Katie Linder: You're listening to "You've Got This" Episode 72. Welcome to "You've Got This," a weekly podcast for higher education professionals looking to increase their confidence and capacity for juggling the day-to-day demands of an academic life. I'm your host, Dr. Katie Linder. As an avid reader and writer I'm thrilled that this episode of "You've Got This" is sponsored by Stylus Publishing, a leading independent U.S. publisher that focuses on books for teachers, administrators, and policymakers in higher education. YGT listeners receive a 20% off discount for all books purchased through the Stylus website at www.styluspub.com using code YGT20, so make sure to check out their catalog to see if you can find your next great read.
In this episode I want to share some of my favorite books of the year. I know the year is not quite over and I'll probably read some more before 2018, but this seemed like a good time to kind of look through some of the things that I've been reading over the past year, especially, because I've been on a little bit of a reading binge lately as I've been finishing up my third book and I've been turning back to fiction. It's been super fun, so I pulled out a bunch of different categories and I've got nine different books. I'm sure there will be other ones kind of tucked in here as well that I'll mention that I think would be fun if you're looking for something to read over your holiday break.
I should also say I pulled this list from a reading challenge list that I did for Goodreads, so if you want to follow what I'm reading you can find me on Goodreads. I was hoping to read way more books this year and I kept adjusting my challenge down. Finally, I adjusted it to 50 books. I'm currently at 49 as I record this, so this is from a list of 49 books that I read this year. If you want to see the whole list you can go to my account.
For fiction the one that I chose was a book called "A Darker Domain" by Val McDermid. I have read Val McDermid for quite some time. She has a series that is basically it's a mystery series with a police officer and a criminal profiler. It's set in various places in Europe. It was actually made into a television series called "Wire in the Blood" that's very good. "A Darker Domain" is one of Val McDermid's stand-alone's, and it was one that I kind of luxuriated in over a period of several weeks when I didn't have a ton of time to be reading it. I think actually I ended up checking it out from the library twice because it just took me so long to get through, but I really enjoyed it, and I love all of her books.
One of her other stand-alone's, which is called "A Place of Execution" is one of my top 10 books of all time. I just think it's phenomenally done and anything that you get from her is going to be really good. The books that are in the Carol Jordan, Tony Hill series, which is the one that was made into "Wire in the Blood" the television show are pretty dark, so if you are not into that I would avoid those, but "A Darker Domain" is one of her lighter books if you're interested in mysteries and want something good.
I also wanted to share one of my favorite YA novels of the year, so young-adult novels and I actually really enjoy young-adult novels. I think that there are some really good ones that have been coming out. I like to see what's out there in part because I have nieces and nephews that are of this age. Typically, when we gift give to our nieces and nephews we buy them books. One of the YA novels that I read this past year is called "Liar & Spy" by Rebecca Stead. I had read another book by Rebecca Stead and really enjoyed it.
The title of it is not coming to me, but I will link to it in the show notes. It had won some kind of award, so I came across this other book "Liar & Spy" and checked it out from the library and really enjoyed it. I think that YA novels are a great way to kind of clean your palate if you want something that is relatively easy to read, it's going to be fun, but a lot of the YA stuff coming out now it's really well done, so that is "Liar & Spy" by Rebecca Stead.
For non-fiction one of the books I read this year that is going to stick with me for an incredibly long time is Jon Ronson's "So You've Been Publicly Shamed." This is a book that I read in part for the research that I have been doing for the third book that I've been working on on managing academic identity online, but I also had just been seeing it everywhere and was kind of curious about it. The book is generally about basically like public shaming on the Internet and how that happens, why it happens. He goes through several examples of it. It's fascinating, it's disturbing. I think I read it in like an afternoon. It was just really good. "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" by Jon Ronson is my pick for non-fiction.
For memoir, which I really enjoy I often read several memoirs throughout any given year. I chose "Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Amy Krouse Rosenthal actually died this past year, which is why I was reminded of her work. I have known of her work for quite some time. She is an artist and a writer. She has another book called "Textbook" which I also read this year, and really enjoyed, but she does some very kind of unconventional writing, so "Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life" is an alphabetical list of various things from her life that she decides to talk about. She's wonderfully creative. It's beautifully written and I wanted to kind of celebrate her through reading that book this year, so for memoir I would absolutely recommend "Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life."
My favorite audiobook this year was a book called "Britt-Marie Was Here" by Fredrik Backman. There's a couple other books that he's written as well that I'm sure you've heard of and I can link to them in the show notes, but this one is about kind of an older woman who moves to a small town after leaving her husband and adventures ensue. She's very kind of crotchety and set in her ways, so I listened to this a lot while I was walking around and taking my walks in the mornings and just really enjoyed it, so "Britt-Marie Was Here" is excellent on audio. I'm sure it's also excellent if you do not listen to it on audio, but the narrator was really great.
My favorite book that I read for professional development was a book called "Burn Your Portfolio: Stuff They Didn't Teach You in Design School, But Should" by Michael Janda. I read this at the very beginning of the year. When I scrolled through all the different things I'd read it really stuck out to me. This is a book that I'll probably be adding to my personal library. I am not a designer. I did not go to design school. I do not plan to go to design school, but what I really loved about this book is Michael Janda does an excellent job talking about how do you work with clients and how do you set up systems in your business that really help with efficiency.
He also talks a lot about managing and working with creatives. It reminded me a lot of some of the work of Todd Henry who I've also read several books of this year who has a podcast called "The Accidental Creative." He also has a new podcast called "Herding Lions" which is about managing creatives, so I really enjoy Todd Henry's work, and I enjoyed this book by Michael Janda as well. It's a nice book that has like really short chapters. You can kind of dip in and out of it if this is something that might be of interest to you as well.
The book that was kind of my favorite inspirational book this year was "The Creative Life" by Julia Cameron. I dipped in and out of several of Julia Cameron's books this year because I'm very familiar with "The Artist's Way" which is one of her books that you may have heard of. I didn't realize how much she'd written to be honest, and when I started looking around and realizing what her backlog was of all her books I started kind of dipping in and out of them. This book was really interesting because it just kind of talks about some of the scenes of her life and her day-to-day work and her relationships and how she kind of basically practices what she preaches in "The Artist's Way," so I really enjoyed it and found it very inspirational.
The favorite book that I read this year on writing was a book called "Still Writing" by Dani Shapiro. I probably have talked about this previously on the show. This was the book that I was reading in May when I was finishing up the first draft of my third book that would go out to reviewers and every night I was kind of dipping into this book, which is also a memoir about Dani Shapiro's writing life. She's been writing for over 20 years supporting herself as a writer through fiction, memoir, and other forms of writing. This was also a very inspirational book, but I love reading books on writing, and this was a new one to me even though it's been out for several years now, so definitely would recommend this if you're looking for a book on writing that's "Still Writing" by Dani Shapiro.
Then the last book I wanted to mention because I recommend it all the time so this is my favorite book of the year that I recommend all the time to people and that is "Playing Big" by Tara Mohr. It is a book that is meant for women so I should say that off the bat, but I think it's actually useful for everyone, but Tara Mohr basically is making an argument that we play too small sometimes, and we kind of get in our own way, so she gives several different practical suggestion throughout this book of how to play bigger and what does that mean.
One of my favorite exercises that she talks about that is often the reason I recommend the book to people is she talks about an exercise called the Inner Mentor, which is basically visioning who you will be 20 to 30 years in the future, and then using that vision to help you make decisions now because it's kind of your wiser version of yourself. This is a book that I had heard about for a long time. I had heard Tara Mohr talk on several podcast episodes about it. Now that I've read it I recommend it to a lot of my coaching clients and this is a book that I've just been recommending to a lot of different people, so that's "Playing Big" by Tara Mohr.
So just to quickly run through all these books one more time, and they are going to be listed in the show notes as well as all the other little ones I mentioned here and there my fiction book was "A Darker Domain" by Val McDermid. My non-fiction book was "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" by Jon Ronson. My YA novel was "Liar & Spy" by Rebecca Stead. The memoir was "Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. My favorite audiobook was "Britt-Marie Was Here" by Fredrik Backman. My professional development book of the year was "Burn Your Portfolio: Stuff They Didn't Teach You in Design School, But Should" by Michael Janda. The inspirational book was "The Creative Life" by Julia Cameron. My book on writing that I love this year was "Still Writing" by Dani Shapiro, and the book I recommend all the time is "Playing Big" by Tara Mohr.
Of course, I want to hear the books you're reading, too, and what were the ones that were most memorable for you this year, what should I be adding to my list feel free to recommend things to me via email on Twitter, on Goodreads, all these different places where you can find me to talk about books. Of course, I love talking about books and reading. Hopefully, one of these books might be of interest to you to add to your list over the winter break if you have a few days off that you can dig into something fun. So, I'm Katie Linder. Thanks so much for checking in with this weeks YGT episode, and I'll be back next week with another episode.
Show notes and transcripts for each episode of "You've Got This" can be found at YGTforyouvegotthispodcast.com, that's ygtpodcast.com. Don't forget that if you're looking for a good book this episode of "You've Got This" is sponsored by Stylus Publishing, a leading independent U.S. publisher that focuses on books for teachers, administrators and policymakers in higher education. YGT listeners receive a 20% off discount for books purchased through the Stylus website at www.styluspub.com using code YGT20. To comment on today's show, suggest a topic for me to discuss, or ask a question that could be featured in a future episode connect with me on Twitter @Katie__Linder or at YGT_Podcast or by emailing .
You can also hear from me each week on the "Research and Action Podcast" available on iTunes and SoundCloud, and through my newsletter "The Academic Creative." Subscribe to this newsletter at Katielinder.work to receive an essay focused on topics like productivity, resilience, and what it means to be a creative academic delivered directly to your inbox each week. If you find the "You've Got This Podcast" to be a helpful resource please consider leaving the show a review in iTunes. Also, don't forget to subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode and tell your friends and colleagues. The best promotion for the show is definitely word of mouth. If you want to learn more about my work and projects or how to hire me as a consultant, workshop facilitator or speaker visit my website Katielinder.work. Thanks for listening.
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