Books

Currently Reading

How Does a Poem Mean? by John Ciardi—The basic elements of poetry, and groups poems to encourage an analysis of similarities and differences.

Social Media Strategy: Marketing and Advertising in the Consumer Revolution by Keith Quesenberry—Social Media Strategy is your guide to practicing marketing, advertising, and public relations in a world of social media-empowered consumers. Grounded in a refreshing balance of concept, theory, industry statistics, and real-world examples, Keith Quesenberry introduces readers to the steps of building a complete social media plan and how companies can integrate the social media consumer landscape.

This simple, systematic text

  • leads readers through core marketing concepts and how to think critically about the competitive marketplace—even as it shifts the perspective from an outdated communications-control model to a more effective consumer engagement method
  • provides a step-by-step roadmap for planning social media marketing strategy
  • emphasizes the need to apply solid marketing principles to social media
  • explores how to integrate social media throughout an entire organization
  • gives students and other readers skills vital for leveraging consumer knowledge and influence for the good of a brand.

The end result delivers the context, process and tools needed to create a comprehensive and unique social media plan for any business or organization.

Read

— 2019 —

  • The Overstory by Richard Powers (Rating: 4/5)
  • The Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II by Robert Matzen and Luca Dotti (Rating: 3/5)
  • Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by Mignon Fogarty (Rating: 5/5)
  • Educated by Tara Westover (Rating: 5+/5)
  • Outer Order, Inner Calm by Gretchen Rubin (Rating: 1/5)
  • Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton (Rating: 5/5)
  • The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal (Rating: 2.5/5)
  • The Good Neighbors: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King by Fred Rogers (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance (Rating: 5/5)
  • The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout, Ph.D. (Rating: 4/5)
  • Dreyer’s English by Benjamin Dreyer (Rating: 5/5)
  • The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown (Rating: 5/5)
  • Becoming by Michelle Obama (Rating: 5/5)
  • The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America’s Enemies by Jason Fagone (Rating: 5/5)
  • The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict (Rating: 3/5)
  • The Library Book by Susan Orlean (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • The Real Story: Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible by Dr. Edward Sri and Curtis Martin (Rating: 2/5)
  • The Royal Nanny by Karen Harper (Rating: 3.5/5)
  • The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life by Ivanka Trump (Rating: 3/5)
  • Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (Rating: 5+/5)
  • Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain by Antonio Damasio (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • Bell Canto by Ann Patchett (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success by Ivanka Trump (Rating: 3/5)
  • Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou (Rating: 5+/5)
  • Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (Rating: 4/5)

— 2018 —

  • How to Be a Hepburn in a Kardashian World: The Art of Living with Style, Class and Grace by Jordan Christy (Rating: 2/5)
  • When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (Rating: 5/5)
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (Rating: 4/5)
  • Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate (Rating: 5/5)
  • The Doctors Mayo by Helen Clapsattle (Rating: 2.5/5)
  • Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (Rating: 5/5)
  • Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr. (Rating: 5/5)
  • Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • Parson’s Pleasure by Roald Dahl (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (Rating: 5/5)
  • Small Bites: Forty Short Stories by Don Tassone (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism by Olivia Fox Cabane (Rating: 2/5)
  • A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (Rating: 5/5)
  • The Inward Morning by Henry Bugbee (Rating: 3.5/5)
  • The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin (Rating: 3/5)
  • All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Rating: 5/5)
  • If It’s Not Impossible… the Life of Sir Nicholas Winton by Barbara Winton (Rating: 4/5)
  • The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller (Rating: 3/5)
  • Chasers of the Light: Poems from the Typewriter Series by Tyler Knott Gregson (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel (Rating: 4/5)
  • Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (Rating: 5/5)

— 2017 —

  • Words Can Change Your Brain by Andrew Newberg, MD and Mark Robert Waldman (Rating: 3.5/5)
  • Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics by Jackie Huba (Rating: 3/5)
  • The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (Rating: 5/5)
  • Drive by Don Tassone (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • Write Like Hemingway by R. Andrew Wilson, PhD (Rating: 5/5)
  • Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner (Rating: 3/5)
  • What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles (Rating: 3.5/5)
  • Firefly Summer by Maeve Binchy (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (Rating: 5/5)
  • The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath, Edited by Karen Kukil (Rating: 3.5/5)
  • Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (Rating: 4/5)
  • Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • All Our Worldly Goods by Irene Nemirovsky (Rating: 4.5/5)
  • The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran Rating: 5/5)
  • Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (Rating: 5/5)
  • Suite Français by Irene Nemirovsky (Rating: 5/5)

2018 Favorites

To-Read

  • Writing that Works by Richard Anderson
  • A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young
  • Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work by Mason Currey
  • The Givers and the Takers by Cris Evatt and Bruce Feld
  • Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King
  • The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White
  • The Copyeditor’s Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications by Amy Einsohn
  • Editors on Editing
  • The Glamour of Grammar by Roy Peter Clark
  • Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
  • Write Right by Jan Venolia
  • Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies by June Casagrande
  • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker
  • Woe is I by Patricia T. O’Conner
  • You Are What You Speak by Robert Lane Greene
  • ‘Cherry’ Ingram: The Englishman Who Saved Japan’s Blossoms by Naoko Abe
  • No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison by Behrouz Boochani
  • The Immoralist by Chloe Benjamin
  • The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
  • The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
  • Light a Pennycandle by Maeve Binchy
  • A Call to Mercy: Hearts to Love, Hands to Serve by Mother Teresa
  • How to Dress for Success by Edith Head
  • The Little Pink Book of Etiquette: A Civilized Guide to Getting It Right by Ruth Cullen
  • The Little Dictionary of Fashion by Christian Dior
  • Lessons from Madame Chic: 20 Stylish Secrets I Learned While Living in Paris by Jennifer L. Scott
  • Polish Your Poise with Madame Chic: Lessons in Everyday Elegance by Jennifer L. Scott
  • All in Good Taste by Kate Spade New York
  • A Guide to Elegance for Every Woman Who Wants to Be Well and Properly Dressed on All Occasions by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux
  • Etiquette: Charm and Civility for Every Occassion by Mr. Boddington’s Studio
  • Emily Post’s Etiquette: The Definitive Guide to Manners by Peggy Post
  • Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
  • Proper, Poised and Polished by Patricia Napier-Fitzpatrick
  • Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by Ross King
  • 100 Years of Fashion by Cally Blackman
  • Empress of Fashion: A Life of Diana Vreeland by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart
  • The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking
  • The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance — What Women Should Know by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman
  • The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan
  • The Starboard Sea by Amber Dermont
  • Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder by Arianna Huffington
  • The Spy Wore Red by Aline Griffith, Countess of Romanones
  • The Spy Went Dancing by Aline Griffith, Countess of Romanones
  • The Spy Wore Silk by Aline Griffith, Countess of Romanones
  • 1984 by George Orwell
  • The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Anne-Marie O’Connor
  • World Without End by Ken Folloett
  • Anatomy for Runners by Jay Dicharry
  • Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
  • Along the Infinite Sea by Beatriz Williams
  • A Writer’s Guide to Powerful Paragraphs by John Walsh
  • The Art of Readable Writing by Rudolf Flesch, PhD
  • Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks
  • Over to You by Roald Dahl
  • Mrs. Kennedy and Me by Clint Hill
  • The Boat People by Sharon Bala
  • A Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure
  • Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
  • All You Could Ask For by Mike Greenberg
  • The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes
  • A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner
  • Tribe by Sebastian Junger
  • Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
  • The Soloist by Steve Lopez
  • Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce
  • Words that Work by Dr. Frank Luntz