61 books like Executive

Many heroic characters are not flashy. This is the way I like to cast them in my novels. The principal characters in this fast-moving SiFi novel are that way. The story is revealed using a first-person approach, each chapter being in the voice of a particular character. I like the breezy nature of the dialog that allows emotional depth to gradually make an impact without getting bogged down in psychoanalysis. While the earth is frosting over with a new ice age and civilization grinds towards an uncertain future, national alliances are forming with the associated grasping and competition for limited resources. A genius scientist is tasked to find an answer and the author rightly avoids a deep dive, instead taking broad leaps across technological chasms. However, this novel gets you thinking about what you might do under similar circumstances.

This book is relevant today. Our country is going through the turmoil of distress caused by the breakdown of civil order and the looming scarcity of basic necessities like energy, food, and water. The scenario here is about the intersection of several groups of people and how well they prepared for surviving the first several days of a catastrophic event. There is good survival preparation information embedded in the text that can be augmented by the many real survivalist organizations. In crafting the story, the author does the same thing I do…layering useful, real-world information into the fictional narrative. Another real-world question is considered here. If there were no police, National Guard, FEMA, or aid groups, what would you be able to do for you and your family? The message in this book leaves us hopeful. 

I write in the speculative fiction genre where an overwhelming event, seemingly beyond the control of the main characters, underpins what happens to those characters. This particular drama uses such an event which literally paints a canvas for a murder mystery. The typical resources available to law enforcement are stripped away leaving people to depend upon themselves. All the human emotions and prejudices are on display. You might find yourself rooting for one character before moving on to another as the plot twists. A bit distracting was that much of the dialogue and description about what someone was feeling was clichéd. The cataclysmic event itself was almost a sidebar in this volume, the first of the series, to the point where the murder mystery could stand on its own. That said, this story is a thought-provoker on a societal and individual level.

In my novels, the quiet depth of character development runs parallel to the action. This is the only way to make fighting for one's life mean anything. Shootings, explosions, high body counts, or a countdown to chaos may hold momentary interest but will not create any lasting memory or take-away useful in real life.  This story spends quite a lot of time on backstory and the emotional well from which the main characters spring. Some might desire a quicker path through this. Some might not. And quite a few false paths are developed as you’d expect in a who-done-it type novel. The story reaches a driving and satisfying conclusion but some might leave wondering about the author’s opinion of law enforcement as is spoken through her protagonist.

Navigating the pages of this book, I felt an unexpected yet deep kinship, not just as someone well-versed in Organizational Behavior Management (OBM), but as a mixed martial arts and boxing coach.

John Wooden's timeless coaching ethos struck a chord. Much of what Wooden espoused—extracting every ounce of effort, maximizing performance, and championing his revered Pyramid of Success—mirrors the principles that drive both OBM and the rigorous discipline of combat sports. Isn't it fascinating how the delicate balance of mental fortitude, emotional resilience, and physical prowess is as crucial in a boardroom as it is in the boxing ring?

For those who wear many hats, like me, this book offers more than leadership insights. It's a beacon, illuminating the interconnectedness of diverse realms—from the corporate maze to the fight cage. After all, isn't the ultimate goal always about achieving excellence, be it in leadership or a championship bout? Wooden’s insights?… show more.

Dr. No was the sixth James Bond novel Fleming wrote but it was the first one I was finally able to read in paperback when I was about twelve years old.

It transfixed me. I had never read anything quite like it, transporting a boy trapped in small-town Ontario into a wider world of sophistication, sex, and violence.

I devoured the other Bond adventures as fast as I could get my hands on them. If any books made me hunger for faraway glamorous places, it was the Bond novels.

If you can’t imagine the influence Fleming’s worldly writing had on me, you have only to read one of the Priscilla Tempest mysteries.

If you, like the younger me, are only familiar with James Bond 007 via the long-running film franchise, you might also be fascinated to discover the original source material, even if you don’t entirely enjoy it.

To be blunt, Ian Fleming’s novels are steeped in highly problematic historical British colonialism, not to mention being grossly misogynistic and ridiculously violent at times. But they also include a reasonable amount of actual, real-world tradecraft, and that’s what I twigged to when I started checking out the books.

A man is sent to visit a mysterious count in his secluded mountaintop fortress, where a diabolical plot unfolds, involving an attack on England using his Angels of Death, women under his hypnotic command. The man finds himself slowly becoming a prisoner, leading to his planning an escape and a race to stop the Count’s plot from unfolding.

Sound familiar? It is, essentially, the plot of Dracula. It is also the plot of Ian Fleming’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the tenth James Bond novel. If Count Dracula is the king of vampires, then James Bond is inarguably the king of spies.

Drawing on Fleming's experiences in Jamaica, MI6 intelligence officer Bond, James Bond, not only outwits the villain's attempt to turn him into shark and barracuda bait but also deploys a limpet mine to good effect in order to save himself and his female companion from death by coral reef dragging, a device I pay homage to in a later novel.

Fleming's Bond novels introduced the world to a clever hero required to take direct responsibility for stopping great evil. Bond doesn't shy away from brute force when required, but prefers more elegant solutions, inspiring later writers.

Like millions of others, the popular movies introduced his work to me, but Fleming was the early master of the art of an espionage/action thriller novel, inspiring many who followed.

I found this book to be like a mix between Gallagher Girls and Alex Rider, with maybe a bit of Mean Girls in the mix—all in a good way!

One thing that sets this book apart from other teen spy books is that all the characters are damaged and yet they use that to fight back and to show the world what they’re made of. I felt like I was watching a movie while reading the book, and the scenes felt like I was in a James Bond movie! I can’t wait to crack open book 2.