August 9th is National Book Lovers Day – to celebrate, we thought it would be fitting to share Tana’s top ten books! Split into groups of her personal and professional favorites, we think she picked some solid options. Click the title of each book to read more.
Personal Favorites:
As the youngest of seven in a Mormon survivalist family, Tara Westover recounts what it was like growing up in rural Idaho in this amazing memoir. She emphasizes the importance of education and how she overcame all the odds to go to college.
Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned – from the layout of the winding roads to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town and puts the two main characters, Mia and Elena, on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.
Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member’s ability to bring her full self to the table. And it is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There She Is.
For more than forty years, Katie Couric has been an iconic presence in the media world. In her brutally honest, hilarious, heartbreaking memoir, she reveals what was going on behind the scenes of her sometimes tumultuous personal and professional life - a story she’s never shared, until now.
Before We Were Yours – Lisa Wingate
Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.
Professional Picks:
Pour Your Heart Into It – How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time – Howard Schultz
In Pour Your Heart Into It, Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz illustrates the principles that have shaped the Starbucks phenomenon, sharing the wisdom he has gained from his quest to make great coffee part of the American experience.
To help people uncover their talents, Gallup unveils the new and improved version of its popular online assessment. With hundreds of strategies for applying your strengths, this book will change the way you look at yourself and the world forever.
Excellence Wins – A No-Nonsense Guide to Becoming the Best in a World of Compromise – Horst Schulze
Horst Schulze knows how to win. In Excellence Wins, Schulze, shares the visionary and disruptive principles that have produced immense global successes over the course of his still-prolific fifty-year career. As the co-founder and former president of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., Schulze fearlessly led the company to unprecedented multi-billion dollar growth, setting the business vision and people-focused standards that made the Ritz-Carlton brand globally elite.
Nuts! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success – Jackie Freiberg and Kevin Freiberg
How can a company be so NUTS and be so successful? Now, the secrets of Southwest Airlines, rated one of the ten best companies to work for in America, are out. Management consultants Kevin and Jackie Freiberg, who worked with Southwest for more than ten years, describe the inner workings of one of America's biggest success stories.
Any and all books by Patrick Lencioni
With twelve different options to choose from, you just cannot go wrong! Click here to check out all of Lencioni’s books.