18 Books for a Better 2018 : You Need to Be Reading More!

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers." -- Charles William Eliot

Now that's a quote! I chose to start this blog with that quote because it embodies what I love about reading; learning. I'm a student at heart. I love to learn and be curious and grow. Reading helps you learn and grow in ways that other media's cant. Sure, reading isn't for everyone but it's a proven fact that CEO's, on average, read 60 books a year...and I think that speaks volumes. You don't have to read a self-help book or textbook even to learn from reading. My favorite fiction books taught me to be a better writer, be more creative, and a lot of cool words I wouldn't have known otherwise!

Since graduating college I realized that I haven't been actively reading. I used to read at LEAST 2 books a month. I could get through a Harry Potter book in a night if I wanted. As someone that loves to learn and get lost in a good story, I decided that I really wanted to make a goal to read more in 2018. Reading is a great way for me to relax and unwind and I want to make it part of my personal growth and self care routine.

So here we go! I've compiled a list of books that I want to read in 2018! I've gotten a lot of these recommendations from influencers and "best books" lists, but I am genuinely intrigued by all of them! I will say that a lot of them are self help books. If you aren't reading self help books, you should be! I think it is important to read about things that will ultimately improve you as a person, your relationships, or even your financial situation. Being an avid reader however, I did mix in a few "bestselling" fiction books because it's good to escape into a made up world! And in true Elaina fashion, there are a few hockey related books on the list as well! Plus, I feel instantly more creative after reading!

Here is the list: (all of the descriptions are from Goodreads)

1. Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss, the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, shares the ultimate choose-your-own-adventure book—a compilation of tools, tactics, and habits from 130+ of the world's top performers. From iconic entrepreneurs to elite athletes, from artists to billionaire investors, their short profiles can help you answer life's most challenging questions, achieve extraordinary results, and transform your life.

2. The Four by Scott Galloway

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are the four most influential companies on the planet. Just about everyone thinks they know how they got there. Just about everyone is wrong.

3. Unshakable by Tony Robbins

Building upon the principles in Money: Master the Game, Robbins offers the reader specific steps they can implement to protect their investments while maximizing their wealth. It's a detailed guide designed for investors, articulated in the common-sense, practical manner that the millions of loyal Robbins fans and students have come to expect and rely upon.

4. The Captain Class by Sam Walker

From the founding editor of The Wall Street Journal's sports section comes a bold new theory of leadership drawn from the elite captains who inspired their teams to achieve extraordinary success.

5. Girl In Pieces by Kathleen Walker

Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people lose in a lifetime. But she’s learned how to forget. The broken glass washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don’t have to think about your father and the river. Your best friend, who is gone forever. Or your mother, who has nothing left to give you.

6. Helium by Rudy Fransico

Helium is the debut poetry collection by internet phenom Rudy Francisco, whose work has defined poetry for a generation of new readers. Rudy's poems and quotes have been viewed and shared millions of times as he has traveled the country and the world performing for sell-out crowds. Helium is filled with work that is simultaneously personal and political, blending love poems, self-reflection, and biting cultural critique on class, race and gender into an unforgettable whole. Ultimately, Rudy's work rises above the chaos to offer a fresh and positive perspective of shared humanity and beauty.

7. Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens

Blending the informed analysis of The Signal and the Noise with the instructive iconoclasm of Think Like a Freak, a fascinating, illuminating, and witty look at what the vast amounts of information now instantly available to us reveals about ourselves and our world—provided we ask the right questions.

8. Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker

Much of the advice we’ve been told about achievement is logical, earnest…and downright wrong. In Barking Up the Wrong Tree, Eric Barker reveals the extraordinary science behind what actually determines success and most importantly, how anyone can achieve it.

9. Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

In the last days before her death, Nel called her sister. Jules didn’t pick up the phone, ignoring her plea for help. Now Nel is dead. They say she jumped. And Jules has been dragged back to the one place she hoped she had escaped for good, to care for the teenage girl her sister left behind. But Jules is afraid. So afraid. Of her long-buried memories, of the old Mill House, of knowing that Nel would never have jumped. And most of all she’s afraid of the water, and the place they call the Drowning Pool . . .

10. Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize that the truth is much darker. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together—in a world of danger and uncertainty.

11. The New Rules of Work by Alexandra Cavoulacos

Through quick exercises and structured tips, the authors will guide you as you sort through your countless options; communicate who you are and why you are valuable; and stand out from the crowd. The New Rules of Work shows how to choose a perfect career path, land the best job, and wake up feeling excited to go to work every day-- whether you are starting out in your career, looking to move ahead, navigating a mid-career shift, or anywhere in between.

12. Dollars and Sense by Dan Ariely

We think of money as numbers, values, and amounts, but when it comes down to it, when we actually use our money, we engage our hearts more than our heads. Emotions play a powerful role in shaping our financial behavior, often making us our own worst enemies as we try to save, access value, and spend responsibly. In Dollars and Sense, bestselling author and behavioral economist Dan Ariely teams up with financial comedian and writer Jeff Kreisler to challenge many of our most basic assumptions about the precarious relationship between our brains and our money. In doing so, they undermine many of personal finance’s most sacred beliefs and explain how we can override some of our own instincts to make better financial choices.

13. 99 Stories of the Game by Wayne Gretsky

First he rewrote the record book. Now, to mark the NHL's 99th anniversary, Wayne Gretzky has written the story of our game. No one has been as close to the game as Wayne Gretzky. When he first laced up skates in the NHL, he changed the league. And by the time he had hung up his skates, he had re-written the record book.

14. How We Did it by Karl Subban

Learn all about how the Subban's achieved greatness in the world of hockey!

15. Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King

In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep; they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent; and while they sleep they go to another place. The men of our world are abandoned, left to their increasingly primal devices. One woman, however, the mysterious Evie, is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Evie a medical anomaly to be studied, or is she a demon who must be slain?

16. Final Girls by Riley Sager

"The Final Girls need you. . . . The Final Girls are tough, everything survivors should be. But the new threat is clever, ominous, even closer than you suspect. You are about to gasp. You might drop the book. You may have to look over your shoulder. But you must keep reading. This is the best book of 2017."—Lisa Gardner, New York Times bestselling author of Find Her

17. All the Way by Jordin TooToo

The stress of competition in the world’s top hockey league, the travel, the media, the homesickness—and the added pressure to hold one’s head high as a role model not only for the young people of his hometown of Rankin Inlet but for the culture that had given him the strength and the opportunities to succeed—would have been more than enough to challenge any rookie. But Tootoo faced something far more difficult: the loss of his brother in the year between his draft and his first shift for the Predators. Though he played through it, the tragedy took its inevitable toll. In 2010, Tootoo checked himself into rehab for alcohol addiction. It seemed a promising career had ended too soon.

18. The Sun and her Flowers by Rupi Kaur

From Rupi Kaur, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of milk and honey, comes her long-awaited second collection of poetry. A vibrant and transcendent journey about growth and healing. Ancestry and honoring one’s roots. Expatriation and rising up to find a home within yourself. Divided into five chapters and illustrated by Kaur, the sun and her flowers is a journey of wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. A celebration of love in all its forms.

Also, full disclosure: I am currently reading Listen to Me by Hannah Pittard, which is not on the list. I honestly just randomly picked it up at my library. They were LITERALLY out of every book on my list...so there's that.

Anyway, I am really excited to dive into all of these books. This list might shift and change as the year goes on, but for now, I am really going to try to stick to this list.