The Practice by Seth Godin
11. The Creative Habit by Twyla Thrap
Drawing (Visual Communication)
1. The Back of a Napkin by Dan Roam
2. Visual Meetings
3. The Art of Business Communication (Amazon) by?
4. Visual Sketchnotes by Doug Neil (online)
5. The Doodle Revolution
6. The Sketchnote Handbook
Expertise
1. Better by Atul Gawande
2. The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
3. The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (Ed. 1 and 2) by K Anders Ericsson et al.
4. Development of Professional Expertise book by Ericsson et al 2009
5. Peak by Ericsson and Pool
6. Range by David Epstein
7. Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin
8. Mastery by George Leonard
9. Blackbox Thinking by Mathew Syed
10. Flow by Mihaly C
11. Talent Code by Daniel Coyle
12. The Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle
Cognitive Sciences # Cognitive Bias (Thinking Clearly)
1. The Art of Thinking Clearly
2. Thinking Statistically
3. Risk Savvy by Gerd Gigerenzer
4. Mindware
5. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
6. Superforecasting
7. Bad Science by Ben Goldarce
8. Blindspot
9. Mindwise by Epsley
10. Noise
11. Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke
12. Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath
13. Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb
14. Antifragile by Nassim Taleb
15. Think Again by Adam Grant
Health
1. Food by Mark Hyman (and his other books)
2. Less Medicine More Health by H. Gilbert Welch
3. Outlive by Peter Attia
Learning
1. The First 20 hours by Josh Kaufman
2. The 4 Hour Chef by Tim Ferriss
3. The Art of Learning by Josh Watzkin
4. Learning How to Learn by Barbara Oakley
5. Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath
6. How We Learn by Benedict Carey
7. Brave Learner
8. Practice Perfect by Doug Lemov and …
9. Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn by John Hattie and Gregory Yates
10. Ultralearning by Scott Young
11. Stop Talking and Start Influencing by Jared Horvath
Teaching
1. Significant Learning
2. Resonance by Nancy Duarte
3. Illuminate by Nancy Duarte
4. The Courage to Teach Parker Palmer
5. Steal the Show
6. Storyworthy
7. Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov
8. Powerful Teaching
9. Impossible to Ignore
10. Stop Talking and Start Influencing by Jared Horvath
11. 10 Things Schools Get Wrong by Jared Horvath
Productivity
- Deep Work by Cal Newport
- The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr et al
- The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney
- The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
- Make Time by Jake Knapp
- Manage Your Day to Day
- Daily Ritual by Mason Currey
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
- Maker vs manager (blog)
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Essentialism by Greg McKeown
- Effortless by Greg McKeown
- The One Thing
- The Four-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
- Anti-Time Management by Richie Norton
Psychotherapy Books
- On Becoming a Person by Carl Rogers
- A Way of Being by Carl Rogers
- Changing Emotion with Emotion by Leslie Greenberg
- The Creative Therapist by Bradford Keeney
- Improvisational Therapy by Bradford Keeney
- Maps of Narrative Practice by Michael White
- Unlocking the Emotional Brain by Bruce Ecker and
- Co-Creating Change by Jon Frederickson
- The Lies We Tell Ourselves by Jon Frederickson
- Change 101 by Bill O Hanlon
- Do One Thing Different by Bill O Hanlon
- Escape from Babel ?
- Cultures of Healing By Robert Fancher
- The Craft of Family Therapy by Salvador Minuchin
- Persuasion and Healing by Jerome and Julia Frank
- The Heart of Being Helpful by Peter Breggin
- The Gift of Therapy by Irvin Yalom
- How to Fail as a Therapist by Schwartz and Flowers
- Relational Suicide Assessment by Douglas Flemons
Psychotherapy Research Books
Psychology
- The Shaping of Us by Bernheimer
- This is Your Brain on Music
- Visual Intelligence
- Emotional Equation by Chip Conley
- Steps to an Ecology of Mind by Gregory Bateson
- Drive by Dan Pink
- Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
- The Memory Illusion by Julia Shaw
- How to Lose a the Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams
- Forms of Vitality by Daniel Sterndini
Self
1. The One Thing
2. Essentialism by Greg McKeown
3. Play by Stuart Brown
4. The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm
5. The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday
6. The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
7. The Power of Full Engagement
8. Stand Firm by Svind Brinkman
9. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
10. The Finite and Infinite Game by James Carse
Spirituality/Soul
1. New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton
2. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
3. Adam by Henri Nouwen
4. The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Noun
5. Hidden Wholeness by Parker Palmer
6. Toward God, by Michael Casey
7. Consolations by David Whyte
8. What So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey
9. Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey
10. Zen mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shinru Suzuki