As the holiday season approaches and sweater weather envelops us, it’s the perfect time to curl up with a good book and expand our horizons. Perhaps this year wasn’t your best, or repeating it feels unbearable. You might have just realized you didn’t begin—or come close to finishing—your reading goal for the year. Whether you are looking to advance your career, improve your business acumen, or simply find inspiration, these eight books offer valuable insights and practical advice.
This curated list comes from books I’ve read in 2024, ones I’m currently reading, and those I plan to finish before the clock strikes midnight and we roll into 2025. Some authors are trusted colleagues and friends, while others are individuals I’ve admired from afar, and I’m confident they have great wisdom to share with you and me.
So, let’s dive into this must-read list for your holiday season. Who knows? These books might be the spark we all need to ignite positive change in the coming year.
Cybersecurity, AI, and Business Application
Due to our work helping organizations prepare for incident response internal and external communications, we meet many people working in other fields who ask how they can transition into cybersecurity. The field is vast, and there truly is a place in the industry for anyone, no matter their current experience. Even if you’re not looking to pivot your career, some people you know may be interested. I also find the tips practical for entering many technical roles.
1. No Experience Required: Your Cybersecurity Career Kickstart Guide Kindle Edition
Summary: Are you tired of sending out numerous resumes and hearing nothing back? The “No Experience Required: Your Cybersecurity Career Kickstart Guide” offers a different approach, teaching you how to pull opportunities towards you rather than chasing after them.
Staying in the cybersecurity vein, let’s talk about the practical application of implementing the practices. Getting cyber insurance or a stack of technical tools is not enough. You need to know how to strategically put practices and tools together to fight attacks and ensure insurance coverage. No one wants to file a claim and be told you will not receive any assistance because you didn’t know what you were doing. This book has helped ensure our work aligns with our clients’ insurance policies.
2. Cyber Insurance – The Cyber Insurance Survival Guide: Expert Strategies for Preparing and Responding To Cyber Insurance Applications
Summary: The Cyber Insurance Survival Guide is a must-read for businesses of all sizes. In today’s digital age, cybersecurity threats are a real and present danger. This book provides expert strategies for preparing and responding to a cyber insurance application. With actionable advice and practical tips, this guide will help you navigate the complex world of cyber insurance and ensure that you have the coverage you need to protect your business. Whether you’re just starting out or have been in the industry for years, this book is an essential resource for anyone looking to safeguard their business against cyber threats.
Bad data in equals bad data out. Most people think bad data is just wrong information; it is also information that does not consider sources, biases, and equity. We see grave mistakes occur without a holistic view of the data used to provide learning experiences, diagnoses, or decision-making actions. This detailed look at principles in machine learning and natural language processing and case studies in showing real-world implications of deploying biased AI tools is a master guide in developing a helpful lower-risk tool.
3. Mitigating Bias in Machine Learning 1st Edition
by Carlotta A. Berry and Brandeis Hill Marshall
Summary: This practical guide shows, step by step, how to use machine learning to carry out actionable decisions that do not discriminate based on numerous human factors, including ethnicity and gender. The authors examine the many kinds of bias that occur in the field today and provide mitigation strategies that are ready to deploy across a wide range of technologies, applications, and industries.
The Lens of Entrepreneurship
I love reading and listening to stories about how CEOs from fields outside ours navigate challenges to win. Inspiration from industries and sizes can help break feelings of isolation and sole failure.
4. CEO Chronicles: Confessions and Game-Changing Actions
By a collective of CEOs, coaches, and business leaders
Summary: CEO Chronicles: Confessions and Game-Changing Actions is crafted for ambitious women eager to lead with confidence and drive. Whether you’re starting out or scaling up, CEO Chronicles provides the guidance and inspiration you need to break through barriers and thrive. Unlock the secrets to success and emerge as a powerhouse in your field.
Unlike many books that only focus on giving you a specific marketing or sales strategy to organize your business, this book gives you scriptures to support you in resetting your outlook on your business. The revelations you get from each day’s topic are refreshing and bring peace as you walk out your purpose as an entrepreneur. If you believe in keeping your mind healthy, mindful, and journaling, this is a great book to ensure you start the new year focused.
5. The Prayer Powered Entrepreneur: 31 Days to Building Your Business with Less Stress and More Joy
By Kim Avery
Summary: While Christian entrepreneurs start their days with prayer, the hustle and bustle of running their own businesses quickly takes focus away from their vital partnership with the almighty God. As a result, prayers for business are often broad, unfocused, and strictly tied to the entrepreneur’s vision of ideal results. The Prayer Powered Entrepreneur model walks entrepreneurs through 31 days of recognizing God as CEO through an inside-out system of praying for transformation.
Personal Growth to Reach Goals
It starts with your mind if you want to move ahead in your career, business, or personal life. You must clear out what prevents you from exploring new ideas or seeing a brighter future. There are outside forces we can’t control, such as politics, the economy, and society’s issues with discrimination. However, you can control how you process and navigate the days to live a full life.
6. Dump the Junk: Let Go of What’s Holding You Back and Live Your Best Life Now!
By Servola Frazier
Summary: In this powerful and transformative guide, Coach Servola takes you on a journey of self-discovery, healing, and letting go. With a blend of practical advice, personal stories, and actionable steps, Dump the Junk is your ultimate toolkit for identifying and releasing the “junk” that’s been holding you back—whether it’s negative thoughts, limiting beliefs, unhealthy relationships, or self-sabotaging habits.
Most close friends know I love to explore new things. I am always seeking different experiences. But truth be told, I’ve slowed down a bit in exploring regularly since COVID. While I still enjoy challenging myself to venture out this year – whether two weeks alone in the rural areas of Zimbabwe or finding my way back to a popular Buddhist temple on a Sunday afternoon for lunch, I have slowed down a lot. So, together, let’s explore or reinvigorate that child-like wonder of living free together.
7. I Did a New Thing: 30 Days to Living Free
By Tabitha Brown
Summary: In I Did a New Thing, Tab shares her own stories and those of others, alongside gentle guidance and encouragement to create these incredible changes for yourself and see what good can come from them. Whether that means having a hard conversation, trying for a promotion, simply wearing something different, or doing something kind for someone else, Tab has a plan for you: Try one new thing every single day for thirty days. You don’t have to wait until Monday or the beginning of a new month or year to get started. There’s no set time and place or any extra preparation required. All you have to do is show up for yourself. And that can start right now.
As we approach the new year, may these books provide you with the inspiration and tools you need to reach your goals. So grab a cup of cocoa, curl up with a book from this list, and get ready to ignite positive change in 2025!
