Summer is great, right? The sun is out, the days are longer, and you have more time to slow down, recharge, and do some reading.
To help highlight some good reads for our IWU community this summer, we compiled a list of books we believe are central to our university’s mission — developing students in character, scholarship, and leadership.
If you enjoy reading and want to grow as a leader or Christ-follower, look no further!
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Stephen R. Covey | Page count: 381
In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. Though the book is powerful & insightful, it’s also an easy read, packed full of anecdotes from Covey’s own life.
7 Habits was published in 1989 but remains a best seller because it ignores trends and pop psychology and focuses on timeless principles of fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity. If you haven’t already read this book, what are you waiting for?
The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues
Patrick Lencioni | Page count: 240
In The Ideal Team Player, Patrick Lencioni turns his focus to the individual member of a team rather than the whole, revealing three indispensable virtues that make some people better team players than others—humility, hunger and people smarts. Throughout the book, Lencioni tells the story of Jeff Shanley, a leader desperate to save his uncle’s company by restoring its cultural commitment to teamwork. Jeff must crack the code on the virtues that real team players possess, and then build a culture of hiring and development around those three virtues.
Whether you're a leader trying to create a culture around teamwork, a staffing professional looking to hire real team players, or a team player wanting to improve yourself, this book will prove to be as useful as it is compelling.
A Praying Life: Connecting With God in a Distracting World
Paul E. Miller | Page count: 304
In A Praying Life, Paul Miller shares his insights and conclusions about how to connect the broken pieces of your life and allow prayer—even poorly delivered—to fill the gaps with meaning and substance.
Miller’s down-to-earth approach and practical nature will help you see that your relationship with God can grow as your communication with Him improves. A Praying Life lays out a pattern for living in relationship with God and includes helpful habits and approaches to prayer that enable us to return to a childlike faith.
The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery
Ian Morgan Cron & Suzanne Stabile | Page count: 240
Ever heard of the Enneagram? It’s an ancient personality typing system with an uncanny accuracy in describing how human beings are wired, both positively and negatively.
In The Road Back to You, Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile provide a practical, comprehensive way of accessing Enneagram wisdom and exploring its connections with Christian spirituality for a deeper knowledge of ourselves, compassion for others, and love for God. Definitely give this one a read!
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
Brene Brown | Page count: 320
As human beings, we have a fundamental need for connection, love, and belonging. Yet, we fear rejection and are afraid we’re not good enough. We try to hide our vulnerabilities, only to create a greater disconnect with our families, communities, and work.
Based on 12 years of research, Dr Brene Brown explains the concept of vulnerability, and how embracing it can change how we live, love, lead and interact with others, to bring wholehearted living and fulfilling connections.
The End of Me: Where Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins
Kyle Idleman | Page count: 240
In his book, The End of Me, Kyle Idleman reveals that the key to the abundant life Jesus promised lies in embracing His inside-out way of life. As he examines Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, Idleman unpacks many counter-intuitive truths, including: brokenness is the way to wholeness, mourning is the path to blessing, and emptiness is required in order to know true fullness.
Ultimately, this book aims to help you discover how Jesus transforms you as you begin to live out these paradoxical principles. Because only when you come to the end of yourself can you begin to experience the full, blessed, and whole life Jesus offers.
We hope you consider picking up a book or two from this list to read this year! As Mortimer J. Adler once said, “In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.”