Books on My Holiday Wish List

If you know me, or have been reading this blog for awhile, I’m sure it comes as no surprise that my holiday wish list is filled with books. (There are also many coffee-related products, but I digress.) People ask me all the time what I’m reading, so I thought it might be fun to share a few books from my wish list. Note that not all of these are new releases. (I hope someone tells my husband to check out this blog!)

The Art of Slow Writing: Reflections on Time, Craft, and Creativity

Louise DeSalvo

From Amazon: The Art of Slow Writing is the antidote to self-help books that preach the idea of fast-writing, finishing a novel a year, and quick revisions. DeSalvo makes a case that more mature writing often develops over a longer period of time and offers tips and techniques to train the creative process in this new experience.

I think this book might be suited more toward fiction writers (which I am not!), but an editor friend recommended it so highly that I want to read it.

Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges

Amy Cuddy

From Amazon: By accessing our personal power, we can achieve "presence," the state in which we stop worrying about the impression we're making on others and instead adjust the impression we've been making on ourselves.

I’ve been a wee-bit Amy Cuddy obsessed since seeing her TED Talk. (Power poses, anyone?) I cannot wait to get my hands on this book and soak in every word. Calm is something I’m working hard to achieve as my business grows quickly — a good problem to have, I realize.

Born to Run

Bruce Springsteen

From Amazon: Born to Run will be revelatory for anyone who has ever enjoyed Bruce Springsteen, but this book is much more than a legendary rock star’s memoir. This is a book for workers and dreamers, parents and children, lovers and loners, artists, freaks, or anyone who has ever wanted to be baptized in the holy river of rock and roll.

I get it: You love Bruce, or you don’t. I happen to love him. I’ve seen him in concert 19 times and can’t wait to go again. His lyrics soothe me, and I hope the same is true of this book!

Small Great Things

Jodi Picoult

From Amazon: With incredible empathy, intelligence, and candor, Jodi Picoult tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassion—and doesn’t offer easy answers. Small Great Things is a remarkable achievement from a writer at the top of her game.

Jodi Picoult has been one of my favorite fiction writers. She takes research seriously, and it shows in her writing, and she tackles social issues in her books, which I love. I haven’t read one of her books in a few years, so I’m curious if this book is as good as her others were for me.

The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed Our Minds

Michael Lewis

From Amazon: The Undoing Project is about a compelling collaboration between two men who have the dimensions of great literary figures. They became heroes in the university and on the battlefield―both had important careers in the Israeli military―and their research was deeply linked to their extraordinary life experiences. Amos Tversky was a brilliant, self-confident warrior and extrovert, the center of rapt attention in any room; Kahneman, a fugitive from the Nazis in his childhood, was an introvert whose questing self-doubt was the seedbed of his ideas. They became one of the greatest partnerships in the history of science, working together so closely that they couldn’t remember whose brain originated which ideas, or who should claim credit. They flipped a coin to decide the lead authorship on the first paper they wrote, and simply alternated thereafter.

I love, love, love Michael Lewis and his writing. I will read just about anything he writes, even if it’s a topic I might generally not be interested in. Can’t wait to dig into this one.

Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter

Kate Clifford Lawson

From Amazon: In Rosemary, Kate Clifford Larson uses newly uncovered sources to bring Rosemary Kennedy’s story to light. Young Rosemary comes alive as a sweet, lively girl adored by her siblings. But Larson also reveals the often desperate and duplicitous arrangements the Kennedys made to keep her away from home as she became increasingly difficult in her early twenties, culminating in Joe’s decision to have Rosemary lobotomized at age twenty-three and the family’s complicity in keeping the secret.

Why am I so obsessed with the Kennedys? I don’t know, but I sure am. It boggles my mind that Rosemary was treated the way she was — by her own father, no less.

As you can see, my reading taste is all over the place. What books are on your holiday wish list? Let me know in the comments. I’m always looking for book recommendations!