Fans pick 68 books like The Last Word on Power

By Tracy Goss,

Here are 68 books that The Last Word on Power fans have personally recommended if you like The Last Word on Power. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life

Janet Polach Author Of The Seven Mistakes New Managers Make

From my list on books that prompt breakthrough thinking.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a global executive coach, speaker, and author with over 30 years of diverse experience. My career includes serving as a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps and two decades as a global leadership coach. I have collaborated with new, emerging, and executive leaders across various industries in the U.S., China, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Puerto Rico, Ireland, and the Netherlands. I believe that true leadership is built on a commitment to the mission, clear expectations, and the ability to improvise, adapt, and overcome any obstacle. I hold a Ph.D. in Organization and Leadership Development from the University of Minnesota.

Janet's book list on books that prompt breakthrough thinking

Janet Polach Why did Janet love this book?

I listened to it as an audio, and it was amazing! One of the most delightful books I’ve ever experienced. The husband and wife team, including world-renowned conductor Benjamin Zander, describe strategies for living your best life. The concepts come to life when Benjamin Zander provides orchestral examples in the background or measures from the classics. It’s a full listening experience!

By Rosamund Stone Zander, Benjamin Zander,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Art of Possibility as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Presenting twelve breakthrough practices for bringing creativity into all human endeavors, The Art of Possibility is the dynamic product of an extraordinary partnership. The Art of Possibility combines Benjamin Zander's experience as conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and his talent as a teacher and communicator with psychotherapist Rosamund Stone Zander's genius for designing innovative paradigms for personal and professional fulfillment.
The authors' harmoniously interwoven perspectives provide a deep sense of the powerful role that the notion of possibility can play in every aspect of life. Through uplifting stories, parables, and personal anecdotes, the Zanders invite us to become passionate communicators,…


Book cover of The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size

Brian J. McVeigh Author Of The 'Other' Psychology of Julian Jaynes: Ancient Languages, Sacred Visions, and Forgotten Mentalities

From my list on the bicameral mind, mentality, and consciousness.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been fascinated by how the human mind adapts, both individually and through history. Julian Jaynes, who taught me while pursuing my PhD in anthropology from Princeton University, provided me with a theoretical framework to explore how the personal and cultural configure each other. Jaynes inspired me to publish on psychotherapeutics, the history of Japanese psychology, linguistics, education, nationalism, the origin of religion, the Bible, ancient Egypt, popular culture, and changing definitions of self, time, and space. My interests have taken me to China and Japan, where I lived for many years. I taught at the University of Arizona and currently work as a licensed mental health counselor. 

Brian's book list on the bicameral mind, mentality, and consciousness

Brian J. McVeigh Why did Brian love this book?

Supported by a wide range of examples drawn from various disciplines, this book demonstrates how we are only conscious of a small amount of what our hidden psychological machinery manufactures nonconsciously.

This work provides a key perspective needed to appreciate Julian Jaynes’s theory of consciousness and, thus his ideas on bicameral mentality. 

By Tor Norretranders,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The User Illusion as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

As John Casti wrote, "Finally, a book that really does explain consciousness." This groundbreaking work by Denmark's leading science writer draws on psychology, evolutionary biology, information theory, and other disciplines to argue its revolutionary point: that consciousness represents only an infinitesimal fraction of our ability to process information. Although we are unaware of it, our brains sift through and discard billions of pieces of data in order to allow us to understand the world around us. In fact, most of what we call thought is actually the unconscious discarding of information. What our consciousness rejects constitutes the most valuable part…


Book cover of Creative Visualization: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Your Life

Arielle Ford Author Of The Love Thief

From my list on growing your soul and opening your heart.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always loved fairytales, whimsical stories, and mysteries. Plus, I’m passionate about mind-expanding, heart-opening books that offer me new ways to understand myself and the Universe we live in. And I particularly like books that show me ways to have more of what brings me joy and pleasure. When I can get all of this in a novel I’m in heaven.

Arielle's book list on growing your soul and opening your heart

Arielle Ford Why did Arielle love this book?

On September 12, 1984 I relocated from South Florida to Los Angeles where I had just one friend who was preparing to move to NYC in 10 days. With a very small budget and no job, I was terrified about how things would turn out. 

Fortunately, on the long plane ride I read Creative Visualization in which I discovered the secrets to manifesting! Thanks to the lessons in this book, within two weeks I launched myself into a new home, a new career, and found a new best friend. This book is truly responsible for helping make my dream life come true.

By Shakti Gawain,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Creative Visualization as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

As introduced by Shakti Gawain to more than seven million readers worldwide, creative visualization is the art of using mental imagery and affirmation to produce positive changes in your life. Gawain’s clear writing style and vivid examples make Creative Visualization easy to read and apply to your personal needs and wants. This groundbreaking work has found enthusiastic followers in every country and language in which it has been published, and Gawain’s simple yet powerful techniques are now used successfully in many diverse fields, including health, education, business, sports, and the creative arts. Whether you read it for general inspiration and…


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Book cover of The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever

The Coaching Habit By Michael Bungay Stanier,

The coaching book that's for all of us, not just coaches.

It's the best-selling book on coaching this century, with 15k+ online reviews. Brené Brown calls it "a classic". Dan Pink said it was "essential".

It is practical, funny, and short, and "unweirds" coaching. Whether you're a parent, a teacher,…

Book cover of Wishcraft: How to Get What You Really Want

Chris Guillebeau Author Of Gonzo Capitalism: How to Make Money in an Economy That Hates You

From my list on thinking differently and live unconventionally.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a curious writer and compulsive traveler. My lifelong goal is to communicate the message “You don’t have to live your life the way others expect.” From 2002-2015 I went to every country in the world, chronicling the journey on my blog The Art of Non-Conformity. At first I thought the blog would be just about travel, but along the way I began meeting lots of people interested in living unconventionally. Ever since, I've been writing books, hosting events, and avoiding traditional employment by any means necessary. 

Chris' book list on thinking differently and live unconventionally

Chris Guillebeau Why did Chris love this book?

It's no exaggeration to say this book changed my life. I read it when I was briefly home in the US during a four-year stint as an aid worker in West Africa. It caused me to think deeply about the next stage of life, which involved going to every country and eventually starting a blog that became a whole new career.

If you've read any other "life design" books in the past two decades, one way or another the authors were influenced by Barbara Sher. Go back to where it started!

By Barbara Sher, Annie Gottlieb,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Cindy Fox was a waitress. Now she’s a pilot. Peter Johnson was a truck driver. Now he’s a dairy farmer. Tina Forbes was a struggling artist. Now she’s a successful one. Alan Rizzo was an editor. Now he’s a bookstore owner.

What they have in common—and what you can share—are Barbara Sher’s effective strategies for making real changes in your life. This human, practical program puts your vague yearnings and dreams to work for you—with concrete results. You’ll learn how to

• Discover your strengths and skills
• Turn your fears and negative feelings into positive tools
• Diagram the…


Book cover of The New Games Book

Chris Buckingham Author Of Business Planning for Games

From my list on translating your great ideas into a winning games business.

Why am I passionate about this?

Games and playing have always played a part of my life. I have created games and businesses and been fortunate enough to have worked with both at various levels as a mentor and guide. For me, this is the gift that keeps giving. The tee-shirt wearing creatives and the suit folk with their business acumen we seek to help scale our ideas. I have worked for years at the nexus of these tribes, and still find it a thrill to learn about the visions people have for the wonderful world of games and play and the oblique outcomes we couldn’t have predicted.

Chris' book list on translating your great ideas into a winning games business

Chris Buckingham Why did Chris love this book?

My copy is from 1976. It is a timeless classic that speaks to the human at the center of everything we play together.

This book serves to remind us that games don’t have to be digital experiences. Sometimes exploring ideas and being creative can lead to new paradigms of seeing each other as contributors to our joy and excitement of playing games.

I never tire of reading this book and learning of the scale and scope for being players and playing well together. The games in this book are co-created with a community of players, isn’t that the way it should be?

As game designers, when we pitch to investors, we often forget to include the joy and love that our customers, players, and users find in our games. 

By New Games Foundation, Andrew Fluegelman (editor),

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

More than sixty games in which two to two hundred players can participate all require elements of trust and cooperation


Book cover of The Relational Teacher

Charlene Spretnak Author Of Relational Reality: New Discoveries of Interrelatedness That Are Transforming the Modern World

From my list on dynamic interrelatedness among people and with nature.

Why am I passionate about this?

My formative immersion in nature during eleven summers at a girls’ camp in the Hocking Hills of southeastern Ohio showed me that everything in the physical world, including humans, is dynamically interrelated at subtle levels. As an adult, I’ve followed post-mechanistic sciences that explore this invisible truth, a theme that runs through several books I have written. Since the early 2000s, a new wave of discoveries, this time in human biology, reveals that we are composed entirely of dynamic interrelationships, in and around us, which affect us continuously from conception to our last breath. These discoveries are quickly being applied in many areas. I call this new awareness the Relational Shift. 

Charlene's book list on dynamic interrelatedness among people and with nature

Charlene Spretnak Why did Charlene love this book?

As in other areas of modern life, the role of relationships in education has been considered of minor consequence. However, the Relational Schools Foundation in the UK has found, after years of research, that a focus on improving the quality of relationships in schools improves a broad range of educational and social outcomes and can overcome disadvantages as well. The book the Foundation has published, The Relational Teacher and the accompanying film, begins with some framing by social scientists, but the body of the book consists of six case studies and the insightful reflections of the teacher involved with each study. The relational dynamics in a classroom—particularly the motivational relationship created by the teacher—are closely related to a student’s effort in learning and developing. 

By Robert Loe (editor),

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Relational Schools works to put relationships at the core of school life, on the principle that supportive relationships between all members of a school are pivotal. Strong, secure, relationships can, they say, surmount social inequality. Weak or fragile relationships reinforce educational disadvantage. It is only in a secure relationships that the most difficult learning can take place and such relationships can have a powerful and positive influence on children’s wellbeing, mental health and academic progress.

What’s shocking is how far we have allowed our focus to move from these basic premises. This book, and the film that accompanies it, focus…


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Book cover of Trial, Error, and Success: 10 Insights into Realistic Knowledge, Thinking, and Emotional Intelligence

Trial, Error, and Success By Sima Dimitrijev, PhD, Maryann Karinch,

Everything in nature evolves by trial, error, and success—from fundamental physics, through evolution in biology, to how people learn, think, and decide.

This book presents a way of thinking and realistic knowledge that our formal education shuns. Stepping beyond this ignorance, the book shows how to deal with and even…

Book cover of Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences

Matthew Dicks Author Of Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life Through the Power of Storytelling

From my list on for effective communication.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a person who deals in communication in all forms. I am an internationally bestselling novelist. A record 55-time Moth StorySLAM and 7-time GrandSLAM champion. A humor columnist for Seasons magazine and an advice columnist for Slate. The author of two books of nonfiction. A stand-up comedian. Comic book writer. Blogger. Playwright. Marketing and communications consultant. Also an elementary school teacher. Everything I do involves producing sentences that engage others. Whether from the page or the stage, I have committed my life to finding the best ways to communicate effectively with others and finding the resources that help me best achieve this goal. 

Matthew's book list on for effective communication

Matthew Dicks Why did Matthew love this book?

Read all of Duarte’s books, but start with this one. Communication is more than simply words. Visuals are often essential to conveying an effective and memorable message, and Resonate offers practical strategies to do this well. Duarte is viewed as the best of the best, and it’s no hyperbole. As a person who struggles with the visual realm, Duarte’s clear and concise strategies transformed my presentations significantly, Read this then everything else she has written. 

By Nancy Duarte,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Reveals the underlying story form of all great presentations that will not only create impact, but will move people to action Presentations are meant to inform, inspire, and persuade audiences. So why then do so many audiences leave feeling like they've wasted their time? All too often, presentations don't resonate with the audience and move them to transformative action. Just as the author's first book helped presenters become visual communicators, Resonate helps you make a strong connection with your audience and lead them to purposeful action. The author's approach is simple: building a presentation today is a bit like writing…


Book cover of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Joe Jackson Author Of A World on Fire: A Heretic, an Aristocrat, and the Race to Discover Oxygen

From my list on mystery and chaos of scientific inquiry.

Why am I passionate about this?

My father was a NASA scientist during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, so while most people knew the Space Race as a spectacle of thundering rockets and grainy lunar footage, I remember the very human costs and excitement of scientific progress. My space-cadet years come in snippets–the emotional break in my dad’s voice when Neil Armstrong hopped around the Moon; the strange peace I felt as I bobbed on a surfboard and watched another Saturn 1b flame into the sky. Later, as a journalist and author, I would see that such moments are couched in societal waves as profound and mysterious as the wheeling of hundreds of starlings overhead. 

Joe's book list on mystery and chaos of scientific inquiry

Joe Jackson Why did Joe love this book?

On the surface, this seems a dry treatise on the process of scientific change, but as you get into it, you encounter again and again the stories of hardheaded researchers convinced that the world explained by current theory just doesn’t make sense and shows how they were driven, often reluctantly, to make sense of things. Priestley’s and Lavoisier’s experiments are included with many others but always set within the framework of a discipline in a “crisis” that needs to be resolved.

The personal costs are not neglected–ridicule, isolation from the accepted “establishment,” sometimes far worse. Scientific progress is often portrayed as a triumph of individual imagination confirmed by wider testing and collaboration. Kuhn’s work took that self-serving myth and tossed it out the window.

By Thomas S. Kuhn,

Why should I read it?

16 authors picked The Structure of Scientific Revolutions as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A good book may have the power to change the way we see the world, but a great book actually becomes part of our daily consciousness, pervading our thinking to the point that we take it for granted, and we forget how provocative and challenging its ideas once were-and still are. "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" is that kind of book. When it was first published in 1962, it was a landmark event in the history and philosophy of science. And fifty years later, it still has many lessons to teach. With "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions", Kuhn challenged long-standing…


Book cover of Energize Your Workplace: How to Create and Sustain High-Quality Connections at Work

Shannon Karels and Kathy Miller Author Of Steel Toes and Stilettos: A True Story of Women Manufacturing Leaders and Lean Transformation Success

From my list on real talk by women authors.

Why are we passionate about this?

We are relatable women who have successful careers in a predominately male industry.  We have run businesses, built teams based on trust and inclusion, become authors, speakers, and advisors, while simultaneously raising children with our also working husbands.  This is not done with ease or without making trade-offs, but we will share our stories and hope to inspire other women.  We believe in supporting women in all areas of our lives and we love to lift up the ones who have impacted us.

Shannon's book list on real talk by women authors

Shannon Karels and Kathy Miller Why did Shannon love this book?

Kathy loved this book by Jane Dutton, and found herself exclaiming, “Yes!” as she read through this book that validated the energy she did receive abundantly through small moments of connection at work!

As a senior executive, Kathy could have thousands of people in her organization. Wanting to know each and every one of them was a luxury she could not afford, so she did her best to make those opportunities she did have for meaningful connections, no matter how brief, to count for her and the other person with whom she was interacting.

Jane systematically provides the science of how and why this works, along with so many useful tools for those to whom this does not come naturally!

By Jane E. Dutton,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Corrosive work relationships are like black holes that swallow up energy that people need to do their jobs. In contrast, high-quality relationships generate and sustain energy, equipping people to do work and do it well. Grounded in solid research, this book uses energy as a measurement to describe the power of positive and negative connections in people's experience at work. Author Jane Dutton provides three pathways for turning negative connections into positive ones that create and sustain employee resilience and flexibility, facilitate the speed and quality of learning, and build individual commitment and cooperation. Through compelling and illustrative stories, Energize…


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Book cover of Today Was A Good Day: A Collection of Essays From The Heart Of A Neurosurgeon

Today Was A Good Day By Edward Benzel,

My book is a collection of monthly Editor-in-Chief letters to the readership of World Neurosurgery, a journal that I edit. Each essay is short and sweet. The letters were written for neurosurgeons but have been re-edited so that they apply to all human beings. They cover topics such as leadership,…

Book cover of Haunted

Jason McGathey Author Of The Doom Statues

From my list on horror featuring a cursed location.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been a lifelong horror reader, really since first stumbling onto Stephen King in the 9th grade. There’s something about that genre that has held a particular fascination for me through the years, probably because the best works are some combination of suspenseful, well-written, and cathartic, as they really get your mind racing as to what you might do yourself in a given situation. If you’re lucky, they might even have something to say about the human condition as a whole. But given this prolonged interest and exposure to horror, it’s only natural I would eventually progress to giving it a stab myself.

Jason's book list on horror featuring a cursed location

Jason McGathey Why did Jason love this book?

This is a unique entry in that the cursed place is a framing device, for this collection of mostly disturbing tales. For his first-ever collection of short stories, Palahniuk brings his wretched cast of characters to a haunted house, where each in turn offers his or her own demented tale. They don’t all work, but a number of the stories really stick with you, and this spooky old house at the center of it ratchets the intensity up another level—it’s not a static situation they are in, there, so the plot progresses to its own warped conclusion on this front as well. 

By Chuck Palahniuk,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Haunted as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Haunted" is a novel made up of stories: twenty-three of them to be precise. Twenty-three of the most horrifying, hilarious, mind-blowing, stomach-churning tales you'll ever encounter - sometimes all at once. They are told by the people who have all answered the ad headlined 'Artists Retreat: Abandon your life for three months'. They are led to believe that here they will leave behind all the distractions of 'real life' that are keeping them from creating the masterpiece that is in them. But 'here' turns out to be a cavernous and ornate old theatre where they are utterly isolated from the…


Book cover of The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life
Book cover of The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size
Book cover of Creative Visualization: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Your Life

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