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Book Club

Here is a list of my favorite books both fiction and non-fiction. I’ve read each book on this list cover to cover. I hope you enjoy some of these books and feel free to add your own to the list.
Fiction

  • Slaughterhouse-Five : Kurt Vonnegut
    • DG Notes: One of the essential reads to turn you into a Kurt Vonnegut fan. Every book by Kurt is worth reading. One of the all time greatest authors in my opinion.
    • Overview: Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we fear most.
    • There are just too many books to list each out here by Kurt that are worth reading. Here are the ones I’ve consumed.
    • Other Must Reads By Kurt:
  • Choke : Chuck Palahniuk
    • DG Notes: Yes there is Fight Club which most people know from the movie (though the book is always better), however, Choke was my first official introduction to Chuck’s work and I fell in love with is work ever since.
    • Overview: Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times. Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be “saved” by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor’s life, go on to send checks to support him. When he’s not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops for action, visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park. His creator, Chuck Palahniuk, is the visionary we need and the satirist we deserve.
    • Other Must Reads by Chuck:
  • Rabbits: Terry Miles
    • Link to purchase: https://amzn.to/39rD6vC
      • DG Notes: Fantastic page turner where Matrix and Ready Player One meet. Lots of dark web and TOR references to make any geek happy. I picked this one up randomly at Target while on vacation and couldn’t put it down. This is a fun read that will keep you entertained.
      • Overview: A deadly underground game might just be altering reality itself in this all-new adventure set in the world of the hit Rabbits podcast.
  • Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy : Douglas Adams
    • DG Notes: This is an essential read for any geek. Very enjoyable as an audiobook format as well. You’ll get lots of memorable quotes from this book and it’s probably in the top 10 of every geeks must read before you die list.
    • Overview: Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last 15 years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.
    • Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide (“A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.”) and a galaxy full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod’s girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; and Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.
    • Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time in between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don’t forget to bring a towel!
  • 1984 : George Orwell
    • DG Notes: Not sure whether we should put this in Fiction or Non-Fiction. It’s one of the all time greats and helps you truly think about the importance of freedom, privacy, and how we must cherish and protect ourselves from Big Brother.
    • Overview: While the totalitarianism that provoked George Orwell into writing ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ seems to be passing into oblivion, his harrowing, cautionary tale of a man trapped in a political nightmare has had the opposite fate, and its relevance and power to disturb our complacency seem to grow decade by decade.
    • Other Must Reads By George:
  • A Game Of Thrones : George R R Martin
    • DG Notes: The books are always better than the movies and A Game Of Thrones is no different. Explore the story further than the HBO series ever could. This is one of the great fantasy novels of all time. I remember wondering how the author could come up with so many twists and turns and found out there are some real historic inspirations here that George used to build his twisting story of characters and deceit. It proves a fantasy story can never be as corrupt as people in real life.
    • Overview: Winter is coming. Such is the stern motto of House Stark, the northernmost of the fiefdoms that owe allegiance to King Robert Baratheon in far-off King’s Landing. There Eddard Stark of Winterfell rules in Robert’s name. There his family dwells in peace and comfort: his proud wife, Catelyn; his sons Robb, Brandon, and Rickon; his daughters Sansa and Arya; and his bastard son, Jon Snow. Far to the north, behind the towering Wall, lie savage Wildings and worse—unnatural things relegated to myth during the centuries-long summer, but proving all too real and all too deadly in the turning of the season.
  • Next: Michael Crichton
    • DG Notes: Michael Crichton is one of the greats. Many of his books end up as movies and the ones that aren’t movies yet will be movies in the future. Michael Crichton graduated from Harvard Medical and his ability to apply real scientific theories with fantasy is incredible and you’ll never stop turning the pages whether it’s this book Next or one of the many popular books like Jurassic Park or Andromeda Strain.
    • Overview: Welcome to our genetic world. Fast, furious, and out of control. This is not the world of the future—it’s the world right now. Is a loved one missing some body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Is everyone at your dinner table of the same species? Humans and chimpanzees differ in only 400 genes; is that why an adult human being resembles a chimp fetus? And should that worry us? There’s a new genetic cure for drug addiction—is it worse than the disease?
  • To Kill a Mockingbird : Harper Lee
    • DG Notes: I remember seeing this book in my parents collection for years but never stopped to read it until decades later. This is one of the books you must read before you die.
    • Overview: A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.
  • The Grapes of Wrath : John Steinbeck
    • DG Notes: A book that will stick with you for the rest of your life. A truly powerful story that is coveted for a good reason. If you’ve never read or listened to this book in audio form, do yourself the favor. I promise you will find yourself stopping just to reflect on the chapters with deep consideration.
    • Overview: Chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America.

Non-Fiction

  • The Art of War : Sun Tzu
    • DG Notes: I find this more enjoyable as an audio book. There are a lot of applications of this book to use as strategy outside of ‘actual’ war. I’ve applied many of these principles in business and leadership over the years.
    • Overview: Regarded as the world’s oldest military treatise, this compact volume has instructed officers and tacticians for more than 2,000 years. From its origins in China, The Art of War traveled the world to inform the strategies of Napoleon and World War II generals. More recently, it has taken on a new life as a guide to competing successfully in business, law, and sports.
  • The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell : Oren Harari
    • DG Notes: One of my all time favorite leadership books of all time.I would rank it as the second most important leadership book I ever read. Frankly, I knew very little of Colin Powell at the time, however, the principle in this book are timeless and helped me create many award winning teams over the years.
    • Overview: Management professor Oren Harari adopts Colin Powell’s rise into the upper ranks of American power as a model for decision makers in the private sector. Harari hails Powell’s character as the essence of a host of supple executive virtues, from defining and defending rational objectives to playing the provocateur against outdated modes of boardroom thinking.”–The Washington Post
  • Nuts!: Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success : Kevin Freiberg , Jackie Freiberg
    • DG Notes: The most important leadership book I’ve ever read. This book changed everything about how I viewed myself in relation to my employees and how I made sure to truly understand the jobs of the individuals who worked for me. The most important leadership book of the century.
    • Overview: Twenty-five years ago, Herb Kelleher reinvented air travel when he founded Southwest Airlines, where the planes are painted like killer whales, a typical company maxim is “Hire people with a sense of humor,” and in-flight meals are never served–just sixty million bags of peanuts a year. By sidestepping “reengineering,” “total quality management,” and other management philosophies and employing its own brand of business success, Kelleher’s airline has turned a profit for twenty-four consecutive years and seen its stock soar 300 percent since 1990.
  • The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World : Douglas Carlton Abrams
    • DG Notes: A truly inspiring book that proves no matter our differences we can still find enough in common with one another to find peace. This book will change you in the best way possible and make your own problems feel approachable once again.
    • Overview: Nobel Peace Prize Laureates His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have survived more than fifty years of exile and the soul-crushing violence of oppression. Despite their hardships—or, as they would say, because of them—they are two of the most joyful people on the planet.
  • Steal Like An Artist : Austin Kleon
    • DG Notes: A book that will change how you view creativity. Those moments when you ask the question ‘how did that person come up with that?’ will be answered with this amazing and inspirational read. Unlock your creativity in an amazing way.
    • Overview: An inspiring guide to creativity in the digital age, Steal Like an Artist presents ten transformative principles that will help readers discover their artistic side and build a more creative life.
  • Speed of Trust : Stephen R Covey
    • DG Notes: I’ve experienced the damage a lack of trust can cause to companies and teams. This is a great book to work through with your own team to help break through the red tape, distrust, and barriers we face in the corporate world.
    • Overview: Why trust? The simple, often overlooked fact is this: work gets done with and through people. The Speed of Trust offers an unprecedented and eminently practical look at exactly how trust functions in every transaction and every relationship—from the most personal to the broadest, most indirect interaction. It specifically demonstrates how to establish trust intentionally so that you and your organization can forego the time-killing, bureaucratic check-and-balance processes that is so often deployed in lieu of actual trust.
  • $30 Writing School : Michael W Dean
    • DG Notes: If you’ve ever wanted to be a writer or just improve your writing, this is one of the greats. Not only is this instructional book fun to read but it will leave you with lessons you’ll use in your writings for the rest of your life.
    • Overview: Are you aspiring to become a writer, but don’t know what it entails, how to approach it, or even where to begin? In compelling-yet-simple terms, this one-of-a-kind book offers the guidance you need to do all that and more. Following the successful and increasingly popular concept of D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself), “$30 Writing School” is designed to get you up and running on the process for organizing, writing, selling and promoting your own books.
  • American Icon : Bryce Hoffman
    • DG Notes: This is an absolutely amazing story of how Alan was able to save Ford from certain disaster. This book seems to hold nothing back regarding all the failures that led to Ford’s near collapse.
    • Overview: At the end of 2008, Ford Motor Company was just months away from running out of cash. With the auto industry careening toward ruin, Congress offered all three Detroit automakers a bailout. General Motors and Chrysler grabbed the taxpayer lifeline, but Ford decided to save itself.
      • Under the leadership of charismatic CEO Alan Mulally, Ford had already put together a bold plan to unify its divided global operations, transform its lackluster product lineup, and overcome a dys­functional culture of infighting, backstabbing, and excuses. It was an extraordinary risk, but it was the only way the Ford family—America’s last great industrial dynasty—could hold on to their company.
  • The Art Of Invisibility : Kevin Mitnick
    • DG Notes: This is an amazing book with lots of great tips and tricks on how to stay invisible on the internet. Well…at least less visible.
    • Overview: Be online without leaving a trace. Your every step online is being tracked and stored, and your identity literally stolen. Big companies and big governments want to know and exploit what you do, and privacy is a luxury few can afford or understand.
  • Leaders Eat Last : Simon Sinek
    • DG Notes: This book helped me to build upon a lesson I learned from a great mentor who instilled the important truth that leadership is about servitude and not about flexing your role. A must read for future and current leaders.
    • Overview: Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled. This is not a crazy, idealized notion. Today, in many successful organizations, great leaders create environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things.
  • Start With Why : Simon Sinek
    • DG Notes: There is a famous TED talk that goes along with this book and is equally inspirational. Learning how to ask the right questions and figure out ‘why’ instead of just knowing ‘what’ a person or business does will help you to create a stronger business and foundation to grow a real culture.
    • Overview: START WITH WHY shows that the leaders who’ve had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way — and it’s the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.
  • Extreme Ownership : Jocko Wilnick
    • DG Notes: Learn from the US Navy Seals how important it is for leaders to take ownership of their decisions, the business, and the actions of their employees. This book is a fantastic lesson in the importance of being a reliable foundation for your team and not making excuses when things are going wrong. When you’re the leader the buck stops with you.
    • Overview: Combat, the most intense and dynamic environment imaginable, teaches the toughest leadership lessons, with absolutely everything at stake. Jocko Willink and Leif Babin learned this reality first-hand on the most violent and dangerous battlefield in Iraq. As leaders of SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser, their mission was one many thought impossible: help U.S. forces secure Ramadi, a violent, insurgent-held city deemed “all but lost.” In gripping, firsthand accounts of heroism, tragic loss, and hard-won victories, they learned that leadership―at every level―is the most important factor in whether a team succeeds or fails.
  • Atomic Habits : James Clear
    • DG Notes: Learning how to formulate better habits is imperative to building a better ‘you’. Learning bad habits is simple and happens without much thought at all, however, building good habits is a mystery to most. This book will help you to unlock that mystery and start forming habits that help your grow into a better version of yourself.
    • Overview: No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving–every day. James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
  • Permanent Record : Edward Snowden
    • DG Notes: Get this book and probably end up on the government watchlist…worth it. This is a fantastic glimpse into the circumstances surrounding the most famous whistleblower of all time. This is a must read for privacy enthusiasts.
    • Overview: Edward Snowden, the man who risked everything to expose the US government’s system of mass surveillance, reveals for the first time the story of his life, including how he helped to build that system and what motivated him to try to bring it down.
  • Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary : Linus Torvalds & David Diamond
    • DG Notes: Learn how it all got started in this amazing must read for any Linux enthusiast. This is a deeper look into Linus Torvalds himself and how he end up creating this revolutionary kernel.
    • Overview: Now, in a narrative that zips along with the speed of e-mail, Torvalds gives a history of his renegade software while candidly revealing the quirky mind of a genius. The result is an engrossing portrayal of a man with a revolutionary vision, who challenges our values and may change our world.
  • No Place to Hide : Glenn Greenwald
    • DG Notes: A great companion to the book Permanent Record told from the side of the reporter who broke it all.
    • Overview: Now for the first time, Greenwald fits all the pieces together, recounting his high-intensity ten-day trip to Hong Kong, examining the broader implications of the surveillance detailed in his reporting for The Guardian, and revealing fresh information on the NSA’s unprecedented abuse of power with never-before-seen documents entrusted to him by Snowden himself.

Books To Read To Kids [Ages 5-8]

  • The Secret Zoo : Bryan Chick
    • DG Notes: This is a fun book to read to your kids between 5-8 years of age. Your kids will be entertained and as a parent you will find yourself enjoying the story as well.
    • Overview: Noah, his sister Megan, and their best friends, Richie and Ella, live next door to the zoo. Megan is the first to notice the puzzling behavior of some of the animals. One day Megan disappears, and her brother and their friends realize it’s up to them to find her. Their only choice is to follow a series of clues and sneak into the zoo. But once inside, they discover there’s much more to the Clarksville City Zoo than they could ever have guessed…
  • Zoey and Sassafras : Asia Citro
    • DG Notes: Another fun series of books. One of my favorites was Monsters and Mold which is the second book in the series. Perfect for kids ages 5-8. A fun book to read at bedtime.
    • Overview: With magical animals, science, mystery, and adventure — the brand new series Zoey and Sassafras has something for everyone! Easy-to-read language and illustrations on nearly every page make this series perfect for a wide range of ages.

Favorite Authors:

  • Kurt Vonnegut
  • Chuck Palahniuk
  • Michael Crichton
  • George Orwell
  • Simon Sinek