Thought Provoking Books

Click on the topic of choice below to view the recommended books.

Principles for Living

Midlife Passages

Career and Finding Your Passion

Relationships

Philanthropy

Financial Planning

Principles for Living
	The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz.  Four powerful principles for living. Beautiful in its simplicity. A shamanic teacher and healer, Don Miguel Ruiz exposes self-limiting beliefs and presents a simple yet effective code of personal conduct learned from his Toltec ancestors.
	The Power of Intention, Learning to Co-Create Your World Your Way, by Dr. Wayne Dyer.  This book might help readers land a better job, but it’s more relevant for those who are ready to detach from an ego-driven life filled with quick fixes of happiness and step into a more authentic, joyful, and spiritually fulfilling life. His core teachings speak to tapping into a universal source of energy that he calls the “power of intention.”
	Emotional Genius, Discovering the Deepest Language of the Soul, by Karla McLaren.  All of your emotions – even dark and difficult feelings – are carriers of energy and information that have the power to protect and heal us, teaches Ms. McLaren. In this absorbing book, you will learn how to create a safe and centered inner foundation for working with your emotions … release the patterns that block healthy emotional flow … and retrieve the insights and healing energies encoded within each of your feeling states.
	The Law of Attraction, by Michael J. Losier.  “I attract to my life whatever I give my energy, focus, and attention to, whether wanted or unwanted.” Based on the works of Abraham-Hicks Mr. Losier provides a process for identifying and attracting more of what you want in your life.
Midlife Passages
	LIVE SMART AFTER 50! The Experts’ Guide to Life Planning for Uncertain Times. Mary Radu is among the 33 of the nation’s top experts in life planning and positive aging contributing to this invaluable companion to figuring out what’s next. From finding work, community, creativity, purpose and legacy to financing your dreams, making sure your voice is heard, anticipating the challenges of aging, and living with purpose and vitality. LIVE SMART AFTER 50! offers friendly, focused, forward-thinking and action-oriented help. It provides lucid, motivating responses to the challenges of aging in the 21st century: the knowledge and tools to shift attitudes, update skills and shape a smart map for a future of security, well-being, meaning and new possibilities.
	Remarkable and Real. Mary Radu, contributor to Remarkable and Real, a collection of 13 real chronicles from 13 remarkable coaches of 3rd Age people. Listen to a story that Mary and her client contributed to the book then read these stories about real people who sought the answers to…What will you do with the best years of your life? ~  Who do you want to be…really? ~  What is your purpose in living? ~ Who do you want to spend your time with and how much? ~ How do you want to spend your money? ~  What could a coach do and be for you? “I have been fortunate to discover 12 remarkable coaches who serve 3rd Age people in many unique ways. We’ve provided hundreds of questions with thousand of possibilities. The choices are limited only by your imagination.” – Gary R. Jay, co-author of all the chronicles and coordinator of Remarkable and Real
	Transitions, Making Sense of Life’s Changes, by William Bridges. A classic guide for understanding the process that we experience in each major life transition. Bridges gives insights and understanding into the endings, neutral “between time” zone and the new beginnings phase of each transition.
	The Art of Possibility, by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.  Through uplifting stories and personal anecdotes, these two creative life partners offer twelve practices that will open your eyes to new perspectives and possibilities in your life. I’ve found their tools useful in discovering new ways of approaching both personal and profession situations.
	The Third Age: 6 Principles for Growth and Renewal After Forty, by William A. Sadler, Ph.D.  Sadler uses real life experiences to demonstrate six core principles to guide you through your own life passage and to discover new avenues for productive and creative living.
	Get a Life: You Don’t Need a Million to Retire Well, by Ralph Warner.   Editor’s notes: “Although few people in mid-life are ready to hear it, the chances of enjoying an active, fulfilling retirement have almost nothing to do with money. What really matters are the life choices you make before you retire. They will largely determine whether retirement will find you busy or bored, happy or lonely, healthy or sick. Includes insightful facts, strategies (both for finances and lifestyle) and interviews with happily retired folks.”
Career and Finding Your Passion
View/Save PDF	The Career Playbook: Second Half Plays For Boomers & Beyond.  This downloadable pdf book, with input from Mary and other Life Planning Network members, provides real-life stories that will inspire people to re-start their work engines in new and powerful ways.
	Great Jobs for Everyone 50+, The how-to guide to finding profitable, fulfilling work after 50.  Aimed at workers aged 50+ looking for a new job—whether they have been laid off or taken early retirement, need supplemental income, or want to pursue an encore career—AARP Great Jobs for Everyone 50+ is the definitive guide to finding lasting financial security and personal and professional fulfillment. Opportunities abound—the trick is knowing where to look and what to expect. Whether readers are interested in trying jobs they’ve long dreamed of doing, or just want something with flexible hours that brings in a little extra income, this book covers all the options.
	TEST-DRIVE YOUR DREAM JOB: A Step-By-Step Guide To Finding & Creating The Work You Love (Hachette Group USA, 2008) by VocationVacations founder, Brian Kurth.  This book is a great resource for testing out a new, fulfilling career direction.  Brian Kurth and co-writer Robin Simons provide a step-by-step guide to finding mentors on the way to one’s eventual dream job.  Kurth also tackles the tough issues, such as what to do when your dream career isn’t everything you thought it would be, leaving you feeling directionless and shattered. Or how to talk things out with a family member who’s not feeling quite so psyched about all the risk associated with the career move you’re considering.
	Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation, by Parker J. Palmer.  With wisdom, compassion and gentle humor Parker comes from the Quaker tradition to explain how to find our natural gifts. “Our strongest gifts are usually those we are barely aware of possessing” and our “limitations and liabilities are the flip side of our gifts”.
	Boom or Bust!: New Career Strategies in a New America, by Carleen Mackay and Brad Taft.  A career guide and workbook that assists Baby Boomers to understand the changes in the American workplace and to effectively manage their careers. It presents an 8 step approach that incorporates strategic planning into the job search process and includes descriptions of 27 career options of interest to mature workers
	From Good to Great, by Jim Collins.  Collins focuses on what it takes for a Fortune 500 company to build a sustainable, long term company. It contains charts and graphs that are great for those who love them and not required for those who don’t find them necessary. A key concept presented is the “Hedgehog Principle”, based on a simple but powerful question that will impact your personal and professional life.
	The Job-Loss Recovery Guide, by Lynn Joseph, Ph.D.  Based on research Joseph provides techniques that can assist every job-seeker, whether currently employed or those facing an unexpected job transition.
Relationships
	Conscious Loving: The Journey to Co-Committment, by Gay Hendricks and Kathlyn Hendricks.  The Hendricks provide realistic strategies for couples who want to work together to overcome the power struggles and emotional blocks that hold them back from finding fulfilling intimacy and deeper love. Learn how to expand your self-responsibility and strengthen your relationships through telling the “microscopic truth” and  making/keeping agreements.
	If the Buddha Dated: A Handbook for Finding Love on a Spiritual Path, by Charlotte Kasl, Ph.D.  Dr. Kasl weaves Eastern philosophy into finding and creating a meaningful relationship with a partner without losing yourself. It’s about creating love in your life, beginning with you!

Philanthropy
	Grassroots Philanthropy, by Bill Somerville and Fred Setterberg. This is an illuminating book for those in the foundation and nonprofit worlds alike. With an unprecedented transfer of generational wealth expected over the next half-century, it is also a call to the upcoming generation of philanthropists to step up and use their wealth to ensure that real change happens quickly and creatively.
	Money Well Spent: A Strategic Guide to Smart Philanthropy, by Paul Brest and Hal Harvey. Drawing on examples from over 100 foundations and non-profits, Money Well Spent gives readers the framework they need to design a smart strategy. This is a book for everyone who wants to get the most from a philanthropic dollar: donors, foundations, and non-profits.
	The Seven Faces of Philanthropy: A New Approach to Cultivating Major Donors, by Russ Alan Prince and Karen Maru File.  This book introduces to you the Seven Faces approach–a powerful tool that enables development professionals to maximize their effectiveness when approaching major donors for gifts. The authors identify and profile seven types of major donors and offer you detailed strategies on how to approach them. Both novice and expert fundraisers will find this framework a valuable supplement to existing strategies and techniques.
	Inspired Philanthropy: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Giving Plan and Leaving a Legacy, by Tracy Gary, Suze Orman, and Nancy Adess.   This book shows how anyone can align and integrate values, passions, and dreams for their communities and families into their plans. Inspired Philanthropy explains how to make a difference by creating giving and legacy plans, tells what questions to ask nonprofits, and spells out how to help partner with advisors and nonprofit leaders for inspired outcomes.
	Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy: The Next Generation, by Alison Goldberg, Karen Pittelman, and Resource Generation.  Based on the program experience of Resource Generation–a national non-profit that works with young people with wealth who care about social justice–and over forty interviews, this book offers a window into young people’s own ideas and concerns.While written specifically for young philanthropists, this guide is also an essential reference for all those who work with wealthy families and research the field, including financial managers, philanthropic advisors, and non-profit fundraisers.

Financial Planning
	Set for Life: A Financial Planning Guide for People Over 50, by Bambi Holzer.  This book is more than simply a financial planning guide-because life after fifty is no longer simple. Written by a woman who helps people like you every day, this book is as full of encouragement and insight as useful information. It will help you clarify your own vision of your retirement and bring it to fruition. Most of all, it will give you confidence that you can take control of your financial life, and secure the future you hope for.
	Plan Your Estate, by Denis Clifford.  This book covers everything from the basics of wills and living trusts to sophisticated tax-saving strategies. The authors give you straightforward, plain-English explanations of every significant estate-planning option available, so you can make the best decisions for you and those you love.

 

Let me know which of these resources you find of particular valuable for your situation. I also welcome your comments or questions about any of the information featured on my site.  If you have a resource you would like to add, please contact me.
 

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