“The Celestine Prophecy”   – I am not a new age person, but this fictional book (read in my late 20s – starting my career) helped me visualize human communications.  Just starting my sales career,  learning how to cultivate, grow, read and manage relationships was the most important skill I could learn.  I use what I “learned” in this book every since.  When I argue I “see” better how the conversation is going and how my words have affected the other person.  When I watch others talk I “see”  what they say and can read between the lines so much better.

I also taught me that what you say can never be “taken back”.  I choose my words very carefully and in high stress or emotional situations I am extra-extra careful.  You can never apologize your way out of an insult.  What’s done is done.

In my business you have to have high emotional IQ and I have study many books and theories on the topic.  None have brought me as close to understanding how humans interact better than this book. 

I will never forget the impact this book had on me, the first ah-ha
moment and how I still am surprised at how I relate back to the book
even today.  I did re-read the book and it was still good, but 20 yrs
later not as earth shattering.  I think the lessons learned are so much a
part of me they didn’t seem new, but confirmed.

Not on an emotional level, but yes, I have read books that have made in impact on me. The most recent one was “Millionaire Teacher” by Andrew Hallam. It was very clear, very straight forward, I couldn’t put it down, and by the end of it I switched up all of my retirement savings to model one of his suggested systems. It was one of the best things I’ve ever done for my money.

I totally recommend everyone to read “The Happiness Project”. It affected the way I look at life in a positive way!!! Great feel good book!

“Rien ne s’oppose a la nuit” (“Nothing can resist the night”) by French author Delphine de Vigan, a biography of the author’s mother.
De Vigan starts by picturing the seemingly perfect childhood and life of her mother, and little by little, deconstructs the “picture-perfect” image to reveal a very difficult life story (her mother had a bipolar disorder very lately diagnosed) within a family destroyed by the loss of three children and an overbearing father.
The book is so sad but also full of the love the author had for her mother despite their differences (their relashionship was apparently never easy).
I have to say, I cried almost halfway through the book, but couldn’t put it down before finishing it (I started it a 3pm and only shut the lights off at 5am), for it was so powerful !

The Glass Castle–crazy, eye-opening memoir that made me feel SUPER grateful for everything I have… and reminded me that you never know what someone walking by on the street is going through.

After graduating with degree in
journalism and zero prospects, breaking up with my first real boyfriend
and moving back into my parents’ house, I was in serious need of
inspiration. 

I picked up Eat, Pray, and
Love with much reservation. While I am a huge fan of food and being in
love, I am not strongly tied to my religion. I was raised Catholic, but have
grown to kind of pick and choose the parts of religion that I believe build the
basis for being a good person. Basically, I was not looking to be preached
at.

Elizabeth Gilbert does anything but
preach. Instead, she simply shares her experience, never deeming things right
or wrong. Her personal struggles are used only as a reference to say,
“Hey, this is how I felt and this is what helped me grow.” 

In a time when I honestly believed that
my world was falling apart Eat, Pray, Love made me feel as though I
simply needed to shed the past and shake up the present. 

The night I finished the book, I also
finished a bottle of wine and purchased an airplane ticket to Tanzania. 

It was the best decision I’ve ever made
and I honestly do not know if I would have had the guts to do it if I’d never
read Gilbert’s story.

The hype it received is deserved. If you
haven’t read it—add it to your list. I promise you it will not disappoint.

“Happiness is the consequence of
personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes
even travel around the world looking for it.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

To Kill a Mockingbird, hands down best book. Kite Runner is also a great read. thank you for this topic…many titles to add to my list.

Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver.  I first read it my junior year of high school, and have read it once or twice (sometimes more) a year since.  Every time I go back to it, I relate to a different part of it.  It is a beautiful story about identity, family, and belonging, and the commentary on the politics and society in the United States is also very well done.  This book has impacted me so much that I’m planning on getting a tattoo with a quote from it: “If you want sweet dreams, you have to live a sweet life.”  I cannot recommend this book enough!

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain was really inspiring for me. Our culture sometimes looks at introverts as freaks of nature so I felt like the book validated my way of approaching things. For example, I come up with my best ideas with research and quiet thinking rather than in a group brainstorm. Knowing that amazing ideas such as the first Apple computers were also created this way validated my way of thinking.