December's Selection

November's Selection

October's Selection

October's Suggested Reading

September's Selection

September's Suggested Reading

August's Selection

Aug's Suggested Reading

July's Selection

July's Suggested Reading

June's Selection

June's Suggested Reading

May's Selection

Godin Does It Again in Linchpin

Linchpin may just turn out to be the most important book of this decade. It is very early, but the book is that good. It will do for the average person reading it exactly what Purple Cow did for business owners back when it came out. I'd say this book is even more important than Tribes for that reason. If you can't become what this book is asking you to become, you'll never lead a Tribe. It's easy for me to rave about Seth Godin so I gave myself time to let it sink in, to make sure that I was seeing it with as clear an eye as possible. I was initially entralled with The Think Big Manifesto but discovered that within a month it had simply blended away into everything else I'd been reading. I wanted to make sure this book would not disappoint. Outside of raving, I'm not going to tell you a thing. You read it, don't read reviews, just read the book. Don't let others shape your mind. Let the book do that. Then go be a Linchpin.

May's Suggested Reading

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink

Drive is a follow-up to A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. In the earlier book, Pink makes an excellent case for the increasing importance of right-brain thinking in the future.  While most agreed, not all did.  This was the beginning of an avalanche of new thought about the importance of creativity going forward.  Drive follows this trail into the human brain to examine what motivates us to do our best.  This is the overlap with Linchpin.  Linchpins will develop but they will develop faster in an environment meant to encourage their growth.

April's Selection

Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah

This book has a forward by David Meerman Scott, and has been endorsed by Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki. The authors are the founders of HubSpot so they don't just walk the walk, they laid it out and paved it. This is a bit of a how-to guide for pulling together the kind of marketing that is starting to take over the world of business. We consider it a "must read" for anyone not already an expert in web based marketing.

April's Suggested Reading

The Social Media Marketing Book by Dan Zarrella

This is a must-have book for social media beginners.  It's small, easy to read, and, while geared to beginners, it does contain information that intermediate users in the process of building their presence will find helpful.

March's Selection

March's Suggested Reading

February's Book is Who's Got Your Back by Keith Ferrazzi

Keith's goal is debunk the myth of the lone entrepreneur taking on a whole world single-handedly.  We are the sum of those we hang around with and we NEED other people to be our advisors, our mirrors, our strength, and our conscience, from time to time. He also tells us how to assemble that all-important team.   We've definitely seen the benefits of having people around you who "have your back" just among the memebers of this book club.

February's Suggested Reading is Keith's earlier book, Never Eat Alone.

Keith's first book is about building relationships - which he advocates doing every time and any time the opportunity presents itself.

January's Selection

Making It All Work by David Allen

If this sounds a bit familiar - it should! We read David Allen's Getting Things Done in 2008. Everyone from the book club talked in terms of "next action" for months. Many of us implemented part or all of the program. Now it's time to take a refresher course and add the next step. Everyone complains about "not having enough time". You can't make time. We all have the same 24 hours each day. Some of us just use what we're given to better advantage than others. Between the covers of David Allen's books lie the secret to success for anyone who feels that lack of time is the main thing standing in their way.

Jan's Suggested Reading

Ask and You Will Succeed by Kenneth D. Foster

This is a good companion book to our primary choice for this month. Often times we sense something holding us back, almost as though the anchor of our boat is entangled. Generally that is an indication we need to unravel the base causes. It's often because one hasn't been totally honest with him/herself.  Sometimes one doesn't know how to be honest in that area. The text and accompanying questions help us gain a better understanding of what we really do want out of life, and more importantly, why. Sometimes we find it's not what we thought it was.