78 books like Innovators Who Changed the World

By James R. Webb,

Here are 78 books that Innovators Who Changed the World fans have personally recommended if you like Innovators Who Changed the World. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Book cover of Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change

Nicolas A. Valcik Author Of Strategic Planning and Decision-Making for Public and Non-Profit Organizations

From my list on showing leadership through someone's own story.

Why am I passionate about this?

Leadership is always the key to success in strategic planning for any organization. Great leaders can drive their organizations to success, while poor leadership can crater the organization and take generations for it to rebuild. A good leader is essential in the aspect of providing good morale for the employees of the organization. Good leadership factors cause the organization to be seen as cutting edge and as an organization that others want to go work for in an effort to be better themselves. An organization with a superior strategic planning process, will have great leaders and employees to not only formulate the plan, but also execute the plan successfully.  

Nicolas' book list on showing leadership through someone's own story

Nicolas A. Valcik Why did Nicolas love this book?

This book is great for leaders who are coming into a new situation, or are currently in an evolving work environment. Any environment is going to have change, and leaders have to recognize and adapt when change occurs.

To be successful, a leader needs to ensure that the operations of their area can adapt and deliver to their clients. William Bridges' book is geared to assist managers and leaders with those changes and assists them with the key issues to be mindful of during a transition. This book is one that every manager and leader should have on their bookshelf.

By William Bridges, Susan Bridges,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Managing Transitions as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The business world is constantly transforming. When restructures, mergers, bankruptcies, and layoffs hit the workplace, employees and managers naturally find the resulting situational shifts to be challenging. But the psychological transitions that accompany them are even more stressful. Organizational transitions affect people it is always people, rather than a company, who have to embrace a new situation and carry out the corresponding change.As veteran business consultant William Bridges explains, transition is successful when employees have a purpose, a plan, and a part to play. This indispensable guide is now updated to reflect the challenges of today's ever-changing, always-on, and globally…


Book cover of Leadership Secrets of Rogue Warrior: A Commando's Guide to Success

Nicolas A. Valcik Author Of Strategic Planning and Decision-Making for Public and Non-Profit Organizations

From my list on showing leadership through someone's own story.

Why am I passionate about this?

Leadership is always the key to success in strategic planning for any organization. Great leaders can drive their organizations to success, while poor leadership can crater the organization and take generations for it to rebuild. A good leader is essential in the aspect of providing good morale for the employees of the organization. Good leadership factors cause the organization to be seen as cutting edge and as an organization that others want to go work for in an effort to be better themselves. An organization with a superior strategic planning process, will have great leaders and employees to not only formulate the plan, but also execute the plan successfully.  

Nicolas' book list on showing leadership through someone's own story

Nicolas A. Valcik Why did Nicolas love this book?

History is full of military men and commanders who have had to possess leadership qualities and decision-making abilities to be successful in the field and in life.

This book has a number of great qualities described throughout the book that public managers should take note of in order to be successful. I love the 10 commandments format for the book. The case studies throughout the book for both warfare and business are very insightful, and I feel beneficial for leaders to understand how the principles described are applied in real-life situations. 

By Richard Marcinko,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Leadership Secrets of Rogue Warrior as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Richard Marcinko's explosive #1 New York Times bestselling autobiography, Rogue Warrior, chronicled the wild, death-defying adventures of his thirty controversial years as a Navy commando and creator of the legendary SEAL TEAM SIX. Three blockbuster Rogue Warrior novels transformed classified information he could never reveal in nonfiction into blistering tales of international warfare and counterterrorism. Now, writing in the tradition of A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's greatest samurai, Marcinko blasts other self-help guides out of the water. In LEADERSHIP SECRETS OF THE ROGUE WARRIOR, he shows how anyone can apply the skills he has honed throughout…


Book cover of Push: Breaking through the Barriers

Nicolas A. Valcik Author Of Strategic Planning and Decision-Making for Public and Non-Profit Organizations

From my list on showing leadership through someone's own story.

Why am I passionate about this?

Leadership is always the key to success in strategic planning for any organization. Great leaders can drive their organizations to success, while poor leadership can crater the organization and take generations for it to rebuild. A good leader is essential in the aspect of providing good morale for the employees of the organization. Good leadership factors cause the organization to be seen as cutting edge and as an organization that others want to go work for in an effort to be better themselves. An organization with a superior strategic planning process, will have great leaders and employees to not only formulate the plan, but also execute the plan successfully.  

Nicolas' book list on showing leadership through someone's own story

Nicolas A. Valcik Why did Nicolas love this book?

There are all types of different leaders throughout life. Some in large organizations and some in small groups.

A leader in my mind is one who motivates his or her colleagues to accomplish great feats either in the workplace or in life. In his book Push, Johnny Quinn reminds us all what it takes to be a leader, not just in sports, but in life itself.

Facing adversity is what life is all about, and Push made me feel great and motivated by how one person overcame adversity to achieve a series of goals, even if they were not in Quinn’s linear path of what he thought he was going to achieve. This is how real leaders operate, they have a great work ethic and a high degree of integrity to achieve great things. 

By Johnny Quinn,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Push as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

JOHNNY QUINN shares his “wild dream” of playing in the NFL, being crushed after getting cut three times, losing 2.6 million dollars in contracts and blowing out his knee. At age 30, when most professional athletes are considered “over the hill,” Johnny was competing for Team USA in the sport of bobsled at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

This book ushers readers through the valleys of life to the thrills of rocketing down icy mountains at 80+ mph with no seat belt. Discover how the author overcame failure on the road to achieving greatness.

From an NFL failure…


Book cover of The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell

Nicolas A. Valcik Author Of Strategic Planning and Decision-Making for Public and Non-Profit Organizations

From my list on showing leadership through someone's own story.

Why am I passionate about this?

Leadership is always the key to success in strategic planning for any organization. Great leaders can drive their organizations to success, while poor leadership can crater the organization and take generations for it to rebuild. A good leader is essential in the aspect of providing good morale for the employees of the organization. Good leadership factors cause the organization to be seen as cutting edge and as an organization that others want to go work for in an effort to be better themselves. An organization with a superior strategic planning process, will have great leaders and employees to not only formulate the plan, but also execute the plan successfully.  

Nicolas' book list on showing leadership through someone's own story

Nicolas A. Valcik Why did Nicolas love this book?

Harari’s book is both insightful and inspirational for leaders in public service.

As were many commanders during that era, Powell was a Vietnam Veteran and learned much from the public policy debacle where he served valiantly. This helped him formulate the Powell Doctrine which provided strategic framework for the military operating in an American Foreign Policy environment.

Strategic planning was key in how Colin Powell dealt successfully with a very complex military operation (e.g. Desert Storm) by having overwhelming force as well as stakeholder support. The book discusses the different aspects of leadership as seen through Powell’s eyes, which is very insightful on what his vision of what characteristics a leader should possess.  

By Oren Harari,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This is the "New York Times", "Business Week", "Wall Street Journal" and "USA Today Bestseller" - Now in Paperback! "The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell" goes beyond other books to take an honest look into the foundations of Colin Powell's compelling leadership style. Sparked with insights and observations that are as refreshingly honest as they are grittily realistic, it provides a blueprint for inspiring anyone - including yourself - to achieve extraordinary levels of performance.Praise for "The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell" include: "Management professor Oren Harari adopts Colin Powell's rise into the upper ranks of American power as a…


Book cover of The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes

Tom Tottis Author Of Retrospect

From my list on the struggles of a family over three generations.

Why am I passionate about this?

I felt compelled to write this story, not just because the eventful lives of myself and members of my family, but mostly because of its historical content. Until this day the West knows very little of what actually happened in the early 1940s and after 1945 to countries and people who, after the war, finished up behind the Iron Curtain. From Fascism to Communism, they had fallen “Out of the frying pan into the fire.” People in those European countries, who had lived through and experienced those events, are now very thin on the ground.

Tom's book list on the struggles of a family over three generations

Tom Tottis Why did Tom love this book?

A superior teller of yarns, his stories are beautifully written and the plots, details, along with conclusions, are fascinating. Reading his stories, e.g. The Hounds of Baskerville, The Firm of Girdlestone, or any of the Sherlock Holmes adventures, I find myself in another time, in another world. At times I needed that badly.

By Arthur Conan Doyle,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes contains Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's final twelve stories about his great fictional detective. Featuring crypts at midnight, strange bones in a furnace and a blood-sucking vampire, these tales explore the darker side of human nature and involve betrayal, violence and the terrible consequences of infidelity.

Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an afterword by David Stuart Davies - a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund…


Book cover of Sherlock Holmes Complete Works - Volume 1/2: A Study In Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes

Aer-ki Jyr Author Of Star Force: Origin Series (1-4)

From my list on that defined great storytelling for me as a kid.

Why am I passionate about this?

My name is Aer-ki Jyr and I’m the creator of the Star Force Universe. I started writing because most of the new books coming out just plain sucked, so I figured if I could do better, then I should…and I did. What people only partially realize is that Star Force is filled with references and homages to the past great works. There’s far more in there than they realize, but those who have also read them will know when they see them. This list gives you the biggest influences that shaped my childhood mind, and why there are literally statues in the Star Force Universe to a lot of this stuff. 

Aer-ki's book list on that defined great storytelling for me as a kid

Aer-ki Jyr Why did Aer-ki love this book?

This was one giant book I got as a gift and thought I’d never read, but when I started I couldn’t stop. These are old stories, and arguably the oldest I have ever read that ring true today. Holmes is like Thrawn, a mastermind, but he doesn’t rule Empires or command armies. Holmes works in isolation with only his trusted assistant Watson. He follows mysteries wherever they present themselves and is bored by anything else.

It’s the keen intellect that draws me to this book. The kind of stuff most people wouldn’t waste their time on because it goes over their heads. This is not the new Hollywood version of Holmes, this is much more potent. Older movies of Holmes do much better, but none match the caliber that is in these original stories. 

I can’t fully explain, but there is a magic to them that rejects the ‘mundane’ world…

By Arthur Conan Doyle, Arthur Conan Doyle,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sherlock Holmes Complete Works - Volume 1/2 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Happily find the famous detective Sherlock Holmes and his faithful friend Doctor Watson. This edition (volume 1 & 2) includes all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work: four novels and 56 short stories!
In this volume 2 novels (A Study In Scarlet, The Sign of the Four) and 29 short stories (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes - first part). More than 800 pages of reading !


Book cover of Holmes on the Range

Molly MacRae Author Of Come Shell or High Water

From my list on mystery with sidesplitting sidekicks.

Why am I passionate about this?

I started reading mysteries as a way to avoid studying for final exams as an undergrad. Nemesis by Agatha Christie was my gateway mystery. That was fifty-plus years and many, many mysteries read ago. I managed an independent bookstore for several years and then worked in a public library for twenty more. I especially liked introducing readers to my favorite mysteries in the store and the library. Why mysteries in particular? Because they do something that doesn’t often happen in real life—they restore order. But the best mysteries, to my mind, are the ones that include humor. We need humor in our lives because it restores hope.  

Molly's book list on mystery with sidesplitting sidekicks

Molly MacRae Why did Molly love this book?

This is the cleverest, funniest, best Sherlock Holmes homage ever. It’s Montana, 1893, and I’m watching the red-headed Amlingmeyer brothers, down-on-their-luck ranch hands, entertain themselves reading Holmes stories in Harper’s Weekly.

Big Red, the younger brother, is reading to his older brother, Old Red (all of 27). Old Red might be illiterate, but I’ll match his “detectifyin’” skills with Holmes’ any day. I love Big Red’s reluctant but loyal acceptance of his role as Watson as the two cowpokes deal with stampedes, mysterious deaths, and cowboys named Puddin-foot and Swivel-eye.

No matter what Big Red tells him, Old Red doesn’t quite believe the Holmes stories are fiction. But I believe Hockensmith’s stories are exactly what Mark Twain would have written if he’d come up with this brilliant idea.

By Steve Hockensmith,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Holmes on the Range as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Somewhere due west of Deadwood, a pair of unlikely cowboy sleuths investigate murder just like their hero, Sherlock Holmes. 1893 is a tough year in Montana, and any job is a good job. When Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer sign on as ranch hands at the secretive Bar- VR cattle spread, they're not expecting much more than hard work, bad pay, and a comfortable campfire around which they can enjoy their favourite pastime: scouring Harpers J,Veekly for stories about the famous Sherlock Holmes. When another ranch hand turns up in an outhouse with a bullet in his brain, Old…


Book cover of The Beekeeper's Apprentice

Bruce Stachenfeld Author Of Faythe of North Hinkapee: The Saga of a Young Woman’s Quest for Justice and Love in Colonial America

From my list on irrepressible, exciting and heroic female lead characters that you will never forget.

Why am I passionate about this?

I made up Faythe of North Hinkapee by being a jerk! I was ranting about how bad a "best seller" book I had read was. My wife looked at me and said, "So, could you write a bestseller?" I was challenged, and then, somehow, this book just tumbled out. It was about a girl in Colonial Timesher family burned as witchesvowing vengeance and how she gets it. My wife looked at me and said: “My God, that could be a bestseller!’ My kids also loved the story. For about twenty years, I planned to write it, and after a ton of work, I finally finished.

Bruce's book list on irrepressible, exciting and heroic female lead characters that you will never forget

Bruce Stachenfeld Why did Bruce love this book?

I was hooked in the first chapter when the protagonist, Mary Russell, meets Sherlock Holmes, who is retired. There – do I have to say more?

She is a young woman and Sherlock is, well, Sherlock, and yet she matches wits with him while they end up in the middle of a creative and a bit scary Sherlock Holmes-ish tale. I couldn’t wait to get and read the sequels.

By Laurie R. King,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked The Beekeeper's Apprentice as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees when a young woman literally stumbles into him on the Sussex Downs. Fifteen years old, gawky, egotistical, and recently orphaned, the young Mary Russell displays an intellect to impress even Sherlock Holmes--and match him wit for wit. Under his reluctant tutelage, this very modern twentieth-century woman proves a deft protegee and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective. But even in their first case together, the pair face a truly cunning adversary who will stop at nothing to put an end to their partnership.


Book cover of A Tempest at Sea

Bob Burnett Author Of Death is Potential: A Kate Swift Mystery

From my list on mysteries featuring steamy romance.

Why am I passionate about this?

At one time, it was commonplace for male mystery writers to devote a substantial amount of plot to romance; for example, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White or Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon. In recent years, this tradition has eroded to the point where romantic mysteries are primarily written by women. I think romance spices up mysteries. In Death is Potential, Kate Swift is more invested in solving the murder mystery because she is protecting her lover.

Bob's book list on mysteries featuring steamy romance

Bob Burnett Why did Bob love this book?

I love this series because I treasure the original Sherlock Holmes books.

Sherry Thomas reinvents Holmes as a smart and passionate young woman. Down on her luck, Charlotte Holmes sets up a detective consulting business using her imaginary brother, Sherlock. She fools everyone except her longtime friend, Lord Ingram.

After a period of tortured adjustment, Charlotte and Ingram become lovers. Sadly, they cannot spend much time together, because they are pursued by the evil Moriarity.

By Sherry Thomas,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Tempest at Sea as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Charlotte Holmes's life is in peril when her brilliant deductive skills are put to the test in her most dangerous investigation yet, locked aboard a ship at sea.

After feigning her own death in Cornwall to escape from Moriarty’s perilous attention, Charlotte Holmes goes into hiding. But then she receives a tempting offer: Find a dossier the crown is desperately seeking, and she might be able to go back to a normal life.
 
Her search leads her aboard the RMS Provence. But on the night Charlotte makes her move to retrieve the dossier, in the midst of a terrifying storm…


Book cover of The Tower Treasure

Jonathan Thomas Stratman Author Of Cheechako

From my list on making me feel like I’m someone else somewhere else.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was invited to travel to Africa and the Mid East on a job and I started to say, “I’m not that kind of guy.” Then I realized I am. I‘d already traveled around the world and even off it, reading. I’ve been happy and sad in books, victorious, scared, in love, survived storms and fierce wars, mourned valiant friends, and even space traveled. Books add dimension to life. What is dimension? Simply more. Like frosting on cake, hot sauce on fries, ice cubes in soda... fudge sauce on ice cream...  I read daily, get great ideas and feelings from books, still make new friends asking, “Have you read this?” Well, have you?

Jonathan's book list on making me feel like I’m someone else somewhere else

Jonathan Thomas Stratman Why did Jonathan love this book?

Okay, I’ll just say it: I’m a sucker for mysteries. Probably one of the reasons I write my own. But here’s the thing. Before I could drive, Frank and Joe could... cars, motorcycles, motorboats, and they put me behind the wheel. They turned me into a short-wave and citizen’s band radio nut, for a while, and first introduced me to girls who could be adventure buddies, when I couldn’t even talk to one. Truth: I’ve read about fifty of them, Nancy Drew, too. They do begin to repeat. But the first ten felt like a fresh, new adventure. As my other favorite, Sherlock Holmes might have said: “Come Watson, Frank, and Joe, make all haste, the game is afoot.” And I am right behind them. 

By Franklin W. Dixon,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Tower Treasure as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

A dying criminal confesses that his loot has been stored "in the tower." Both towers of the looted mansion are searched in vain. It remains for the Hardy boys to make an astonishing discovery that clears up the mystery and clears the name of a friend’s father.


Book cover of Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change
Book cover of Leadership Secrets of Rogue Warrior: A Commando's Guide to Success
Book cover of Push: Breaking through the Barriers

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,201

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Sherlock Holmes, London, and Arthur Conan Doyle?

Sherlock Holmes 111 books
London 862 books