2019 Reading List

Fire Woman: the extraordinary story of Britain's first female firefighter
(Josephine Reynolds)

Josephine Reynolds (Jo) signed up to the Fire Brigade in 1981, as the first ever female firefighter. In order to be accepted by the men who risked their lives alongside her, she had to become one of them - whether this meant crawling on hands and knees through rat-infested sewage tunnels, or downing pints with the boys after a shift.  In the end though, she stayed through to herself. A truly remarkable story on not caring too much about what others think, and pursuing one's own path regardless. 
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Vouloir toucher les étoiles
(Mike Horn)

Mike Horn became famous in 2001 after completing a one-year, 6-month solo journey around the equator without any motorised transport. In 2004 he completed a two-year, 3-month solo circumnavigation of the Arctic Circle, and in 2006 along with Norwegian explorer Børge Ousland, became the first men to travel without dog or motorised transport to the North Pole during winter, in permanent darkness. It starts as a crazy challenge: four 8000m climbs in the Himalayas, one after the other, with 3 mountain climbing friends. No oxygen, no ropes, in the purest form of alpine life and trekking, using only the force of will. Mike talks about how, to touch the stars, one has to keep one' s feet firmly on the ground. He talks about how one only climbs the mountain of life one time - how we must not become imprisoned, rather how we must embrace who we are and live our dreams. A truly inspirational book, on how to live life to the full. (In loving memory of Loic Vergote).

Journal Article: Breaking Bias Updated: The SEEDS Model
(Matthew D Lieberman, David Rock, Heidi Grant Halvorson and Christine Cox)

The central challenge in removing bias from decisions is that most biases operate unconsciously. This paper proposes an alternative solution to mitigating bias, derived from a brain-based perspective. It identifies processes that can interrupt and redirect unconsciously biased thinking. It provides the SEEDS Model ® for designing and guiding the use of such processes.


Your brain at work
(David Rock)

Your Brain At Work helps you overcome the daily challenges that take away your brain power, like constant email and interruption madness, high levels of stress, lack of control and high expectations, by showing you what goes on inside your head and giving you new approaches to control it better.

Now You See Me: Lesbian Life Stories with Jane Traies

Now You See Me is a collection of powerful personal accounts which bring to light previously undocumented lesbian lives. Jane Traies has been recording the life histories of older women who identify as lesbian for nearly a decade and the narratives in Now You See Me are drawn from this archive of ‘hidden histories’. The stories are told in the women’s own words and vividly recreate a time when being lesbian meant either hiding your true identity or paying the price for breaking society’s rules. The personal is still political in this moving and inspiring book.

Developing Resilience: A cognitive behavioural approach
(M. Neenan)

Some individuals emerge from grim experiences stronger in mind and spirit than others who suffered the same fate. In this book, Michael Neenan suggests that it is the meanings that we attach to events, and not the events themselves, that determine our reactions to them; this is why different people can react to the same event in a variety of ways. Developing Resilience shows how people can find constructive ways of dealing with their difficulties by using the techniques of cognitive behaviour therapy as well as listening to the wisdom of those who have prevailed over adversity. This book provides useful guidance and advice on topics including:

• managing negative emotions
• distinguishing between what is within and outside of your control
• learning from past experiences
• developing self-belief
• increasing your level of frustration tolerance
• maintaining a resilient outlook.

This book will be essential for anyone trying to find constructive ways forward in difficult times, as well as counsellors, coaches and therapists looking for guidance in helping their clients.

Be bulletproof: how to achieve success in tough times at work 
(J. Brooke, S. Brooke)

This is the essential guide for anyone looking to get ahead in the warzone that is often the workplace. However good you are, there are always times you come under fire at work. But how do you turn a crisis into an opportunity, and make yourself bulletproof? In Be Bulletproof, business trainers James and Simon Brooke reveal the top practical solutions for strengthening your resilience – so you can bounce back from every setback, rejection or criticism. You’ll learn to be confident, positive and self-assured in the face of any office adversity.

Follow your heart: finding purpose in your life and work
(A. Matthews)

Follow Your Heart is about doing what you love and finding peace of mind. It is about dealing with disasters and not blaming your mother! It is about how happy people think, why rich people make money - even by accident - and it's about what losers do, and how not to be like them! Easy-to-read and illustrated with Andrew Matthews' famous cartoons.

The solutions focus: making coaching and change simple
(M. McKergow, P.Z. Jackson)

This is a new and updated edition of this acclaimed first business book on the powerful, simple yet subtle approach to positive change in people, teams and organisations. Used around the world by a wide range of people, professions and organisations, the first edition has now sold nearly 10,000 copies and been translated into 7 languages.
Including new chapters reflecting the increasing importance of coaching and the solutions focus movement in the business environment, this wide-ranging book is filled with all the most important ideas, case examples and practical tips for managers, facilitators and consultants. Proven in many fields and with a distinguished intellectual heritage, "The Solutions Focus" provides a simple and direct route to progress in your organisation. It focuses on: solutions - not problems; in between: the action is in the interaction; make use of what's there; possibilities - past, present and future; and language. Every case is different.
The trouble with traditional approaches to people problems is that they assume a straightforward relationship between cause and effect, between a problem and its solution. A solutions-focused approach sidesteps the search for the causes of a problem and heads straight for the solution, showing you how to envisage your preferred future and quickly takes steps forward.
The authors present a set of practical techniques, including specific forms of questioning that lead to immediate action and results. They show how to identify what is working in your organisation and amplify it to make useful changes; to focus on what is possible rather than what is intractable and how to be solution focused, not solution forced.

Maybe you should talk to someone
(L. Gottlieb)

​One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose of­fice she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.

As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients' lives -- a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can't stop hooking up with the wrong guys -- she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell.

With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is rev­olutionary in its candor, offering a deeply per­sonal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly reveal­ing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.

Turn the ship around
(L. David Marquet)
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Captain David Marquet was used to giving orders. In the high-stress environment of the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine, it was crucial his men did their job well. But the ship was dogged by poor morale, poor performance and the worst retention in the fleet. One day, Marquet unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway. He realized he was leading in a culture of followers, and they were all in danger unless they fundamentally changed the way they did things. Marquet took matters into his own hands and pushed for leadership at every level. Before long, his crew became fully engaged and the Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst t first in the fleet. No matter your business or position, you can apply Marquet's approach to create a workplace where everyone takes responsibility for their actions, people are healthier and happier - and everyone is a leader.

Grit
(A. Duckworth)

In this instant New York Times bestseller, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows anyone striving to succeed--be it parents, students, educators, athletes, or business people--that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a special blend of passion and persistence she calls "grit." Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently noted her lack of "genius," Duckworth, now a celebrated researcher and professor, describes her early eye-opening stints in teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not "genius" but a unique combination of passion and long-term perseverance. In Grit, she takes readers into the field to visit cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, teachers working in some of the toughest schools, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she's learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers--from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll.
​Among Grit's most valuable insights:
*Why any effort you make ultimately counts twice toward your goal
*How grit can be learned, regardless of I.Q. or circumstances
*How lifelong interest is triggered
*How much of optimal practice is suffering and how much ecstasy
*Which is better for your child--a warm embrace or high standards
*The magic of the Hard Thing Rule
Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that--not talent or luck--makes all the difference.

The entrepreneur's A to Z
(L. Black)

Liam says about his book: "Worry – and its pernicious first cousin, self-doubt – have been long-time companions of mine. You are in unknown territory and so your mind will play tricks on you. A big cog in my anxiety generator has been the habit of comparing myself with others perceived as more successful, creative, happier, productive famous. Try not to do this. Everyone’s success is unique.”

Dreams from my Father
(B. Obama)

This book covers Obama's childhood, studies and early years of work in Hawaii and Chicago,  up until his entry into law school in 1988 where he meet his wife. He published the memoir in July 1995, when he was starting his political campaign. A mixed race child, Obama's Parents divorced when he was 2 years old and he was to meet his Father only once more before his death, when he was 10 years old.  Obama formed an image of his absent father from stories told by his mother and her parents. After her divorce, his mother married a Javanese surveyor from Indonesia who was a graduate student in Hawaii. The family moved to Jakarta. When Obama was ten, he returned to Hawaii under the care of his maternal grandparents (and later his mother) for the better educational opportunities available there. Obama writes: "For my grandparents, my admission into Punahou Academy (a private school) heralded the start of something grand, an elevation in the family status that they took great pains to let everyone know." The book recounts Obama's discovery of religion, his journey to Kenya to find his roots and meet his step-siblings and his personal experiences with race and race relations in the United States.

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Summaries from Kindle Books.