book recommendations | The Creative Penn

Happy Christmas Reading 2015. Book Recommendations For Your Holiday Season

December 25, 2015 by Joanna Penn 5 Comments

Left to my own devices, I read for pleasure. For me, holidays mean reading!

So this introvert wishes you a very happy (reading) holiday!

If you need some recommendations to go with the mulled wine and mince pies, here are some of the books I've either found useful or enjoyed in 2015. I went through my Goodreads list and picked the (rare) ones with 5 stars.

You can also find more books for writers here.

Non-fiction

The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne. This book is my new bible for writing fiction. It makes sense of many of so many story concepts and has enabled me to move into plotting in a way that works for me.

I also interviewed Shawn on the podcast about some of the aspects of story earlier this year.

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. “Live a life driven more by curiosity than fear … Measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures … Enjoying your work with all your heart is the only truly subversive position left to take! … Frustration is not an interruption of your process; frustration IS the process.” And much more wisdom for all creatives.

Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think by Peter Diamandis. If you watch the news, you'd think the world is in a terrible way. But if you curate what goes into your brain, you will find a very different, exciting world beyond the headlines. Read this book for start, then the follow-up Bold. Then subscribe to Peter's Abundance Insider, which blows my mind every week. You can also listen to his Exponential Technologies podcast, which is fantastic. And if you need more convincing about the exciting world we live in, then read Wired Magazine instead of watching the news.

The Write Attitude by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. “The best way to get noticed is by publishing enough that readers can binge for a weekend … If writing is your dream, learn how to change your habits …We're working day in and day out to leave a body of work behind.” And much more on the mindset of being a writer for the long-term. Kris also has a fantastic blog and her Thursday Business Musings posts are a must read. She also runs courses along with Dean Wesley Smith at WMG Publishing. I've done several of these courses now and continue to re-enroll in order to learn the craft from two incredible, professional writers.

Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth by James Altucher. I'm pretty obsessive about multiple streams of income and I love business books that encourage entrepreneurial ideas. This book is useful if you're in a job and are thinking about the possibilities, or if you're already an entrepreneur but you're always willing to learn. I have a few pages of notes and a whole lot of ideas based on this book … always a good sign!

Motivation for Creative People by Mark McGuinness. Writing is complicated. We want to write so much, so why do we procrastinate when it comes to getting the words on the page? How do we keep going when things are tough (and when aren't they??!). This book will help you understand your own motivations for writing and how your values can help you shape the life you choose to live. I also did a podcast interview with Mark about the book here.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Tales from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty. If you're into graveyards, you're taphophile like me! And if you don't think I'm a freak right now, then you'll enjoy this book. Yes, it's a funny book on death rituals and packed with interesting tidbits. I laughed a lot as well as highlighted and wrote notes for my own story ideas. If you enjoy this, then you might enjoy my crime thriller, Desecration, which is on the theme of the physical body after death as well as a murder mystery.

The Complete Low-FODMAP Diet: A Revolutionary Plan for Managing IBS and Other Digestive Disorders by Shepherd and Gibson. This book has been life-changing for the IBS sufferer in my family, and therefore, for me too. We went through the recommendations and ended up cutting out onions and garlic. It's like a miracle cure! If you have IBS symptoms/gut pain, then check out this book. I'm an evangelist for it because it's made such a huge difference to our daily lives.

Fiction

I read a lot of fiction, usually two or three books per week as I read for at least an hour every night. I've read a lot of good ones but these are the books that have been the most memorable this year. The first 3 recommendations are for series that I immediately devoured.

Nexus by Ramez Naam. Then you'll want to read Crux and Apex to complete the trilogy of techno-thrillers. Set in a near future where drugs mean that the human brain can be hacked and inter-linked, the books contain fascinating neuroscience spun into a fast-paced adventure around the globe.

Long Way Down and the rest of the Daniel Faust series by Craig Schaefer. Set in Las Vegas, these books follow Daniel Faust, a hustler and a sorcerer, and his friends as they try to save the world from the latest occult threat. Dark fantasy thrillers with great characters, including the awesome Caitlin, who kicks some serious ass.

Predator One – Jonathan Maberry. The Joe Ledger series is one of my favorites and I devour the full-length books and short stories as soon as they are out. They are action-adventure thrillers + science + hint of the supernatural + mythology. Awesome!

The Casual Vacancy – JK Rowling. I was never a Harry Potter fan but I am a huge fan of Rowling's adult books. Her Cormoran Strike series is now on my pre-order list, and this book really thrilled me with its dark portrayal of British village life. It's political, it's savage and full of characters. If you saw the TV adaptation, this is definitely worth reading because she takes it a lot further than they decided to show on-screen.

You can probably tell a lot about the books I write by the books I read 🙂 So if you want to try any of my books, fiction or non-fiction, you can find them all here.

What are the most memorable books that you've read this year? Please do leave your recommendations in the comments below.

Recommended Books For Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing And Creative Entrepreneurship

February 9, 2015 by Joanna Penn 23 Comments

These are some of the books I love and recommend for authors. I know there are gazillion more, but these have been the most useful to me on my own writing journey.

Books on Writing and Creativity

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft – Stephen King . Insights about writing that will make you feel better about where you are. Even the uber-mega-stars have a difficult time! Includes timeless advice on ‘butt in chair.'

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life – Anne Lamott . Includes life-changing opinions on first drafts and how bad they really are meant to be.

The Successful Novelist: A lifetime of lessons about writing and publishing – David Morrell . From the creator of Rambo, this book has some great comments on fame and money, as well as what really matters as a writer and in life. Here's my interview with David Morrell about the book and his writing life.

Writing Down The Bones: Freeing the writer within – Natalie Goldberg. I love Natalie's vulnerability and this book continues to help me when I feel like self-censoring.

STORY: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting – Robert McKee . Incredible for authors as well as screenwriters as the principles of storytelling are universal. I've learned so much from this book, and more from seeing him live. It's also worth getting on audiobook as McKee is an incredible performer.

Story Engineering: Mastering the six core competencies of successful writing – Larry Brooks . This was the book that helped me write my first novel. Once the concept of ‘scene' dropped for me, I was able to structure a story. Here's my interview with Larry Brooks on the topic.

The War of Art: Break through the blocks and win your creative battles – Steven Pressfield . Will make you feel better about the struggles of being an artist and will give you hope that you can make it through to a finished product. Here's my interview with Steven Pressfield.

Turning Pro: Tap your inner power and create your life's work – Steven Pressfield. Probably the book I re-read the most. I have it in ebook, print and audio format and revisit every new year. If you want to be a professional writer, this book will kick your ass!

The Pursuit of Perfection and how it harms writers – Kristine Kathryn Rusch . If you struggle to write, finish a project or with doubt in general, this book will help. Something for every writer.

Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys To Creativity – Hugh McLeod . If you think it's crazy to consider making money from something you love, look at how Hugh has transitioned from cartoons on the back of business cards to a huge online business. But first, you need to tap into your creativity …

Self-publishing

Let's Get Digital: How to self-publish and why you should – David Gaughran . The most comprehensive book on self-publishing. David is a campaigner for indie rights, so this book is completely transparent with no hidden agenda.

Write. Publish. Repeat. The No-Luck Required Guide to Self-Publishing Success – Johnny B. Truant & Sean Platt . A comprehensive look at the business model of high-output fiction writers. Includes how to write fast, publish quickly and get your book to customers. They also have a video course on Udemy that goes through the aspects of the book. Here's my interview with Sean Platt and separately with Johnny B Truant.

Choosing a Self Publishing Service – The Alliance of Independent Authors . Written by authors, for authors with no bias towards any service, this goes through how you can evaluate premium self-publishing companies and how to do it yourself.

Self-Publishers Legal Handbook – Helen Sedwick . Contains information on using images as an indie, what to watch out for in contracts with self-publishing services, working with collaborators and much more.

Book Marketing

How to Market a Book – Joanna Penn. Yes, this is my book (!) but I wrote it because I couldn't find one single book that offered everything for authors in one. I've been studying marketing for years now and this is everything I have learned along the way. Updated Oct 2014.

Platform: Get noticed in a noisy world. A step-by-step guide for anyone with something to say or sell – Michael Hyatt . This is for any small business and does a great job of going through all the aspects of reaching an audience through a platform.

Let's Get Visible: How to get noticed and sell more books – David Gaughran . Focuses specifically on aspects of book selling online regarding Amazon algorithms, categories and optimizing your sales page.

Discoverability: Help readers find you in today's world of publishing – Kristine Kathryn Rusch . With 30 years of experience in publishing and now a mentor for indie authors, Kris brings immense experience with all kinds of marketing to this book. Insights on what really works online and off.

1001 ways to market your books – John Kremer . A fascinating resource with tons of offline marketing tips as well as online ones to help you get your book noticed.

Author Entrepreneur

Business for Authors: How to be an author entrepreneur – Joanna Penn . Yes, it's my book again! But after 13 years as a consultant, I bring my business head to the creative world and share how you can make a living as a writer.

Make Art, Make Money: Lessons from Jim Henson on fueling your creative career – Elizabeth Hyde Stevens . Jim Henson was a puppeteer and a multi-millionaire and this book explores how he ‘played' with both art and money, becoming incredibly successful in both.

The Success Principles: How to get from where you are to where you want to be – Jack Canfield. The book that changed my life and helped me to escape the day job and become an entrepreneur. Lesson 1: Take responsibility for 100% of everything in your life. You are where you are because of your choices. From the day I read that page, I started to make different choices.

The Compound Effect – Darren Hardy . Writing a few hundred words a day doesn't seem like much. Saving a few hundred dollars a month doesn't seem like much. Drinking water instead of soda doesn't seem like much. But all these little things make a huge difference over time. This book will help you see the magic of compounding – and I have seen this in my own life. In 2007, I had no books, no website, no online audience, no podcast, no twitter – just a day job I hated. Little steps every day since then have changed my life.

The Four Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich – Tim Ferriss. Helped me with the inspiration and education to leave my day job for the entrepreneurial life. It was the impetus to start this site and realistically consider a lifestyle change. Tim also has a brilliant podcast with some of the most interesting guests around.

$100 Startup – Chris Guillebeau: Reinvent the way you make a living, do what you love and create a new future . A more recent take on lifestyle design, opting out of traditional employment and how you can start an entrepreneurial venture for less than $100 – with LOTS of inspiring examples.

The Icarus Deception – Seth Godin . Art isn't a result. It's a journey. Pick yourself and fly closer to the sun. I want everyone who has self-doubt about the creative process to read this book. It's super inspiring – you can read some of my highlights from the book here.

Choose Yourself – James Altucher . A manifesto to ignore the middlemen and choose yourself in this age of opportunity. The corporate ‘work' world is broken, the education system is a bubble waiting to burst – you need to take control of your life.

Manage your day-to-day. Build your routine, find your focus and sharpen your creative mind . From 99U. Creatives need time to play and dream, but also to knuckle down and sort out a production routine, a workspace and schedule. This has lots of small chapters on all things productivity related.

Just writing this list down has made me want to start reading them all over again!

What are your recommended books for writers in these categories? Please leave them in the comments below.

Habits Of A Book Junkie In A Digital World

January 11, 2015 by Joanna Penn 51 Comments

Reading has always been my idea of fun!

I love reading and I love books, plus I believe writers are usually great readers. We spend our lives immersed with our minds elsewhere, in someone else's world or one of our own creation. Happy times indeed!

Hugh Howey posted a video about his reading habits and thoughts on the state of e-readers last week, and I was inspired to create my own version.

In the video below, I talk about how I read, I show you some of my book collection, how I discover books, what annoys me as a reader and how I review and share the love.

You can watch the video below or here on YouTube, or read the notes underneath, which include (affiliate) links to the books I talk about. The mic is a little off (I've got a new one on order) but I hope you enjoy it!

How do I read now … and how I ended up that way

I read primarily on the Kindle Paperwhite at home, the Kindle app on the iPhone 5. In the video, I demonstrate my ‘reading on the Tube' technique, page turning and highlighting!

I love the auto-synch between devices. I finish in bed on the Paperwhite and start on the Tube on my iPhone. I get highlights from non-fiction on the Kindle app on the Mac when I am working – I LOVE highlighting. I'm probably an addict! I later transfer my highlighted notes to my notebooks by hand.

I own over 1000 books on Kindle and have about 200 samples on my Paperwhite right now. In the same way that owning print books was part of my life even without reading them, it's the same for ebooks.I also think it's an extension of my brain and I use search on the Mac app when I want to research stuff and often find books I haven't read in a while.

I rarely read paper and never read fiction in print anymore. I do own some non-fiction in print and I show you some of my books in the video:

Textbooks – STORY by Robert McKee
Poetry – An African Elegy by Ben Okri (only available second-hand)
Beautiful art books / Talisman books – Alchemy and Mysticism. I mention the Wellcome Collection Blackwells bookstore which is my addiction, as well as Waterstones Piccadilly and Foyles on Charing Cross Road.
Books to keep forever – The Red Book by Carl Jung oversize full color edition, The Empire of Death by Paul Koudounaris and Palestine by Henry Bordeaux (antique)
Travel books – Lonely Planet South India and Kerala from our cycling trip

I also listen to some non-fiction audiobooks: Jack Canfield – The Success Principles and Steven Pressfield's Turning Pro. I own both of these books in ebook, print and audio formats as they continue to have a huge impact on me.

One of the reasons I believe digital is the future is the demographic shift into cities and smaller space living. Americans may not see this so much, but in Europe, we mostly live in smaller spaces and physical books clutter the place quickly.

We left behind over 2000 print books when we left Australia – many of which I had paid to ship from England to New Zealand and then on to Brisbane. It was practically impossible to sell them second-hand so we gave most of them away to local students. I find I am now replacing books I used to own in paper on ebooks even if I am not ready to re-read them yet.

I probably read about 5x as much fiction now as I used to in print, because of the prohibitive cost in Australia and New Zealand.

Why am I a Kindle customer?

It's basically first mover advantage! I love Kobo and iBooks and Nook and all the other options but they weren't around when I started on ebooks.

Reading the 1st Kindle in my hammock in Australia

I was living in Australia in 2008/2009 when e-readers started to emerge. At the time, print books were AU$25-$35 which is about 3x the price of UK books. I had almost stopped reading fiction and my non-fiction reading had dropped significantly.

The Sony Reader was the first on my radar but it wasn't compelling. Then the Kindle launched and I was hooked. Here's my review of the first international Kindle. [That brings back memories!]

I continue to be a very happy Kindle junkie!

How do I find books

If I know and love the author and the book is available on Kindle, I will pre-order it. I don't worry too much about price.

For impulse purchases, I will buy anything I fancy under £2 (US$4), but I don't usually download free books. I prefer to pay, and I'm not a member of Kindle Unlimited, mainly because so many books are not in KU that I want to read.

I don't have a budget for books, so I buy what I want, when I want. I buy books almost every day, but then it's pretty much my only vice!

I will buy books to keep for later and I don't necessarily read everything I buy. When I'm researching something e.g. mythology, I will search in my own ebook library first to see if I have already bought something on the topic since I often buy in order to “own” books, as I did with print.

For fiction, I browse the genre categories of thriller, dark fantasy, non-fiction etc for books released in the last 30 days.

I rarely browse the overall bestseller lists as my book turnover is so fast. I definitely download samples based on cover design – I picked up Jonathan Maberry's Code Zero because I loved the cover and have spent the last month binge reading his Joe Ledger series.

I will pay more for non-fiction and will buy from unknown authors more easily if the topic grabs me. If I can learn a couple of new things per non-fiction book, I consider that worth the money.

I will often buy based on listening to author interviews on podcasts or books recommended by bloggers like Tim Ferriss. I also monitor the fantastic Brain Pickings site and get a lot of books from there. Plus, I find books on twitter through recommendations that way.

When I find things I like, I sample. That means that I download a percentage. I usually give the book 4- 5 clicks/page turns and if it hasn't grabbed me, I delete the sample. If I make it to the end of the sample, I will usually buy and continue reading. I've talked in length about the importance of sampling for authors before.

What annoys me as a reader

Books not available as Kindle books, for example, the entire James Michener backlist, which is substantial and weighty. The Source is one of my favorite books and it's not on ebook. Seriously Random House, sort that out!

US first releases. In a world of online marketing, staggered releases by region is just a pain and annoys readers. I will see a tweet from the author on release and then I will forget about it unless I can immediately download a sample.

Print only launches. I generally won't buy books in print so if you don't release a Kindle version on launch, I may well have forgotten it by the time the ebook version comes out. At least include a pre-order button if you want to do print first.

Samples that include acknowledgements, forewords, essays by someone else etc. That should all go at the back so I don't have to wade through that. Make sure your words hook me and I don't have to wade through

Ebooks that are clearly just scanned versions of print books so they don't flow properly. Please invest in doing a specific edition for Kindle.

How I review books

Since the sock puppet controversy, I have mostly stopped reviewing on Amazon in case of any issues there. So I review on Goodreads instead – follow my reviews here.

I include book recommendations in both my newsletters – fiction for J.F.Penn subscribers and non-fiction for TheCreativePenn subscribers.

I do blog posts with lists of books like my Christmas reading list, or thrillers for a winter's night. Plus I have this list of fiction books I love, and this list of non-fiction books for writers.

I also share a lot on social media, primarily Twitter, with buy links. Plus, I buy books for others as my primary gifting.

OK, now it's your turn. I'd love to know about your reading habits so please leave a comment below or leave a link to a blog post or video on the topic. How do you read? How do you find books? How do you review and pass on the love?

Happy Christmas 2013! Book Recommendations For Your Holiday Season

December 25, 2013 by Joanna Penn 6 Comments

Happy Christmas!

Maybe you have a brand new ebook reader … maybe you're sick of eating and just want to read for a bit … maybe you want some distraction so you don't murder your family 🙂 …

We're all book lovers, and I am a book fiend, devouring several every week. Here are some of my most memorable reads from 2013 that you might like to enrich your reading holiday with.

For creative entrepreneurs

Street smarts: adventures on the road and in the markets – Jim Rogers.
I firmly believe that we're all going to be looking at the rising new economies in the next 5 years. The digital market is mature in the US and UK, but there's so much opportunity in the rest of the world. This book is a fascinating insight into China and Africa, as well as some of the reasons why the US and Europe are struggling. Read this with an open mind, because it's not comfortable reading. But it sticks with me as the book that's made me amazingly excited about the future of the global markets.

Choose yourself – James Altucher.

With chapters on what's really important, how to generate ideas, how to be less mediocre, why you have to choose yourself in this economy and incredibly personal lessons from James' life, this book will kick your ass and make you think. It's also self-published and really made the top business bloggers stop and think about their own publishing choices, because James is so influential and well connected.

The Icarus Deception: How high will you fly? – Seth Godin

On my wall is a sign that I made after I read this book: “Have you made art today?” I look at it everyday and it challenges me. There's also a cut-out from the book, “Fly closer to the sun.' You can read my blog post on what I learned from the book here. This book was the result of a Kickstarter that I helped fund.

Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction – Jeff Vandermeer. A writing book with a difference, this is definitely best read in print. It's gloriously weird and creative in design as well as packed with great info on being a writer and creativity in general. I am savoring every page with its little, strange drawings and funny creatures.

Fiction for dark little souls like me, who like to dwell on the shadow side … even at Christmas!

Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn. Camille is a reporter, sent back to her home town after years away to investigate the murders of two little girls, whose teeth have been pulled out. She stays at her family home, where memories of her own dead sister begin to haunt her and her strange family start to send her a little crazy. Camille is a complex character, sympathetic in some ways, with her scarred body, but also on the edge enough to make you want more. I thought this book was so much better than Gone Girl, which I enjoyed, but this one has depth of character, and a great twist.

Macbeth – David Hewson & AJ Hartley. Seriously amazing. I couldn't put this down. A brilliant piece of evocative writing. The first scene with the witches on the heath is stunning. It's both resonant of the best of Shakespeare but also original. A masterful retelling, and enjoyable whether you know the play or not.

Doctor Sleep – Stephen King. Little Danny from ‘The Shining' is now Dan, recovered alcoholic, still haunted by his mistakes. When a young girl, Abra, contacts him, he discovers that evil still stalks those with the shining and he must rise to the challenge, defending those he loves and finding a new purpose. I found the True Knot to be brilliantly scary, and as usual, King makes you look over your shoulder at the ‘normal' looking older folks in the caravans all over the country …

I am Pilgrim – Terry Hayes. Incredible character development for both Pilgrim & the Saracen who is a multi faceted, nuanced bad guy we can sympathize with even as he plots oblivion for the West. Told in a strange way with almost flashbacks as the plot moves forward in first person. Very clever.

The Blood Gospel – James Rollins & Rebecca Cantrell. This is Rollins & Cantrell on the edge of blasphemy and I loved the book, devouring it in two sittings. Opening with a glimpse into the heart of Masada, Israel, a dark tomb is revealed. As it is destroyed in an earthquake, three survivors escape to face a demonic creature, before a priesthood come to spirit them away on a mission to save mankind. Packed full of fast-paced action, vampires and corrupted creatures, religious themes and emotional resonance.

World War Z: An oral history of the Zombie War – Max Brooks. I must confess that I've never read a zombie book before, and the whole genre has never interested me. But I downloaded a sample and I couldn't put this book down. It is a seriously compelling story written in an original way, as individual survivor's stories of the Zombie war as noted by a historian. There are so many voices and dialects, perspectives from different countries and world-views. That's what makes it stand out. Recommended if you like a thriller story with a post-apocalyptic flavor. Much better than the movie!

For more thriller recommendations, check out '26 thrillers for a winter's night‘.

Oh yes, you could also try one of my books! …

Desecration, a dark crime novel

Death isn't always the end.

LONDON. When the body of a young heiress is found within the Royal College of Surgeons, Detective Sergeant Jamie Brooke is assigned to the case. An antique ivory figurine found beside the body is the only lead and she enlists Blake Daniel, a reluctant clairvoyant, to help her discover the message it holds.

When personal tragedy strikes, Jamie finds her own life entwining with the morbid fascinations of the anatomists, and she must race against time to stop them claiming another victim.

As Jamie and Blake delve into a macabre world of grave robbery, body modification, and the genetic engineering of monsters, they must fight to keep their sanity, and their lives.

Find all my fiction at www.JFPenn.com

If you'd like more recommendations for reading throughout the year …

You can follow my reviews on Goodreads here.

OK, your turn. What are the books you'd recommend people getting with their Christmas entertainment money? Please do leave a comment below as I LOVE shopping based on your recommendations. They should be books that have stuck in your mind for a reason.

Top image: Flickr Creative Commons Spiral decoration by Bruce Denis

Happy Christmas! Recommended Books For Your Holiday Season

December 25, 2012 by Joanna Penn 7 Comments

OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn

I'm guessing you'll be spending some of the holidays reading. After all, writers are readers!

Perhaps you got a new e-reader as a gift or you'd just like some recommendations, well, here are some books I enjoyed in 2012.

I'm a Kindle addict and this year, I was determined to review as many books as possible so I have been logging them on Goodreads all year. I read 2-3 books per week and did manage to review quite a lot of them.

Please leave your best book recommendations in the comments – because we're all readers round here!

Non-fiction

Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that won't stop talking – Susan Cain.

I felt guilty for years – that I wasn't a team player, that I liked being alone, that I didn't like crowds or parties, that I couldn't make small talk. In the last few years I have recognized my introvert self and now understand why I am how I am. I know there are many of you that are introverts too, or you will have them in your family. This book will help you understand and appreciate the introvert in your life. Fantastic book.

Turning Pro – Steven Pressfield. Tap your inner power and create your life's work

This book is a serious challenge for any creative who wants to be considered a professional in their chosen sphere. Pressfield holds nothing back and this book seriously kicked my ass. He takes the excuses we all wheel out sometimes and blows them to pieces while telling of his own past, giving emotional resonance to some difficult life lessons. The book underscores the fact that turning pro is not for everyone, that there is considerable sacrifice. I was personally convicted on my habits and how distraction can sometimes ruin my creative time. Taking action on this book is difficult but necessary, and I start today. Highly recommended.

Here's a post I wrote on lessons learned from Turning Pro.

Platform. Get noticed in a noisy world. Michael Hyatt.

I've read many branding and marketing books and experimented with my own platform online for years but I still wrote 10 pages of notes from this book and have a long To Do list of things I need to improve. This will help you audit where you are right now and target where you want to get to. Michael has done a great job of making the information accessible and the reasons behind the tools are also explained. Recommended for people who are serious about expanding their online platform.

Michael also has an audio program, Get Published, that expands on the topics he covers in the book, which I also did and found useful.

Wheat Belly: Lose the wheat, lose the weight and find your path back to health by William Davis.

It wouldn't be the holiday season without a post-gluttony health kick! This book finally helped me shift the extra weight I've carried for years 🙂 I've lost 8 kgs and it's still going slowly, primarily from going gluten free. The book is quite technical but it's worth sticking with because I've tried so many things over the years and the principles have really changed my physical health for the better. Try it for a month, you won't regret it. Seriously.

Fiction – Dark & Twisty

I realize that fiction recommendations are difficult because we all like different things! But here are some books I rated 5 stars this year that perhaps you might want to try. if you're dark and twisty like me. I read across a lot of genres but I am continually drawn to the darker side of life, so my recommendations won't be for everybody!

If you check out my Goodreads reviews, you'll find some lovely literary fiction as well, even a few romances.

Inside the Outside – Martin Lastrapes

This book is original and compelling. I read it in two sittings as I found it hard to get out of my head. Timber Marlow is born and raised within a cult of cannibals in the wilds of America. It is normal to butcher and eat the human flesh and the descriptions of the Sustenance rituals are gruesome, but you just can't tear your eyes away. Timber escapes to the Outside and the story continues there as she is hunted down. Lastrapes keeps you reading by giving hints of the horrors to come. His writing is skillful and incredibly convincing. Definitely don't read it before bed if you're alone.

Blackbirds & Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig.

Chuck Wendig can seriously write a great metaphor – his language is stunning and original and I'm always re-reading lines to try and fathom the layers. This is definitely horror with a suitably violent and nasty serial killer hunting young girls, mutilating and murdering them. Miriam Black, with her visions of how people die tries to change the fates of the girls she meets by hunting down the killers. But is her gift, or curse, beginning to twist her mind into madness? It's hard to tell as Miriam is one crazy chick, but a brilliant character. There's kick-ass action scenes as well as psychological weirdness. Highly recommended, but don't read last thing at night …

Here's an interview with Chuck about writing metaphor, memorable characters and horror.

The Scar – China Mieville

I've tried to read a few Mieville books but this is the one that entranced me the most. Set on a floating city of ships with all manner of races on, Scar is a kind of quest story but draws you into this imaginary world. I found the Lovers to be compelling and the writing beautiful. This is a brilliant book – definitely one to read. Highly original.

Spiral – Paul McEuen

This is a technothriller with WWII bad guys, nanotechnology and a killer fungal plague that combines hardcore science with a fast paced plot that definitely kept me reading. It also managed what so many thrillers fail on – it kept me guessing until the very last few pages as to how it would end. The author is a scientist but it's not dry. I actually found mycology fascinating! A recommended read for fans of Michael Crichton.

The Stand – Stephen King

Every bit as good as people have said it is. Characters drawn like only King can, unremarkable people that become remarkable over the book. A plague kills 99% of humanity and the people left in America are drawn in two ways – to the dark man, the walking dude – or the old black woman, Mother Abagail, embodiments of the ancient fight between good and evil. I read the re-issued version with less edits but it was still compelling, driving me to spend long sessions reading with growing horror. Excellent book with some deep and meaningful lessons about what humanity is really like when the proverbial hits the fan.

Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves

I love Matt Reilly's books. If you want to get out of your head and into an adventure where you have no time to think at all, then read Scarecrow and Matt's other books. This one is a cracker and he takes the concept of making things worse for your characters very seriously. The stakes are ratcheted higher and higher with every turn of the page.

Scarecrow is a great character and he still has his hardcore sidekick Mother and we meet a new french love interest who is just as kick-ass as Scarecrow. I hope we'll be seeing more of her. The book is tightly plotted and I love the design of Dragon Island. There is a torture/death scene that is pretty nasty but generally the book is action-adventure all the way. I skipped over those pages as they were too graphically violent, but I loved the rest of the book. Recommended!

Please leave your best book recommendations in the comments – because we’re all readers round here!

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