Welcome to the 2022 reading list! Instead of doing a separate blog post for each months reading list, I am going to update this blog post every month with the new months book updates. I want to know what y’all are reading and what I can put into my library. I am constantly reading right now and reading a ton of different topics and genres. So, what books should I check out?
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2022 Reading List
~BE STILL 90 DEVOTIONS FOR THE HOPEFUL HEART BY: CLEERE CHERRY | Calming and inspiring devotional reflections for hope and encouragement. I was gifted this devotional book at a time when I really needed it and it has become part of my daily routine. The devotions are relatable and in today’s time.
~THE WALL OF WINNIPEG AND ME BY: MARIANNA ZAPATA | Vanessa Mazur knows she’s doing the right thing. She shouldn’t feel bad for quitting. Being an assistant/housekeeper/fairy godmother to the top defensive end in the National Football Organization was always supposed to be temporary. She has plans and none of them include washing extra-large underwear longer than necessary. But when Aiden Graves shows up at her door wanting her to come back, she’s beyond shocked. For two years, the man known as The Wall of Winnipeg couldn’t even find it in him to tell her good morning or congratulate her on her birthday. Now? He’s asking for the unthinkable. What do you say to the man who is used to getting everything he wants?
~CRUSHING IT! BY: GARY VAYNERCHUK | In Crushing It!, Gary explains why that’s even more true today, offering his unique perspective on what has changed and what principles remain timeless. He also shares stories from other entrepreneurs who have grown wealthier—and not just financially—than they ever imagined possible by following Crush It principles. The secret to their success (and Gary’s) has everything to do with their understanding of the social media platforms, and their willingness to do whatever it took to make these tools work to their utmost potential. That’s what Crushing It! teaches readers to do. In this lively, practical, and inspiring book, Gary dissects every current major social media platform so that anyone, from a plumber to a professional ice skater, will know exactly how to amplify his or her personal brand on each.
~THE MAKING OF A MIRACLE BY: MIKE ERUZIONE | It is the greatest American underdog sports story ever told: how a team of college kids and unsigned amateurs, under the tutelage of legendary coach—and legendary taskmaster—Herb Brooks, beat the elite Soviet hockey team on their way to winning the gold medal at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. No one believed the scrappy Americans had a real shot at winning. Despite being undefeated, the U.S.—the youngest team in the competition—were facing off against the four-time defending gold medalist Russians. But the Americans’ irrepressible optimism, skill, and fearless attitude helped them outplay the seasoned Soviet team and deliver their iconic win. As captain, Mike Eruzione led his team on the ice on that Friday, February 22, 1980. But beating the U.S.S.R was only one of the numerous challenges Mike has faced in his life. In this inspiring memoir, he recounts the obstacles he has overcome, from his blue-collar upbringing in Winthrop, Massachusetts, to his battle to make the Boston University squad; his challenges in the minor leagues and international tournaments to his selection to the U.S. team and their run for gold. He also talks about the aftermath of that stupendous win that inspired and united the nation at a time of crisis in its history.
~THE BROKEN ONE BY: BRITTANY SAHIN | Growing up on a ranch with four older brothers, Ella Mae Hawkins is no stranger to rugged and tough men. But her heart has always belonged to the one man she can’t have. After a secret romantic weekend three years ago with him leaves her broken-hearted, Ella Mae accepts an opportunity to go to Paris and pursue her fashion dreams. It’s supposed to be her chance to get away and start over. Instead, she’s going there with the same stubborn man who claimed he was too dangerous for her—as his fake wife. Jesse McAdams, a former Army Ranger, has spent half his life away from his small hometown, but one thing has always remained true: one woman owns his heart. The problem? She can never know how he really feels. Joining the team at Falcon Falls Security was supposed to bring the redemption he needs so he can finally be the man Ella Mae deserves. Instead, the fabric of lies he’s woven over time quickly unravels, exposing his secrets, and places a target on the heads of everyone he cares about. Despite her shock over his past, Ella Mae finds herself falling for her brother’s best friend all over again. But this time, the stakes are higher. This time she’s in danger. And the man who put her there is now her husband.
~REVERIE BY: SHAIN ROSE | Vick Rude. Harsh. Severe. Jett Stonewood. The billionaire businessman refuses to crack a smile while vacationing in paradise. So, I work to introduce some fun into his life. If we have a bit too much by sleeping together, so be it. It’s not a big deal. We just need to forget each other when we fly back home. The problem: Jett acquires my company. He’s everywhere now, telling me where I should sit in his office, how I should dress, and even who I should date. He may be my boss, but I’m not listening. I’m done with him. I just have to convince my body of that. Jett Bubbly. Airy. Overly optimistic. Vick Blakely. She needs a lesson in safety precautions. Not that she’d follow it if our recent tumble in the sheets is any indication. Doesn’t she know that warnings aren’t meant to be invitations? Someone needs to enlighten her that you can’t keep tempting fate or it will backfire. The solution: I acquire her company. The little pixie flutters around in reverie, lost in her own daydreams. But she’s in for a rude awakening. She works for me now, and I excel at dragging people back to reality.
~VAGABONDING BY: ROLF POTTS | There’s nothing like vagabonding: taking time off from your normal life—from six weeks to four months to two years—to discover and experience the world on your own terms. In this one-of-a-kind handbook, veteran travel writer Rolf Potts explains how anyone armed with an independent spirit can achieve the dream of extended overseas travel. Now completely revised and updated, Vagabonding is an accessible and inspiring guide to: financing your travel time, determining your destination, adjusting to life on the road, working and volunteering overseas, handling travel adversity, and re-assimilating back into ordinary life.
~AT FIRST SIGHT BY: NICHOLAS SPARKS | There are a few things Jeremy Marsh was sure he’d never do: he’d never leave New York City; never give his heart away again after barely surviving one failed marriage; and, most of all, never become a parent. Now, Jeremy is living in the tiny town of Boone Creek, North Carolina, married to Lexie Darnell, the love of his life, and anticipating the birth of their daughter. But just as his life seems to be settling into a blissful pattern, an unsettling and mysterious message re-opens old wounds and sets off a chain of events that will forever change the course of this young couple’s marriage. Dramatic, heartbreaking and surprising, this is a story about the love between a man and a woman and between a parent and a child. More than that, it is a story that beautifully portrays how the same emotion that can break your heart is also the one that will ultimately heal it.
~HENDRIX BY: KELSEY CLAYTON | I’m Colby Hendrix. Football Legend. Notorious Playboy. Sarcasm Extraordinaire. I had everything you could ever want. The career some would die for, the friends that always have my back, and an unmatched level of charm. I never planned on settling down. There wasn’t ever a reason to. Or at least that’s what I thought, until she came barreling back into my life. With long brown hair and hazel eyes, she has the ability to disarm me with a single look. And the little girl attached to her side? She’s the shock I never knew I wanted. The biggest mistake of my life. The only woman I’ve ever loved. If she were to say the words, I might just give up everything for her.
~THE SCHOOL OF GREATNESS BY: LEWIS HOWES | In The School of Greatness, Howes shares the essential tips and habits he gathered in interviewing “the greats” on his wildly popular podcast of the same name. In discussion with people like Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson and Pencils of Promise CEO Adam Braun, Howes figured out that greatness is unearthed and cultivated from within. The masters of greatness are not successful because they got lucky or are innately more talented, but because they applied specific habits and tools to embrace and overcome adversity in their lives. A framework for personal development, The School of Greatness gives you the tools, knowledge, and actionable resources you need to reach your potential. Howes anchors each chapter with a specific lesson he culled from his greatness “professors” and his own experiences to teach you how to create a vision, develop hustle, and use dedication, mindfulness, joy, and love to reach goals. His lessons and practical exercises prove that anyone is capable of achieving success and that we can all strive for greatness in our everyday lives.
~MAKE NO SMALL PLANS BY: ELLIOTT BISNOW, BRETT LEVE, JEFF ROSENTHAL, JEREMY SCHWARTZ | In 2008, with no event production experience and two college degrees between the four of them, Elliott Bisnow, Brett Leve, Jeff Rosenthal, and Jeremy Schwartz became business partners and set out to build a global events company. With passion and tenacity, they began cold calling as many inspiring company founders as they could and tried to convince them to attend their first event. In the beginning, only nineteen people said yes. Since then, they have grown Summit into a global community with events all over the world, hosting luminaries including Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Shonda Rhimes, Brené Brown, Kendrick Lamar, and Al Gore. In 2013, the Summit founders—with help from their behind-the-scenes co-founder and partner Ryan Begelman—acquired Powder Mountain, the largest ski resort in the United States, with a dream of building a mountaintop town of the future. In Make No Small Plans, they reveal the triumphs, mistakes, and cornerstone lessons from their journey, which began during the Great Recession and continues today. Alongside teachings from some of the most inspiring entrepreneurs of our time.
~EMBRACE YOUR ALMOST BY: JORDAN LEE DOLEY | Jordan Lee Dooley knows firsthand how frustrating it can be when you almost achieve a goal, almost reach a dream, and almost get to where you want to be, only to land just short of the finish line or watch it all fall apart at the last minute. Unmet expectations have a way of making us rethink everything. But perhaps rethinking dreams is not always the worst thing. Why? Because it’s in those moments, when you’re not where you expected to be, that you have a chance to pause and consider what matters most to you as well as redefine what success looks like for you in a world that’s constantly telling you what you should want or should do. Believe it or not, it is possible to cultivate a life you really like—and one where you can succeed—in the tension of the middle, between where you started and where you hoped to be. Life is filled with unmet expectations, disrupted dreams, uncertainty, and in-between seasons. As hard as those experiences may be, they also offer a unique invitation to align your dreams and goals with what matters most. Learn how you can gain greater clarity about what you truly want, why you want it, and how to begin pursuing it.
~GOOD TO GREAT BY: JIM COLLINS | Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great? Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world’s greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.
~BRIGHTER BY THE DAY BY: ROBIN ROBERTS | Over the last 16 years as the esteemed anchor of Good Morning America, Robin Roberts has helped millions of people across the country greet each new morning, gracing our screens with heart and humility. She has sought to bring a bit of positivity into each day, even in the most trying of times. Now, she shares with readers the inspirational stories, quotes, and memories that have helped her find the good in the world and usher in light—even on the darkest days. With words of encouragement found in history, prayers, conversations with loved ones, literature, psalms, and speeches that reach out across the national divide, Robin offers a window into how she feeds her own mind, spirit, and soul and invites readers to do the same. With a deeply personal touch, she explains why these passages have had a profound impact on her and how we can shift our mindsets and give ourselves permission to let our best intentions take root and be true. Full of wisdom and insight and beautifully designed, this collection of carefully curated quotes will be a breath of fresh air for daily reflection.
~TASTE BY: STANLEY TUCCI | Stanley Tucci grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the kitchen table. He shared the magic of those meals with us in The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table, and now he takes us beyond the savory recipes and into the compelling stories behind them.Taste is a reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about his growing up in Westchester, New York; preparing for and shooting the foodie films Big Night and Julie & Julia; falling in love over dinner, and teaming up with his wife to create meals for a multitude of children. Each morsel of this gastronomic journey through good times and bad, five-star meals and burned dishes, is as heartfelt and delicious as the last. Written with Stanley’s signature wry humor, Taste is for fans of Bill Buford, Gabrielle Hamilton, and Ruth Reichl—and anyone who knows the power of a home-cooked meal.
~I GUESS I HAVEN’T LEARNED THAT YET BY: SHAUNA NIEQUIST | Just after her fortieth birthday, New York Times bestselling author Shauna Niequist found herself in a season of chaos, change, and loss, unlike anything she’d ever experienced. She discovered that many of the beliefs and practices that had been useful up to that point no longer worked. After trying–and failing–to pull herself back up using the same old tools, she realized she required new ones: courage, curiosity, compassion, and self-compassion. She discovered the way through was more about questions than answers, more about forgiveness than force, more about tenderness than trying hard. I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet is a journey of both unlearning what is no longer helpful, embracing curiosity, and accepting the unknowns of midlife, heartbreak, and chronic pain. Niequist writes with characteristic candor and grace about the challenges and delights of a move from the Midwest to Manhattan, and also the challenges and delights of releasing our expectations for how we thought our lives would look.
~FIND YOUR PEOPLE BY: JENNIE ALLEN | In a world that’s both more connected and more isolating than ever before, we’re often tempted to do life alone, whether because we’re so busy or because relationships feel risky and hard. But science confirms that consistent, meaningful connection with others has a powerful impact on our well-being. We are meant to live known and loved. But so many are hiding behind emotional walls that we’re experiencing an epidemic of loneliness. You were created to play, engage, adventure, and explore—with others. In Find Your People, you’ll discover exactly how to dive into the deep end and experience the full wonder of community. Because while the ache of loneliness is real, it doesn’t have to be your reality.
~FOREVER AFTER ALL BY: CATHARINA MAURA | Desperate and out of options, Elena Rousseau walks into a gentlemen’s club, ready to sell her body in a last attempt to save her mother’s life. She didn’t expect Alexander Kennedy to be there, and she certainly didn’t expect him to propose a marriage of convenience instead. Marrying Alexander means knowingly becoming a tool in his revenge plan. But what choice does she have? Better the devil you know than the one you don’t.
~STRENGTHSFINDER 2.0 BY: GALLUP | Do you have an opportunity to use your strengths every day? Chances are, you don’t. All too often, our natural talents go untapped. From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths. Gallup unveiled a new and improved version of its popular assessment — StrengthsFinder 2.0 — language of 34 themes and much more. While you can read this book in one sitting, you’ll use it as a reference for decades. Loaded with hundreds of strategies for applying your strengths, this book will change the way you look at yourself — and the world around you — forever.
~BUILDING A STORYBRAND BY: DONALD MILLER | If you use the wrong words to talk about your product, nobody will buy it. Marketers and business owners struggle to effectively connect with their customers, costing them and their companies millions in lost revenue. In a world filled with constant, on-demand distractions, it has become near-impossible for business owners to effectively cut through the noise to reach their customers, something Donald Miller knows first-hand. In this book, he shares the proven system he has created to help you engage and truly influence customers. The StoryBrand process is a proven solution to the struggle business leaders face when talking about their companies. Without a clear, distinct message, customers will not understand what you can do for them and are unwilling to engage, causing you to lose potential sales, opportunities for customer engagement, and much more.
~365 DAYS BY: BLANKA LIPINSKA | Laura Biel and her boyfriend are on a dream vacation in beautiful Sicily. On the second day of their trip, her twenty-ninth birthday, she is kidnapped. Her kidnapper is none other than the head of a powerful Sicilian crime family, the incredibly handsome, young Don Massimo Torricelli, who is determined to possess her at all costs. Massimo has his reasons. During an earlier attempt on his life, a vision appeared before his eyes: a beautiful woman, identical to Laura. After surviving the attack, he vows that he will find the woman in his vision and make her his own. No matter what. For 365 days, Massimo will keep Laura captive in his palatial estate and attempt to win her heart. If she doesn’t fall in love with him during this time, he will let her go. But if she tries to escape at any point, he will track her down and kill her entire family. Soon Laura develops a fascination with her handsome and powerful captor. But as a precarious, risky relationship forms between them, forces outside their control threaten to tear them apart.
~RUNNING WITH PURPOSE BY: JIM WEBER | Discover how Brooks Running Company CEO Jim Weber transformed a failing business into a billion-dollar brand in the ultra-competitive global running market. Running with Purpose is a leadership memoir with insights, inspirational stories, and tangible takeaways for current and aspiring leaders, entrepreneurs, and the 150+ million runners worldwide and those in the broader running community who continually invest in themselves. This leadership memoir starts with Jim Weber’s seventh-grade dream to run a successful company that delivered something people passionately valued. Fast forward to 2001, Jim became the CEO of Brooks and, as the struggling brand’s fourth CEO in two years, he faced strong headwinds. A lifelong competitor, Jim devised a one-page strategy that he believed would not only save the company but would also lay the foundation for Brooks to become a leading brand in the athletic, fitness, and outdoor categories. To succeed, he had to get his team to first believe it was possible and then employ the conviction, fortitude, and constancy of purpose to outperform larger brands. Brooks’ success was validated when Warren Buffett made it a standalone Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary in 2012.
~LIKING MYSELF BACK BY: JACEY DUPRIE | Entrepreneur and lifestyle influencer Jacey Duprie shares her inspiring journey of going from farm girl to fashion icon and her lessons about personal growth and self-made success. With millions of followers and a thriving lifestyle brand, Damsel in Dior, Jacey Duprie is one of today’s top fashion influencers. Her beautiful Instagram photos capture a life of glamour, luxury, and elegance. But Jacey’s life offline has been far from perfect. In this candid memoir, Jacey reveals that behind her gorgeously curated photos was a woman struggling with deep insecurities. She shares intimate details of a difficult childhood growing up in rural Texas with an alcoholic father and her own battles with PTSD and mental health. Through resilience, hard work, and self-reflection, Jacey eventually triumphed to become the strong, empowered woman she is today.
What have y’all been reading lately? As always, thank y’all for stopping by and reading. I will see y’all back here next time.
