Books like No Excuses — picked by fans

By giving up screens one day a week for over a decade, Internet pioneer and renowned filmmaker Tiffany Shlain and her family have gained more time, productivity, connection, and presence.

I have always found connection with Tiffany’s films and writing because of our mutual interest in the impact of technology on our culture and people’s lives. With humor and wisdom, Shlain showed me how the ritual of unplugging from the screen one day a week, which is based on the ancient Jewish ritual of Shabbat, can help you feel more calm and connected to people in your life. 

Why are women still struggling for equality in every area of society, from wages to leadership, and why are so many women allowing men to control their finances? How did we get here – especially when women own over half of the investible assets in the U.S.? Cindy Couyoumjian gives us a sweeping picture of women, money, and power in her new book and shows how women taking charge of their personal and economic power and directing their own financial future will revolutionize the world. Whether you know your way around investments or don’t even try to balance your checkbook, you’ll enjoy reading this book. It will open your eyes to the way you think about money and inspire you to change your financial future.

Guess what? Your abilities matter and according to Linda Rendleman simply taking a few minutes to recognize and utilize them positions you to be part of the change and spread positivity in the world. Linda takes time in this third book in the Women Like Us series to share the stories of some well-known and not-so-well-known women who are coming together with their own voices to speak up for more vulnerable women, linking arms with compassion and connection. Most importantly, she shares how you can also be a part of the change in your own way. When we hear one another’s stories, we are inspired to learn more and support each other. I couldn’t agree with her more.

Judy Hoberman is a fantastic leader, with the goal to help one woman a day. The meaning behind her latest title, Walking on the Glass Floor, is once women have crashed through the glass ceiling, they are walking on the glass floor and have a responsibility to help other women do the same. So how does she do that? She listens and pays attention to what they say. In this book you will learn to cultivate and strengthen key skills to serve you in business and life, uncover hidden qualities to help you lead and succeed, and harness universal leadership qualities to reach your full potential. Bottom line, this is a game-changer, and you’ll find it invaluable no matter where you are in your professional journey. 

I read this in 2021, just after I launched my advisory, when I started noticing power dynamics in rooms I had never been in before and wanted to understand them.

I read Greene as describing the world, not recommending it. Most people never consciously learn any of this; they have copied behaviours that seem to work, a bit like a cargo cult.

Law ten, avoid the unhappy and the unlucky, still makes me deeply uncomfortable, and I think it only holds if you are a zealot. I recommend it not so anyone can run these plays, but so they can recognise the world around them when someone else does.

This book is bingeable and mind-bending, thanks to the playful, straightforward nonfiction style of an author possibly most famous for arguing with Cunk on Earth’s Philomena Cunk about the right to bear arms (and whether bears have arms).

Based on more than 500 interviews with those who have—or had—power to wield, the book prodded my assumptions around whether tyrants are born or built, how I might help avoid empowering them, and whether I, myself, might be tyrannical if handed the scepter.

In diving into this book, I couldn't help but draw parallels between Maxwell's teachings and our foundational principles of Organizational Behavior Management (OBM). Although Maxwell isn't exactly a card-carrying behavior scientist, his wisdom on topics like vision, influence, and commitment resonates deeply with OBM practices I've come to advocate for.

He's revamped the book with modern examples, making it all the more relevant in today's business world. Yet, the core truths—those unshakeable leadership tenets—remain. Through my lens, blending Maxwell's insights with OBM's evidence-based strategies can empower anyone navigating the complex world of leadership.

This isn't just another leadership book; it's a bridge between traditional leadership wisdom and the pragmatic, results-driven approach of OBM. Highly recommended for those with a passion for melding theory with real-world solutions.

If you’ve never thought of “intersectional feminism” or “the gender binary” as essentially data-scientific terms, please allow this book to correct that. Data science is a locus of power, and that power can be wielded in the service of oppression or liberation. This book raises essential questions about the predominantly white, male, technocratic interests served by the traditional narratives of data analysis and what feminism and data science have to offer each other. Bottom line: the data doesn’t speak for itself, never has, and never will.

Power in Organizations changed my life. This book was required reading for me in grad school. What I learned from this book is that there is office politics in every organization and that the company I was working for had way more politics than any one person should have to handle. Upon completion of this book (and grad school), I quit my job and traveled around the world, where it took me a year to recover from the politics that was going on all around me. I wish I read this book before I entered management. I’m sure I would have been better prepared to manage the people above me, as well as my peers.

In this meticulously researched book, Farrell and Newman explore how the U.S. has reshaped the global economic system, using financial networks, supply chains, and digital infrastructure as instruments of geopolitical influence.

The book does a good job at highlighting the ways in which global systems are manipulated to serve strategic ends, often with profound implications for sovereignty and dignity.

I recommend this book because it provides a compelling look at how economic interdependence—a cornerstone of global cooperation—has become a subtle yet powerful mechanism for exerting influence and control. It echoes my long-held conviction that the complex web of global relationships is a dynamic arena for power struggles, where economic dependencies can be weaponised to serve political interests and strategic dominance.