In My TBR Stack:

Influence and Impact: Discover and Excel at What Your Organization Needs From You the Most
by Bill Berman & George Bradt
John Wiley & Sons
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

Doing the right job the right way is critical to your professional success. Influence and Impact: Discover and Excel at What Your Organization Needs From You The Most provides an easy-to-follow, common-sense approach to building influence at any level of an organization. Accomplished leadership and executive coaches Bill Berman and George Bradt offer a fresh perspective on
Evaluating what values, strengths and capabilities you bring to your role
How you can develop new skills to increase your influence
Determining if you are in the right place to have the greatest impact

Through a trifecta of clear frameworks, accessible anecdotes, and pragmatic solutions, Influence and Impact shows the reader how to apply well-tested coaching tools to becoming more influential and achieving impact at work. If you have never worked with an executive coach—or even if you have—this book provides the concepts, techniques, and provocative questions to unpack personal paths to success.

Perfect for executives, managers, leaders, and any professional who hopes to get a clearer picture of what their colleagues, superiors, and followers expect of them, Influence and Impact will allow to you refocus your efforts at work and obtain the results you’ve been looking for.

In My TBR Stack:

The Mindfulness Edge: How to Rewire Your Brain for Leadership and Personal Excellence Without Adding to Your Schedule
by Matt Tenney and Tim Gard
John Wiley & Sons
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

There is a simple practice that can improve nearly every component of leadership excellence and it doesn't require adding anything to your busy schedule. In The Mindfulness Edge, you'll discover how a subtle inner shift, called mindfulness, can transform things that you already do every day into opportunities to become a better leader. Author Matt Tenney has trained leaders around the world in the practice of mindfulness. In this book, he partners with neuroscientist Tim Gard, PhD, to offer step-by-step, practical guidance for quickly and seamlessly integrating mindfulness training into your daily life—rewiring your brain in ways that improve both the ‘hard' and ‘soft' skills of leadership.

In this book, you'll learn how mindfulness training helps you:

• Quickly improve business acumen and your impact on the bottom line
• Become more innovative and attract/retain innovative team members
• Develop the emotional intelligence essential for creating and sustaining a winning culture
• Realize the extraordinary leadership presence that inspires greatness in others

The authors make a compelling case for why mindfulness training may be the 'ultimate success habit.' In addition to helping you improve the most essential elements of highly effective leadership, mindfulness training can help you discover unconditional happiness and realize incredible meaning—professionally and personally.

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On My Radar:

I intentionally search for books that might be "under the radar" because they might not have the advertising support of other titles.  These are typically titles I'd like to read.  I also like to promote books that often get placed "spine out" on release day, having been unfortunately buried by the James Pattersons and Nicholas Sparks of the world.  That's why I call this "On My Radar."  I hope they show up on your radar too.


Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry

by Marc Ambinder & D. B. Grady
John Wiley & Sons

Hardcover

From the publisher website:

There is a hidden country within the United States. It was formed from the astonishing number of secrets held by the government and the growing ranks of secret-keepers given charge over them. The government secrecy industry speaks in a private language of codes and acronyms, and follows an arcane set of rules and customs designed to perpetuate itself, repel penetration, and deflect oversight. It justifies itself with the assertion that the American values worth preserving are often best sustained by subterfuge and deception.

There are indications that this deep state is crumbling. Necessary secrets are often impossible to keep, while frivolous secrets are kept forever. The entire system has fallen prey to political manipulation, with leaks carefully timed to advance agendas, and over-classification given to indefensible government activities. 

Deep State, written by two of the country's most respected national security journalists, disassembles the secrecy apparatus of the United States and examines real-world trends that ought to trouble everyone from the most aggressive hawk to the fiercest civil libertarian. The book: 

- Provides the fullest account to date of the National Security Agency’s controversial surveillance program first spun up in the dark days after 9/11.

- Examines President Obama's attempt to reconcile his instincts as a liberal with the realities of executive power, and his use of the state secrets doctrine. 

- Exposes how the public’s ubiquitous access to information has been the secrecy industry's toughest opponent to date, and provides a full account of how WikiLeaks and other “sunlight” organizations are changing the government's approach to handling sensitive information, for better and worse. 

- Explains how the increased exposure of secrets affects everything from Congressional budgets to Area 51, from SEAL Team Six and Delta Force to the FBI, CIA, and NSA.

- Assesses whether the formal and informal mechanisms put in place to protect citizens from abuses by the American deep state work, and how they might be reformed.  

Deep State is based on the authors' insatiable curiosity for the ground truth and layered on a foundation of original and historical research as well as unprecedented access to lawmakers, intelligence agency heads, White House officials, and secret program managers. It draws on thousands of recently declassified documents and candid interviews with more than 100 military, industry, and government officials. 

By the bestselling authors of The Command: Deep Inside the President's Secret Army: Marc Ambinder, editor at large at The Week, contributing editor at GQ and the Atlantic, who has covered Washington for CBS News and ABC News; and D.B. Grady, a correspondent for the Atlantic, national security columnist for The Week, and former U.S. Army paratrooper and Afghanistan veteran.

On My Radar:

Do More, Spend Less: The New Secrets of Living the Good Life For Less
by Brad Wilson
John Wiley & Sons
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

Achieve stellar savings with the techniques used on bradsdeals.com
Do More, Spend Less provides tips, advice, real-world examples, and strategies consumers need to know to compete in the consumer world. Author Brad Wilson, founder of BradsDeals.com, explains the techniques and buying strategies that are used on his site, which have saved 19 million consumers more than $200 million on BradsDeals.com in the past year alone. The majority of deals on his site provide free, or nearly free, products and services. This book provides tips, advice, real-world examples, and strategies consumers need to know to compete in the consumer world.

Shares why you should never buy an Apple product from the Apple store

Details how to spend three weeks in a suite at the Park Hyatt Paris for $20

Shares the unknown way to clean up your credit report and add at least 20 points to your score

The entire basis for thinking about how best to shop, spend, travel, bank—essentially all aspects of being a consumer—has fundamentally changed. The power is now in your hands, and Do More, Spend Less shows you how to master your savings.

On My Radar:

How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You
by The Oatmeal

Andrews McMeel
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

Jesus Rollerblading Christ—another helping of TheOatmeal! Mrow, MOAR kitty comics. Mr. Oats delivers a sidesplitting serving of cat comics in his new book, How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You.

If your cat is kneading you, that's not a sign of affection. Your cat is actually checking your internal organs for weakness. If your cat brings you a dead animal, this isn't a gift. It's a warning. How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You is a hilarious, brilliant offering of cat comics, facts, and instructional guides from the creative wonderland at TheOatmeal.com.

How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You presents fan favorites, such as "Cat vs. Internet," "How to Pet a Kitty," and "The Bobcats," plus 15 brand-new, never-before-seen cat jokes. This Oatmeal collection is a must-have from Mr. Oats! A pullout poster is included at the back of the book.

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Learn Something New Every Day: 365 Facts to Fulfill Your Life
by Kee Malesky
John Wiley & Sons
Hardcover

From the publisher website:

What was the greatest thing before sliced bread?¹ What color did carrots used to be?² Why do many American spellings differ from their British counterparts?³ What does it mean "to have one's eyes lined with ham"? ⁴ If you know the answers to these questions, then you're John Hodgman. If you had to look for them below, you need this book.⁵
 
Kee Malesky, author of All Facts Considered, returns with a year's worth of facts on the arts, history, language, natural history, religion, and science to build up your brain. From "What is the only sea without coastlines?" to "How did the tradition of April Fool's Day begin?", this book is the best way to know more stuff than that other guy.⁶
 
Learn Something New Every Day is the ideal gift for anyone with an inquisitive mind and an appreciation of the wonders of the world around us. But don't give it to them. You don't want them to know more than you do.

1. Bagged bread. 2. Purple. 3. Blame—or thank—Noah Webster. 4. That's the Italian expression for "can't see the wood for the trees." 5. You'd enjoy it too, Mr. Hodgman. 6. Discovering more than one fact per day can cause increased confidence. We've probably already put you at risk with the four above. Learn safely.

Monday Wishlist 6/4/12

A Nation of Wusses: How America's Leaders Lost the Guts to Make Us Great
by Ed Rendell

John Wiley & Sons
Hardcover

From the publisher website:

Governor Ed Rendell explains why America's leaders rarely call for sacrifice for the greater good—to avoid making any sacrifices themselves! 

Rendell has seen job security become the primary consideration of any person with power in America—their own job security! Most politicians and bureaucrats can see no further ahead than the next election, sometimes no further than the next press conference. Americans are rarely afraid of sacrifice and hard work when they mean building a better future, but when was the last time you heard of a leader of anything making a sacrifice for the greater good? The people can only win when they make it clear to the powers that be that making the right choices, even the hard ones, is the key to winning the next election.

• Explains in rollicking stories ranging from the profane to the profound that most hard choices are only "hard" because the polls conflict with your principles
• Ed Rendell rose to the top of Philadelphia, then Pennsylvania, then national politics, by doing what he thought was right, and there were plenty of times that looked like it would be his downfall as well
• This book revisits the high points of Ed Rendell's career and current landscape to define the political fights his peers seem just as afraid of winning as losing
• Rendell is a former head of the Democratic National Committee, a current MSNBC Senior Political Analyst, and a Partner at Ballard Spahr LLP

On My Radar (Tuesday Edition)

The Weasel: A Double Life in the Mob
by Adrian Humphreys
John Wiley & Sons

Hardcover

From the publisher website:

In the world of organized crime the bosses grab the headlines, as the names Capone, Gotti, Bonnano, Cotroni and Rizzuto attest. But a crime family has many working parts and the young mobster known as The Weasel was the epitome of a crucial, invisible cog-the soldier, the muscle, the driver, the gopher.

By a quirk of fate, Marvin Elkind-later The Weasel-was placed in the foster home of a tough gangster family, immersing him from the age of nine in a daring world of con men, cheats, bootleggers, loan sharks, bank robbers, leg breakers and Mafia bosses. During a Golden Age of underworld life in New York, Detroit and across Canada, The Weasel found himself working with a surprising cast of colourful characters. He befriended powerful gangsters by smuggling bottles of Scotch to their tables as a waiter at New York's famed Copacabana; he was pushed to be Jimmy Hoffa's chauffeur.

But his disenchantment with the broken promises of mob life brought him into another fraternity, one offering the same adrenaline rush, danger and dark comedy he craved. After a startling confrontation, he was embraced by law enforcement, and a cop with a reputation for results. Now a career informant, The Weasel learned he was a far better fink than he ever was a crook.

With his impeccable gangland pedigree, enormous girth, cold stare and sausage-like fingers adorned with chunky rings, no one questioned The Weasel's loyalty. The backroom doors were flung open and The Weasel slipped in, bringing undercover cops with him. For case after case over two decades, he worked for the FBI, U.S. Customs, Scotland Yard, RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police and other law enforcement agencies on three continents, trapping and betraying mobsters, mercenaries, spies, drug traffickers, pornographers, union fat cats and corrupt politicians.

With unflinching honesty, The Weasel and many of the undercover officers he worked with revealed their successes and failures to award-winning crime reporter and best-selling author Adrian Humphreys.

The Weasel is the riveting chronicle of a unique and engaging figure who lived a most dangerous and rare experience.

It is a story that was never supposed to be told.