The essay “I, Pencil,” also known as “I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read,” was first published by the American businessman and libertarian advocate Leonard E. Read in 1958. The essay first appeared in The Freeman, a publication of the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEE), a think-tank he co-founded in 1946. Read was a staunch critic of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” an ambitious series of government policies and... Read I, Pencil Summary

Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked (2017), a nonfiction book by Adam Alter, explores the relationship between humans and addictive technologies. Alter is a professor of marketing at New York University Stern School of Business and has written other nonfiction titles about human behavior, such as Drunk Tank Pink.The book begins with the assertion that people can easily become addicted to smartphones, video games, and other technologies. Many... Read Irresistible Summary

It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy is a 2002 nonfiction book by US Navy Captain D. Michael Abrashoff that is part autobiography and part leadership advice. The book focuses on the innovative leadership strategies Abrashoff brought to his two years as commander of the troubled and dysfunctional ship USS Benfold in 1997. During his tenure as captain, Abrashoff transformed the culture on the ship to such an extent... Read It's Your Ship Summary

In 2019, Ramit Sethi, an American personal finance blogger, published the second edition of his New York Times bestselling book I Will Teach You to Be Rich with Workman Publishers. Like the 2009 first edition, the second edition is a practical introduction to basic financial literacy targeted at an audience of young professionals. In over nine chapters covering topics like retirement accounts, credit cards, and investing, Sethi defines financial terms, outlines foundational concepts, and delineates... Read I Will Teach You To Be Rich Summary

Almost a million people in Washington, DC, endured freezing temperatures to catch a glimpse of newly elected US President John F. Kennedy delivering his inaugural address on January 20, 1961, as he was sworn in as the 35th US president. Like all presidential inaugural speeches, Kennedy’s sought to set a tone for his administration and define his vision for the country. Unlike other inaugurals, however, Kennedy’s has become a touchstone document in US political history... Read John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address Summary

Justice as Fairness: A Restatement is a 2001 treatise by the liberal philosopher John Rawls. It is the last book he published before his death in 2002, and due to his declining health, he was unable to finish several sections of it, especially Parts 4 and 5. Notes also indicate plans for a section revising the international dimensions of the theory as he had spelled out in his 2001 book The Law of Peoples. As... Read Justice as Fairness Summary

Landscape with Invisible Hand is a satirical dystopian science fiction novel by M. T. Anderson, written for a young adult audience. A diverse author, Anderson writes both fiction and nonfiction for people of all ages. In 2023, Landscape with Invisible Hand was adapted for film, reflecting the novel’s popularity and relevance. The book depicts a future world in which an alien species, the vuvv, have sold their technology to humans, causing the collapse of the... Read Landscape with Invisible Hand Summary

Introductory ParagraphLate Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World is an award-winning environmental and economic history published in 2001 by historian Mike Davis. Davis studies the causes and impacts of three interconnected drought-famines that impacted South America, South and Southeast Asia, and East Asia during the late 19th century. He suggests that colonial administrations were largely responsible for the devastation these droughts caused: Their policies of extraction left local populations... Read Late Victorian Holocausts Summary

Lawn Boy, a novella by Gary Paulsen published in 2007, is a middle grade chapter book about a 12-year-old boy who receives an old lawn mower as a birthday gift from his grandmother. As underwhelming as the gift appears, this moment launches a sequence of events that ends with the boy owning $480,000 and being the sole investor of a heavyweight boxer. Full of quirky humor and digestible lessons in capitalism, Paulsen’s story leads the... Read Lawn Boy Summary

Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t (2014) is inspirational speaker Simon Sinek’s second book, a follow-up to Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (2009). The book’s title is derived from a practice in which Marine Corps Officers eat last, sacrificing their own needs for those in their care. Sacrifice is key. Sinek explores the ways in which successful individuals and companies develop cultures built on... Read Leaders Eat Last Summary

Leadership and Self-Deception: The Secret to Transforming Relationships and Unleashing Results is a business and self-development book that explores how individuals and organizations limit their effectiveness through self-deception—particularly by failing to recognize how their mindset and behavior affect others. First published in 2000 as a fictional narrative by the Arbinger Institute, a leadership development organization known for its work in mindset change, the book is geared toward managers, team leaders, executives, and anyone looking to... Read Leadership and Self-Deception Summary

Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun is a self-improvement and business leadership book by Wess Roberts, who was a human resources manager at Fireman’s Fund Insurance when he published the book in 1989. Using the historical figure of Attila the Hun as his mouthpiece, Roberts outlines his management style and approach to business. This guide refers to Attila’s “persona” when quoting words that Roberts imagines Attila might have said. In the introduction, Roberts discusses Attila... Read Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun Summary

Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy is a 2022 book by scholar and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. It was the last major work Kissinger produced in his more than 100 years of life. As with many of his later works, such as World Order (2014), it takes familiar themes from his scholarly and political career and updates them to reflect contemporary concerns. Kissinger was fascinated by the possibilities of individual leadership as early... Read Leadership Summary

Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual (2020) by Jocko Willink, a former Navy SEAL officer and a leadership consultant, is a manual on leadership principles and practices. The book offers insights gleaned from Willink’s extensive military background. It dispenses practical advice and techniques for leaders across diverse domains, underscoring the significance of discipline, accountability, communication, and teamwork.Willink draws on his experiences as a decorated Navy SEAL and in training and leading high-achieving teams to shape... Read Leadership Strategy And Tactics Summary

Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change is a self-help book and memoir by Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic leader of the Georgia House of Representatives and the first Black woman to be a major party nominee for a governorship. Having served as minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives for six years (2011-2017), the first woman and first Black person to hold this position, Abrams maps out... Read Lead from the Outside Summary

Leading Change by John P. Kotter is a nonfiction book outlining Kotter’s eight-stage process for effecting change in a business. Kotter is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership Emeritus at Harvard Business School. He is also the founder of Kotter International, a consulting firm that provides training, certification, and consulting services in leadership and change in business. The book relies on his personal experience as an educator and consultant; rather than using formal citations, Kotter... Read Leading Change Summary

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (2013) is a nonfiction book written by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Drawing on both research and her own experiences, Sandberg describes how and why gender inequality continues to operate in the modern workforce, and offers advice for women seeking to balance a career and family. Ultimately, Sandberg argues that full equality will only come about when women "lean in," pushing past their own fears and misgivings to... Read Lean In Summary

Legacy: What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life is a non-fiction book by author and leadership consultant James Kerr. Published in 2013, it falls within the business and leadership literature genre, with a strong focus on sports psychology. The book examines the enduring impact of the All Blacks, the New Zealand national rugby team’s approach to teamwork, leadership, and personal development, suggesting that their methods have relevance beyond rugby. In... Read Legacy Summary

Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman is a memoir and business book written by the founder of the outdoor apparel company Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard. In the book, Chouinard explains how Patagonia became the successful, environmentally conscious business it is known as. He details the twin histories of his lifelong pursuit of outdoor recreation and his founding and development of Patagonia. Chouinard shows the extent to which he shaped Patagonia to... Read Let My People Go Surfing Summary

Originally published in 1989, Liar’s Poker is a nonfiction book that details author Michael Lewis’s experiences as a Wall Street bonds salesman in the late 1980s. Liar’s Poker is a betting game played with single dollar bills. In the book, bond traders at Salomon Brothers, an investment bank, play a much bigger betting game involving hundreds of millions of dollars, but the skills they require—daring, quick thinking, and ruthless bluffing—are basically the same as in... Read Liar’s Poker Summary