Sunday, December 01, 2013

The Savvy Reader Book Club Selection for December

The Savvy Reader Book Club is an online nonfiction book club created for the serious reader. At the beginning of each month I select one or two books; then host discussion posts covering the books throughout the month.  

Since December will most likely be a busy month, I’ve decided to choose just one book this month. The Savvy Reader Book Club selection for December is:




The title of this book is deceiving. Josh may work as a librarian, but this book is about much more than libraries.  As a young boy playing the role of a “tree” in a school play Josh begins twitching uncontrollably. It turns out he has Tourette Syndrome. Eventually he learns to control his tics by lifting weights. This book is a memoir that includes Josh's thoughts and experiences with Tourette’s, faith, strength the power of family, reading and yes occasionally libraries. 

Since I too have been on a strength challenge – attempting to become a stronger person in my 50th year – this book should be the perfect read to close out my Be Strong Reading Challenge. Be Strong was a reading challenge I created for myself to read books covering topics related to inner strength such as confidence, communication skills, working with difficult people, self-knowledge, willpower, etc.

On another note, as a follow-up to last month’s book club selection Seth Godin's Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, I would like to highlight additional books recommended by readers:

Catherine Gacad is currently reading Randi Zuckerberg's book Dot Complicated: Untangling Our Wired Lives:
Randi Zuckerberg is the sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Her book which is part memoir, part how-to manual addresses issues of privacy, online presence, networking, etiquette, and the future of social change. Hmm… this book sounds like a possible future Savvy Reader book club selection.

Mel of brokeGirlrich likes leadership/business books a lot. She loves the One Minute Manager books, especially The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkeyfor delegating. She also loves "personality" books like Paul Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger's book The Art of SpeedReading People: How to Size People Up and Speak Their Language and David Keirsey's Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence which are both Briggs-Meyers related books. I am already a fan of Paul Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger. Their book Do What You Are was instrumental in helping me discover my Myers-Briggs personality type.  I am adding all of these books to my reading list.

Raina Kropp of San Diego HR Mom recommends an alternative book to Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. She likes Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan. According to Amazon:
In Tribal Leadership, Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright show corporate leaders how to first assess their company’s tribal culture and then raise their companies’ tribes to unprecedented heights of success. In a rigorous eight-year study of approximately 24,000 people in over two dozen corporations, Logan, King, and Fischer-Wright discovered a common theme: the success of a company depends on its tribes, the strength of its tribes is determined by the tribal culture, and a thriving corporate culture can be established by an effective tribal leader. Tribal Leadership will show leaders how to employ their companies’ tribes to maximize productivity and profit: the author’s research, backed up with interviews ranging from Brian France (CEO of NASCAR) to “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams, shows that over three quarters of the organizations they’ve studied have tribal cultures that are adequate at best.
This book would have made an excellent companion read to Tribes.

Have you read any of these books? If so, what were your thoughts? Do you have any recommendations for future Savvy Reader Book Club selections?

Please Note, I am an Amazon Affiliate

12 comments:

  1. I haven't read any of them but it looks there are some interesting books in here! Might have to put a few on the Christmas list!

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  2. That sounds utterly fascinating. Plus you can't really go wrong with a library in the title ;)

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  3. i'm still working on finishing dot complicated. it sits in my bathroom! haha! i was so excited i got a shout out, then felt so guilty i've been slacking on my book reading! onwards and upwards!

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  4. I just finished reading "Confessions of a 'Bad' Teacher." Great book about a man who left publishing to become a teacher. He found out that teachers have been poorly represented and mistreated by both the private sector and their own administration.

    In the past I subbed in the classroom and let me tell you, spending 8 hours a day with 150 kids is no easy task!

    Thanks for dropping by my blog!

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  5. This book sounds great!

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  6. I haven't read any of these. This new selection sounds fascinating though, I can't wait to hear your thoughts.

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  7. Michelle,
    If you end up reading any of these I would love to hear your thoughts.

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  8. Rachel,
    I should finish Josh's book today. Hopefully I will write about it tomorrow. It is very good. I'd probably rate it a 4.

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  9. Catherine,
    I haven't started the book yet either. I have too many others going right now. I will have to push this one into 2014. Some day we should have a major discussion about books.

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  10. Suzanne,
    My 2014 reading goal is going to be about reinvention and mentoring. Confessions of a Bad Teacher sounds like a perfect read.

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  11. Midnight Cowgirl,
    This was a good one. Sometimes the writing dragged a bit, but overall I would recommend.

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  12. Stefanie,
    I am hoping to post my final thoughts this weekend. I really got caught-up with the holidays this year.

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