Nonfiction
Browse our collection of nonfiction book reviews
The Burnout Imperative: How Leaders Break the Cycle and Build Systems That Strengthen Organizations―and Themselves
Patrice Bonfiglio (Forbes Books)
We live in an era when busyness is worn as a badge of honor and burnout has become far more than a personal wellness issue. It is, in fact, an economic crisis. Today, exhaustion drains an estimated $8.8 trillion from the global economy, and eight in ten US office workers report feeling its effects. Yet most responses, from wellness perks to productivity apps, barely scratch the surface. In The Burnout Imperative, hedge fund veteran and Burnout Cl...
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Why Not?: The Question That Drives Agile Leadership in Healthcare and Beyond
Robert C. Garrett, Jose M. Azar (Forbes Books)
Leaders have always faced the challenge of balancing bold vision with disciplined execution and delivering results without burning people out, but we're in an era of major disruption, from workforce shortages to the rise of AI. As change accelerates, the instinct to lean hard into technology can feel more urgent than anything else. But the best leaders know better. In Why Not?, Robert C. Garrett, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health, and Jose M. Aza...
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How to Get a Return on Failure: Fail Smarter―Return Stronger
John C. Maxwell (Forbes Books)
Under relentless pressure to perform, failure can feel more dangerous than ever, and our instinct to avoid it has never been stronger. Most people spend their energy hiding setbacks, dodging mistakes, or letting losses define their worth. But the most successful people know better. What separates high achievers from everyone else is not the avoidance of failure; it is knowing how to get a positive return on it. In How to Get a Return on Failure:...
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Identity Under Attack: An Industry Founder Exposes the Hidden Security Crisis in Modern Enterprises
Mark McClain (Forbes Books)
For decades, organizations built digital walls; today, attackers simply log in. In Identity Under Attack, Mark McClain argues that identity—every contractor, employee, service account, bot, and AI agent requesting access—has become the true perimeter of enterprise security. In twelve chapters, he builds a solid case to show how we arrived here: from mainframe-era user management through single sign-on and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance to the SaaS exp...
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Audacity: Go From Wannabe Leader to the Leader Others Wannabe
Katie Goar (Forbes Books)
For too long, we have been sold a recipe for leadership: a splash of pedigree, a dash of dress code, and a fancy title carefully built over ten years in the corner office. In Audacity, Katie Goar calls that recipe what it is: BS. Instead, she offers something far more durable. From the tent in the woods where she spent a season of childhood homelessness to the president’s office of Quadel Consulting & Training, she tells the story of one woma...
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Together We Climb: A Community-Driven Approach to Break the Cycle of Poverty and Build Prosperity
Steven C. Taylor & Jason Janz (Advantage Books)
This book illustrates that poverty in America is not a waiting room but a mountain to scale, and no one reaches the summit alone. In Together We Climb, policy leader Steven C. Taylor and CrossPurpose founder Jason Janz, both shaped by childhoods on the economic edge, confront a staggering paradox: the wealthiest country in the world cannot pull its people out of poverty. How can one understand that the country spends $1.75 trillion a year making...
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The Impolite Canadian: Why Playing Nice Is Costing Us the Future
Kumaran Nadesan (Forbes Books)
Canada’s greatest weakness may be the very trait the world admires most— its politeness. In The Impolite Canadian, Kumaran Nadesan, an entrepreneur and former public servant, argues that a national identity built on quiet deference has cost the country its talent, its influence, and its voice on the world stage. He reflects on his journey from war-torn Sri Lanka to a Scarborough apartment block to Team Canada trade missions abroad, and he dismant...
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Super Players
Verne Harnish (Forbes Books)
What separates the employee who merely shows up from the one who becomes indispensable? In Super Players, Verne Harnish and Kevin Daum, with Anne Mary Ciminelli, argue that the difference between the two is not talent. It is habit. Drawing on decades of coaching companies through scaling, they map twelve high-impact habits across the four capacities every organization wants to win at: Will, Values, Results, and Skills. Each chapter opens with a d...
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Tuesday in Trussville: How One Small Town's Lift Up Culture Is Shaping the Future of Business
Robert L. Mason (Forbes Books)
What if the most disruptive business strategy of the century is not artificial intelligence but love? That's the wager behind Robert L. Mason's account of SPOC Energy, the hybrid-power company he built in Trussville, Alabama. The book opens on a Tuesday in Trussville, Alabama, when Mason gathers the entire SPOC Energy workforce beneath the red steel beams of Building Eight to announce a company-wide drug test. He watches a veteran police officer...
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Carry the Weight
Joshua Teixidor (Curtis Publishing)
Most leadership books open with a hero’s story, but Carry the Weight opens with a manager who became the boss he used to hate. Joshua Teixidor is a top sales rep promoted for hitting numbers, but he nearly loses his best people by confusing pressure with leadership. That is, until a rep named Melissa tells him he is not coaching anyone. That moment becomes an epiphany for him: you don't become a leader when you get the title. You become one when...
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