Here are 100 books that You Are a Badass fans have personally recommended if you like
You Are a Badass.
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I was born into a family and community of hardworking, service-oriented people with attraction to abundance, entertaining friends, and giving gifts. To earn money, I started selling gift wrap and greeting cards around eight years old, babysitting most of the kids in my small Iowa town at some point, and working summers in the fields at age 12.
As my career unfolded, I had a great seat at the table in multinational corporations, global business teams, private-equity-sponsored growth companies, and a disruptive innovation venture. My effectiveness as a colleague and a leader has been dramatically enhanced by the stories great writers share, and I only hope someone else is helped by the stories I’ve captured in Love Works.
This book literally changed my life and my relationships with myself and others forever. Before this book, I was living my life through the filters of my stories of right and wrong, how things ‘should’ be done, and doing my best to trust my instincts and intuition. I underestimated the power of words, including my words. I made assumptions about people and situations, and autopilot guided my path through the best and worst of challenges and opportunities.
This book, along with the Fifth Agreement, opened my mind to the human condition of subconscious programming. I read the book, listened to the book, and listened to the book while reading the book to deeply embrace the truths presented.
Thanks to all books published by the Ruiz family, which share the Toltec traditions with the world, I have found grace and compassion for the weight and impact of my own stories,…
In The Four Agreements, bestselling author don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.
• A New York Times bestseller for over a decade • Translated into 46 languages worldwide
“This book by don Miguel Ruiz, simple yet so powerful, has made a tremendous difference in how I think and act in every encounter.” — Oprah Winfrey
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I’m a TedX and keynote speaker, leadership expert, and corporate facilitator. I’m also a repeat software founder and CEO. I work extensively with Fortune 1000 and hyperscale organizations to connect leadership and culture directly to organizational outcomes, as well as diversifying C-suites and corporate boardrooms. I’m passionate about guiding leaders to measurable outcomes and helping others learn from failure (yes, it happens to all of us!) Over the years, I’ve learned the key is understanding and embodying your own values so you can build resilience for yourself as an individual, your team, and your organization as a whole. I hope my list of recommended books helps you do just that!
For many entrepreneurs, Marie Forleo is practically a household name – for over a decade, she’s been coaching those souls brave enough to take the leap into business ownership.
As entrepreneurs will tell you, a huge part of success has to do with your mindset. In this book, Marie outlines a key strategy for training your brain to overcome uncertainty and actionable tips to overcome everyday challenges, both big and small.
"This book will change lives." --Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love
From the host of the award-winning MarieTV and The Marie Forleo Podcast, an indispensable handbook for becoming the creative force of your own life.
While most self-help books offer quick fixes, Everything is Figureoutable will retrain your brain to think more creatively and positively in the face of setbacks. In the words of Cheryl Strayed, it's "a must-read for anyone who wants to face their fears, fulfill their dreams, and find a better way forward."
For my entire life, I have been on a quest to get to know God on a deeper and more spiritual level and to manifest my dreams into my living reality. I have been intrigued by manifestation since I was a young girl, and it has allowed me to help and teach others how they can manifest their dream lives as well. Now, I am a full-time author, living the life I created, and I read books to help me understand more about my craft and also how I can help others who are looking for guidance in their lives. I hope you enjoy the books on this list, as they have helped shape my life and my way of thinking in one way or another.
This book helped change my perspective around money. It also helped me create more money and allow it to flow into my life in abundance.
The principles, techniques, and modalities in the book have changed my life, and I now think differently about money, how it is created, and how I can attract it into my life.
This step-by-step guide to creating money and abundance was given to Sanaya and Duane by their guides, Orin and DaBen. These wise spirit teachers have successfully helped thousands of people to manifest prosperity, find their life's work, and fulfill their life purpose. This book is infused with Orin and DaBen's consciousness of abundance that is available to you as you read to increase your ability to create money and abundance.
You can see immediate results in your life when you learn to create abundance by following the spiritual laws of money and abundance. Section I, Creating Money, is a step-by-step…
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
One of the things I love most about fiction is the way it allows you to “be” different people—to experience, think, feel, and behave from inside a particular temperament, worldview, or experience. My very favorite is adding the complexity of multiple perspectives to that magic trick so that you get to live inside two or more people who may be at complete odds with each other. Reading good fiction is an exercise in empathy, and reading good fiction from multiple viewpoints is empathy supercharged. I’ve loved that immersion since I was a little kid who believed there was nothing better than a novel.
This novel is an immersive read with heaps of empathy for all its characters but especially for the two sisters whose perspectives are at the center of the story: the twin who disappears to live a secret life, passing as white, and the twin left behind.
We don’t get the perspective of Stella, the vanished twin, until 14 years after her disappearance, 150 pages into the book. By then, I was fully absorbed in the grief and unanswered questions of the people she’d abandoned, eager to finally know where she’d been all this time and to understand her complex motivations and the emotional and mental toll of relinquishing—and hiding—her racial identity, her community, her sister, and her past. I picked this book up and didn’t put it down until it was done.
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP BESTSELLER #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE
'An utterly mesmerising novel..I absolutely loved this book' Bernardine Evaristo, winner of the Booker Prize 2019
'Epic' Kiley Reid, O, The Oprah Magazine
'Favourite book [of the] year' Issa Rae
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years…
I am, first and foremost, someone who cares deeply about the world, people, and learning. I have been passionate about ideas, curiosity, and innovation since I was a child and since starting our company and writing four books, have had the privilege of helping over 400 organizations and 700,000 people to unlock their genius by not being experts but by being curious about the world around them and other people. I am also a teacher, speaker, and community volunteer who is keen to help people find their own unique brilliance.
I love this book because it is all about how we show up each day and how we engage the world.
I am particularly keen on the idea that we can choose to be open to learning new things, meeting new people, and making a difference…in other words, we can choose to “grow” …or we can choose to stand still.
And I hope that I will never stop wanting to know more, read more, learn, and try to make a difference.
From the renowned psychologist who introduced the world to “growth mindset” comes this updated edition of the million-copy bestseller—featuring transformative insights into redefining success, building lifelong resilience, and supercharging self-improvement.
“Through clever research studies and engaging writing, Dweck illuminates how our beliefs about our capabilities exert tremendous influence on how we learn and which paths we take in life.”—Bill Gates, GatesNotes
“It’s not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.”
After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this…
As the co-author of Broken But Healing, I know firsthand what it means to survive emotional, physical, and psychological trauma—and to slowly piece yourself back together. Books were a lifeline during my healing journey. They offered comfort, clarity, and the reminder that I wasn’t alone. These five books helped shape my own recovery and inspired me to share my story so others could find the strength to rebuild, too.
This book reveals how the body stores emotional and traumatic memories long after the mind tries to forget them.
Van der Kolk explains why symptoms like anxiety, emotional numbness, anger, or disconnection can surface years later.
Many men who “push through” or never talk about their trauma find clarity in this book’s explanation of how stress affects the brain and nervous system. It helps readers understand themselves physically and emotionally, while giving hope that healing is possible through therapy, mindfulness, and self-awareness.
"Essential reading for anyone interested in understanding and treating traumatic stress and the scope of its impact on society." -Alexander McFarlane, Director of the Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies
A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing in this New York Times bestseller
Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der…
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…
For several years, I’ve been on a journey of personal healing and transformation after a traumatic marriage and divorce. These incredible female writers helped stitch my heart back together and offered beautiful insights and inspiration on the healing path. These are books of timeless wisdom for women everywhere, but especially for women who have loved, lost, hurt, and overcome. We are reminded not just of our personal strength and resilience when we glimpse ourselves in the stories of others; but we remember that we are part of a powerful collective of teachers, leaders, luminaries, mothers, healers, and trailblazers. We are never alone.
Read it, bought it for all my friends, and read it again.
Glennon’s writing style is so disarmingly honest, raw, and powerful that it brought me to tears with its authenticity and relatability.
Full of personal stories about being a mother, being gay, leaving a marriage, recovering from addiction, unpacking religion, and being a sensitive human in a hard, messy world, Glennon weaves healing with radical permission in the most beautiful ways.
Poignant and timeless, this book was a sensation when it came out and still hits home with every turn of the page.
A favorite quote: “My emotions. My intuition. My imagination. My courage. Those are the keys to freedom. Those are who we are. Will we be brave enough to unlock ourselves? Will we be brave enough to set ourselves free? Will we finally step out of our cages and say to ourselves, to our people, and to…
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD! “Packed with incredible insight about what it means to be a woman today.”—Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club Pick)
In her most revealing and powerful memoir yet, the activist, speaker, bestselling author, and “patron saint of female empowerment” (People) explores the joy and peace we discover when we stop striving to meet others’ expectations and start trusting the voice deep within us.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • Cosmopolitan • Marie Claire • Bloomberg • Parade •…
My version of a gutsy life journey was to find work abroad, buy a one-way ticket, and not look back - one place after the next. Long ago, girls didn’t do this, but I did. A struggle and worth it. Great memoirs have a geographical and an inner journey. They make me laugh and cry, both. This is what I love to read, and it’s my aim as a writer. My books are love letters to these adventures, plus some joking around in order not to scream or weep at some of what’s out there. I’ve been a teacher, a film editor, a comedian, a librarian, and now a writer.
She went through a hard time by believing she had choices. I admire her for not being defeated.
Now a celebrated psychologist, trauma specialist, inspirational speaker, and all-around loveably cute grandma, her story was gripping and moving, especially her brave trip to return to the Auschwitz concentration camp, to face the trauma of her time there during World War 2.
I was awestruck and impressed by how she confirmed her choice and life’s mission to be happy and helpful, no matter what. I was inspired, to say the least. It convinced me that if she can do that, I can tackle a few challenges too.
THE AWARD-WINNING SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Even in hell, hope can flower
'I'll be forever changed by her story' - Oprah Winfrey
'Extraordinary ... will stick with you long after you read it' - Bill Gates
'One of those rare and eternal stories you don't want to end' - Desmond Tutu
'A masterpiece of holocaust literature. Her memoir, like her life, is extraordinary, harrowing and inspiring in equal measure' - The Times Literary Supplement
'I can't imagine a more important message for modern times. Eger's book is a triumph' - The New York Times
Ever since I was a little girl, I felt intimidated to use my voice when I needed to, or didn’t feel confident to speak up or show up to support myself. It wasn’t until I studied emotional intelligence (EI) that I started to learn the tools that helped me develop my confidence and step into my power. My book has many of these tools in it, and I am on a mission to help leaders embrace intentional shifts in behavior, or pauses, to redirect their energy to feel more confident, calm, and clear–without the overwhelm.
I read this book as part of my Search Inside Yourself (SIY) facilitator training when I worked at Google and later taught. I love this book because it’s full of science-based research on the power of mindfulness. I personally love all of Rick’s books and hosted him on my podcast, The Pausecast podcast (Ep. 17), where he blends his psychology and mindfulness expertise into easy and relatable concepts.
This book stuck out to me because Hanson shares how great teachers like Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Gandhi, and the Buddha all had brains built essentially like anyone else's, yet they were able to harness their thoughts and shape their patterns of thinking in ways that changed history. I was inspired by their stories and also saw how I could model my own thinking in ways that better serve me and the world.
Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Gandhi, and the Buddha all had brains built essentially like anyone else's, yet they were able to harness their thoughts and shape their patterns of thinking in ways that changed history.
With new breakthroughs in modern neuroscience and the wisdom of thousands of years of contemplative practice, it is possible for us to shape our own thoughts in a similar way for greater happiness, love, compassion, and wisdom.
Buddha's Brain joins the forces of modern neuroscience with ancient contemplative teachings to show readers how they can work toward greater emotional well-being, healthier relationships, more effective actions, and…
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the book…
I have read a ton of self-help books. A ton. I have a whole library of them – a bookcase of "shelf-help." And I have now written 7 of them as well! I love it when a little or a lot of the author’s story is woven into a self-help book as it demonstrates the author’s personal growth. I don’t need more self-help tools or trite suggestions. I want to feel emotionally connected and moved in a way that encourages me to reflect on and enhance my one precious life. For me, reading a well-written self-help memoir is one of life’s greatest joys.
This book checked all the boxes for a rollicking read – a strong woman, a memoir, and a smattering of self-help and it did not disappoint. I didn't read it, I devoured it. Loved all the interesting stories and pearls of wisdom. Take the donut! If you like self-help and memoir, or like me, love a combo of both, then this is the book for you. It is the kind of book that stays with you for a long, long time. I can't recommend this book enough. Just read it.
"When we really see each other, we want to help each other." -Amanda Palmer Imagine standing on a box in the middle of a busy city, dressed as a white-faced bride, and silently using your eyes to ask people for money. Or touring Europe in a punk cabaret band, and finding a place to sleep each night by reaching out to strangers on Twitter. For Amanda Palmer, actions like these have gone beyond satisfying her basic needs for food and shelter--they've taught her how to turn strangers into friends, build communities, and discover her own giving impulses. And because she…
