Don’t you just love a good book recommendation? When someone with sparkly eyes and the voice full of enthusiasm describes a book that they’ve just read, you can’t help but jump on board. Of course, you don’t always love a book as much as the person who suggested it did, but reading a rave review or getting a recommendation are the best ways to find something new to read.

For the Akateeminen & WTC Turku Book Club there’s a shortlist of titles for each meeting from which the group selects the next book to read. The books focus on business, psychology, economics, and organizational theory, among other things.  Since the list includes very interesting books and especially some new releases, we’ve decided to share the list publicly as well. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the books that were reviewed for the next read of the Book Club. This time the topics vary from economic ideas, practical work and life skills to optimal brain functioning.

Our book list starts with the most theoretic one, and you just can’t help but wonder whether readers will constantly feel like snacking while diving into the Edible Economics by Ha-Joon Chang. In the book, challenging economic ideas are made more palatable by plating them alongside stories about food from around the world. Chang uses histories behind familiar food items – where they come from, how they are cooked and consumed, what they mean to different cultures – to explore economic theory. Explaining everything from the hidden cost of care work to the misleading language of the free market as he cooks dishes like anchovy and egg toast, Gambas al Ajillo and Korean dotori mook, Ha-Joon Chang serves up an easy-to-digest feast of bold ideas. Myth-busting, witty and thought-provoking, Edible Economics shows that getting to grips with the economy is like learning a recipe: if we understand it, we can change it – and, with it, the world. This book was a strong candidate and the number one choice of some of the Book Club members.

Moving towards the practical skills that can be used in most jobs, a book very plainly called Leadership Strategy and Tactics promises to show principles that can be applied and tenets that can be followed, skills that can be learned and manoeuvres that can be practised and executed. Retired Navy SEAL Officer Jocko Willink delivers a powerful and pragmatic leadership methodology that teaches how to lead any team in any situation to victory. You will learn leadership strategies and tactics that have been tested and proven on the battlefield, in business and in life.

Drawing from seven years of hands-on research, The Friction Project by bestselling authors Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao teaches readers how to become ”friction fixers.” The book starts by unpacking how skilled friction fixers think and act like trustees of others’ time. They provide friction forensics to help readers identify where to avert and repair bad organizational friction and where to maintain and inject good friction. Then their help pyramid shows how friction fixers do their work, from reframing friction troubles they can’t fix right now, so they feel less threatening, to designing and repairing organizations. The heart of the book digs into the causes and solutions for five of the most common and damaging friction troubles: oblivious leaders, addition sickness, broken connections, jargon monoxide, and fast and frenzied people and teams. In the end, the book gathers lessons for leading your own friction project, including linking little things to big things; the power of civility, caring, and love for propelling designs and repairs; and embracing the mess that is an inevitable part of the process.

We are great fans of optimizing our time, that’s why the list includes several titles within the domain of time management. We love it when a book promises that you can master the superpower of using your time wisely to achieve success in business, life and beyond. Time Wise by Imber Amantha gives access to the secrets and strategies of high achievers for making things work and approach their workdays. The book promises to go deep and to unveil some of the more counterintuitive but effective methods that boost your productivity. Some of the high achievers featured, along with their personal strategies, include Adam Alter setting systems instead of goals, Rita McGrath who consults her own personal board of directors, Jake Knapp who focuses on the one important thing of the day and Oliver Burkeman’s approach to beating the to-do list.

And more for this category, as we’re always fans of learning how to lower stress and increase time to enjoy guilt-free play, The Now Habit by Dr. Neil Fiore seems to fit the bill. The book promises to offer a comprehensive plan to help readers in managing time and to understand and deal with the role technology plays in procrastination today. Dr. Fiore’s techniques will help any busy person start tasks sooner and accomplish them more quickly, without the anxiety brought on by the negative habits of procrastination and perfectionism. This is said to be one of the most effective programs to combat procrastination, and the book has sold over 100,000 copies, it has been translated into 11 languages, and is now revised and updated – and this new version is on our shortlist.

We then move in our shortlist towards personal well-being. When a book promises to share a ground-breaking model to achieve true well-being and optimal brain functioning, you can bet that it’ll be on the list. In The Pyramid Mind, Dr Vlad Beliavsky introduces his life-changing approach to organising the way we think. He breaks down our minds into six interconnected areas, each of which contributes to who we are and affects our mental and physical health, relationships and daily performance. The Pyramid Mind promises to teach you how your mind really works. Vlad’s integrative approach reveals how to manage your thoughts, emotions, habits and memories; how to grow and become the person you would like to be; and how to enhance your confidence and sense of happiness.

Productivity advice works – and we need it now more than ever – but it’s just as important that we also develop our capacity for calm. By finding calm and overcoming anxiety, we don’t just feel more comfortable in our own skin, we invest in the missing piece that leads our efforts to become sustainable over time. We build a deeper, more expansive reservoir of energy to draw from throughout the day, and have greater mental resources at our disposal not only to do good work, but also to live a good life. In How to Calm Your Mind by Chris Bailey, we understand how analogue and digital worlds affect calm and anxiety in different ways and how our desire for dopamine breeds anxiety. In addition, we’ll learn how hidden sources of stress can be tamed by a ’stimulation fast’ and how ’busyness’ is as much a state of mind as it is an actual state of life. This was a strong favorite of a few Book Club members in addition to the first title, Edible Economics.

However, what eventually grabbed the attention of the group, providing further practical skills, with a nod towards time management was Quit, a game-changing guide, where decision-making expert Annie Duke shows why quitting what holds you back is essential for success. Drawing on new research and fascinating examples, this book offers practical strategies and explains why it’s so hard to walk away and how to identify when it’s best to persevere or pivot. Packed with insights from athletes, start-up founders and entertainers, Quit breaks down the mental model that keeps us from walking away and provides a toolkit for quitting anything – a career, a marriage, an investment – at the perfect time. What if the secret to success is not just hard work, but knowing when to change track?

In addition to the topic itself, the group selected Quit because we wanted to celebrate International Women’s Day and select a book written by a female author. We were also intrigued by the author’s background, as she’s a former professional poker player and author in cognitive-behavioral decision science and decision education. She has previously written instructional books for poker players and two books on decision-making.

The shortlist truly includes a great variety of topics, and we want to include authors with varied backgrounds as well, trying to include European authors and wide array of expertise’s. The list is discussed at the end of the Book Club meeting and typically consensus is reached effortlessly. Which book grabbed your attention?

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This article was written by WTC Turku’s Heidi Saaristo, who enjoys both non-fiction as well as fiction and is the one person who most likely already read the book you just heard rave reviews about. Heidi is the Head of WTC Turku, helping companies to create sustainable growth abroad with her extensive experience in international business and strategic vision. In the Akateeminen & WTC Turku Book Club she brings her enthusiastic approach to discussions on a wide variety of current business and personal development topics.

The book descriptions that are used in the article are all from here:

The Pyramid Mind – Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

Time Wise – Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

Leadership Strategy and Tactics – Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

Edible Economics – Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

Quit – Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

The Now Habit – Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

The Friction Project – Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

How to Calm Your Mind – Akateeminen Kirjakauppa