Each year, at about this time, I post my “vacation do’s and don’ts” blog since many of you will be enjoying some downtime soon. Or at least, you’ll be trying to relax. Unfortunately, many people don’t really go on vacation; they just relocate their office to their vacation destination. That, of course, is no vacation—for you or your loved ones. If you’d like to avoid this unsatisfying scenario, take a quick look at the vacation-themed blog here: https://corsini.com/uncategorized/vacation-dos-and-donts-2/

This time though, I’m going to give you some useful, easy-to-pack tools to help you step away from work. I won’t ask you to go too far since most of what I’m suggesting are business-related books! These summer-reading recommendations ultimately will help you do what you do better. Guaranteed.

I recently read that the average corporate executive reads 50 to 60 books a year. That’s impressive! Most of these suggestions, not surprisingly, come from smart people I coach.

Here’s the best of what they’ve shared with me lately—my curated Top 10 “Must-Read (and Listen)”List by topic:

  1. Leadership: Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
  2. Building a small business: Boss Life: Surviving My Own Small Business by Paul Downs
  3. Overcoming adversity (and foreign imports): Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local—and Helped Save an American Town by Beth Macy
  4. Selling: Go-Givers Sell More by Bob Burg and John David Mann
  5. Uniting an organization: The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick Lencioni
  6. Entrepreneurship and innovation: Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
  7. Preserving a family business: Perpetuating the Family Business: 50 Lessons Learned from Long-Lasting, Successful Families in Business by John L. Ward
  8. Hiring: Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street
  9. Effectiveness and productivity: The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter Drucker
  10. Time management: Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherlan

Here are a couple of bonus books: Faith: Jesus: A Pilgrimage by James Martin.  Historical: Any of The Killing Series books (Patton, Reagan, Kennedy, Jesus, Lincoln) by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard.  Historical fiction (just because you need a little escapism; after all, it is vacation): All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

Want more? Take a look at my 2015 Top 10 Must-Read List here:  http://bit.ly/1IX0Vc2

Now go load up your book bag (or e-reader), and enjoy.