With summer finally here, we have launched our #sbalibrary campaign on Twitter to inspire the B.C. business community to kick back and enjoy the nice weather while checking out a great read. Every day until the end of August we will be tweeting out a business book recommendation from either one of the great libraries in British Columbia or one of our followers. To get involved, tweet your book recommendations using the hashtag #sbalibrary and we will share your favourites with our Twitter community.
To add to our list of summer reads we have enlisted the help of a UBC colleague, Irena Trebic, who is one of our Business Reference Librarians at David Lam Research Management Library. Below is her list of 10 business books to read this summer. All titles are available through the David Lam Research Management Library and even if you're not a current UBC student, staff or faculty member you can check-out books from our UBC library collection. Learn more about the various UBC Library card types or check with your local library to see if you can locate copies in your area. And for more information from the David Lam Research Management Library, visit the David Lam blog.
1. Getting Organized in the Google Era : How to Stay Efficient, Productive (and Sane) in an Information-Saturated World by Douglas C. Merrill
Learn about organization from former Google CIO Douglas C. Merrill. Merrill draws on his intimate knowledge of how the brain works to help us develop fresh, innovative, and flexible systems of organization tailored to our individual goals, constraints, and lifestyles.
2. Leading the Life You Want : Skills for Integrating Work and Life by Stewart D. Friedman
Friedman, a Wharton professor, identifies the critical skills for integrating work and the rest of life. He illustrates them through compelling and original stories of six remarkable leaders.
3. Lean in : Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg examines why women's progress in achieving leadership roles has stalled, explains the root causes, and offers compelling, common-sense solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential.
4. Mindful Work : How Meditation is Changing Business From the Inside Out by David Gelles
For the past few years, mindfulness has begun to transform the American workplace. Many of our largest companies, such as General Mills, Ford, Target, and Google, have built extensive programs to foster mindful practices among their workers. Research shows that meditation may be the key to fostering a happier, more productive workplace.
5. No One Understands You and What to do About It by Heidi Grant Halvorson
This book explains why we’re often misunderstood and how we can fix that. The books shines light on the lenses that shape perception including trust, power, and ego.
6. Peer Power : Transforming Workplace Relationships by Cynthia Clay and Ray Olitt
This book provides the keys to effective interpersonal collaboration focusing on four principles: Be Real, Extend Respect, Take Responsibility, and Build Relationships. Learn how to apply five strategies: Collaborating, Going Head-to-Head, Compromising, Coaching, and Caring-for-Self at the moment of need.
7. Singletasking : Get More Done--One Thing at a Time by Devora Zack
This book provides neuroscientific evidence to prove that you really can't do more by trying to tackle several things at once. There is a better way to deal with all the information and interruptions that bombard us today. Singletasking explains exactly how to clear and calm your mind, arrange your schedule and environment, and gently manage the expectations of people around you.
8. Social Intelligence : The New Science of Success by Karl Albrecht
Karl Albrecht defines social intelligence (SI) as the ability to get along well with others while winning their cooperation. This book is filled with intriguing concepts, enlightening examples, stories, cases, situational strategies, and a self-assessment tool – all designed to help you learn to navigate social situations more successfully.
9. Steal Like an Artist : 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon
A guide to creativity in the digital age, this book presents ten transformative principles to help readers discover their artistic side and build a more creative life. The author’s message is that you don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself.
10. This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement by Sarah van Gelder
The first book on the movement that has changed the political landscape. It features contributions from veteran progressive observers and Occupy activists. There are chapters by Naomi Klein (a speech she gave at Occupy Wall Street), Ralph Nader, David Korten, and Rebecca Solnit, among others.