Is your COVID Funk Easing? Feel Like Reading Again.
Here is a list of some of my favourites
When covid hit, I couldn’t focus. I stop reading entirely for at least two months. I even had trouble following tv shows, and ended up spending significant time on social media, trying to fill the gap in social interactions I was missing.
Sometime in June that shifted, I started reading again, but unlike before COVID where I would buy cheap Kindle books and plod through them, I decided that if I was going to spend time reading, I was only going to choose books I would really enjoyed and to help facilitate that, I asked my Husband to gift me books for Mother’s Day and he did it the best way possible, by giving me cold hard electronic cash.
Mother’s Day I spent a few glorious hours trying to decide what to buy. I started by going my goodreads library looking at all the books I had given a 5 star rating. I searched those authors to find what else they had published and purchased them for my Kindle. It was so much fun!!
The process reacquainted me with some of some of my favourite books and I thought maybe others might be starting to come out of their COVID funks and looking for some really good books to enjoy. Here are some of my favourites.
Best Non-Fiction
Best Autobiography
I loved listening to Michelle Obama read this book. I have always been a fan of hers, but reading this booked helped me see what she sacrificed to allow Barack to follow his dreams and even though she didn’t want to be in politics she took her role as First Lady seriously and accomplished so much with it. She truly is an inspiration.
Really really close runner up in this category is Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah, both books are best enjoyed as audio books read by their authors. The number of accents Trevor Noah can do is impressive.
Best Biography
This was a fascinating read and an amazing story of survival. It shows how hope can get you through most anything.
Best Feminist Book
Reading her story was very powerful for me. She laid the ground work for Women In Tech to fight back and be heard. She laid the ground work for initiatives like Code Like A Girl to succeed and for people like Susan Fowler to speak out and be taken seriously. It frustrates me so much that she lost her legal battle. If this were played out again today I highly doubt she would loose. I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to understand what it is like to be a Women In Tech.
Best Technology Leadership Book
We have been putting the ideas from this book into practice for over a year in my development teams at Arctic Wolf. As a result we have kept our eNPS for the development team over 50 while growing the team by over 50%. We have have improved uptime, and increased the frequency that we deploy code while scaling our systems by over 100%. If you are an engineering leader I can’t recommend this book enough.
Best Agile Book
I am a firm believer in little ‘a’ agile. By that I mean actually being agile, not just following ceremonies that make your teams look “Agile.” It is about going back to the principles of agile and constantly evaluating if what you and your teams are doing is the most effective way to work. This book combined with Accelerate from above will help you build industry leading development teams.
Best DevOps Book
If you work in tech this book is a must read! This book is written in Novel format making it really easy to consume. As you follow the main character you can empathize with what he is going through. Guaranteed there will be be scenarios you have also lived. You can then see how the lead character works through those scenarios and helps his team realize continuous delivery and DevOps methodologies to solve serious quality and productivity issues.
The author’s follow up book The Unicorn Project is also worth a read.
Best Business Book
The most important thing I learned from this book is that there is no winning or loosing in business. There is only the continuous challenge of developing a company with purpose and long term goals that will allow you to react to our ever changing markets. I highly recommend this for any business leader.
Best Social Insight Book
Why do so many black people get shot by police? This book goes into depths on the physiology of why this happens. I found this book heart breaking and fascinating at the same time. It opened my eyes to social issues that I had previously not considered and gave me great insight into this very complicated problem.
Best Anti-Racist Book
If you are white, you should seriously consider reading this book. I will admit that I am only two thirds of the way through, but I would be remise if I didn’t include it in this list. This book helps us (as white people) that we must think of racism as a continuum as opposed to binary. We are all racist to some degree because of how our society is set up. Instead of automatically getting defensive when we hear this, we need to take a look at ourselves and continually strive to change. To play the infinite game when it comes to eliminating our racists beliefs, see what I did there :-).
Best Body Positivity Book
I am a huge fan of Jes Baker. I read this book shortly after I entered recovery from my Eating Disorder. She help reinforce for me that a thin body does not make you smart, funny, successful, or beautiful. That every body is beautiful, and that the size of your body has absolutely no relevance to how smart, funny, or successful you are.
Best World War II Non-Fiction
Best Fiction
Best Can’t Put it Down Fiction
This one is pure entertainment! This book is full of Nostalgia for those of us who grew up in the 80s especially if you were into video games. Though none of that knowledge is necessary to enjoy the book to the fullest. The plot line and world they live in is nothing I have ever seen before. It is well written, smart, and always keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Best World War II Historical Fiction
I couldn’t pick between these three, so will recommend them all.
Best Addictive Chick Lit
ANYTHING BY COLLEEN HOOVER. Seriously anything. These books are for perfect for anyone who is romantic at heart. My absolute favourite is Maybe Someday about a deaf musician stuck in a love triangle. It has the added benefit of a soundtrack that was published with the book with all the songs the lead character wrote. You can relive the book over and over again by listening to it.
Best Canadian Historical Fiction
I found this book and the ones that followed it hilarious! If you are Canadian this is definitely one to pick up and read.
Best American Historical Fiction
I love Sara Donati’s version of early America in the North East. Each one of her books is focused on a strong female character. I have also enjoyed the spin out series that focuses on the ancestors of the first series.
