Recommended Reads from our Series 5 Podcast Guests

6 mins

Throughout Series 5 of HR Insights: the Podcast,  a range of interesting and diverse bo...

Throughout Series 5 of HR Insights: the Podcast,  a range of interesting and diverse books were recommended by the guests. We have compiled a list of these books with a short blurb and information on where to get your hands on them! 


If change is the natural order of things, why do so many people struggle with the milestones of life

In This Too Shall Pass, acclaimed psychotherapist Julia Samuel draws on hours of conversations with her patients to show how we can learn to adapt and thrive during our most difficult and transformative experiences. Illuminated by the latest social and psychological research, this book unflinchingly deals with the hard times in family, love, work, health and identity. 

Find out more here.



The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of Theranos, the multibillion-dollar biotech startup.

By the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end, despite pressure from its charismatic CEO and threats by her lawyers, Bad Blood tells the riveting story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron. A tale of ambition and hubris set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley, Now to be adapted into a film, with Jennifer Lawrence to star.

Find out more here.



Providing deep, expert insight and advice for what needs to change and how to change it, this is the definitive book for reimagining and creating a talent-driven organization that wins.

Turning conventional views on their heads, talent and leadership experts Ram Charan, Dominic Barton, and Dennis Carey provide leaders with a new and different playbook for acquiring, managing, and deploying talent, for today's agile, digital, analytical, technologically driven strategic environment.

Find out more here.



Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results. No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day.

One of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.

Find out more here.


If you think financial health is beyond your reach, think again.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich is the modern money classic that has revolutionised the lives of countless people all over the world, teaching them how to effectively manage their finances, demolish their debt, save better and get the most out of their bank accounts, credit cards and investments.

Find out more here.




Learn why some people make DREAM after DREAM come true, while others just continue to spend their lives building dreams for someone else.

The popular book that outlines a way of thinking and a way of processing information that enables you to make the daily choices that will lead you to the success and happiness you desire. The Slight Edge shows you how to create powerful results from the simple daily activities of your life, by using tools already within you.

Find out more here.



Bring meaning and joy to your every day with ikigai.

The people of Japan believe that everyone has an ikigai - a reason to jump out of bed each morning. Inspiring and comforting, this book will give you the life-changing tools to uncover your personal ikigai. It will show you how to leave urgency behind, find your purpose, nurture friendships and throw yourself into your passions.

Find out more here.



Legendary record producer-turned-brain scientist explains why you fall in love with music.

This Is What It Sounds Like is a journey into the science and soul of music. It's also the story of a musical trailblazer who began as a humble audio tech in L.A. to become Prince's chief engineer for Purple Rain and one of the most successful female record producers of all time.

Find out more here.




A caregiver’s roadmap that delivers deep insights and practical solutions.


Essential Strategies for the Dementia Caregiver offers a fresh and practical approach to the challenges faced by wives, husbands, and adult children who care for loved ones with dementia. Using the 4 D’s of Dementia Care – detach, document, diffuse, distract – caregivers can find solutions for behaviors ranging from shadowing to wandering to medication refusal.

Find out more here.



There’s no place like Home . . .

The Home Group is a collection of ultra-exclusive private members' clubs and a global phenomenon, and the opening of its most ambitious project is set to be the event of the decade. But as the first guests arrive, the weekend soon proves deadly – because it turns out that even the most beautiful people can keep the ugliest secrets and, in a world where reputation is everything, they'll do anything to keep it.

Find out more here.




A propulsive, soulful story of mourning and gratitude - and an intimate portrait of one woman's sojourn in the wilderness between life and death.


We all face moments that bring us to our knees: heartbreak, trauma, illness. When things don't go to plan this is the book to reach for - an inspirational memoir about what we can learn about life from a brush with death. Drawing on Suleika's TED Talk, now with 4 million views, Between Two Kingdoms illuminates universal questions about how we live, mourn, heal and grow up, and what it means to begin again.

Find out more here.


An epic novel about the infamous, ill-fated Booth family. Charmers, liars, drinkers and dreamers, they will change history forever.


Junius is the patriarch, a celebrated Shakespearean actor. As his children grow up in a remote farmstead in 1830s rural Baltimore, the country draws ever closer to civil war. Of the six Booth siblings it is Johnny who makes the terrible decision that will change the course of history - the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Booth is a riveting novel focused on the very things that bind, and break a family.

Find out more here.



Most of us are far more interested in being right and proving it, than we are in learning, growing and shifting out of our old patterns.

The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership contains a comprehensive road map to guide you to shift from fear-based to trust-based leadership. Once you learn and start practicing conscious leadership you’ll get results in the form of more energy, clarity, focus and healthier relationships.

Find out more here.




There was a woman at the heart of the Trojan War whose voice has been silent - until now.


Discover the greatest Greek myth of all - retold by the witness that history forgot . . . The Trojan War is known as a man's story: a quarrel between men over a woman, stolen from her home and spirited across the sea. But what of the other women in this story, silenced by history? In this magnificent historical novel, Pat Barker charts one woman's journey through the chaos of the most famous war in history, as she struggles to free herself and to become the author of her own story.

Find out more here.


The compelling, inspiring, (often comic) coming-of-age story of Trevor Noah, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.

Trevor Noah was BORN A CRIME - not because he could answer back in five languages; not because his mother threw him out of the window of a moving car; not because he shoplifted; not because he accidentally burnt down someone's house with a magnifying glass; not even because he took Hitler to a bar mitzvah - but because this was South Africa and his mother was black and his father was white . . .

Find out more here.



In this inspiring and genre-bending work, Susan Cain shows us the power of a "bittersweet" outlook: the overlooked tendency to states.


Embracing the bittersweet means understanding that light and dark, birth and death - bitter and sweet - are forever paired, and that by recognising this we can find the true path to creativity and connection. Bringing to light the ideas of artists, writers and thinkers from all over the world, and her own quest for answers, Susan Cain fundamentally shifts our understanding of life by teaching us how to turn sorrow into an enriching superpower.