American by Day
Derek B. Miller (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Chief Insp. Sigrid Ødegård travels from Oslo to upstate New York to look for her missing brother, Marcus, who’s the prime suspect in the murder of his African-American lover, a Syracuse State University professor. This incandescent exposé of European and American mores provokes disturbing questions about personal and societal values.
The 8 Mansion Murders
Takemaru Abiko, trans. from the Japanese by Ho-Ling Wong (Locked Room International)
Insp. Kyozo Hayami, of the Tokyo Metropolitan PD, has to figure out how a construction company executive was killed by a crossbow bolt in the unusual figure eight–shaped house that he shared with his parents and two siblings. Abiko combines laugh-out-loud humor with an ingenious murder plot in this extremely clever impossible crime novel.
City of Ink
Elsa Hart (Minotaur)
Set in 18th-century China, the superb third novel featuring librarian Li Du centers on the double murder of a factory owner and his wife. This entry solidifies Hart’s position as a top-notch historical mystery author.
The Fox
Frederick Forsyth (Putnam)
Top Marketing Books 2018
MI6 employs an 18-year-old computer genius to deliver online attacks on Britain’s enemies, including the Russians, the Iranians, and the North Koreans. Bestseller Forsyth retires on a high note with this enthralling thriller detailing the nuts and bolts of modern espionage.
Sign up now to receive our weekly e-newsletter with more great book recommendations.
The Man Who Came Uptown
George Pelecanos (Mulholland)
Michael Hudson spends a lot of time reading while awaiting trial for armed robbery in a Washington, D.C., jail. Meanwhile, a crooked PI secures Hudson’s release—and expects the former inmate to help him shake down drug dealers in return. Edgar finalist Pelecanos delivers an unforgettable novel of crime, redemption, and the transformative power of the written word.
Nine Perfect Strangers
Liane Moriarty (Flatiron)
In bestseller Moriarty’s cannily plotted, continually surprising, and frequently funny psychological thriller, nine hurting but comfortably heeled Aussies go to a secluded resort. The pricey 10-day “Mind and Body Total Transformation Retreat” is nothing like the restorative reset they were anticipating.
Our House
Louise Candlish (Berkley)
In her U.S. debut, British author Candlish movingly chronicles the decline of a marriage that once looked as solid as the couple’s stately red-brick London residence, which the husband succeeds in selling to another family while the wife is out of town. American fans of domestic suspense will want to see more from this talented author.
Red, White, Blue
Lea Carpenter (Knopf)
A daughter tries to piece together the life of her late father, a successful banker who spied for the CIA for 30 years, in the face of accusations that he was really a spy for the Chinese. Carpenter skips the easy morality of guns, patriotic loyalty, and heroic action to slowly disclose the complexities of the secret world and how it relates to the human heart.
Resurrection Bay
Emma Viskic (Pushkin Vertigo)
Australian author Viskic’s terrific debut introduces hearing-impaired PI Caleb Zelic, who must rely on his keen ability to read faces in his quest to solve the murder of a close friend, Senior Constable Gary Marsden. James Ellroy fans will relish this hard-edged crime novel.
Savage Liberty: A Mystery of Revolutionary America
Eliot Pattison (Counterpoint)
Set in 1768, Edgar winner Pattison’s excellent fifth historical centers on the sabotage of a British ship in Boston Harbor and the related murder of a Native American Christian convert. Pattison has few peers in his ability to integrate actual events into a complex but plausible whodunit plot.
The Widows of Malabar Hill
Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
Set in India in 1921, this outstanding series launch introduces Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s first female solicitor, whose efforts to assist three widows in an estate case enmeshes her in a murder investigation. Thoughtful characterizations, especially of the capable, fiercely independent lead, bode well for future installments.
The Word Is Murder
Anthony Horowitz (Harper)
In bestseller Horowitz’s metafictional crime novel, Horowitz himself joins forces with Daniel Hawthorne, a former detective inspector, in trying to solve the case of a well-to-do woman who scheduled her own funeral just hours before she was murdered in her London home. The author nicely balances deduction and wit in this tour de force.
Best Overall: Blue Ocean Shift: Beyond CompetingYou save:
This book is hands-down one of the best business books you’ll ever read. W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne teach you how to see the whole business landscape as a world of opportunities – and how to best tap into your potential to control your own unique ocean rather than stumbling over everybody else. You’ll learn to see marketing less as a competition with others and more of a competition to be the very best your organization will be. Not only that, but this book will help you convince your team that you’re not crazy – and that this approach is a winning strategy. This latest edition features incredible examples from powerful leaders in many different fields have used these techniques to carve out successes.
Top of Mindby John HallHailed as “an absolute must-read for any professional or company seeking to build influence and lead their industry,” John Hall’s “Top of Mind” sheds light on just that: how you can become top of mind with your audience and lead your industry.
In this insightful, personable, and straightforward book, Hall explains how he built both his brand and his business relationships through helpful and engaging content. In the rapidly changing digital landscape that marketers are navigating right now, the need to foster authentic business relationships built on trust is even more important — and Hall’s book gives CMOs the tools to stay top of mind with their networks and their industry.
2. Hug Your Haters by Jay Baer
One of Business Magazine’s top three business books of 2016, “Hug Your Haters” is a hilarious and relevant twist on the traditional customer service book. While 80 percent of companies claim they provide superior customer service, only an alarming 8 percent of their customers agree.
Jay Baer explains the reality of customer service today: that marketers should spend more time interacting with consumers on social media, not through phone or email. Baer uses research to make a compelling argument for addressing every complaint and handling internet trolls in an age when one-third of customer complaints go unanswered.
3. Outside Insightby Jørn Lyseggen
If you’re like me, you may occasionally feel oversaturated by marketing industry news and trends. In this book, Jørn Lyseggen advises professionals to step outside their industry bubble and to look beyond internal data. Using real-life examples from Nike to L’Oréal to Barack Obama, “Outside Insight” is packed with tools to aid forward-thinking industry professionals in making innovative and, most importantly,>The Content Formulaby Michael Brenner and Liz Bedor
Content marketing can be a monster of a task for many CEOs. The very idea of consistently churning out engaging and informative posts across the internet is daunting — especially at the frequency that many content consumers have come to expect. Michael Brenner and Liz Bedor simplify the whole process, breaking down the numbers behind content to help keep you from breaking your brain — or the bank — with your content marketing campaigns.
5. They Ask You Answer by Marcus Sheridan
After the housing crisis in 2008, Marcus Sheridan’s pool company struggled to bring in customers. Today, it turns down millions of dollars in business each year that it just can’t take on. The secret to Sheridan’s success? Content marketing, pure and simple.
In “They Ask You Answer,” he explains how his team expanded the company’s web presence and produced winning content in order to create advocates for the brand. He says that CMOs are likely overspending on television, radio, and print; by dropping the “marketing speak” and simply answering questions, they’ll begin to build trust.
6. Leading Through the Turn by Elise Mitchell
We’ve all read the classic leadership book outlining how to set and achieve your goals. Elise Mitchell, the motorcycle-riding business maverick, takes a different approach. Focusing on journeys instead of destinations, Mitchell helps CEOs and marketers alike to build plans centered on enjoying not only the achieving of goals, but the path that gets you there, as well.
7. I'm Judging You: The Do-Better Manualby Luvvie Ajayi
Anybody who believes that humor is a great equalizer, as Ajayi does, is ok in my book. And then some. Her 'manual' debuted at No. 5 on the New York Times best-seller list this past October. The New York Times calls her 'The Internet’s newest comic phenom.' Publishers Weekly says the book is 'a light, 21st-century discussion of manners and morals, with Ajayi taking people to task for oversharing on social media or for being casually bigoted.' And Redbook Magazine calls it “The ultimate handbook on the dos and don’ts of socially navigating the digital era. Brilliantly witty and heartful.”
No, this is not a marketing book by any means. But it is a book every CMO, marketer and human being should read for it causes all of us to take that hard look in the mirror at ourselves but does so with a smile on its face. Quite the accomplishment.
8. Chief Marketing Officers at Work by Josh Steimle
As data becomes more widely available, industry leaders have begun claiming that marketing and communication are becoming less art, more science. The value of analytics, especially within digital marketing and marketing automation, can’t be overstated. However, in a fielddominated by data, some CMOs still stress the importance of not becoming too dependent on data.
Josh Steimle’s “Chief Marketing Officers at Work” examines this balancing act between analytics and intuition from the perspectives of 29CMOs and C-level executives from GE to Harvard Business School to Spotify. Steimle sheds light onhow to work effectively in a culture of ever-increasing collaboration between CMOs and CTOs, as well as CEOs and COOs, and how these powerful executives can learn to thrive amid these industry changes.
9. More Is More by Blake Morgan
With more and more (no pun intended) CMOs overseeing the entire customer experience to go along with the million other things they're doing, there is an undeniable need to provide superior customer service. The full title of Blake's book in fact is More Is More: How the Best Companies Go Farther and Work Harder to Create Knock-Your-Socks-Off Customer Experiences. A mouthful for sure but every word carries the same amount of weight of importance behind it.
In his Amazon review of the book, John Venhuizen, President & CEO, Ace Hardware Corp put it best: 'Every executive gives lip service to great customer service, some even have sincere intentions; but the troops thin out a bit when it comes down to actually delivering an exceptional customer experience. More Is More, is a much deserved - and very practical anvil to the head for anyone in business who desires to differentiate by truly amazing the customer.'
10. Performance Partnerships by Robert Glazer
This brand-new book (seriously, it just came out May 2) was a fantastic new addition to my library. In “Performance Partnerships,” Robert Glazer uses his decade of in-depth experience to make a compelling case for affiliate (or “performance”) marketing, a strategy in which marketers only pay for quantifiable outcomes.
In addition to examining misconceptions about the tool, Glazer delves into how affiliate marketing evolved, how it impacts the changing digital marketing landscape, and how it can be used to better your business.
11. Everybody Writesby Ann Handley
In today’s internet and social media-saturated world, every one of us is marketing ourselves through our words, whether we realize it or not. Instead of fighting this trend, Ann Handley strives for everyone to embrace their inner writer. She uses her knowledge as a marketing veteran to guide readers through the entire process of content creation — from hard and fast grammar rules to nebulous elements of storytelling to the science of publishing. By the end of this book, even the most wordplay-averse among us will be expert content creators.
Although this list only contains eleven good ones, I’m confident it offers enough material to present a variety of perspectives and insights within marketing for you and your team to consider.I truly believe each book contains lessons that you can apply to your day-to-day work and use to continue growing with this industry.
Are there any other books covering marketing trends that I should add to the list? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Marketing
Sales
Management
What's the book about? The challenges facing brands have gotten far more complex, and the stakes have grown higher when marketing in the #FakeNews Era. Leaders must now address a highly polarized marketplace,in which consumers are energized by their tribal affiliations to take action for or against brands based on their perceived values, beliefs, and biases. Here you’ll find strategic and tactical guidance on how to prepare yourself for what may lie ahead, because you won’t have time to puzzle it out when you get that dreaded late-night call from PR.
Who might benefit from this book? Anyone with a stake in an organization’s brand and reputation—marketers, PR managers, general managers.
2. Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future -- and What to Do About It, by Tien Tzuo, CEO and founder of Zuora
What’s the book about? Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce said, “Tien Tzuo, who I was lucky enough to hire as my eleventh employee at Salesforce, has written the definitive playbook for anyone navigating the most important business model shift of our time. The subscription model is exploding everywhere, and nobody knows how to steer through this shift better than Tien.” But how do you turn customers into subscribers? As the CEO of the world's largest subscription management platform, Tzuo has helped countless companies transition from relying on individual sales to building customer-centric, recurring-revenue businesses. His core message in SUBSCRIBED is simple: Ready or not, excited or terrified, you need to adapt to the Subscription Economy -- or risk being left behind.
Who might benefit from reading this book? Any marketer interested in employing subscriptions to build lucrative, ongoing relationships with customers.
3. Optimizing Growth: Predictive and Profitable Strategies to Understand Demand and Outsmart Your Competitors, by Jason Green (managing director at Alvarez & Marsal), Mark Henneman (senior partner with The Cambridge Group, a principal with Booz Allen Hamilton and executive with Motorola, Inc.) and Dimitar Antov (director and former principal at The Cambridge Group)
What’s the book about? Optimizing Growth is a handbook for marketers and businesses on how to succeed in the age of big data. This book provides insightful guidance, real-world success stories and practical tools to achieve growth in today’s business environment which looks dramatically different than it did a decade ago, utilizing big data to achieve a deeper understanding of demand, customers, competitors, and opportunity. Growth now demands innovative new approaches and an improved capacity to meet customer needs.
Who might benefit from reading this book? Executives seeking to gain competitive advantage and the new mindset required to leverage precision analytics.
The 12 Powers Of A Marketing Leader
McGraw-Hill Education4. The 12 Powers of a Marketing Leader, by Thomas Barta, CMO leadership thinker, and Patrick Barwise, emeritus professor at London Business School
What’s the book about? Seth Godin calls it “A must-read for every present and future CMO who cares about making a difference.' The 12 Powers of a Marketing Leader is the first leadership book for marketers—based on the largest ever global study, involving over 68,000 executive assessments—on what makes for a successful marketer. Learn how to mobilize your boss, your colleagues, your team, and yourself. The prize? More impact, more career success, and, quite simply, more fun.
Who might benefit from reading the book? CMOs, marketing managers, brand managers, junior marketers, marketing students, headhunters, HR executives.
5. Superconsumers: A Simple, Speedy, and Sustainable Path to Superior Growth, by Eddie Yoon, founder of EddieWouldGrow
![Books Books](https://blog-cdn.feedspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/book-marketing.jpg)
What’s the book about? Pork dorks. Craftsters. American Girl fans. Despite their different tastes, eclectic diehards have a lot in common: they're obsessed about a specific brand, product, or category. They pursue their passions with fervor, and they're extremely knowledgeable about the things they love. They aren't average consumers--they're superconsumers. While small in number, superconsumers can have an outsized impact on a company's bottom line. Representing 10% of total consumers, they can drive between 30% to 70% of sales, and offer invaluable advice to managers looking to improve their products, change their business models, energize their cultures, and attract new customers. Rich with data and case studies of companies that have implemented superconsumer strategies with great success, Superconsumers is a fun, practical, and inspiring guide for anyone interested in making their best customers even better.
Who might benefit from reading this book? Marketers interested in engaging with a brand’s most passionate and profitable consumers.
Analytics The Agile Way
Wiley and SAS Business Series6. Analytics: The Agile Way, by Phil Simon, speaker and ASU professor
What’s the book about? Many if not most organizations fail to understand one of their key assets: their data. For every Amazon, Facebook, Google and Netflix, hundreds of organizations struggle to make sense of digital information. In Analytics:The Agile Way, award-winning author and ASU professor Phil Simon shows how progress companies are eschewing the Waterfall method in favor of agile methods such as Scrum. In so doing, they are garnering valuable insights into their data far faster than their counterparts.
Who might benefit from reading the book? Executives and practitioners who want to make sense of their organization's data and external data sources.
Marketing Strategy: Based on First Principles and Data Analytics
Macmillan7. Marketing Strategy: Based on First Principles and Data Analytics, by Robert W. Palmatier, University of Washington professor, and Shrihari Sridhar, Texas A&M associate professor
What’s the book about? A research-based guidebook that takes a different approach by, 1) organizing the processes and tools around First Principles to give managers a structured framework for developing effective strategies; 2) integrating state-of-the-art data analytic techniques into all aspects of the strategic planning process; and 3) introducing the latest marketing research throughout.
Who might benefit from reading the book? Practicing managers and managers-in-training interested in marketing strategy.
Finale music software amazon. 8. Capturing Loyalty, by John Larson, senior partner at John Larson & Company, and Bennett McClellan, managing consultant and chief literary officer at John Larson & Company
What’s the book about? In Capturing Loyalty, John Larson and Bennett McClellan, two pioneers in the field of customer loyalty, teach marketers and sellers how to turn satisfied customers into highly satisfied customers—and explain how this shift affects loyalty behaviors and dramatically impacts a company’s bottom line. Through research and success stories, Capturing Loyalty offers a new approach to a very old problem, and advances the field significantly for the first time in a decade.
Who might benefit from reading this book? The authors target marketers, sellers and organizational leadership to explain why you can’t increase profits efficiently or sustainably solely by chasing after new customers. Instead, they found that you make more money by selling more to your most satisfied customers than by going after new ones, and by identifying satisfied customers and turning them into highly satisfied customers.
9. Microsoft Secrets – An Insider’s View of the Rocket Ride from Worst to First and Lessons Learned on the Journey, by Dave Jaworski, CEO of Meta Media Partners LLC
What’s the book about? Want to grow your business even in the face of intense competition? Where do you put your focus? What questions should you ask? What principles drive the best outcomes? Lessons from Microsoft’s meteoric rise from start-up to global influencer can positively impact your business (and even your personal life.) Learn from Bill Gates and the team he assembled. Dave Jaworski brings you a personal inside view of the thinking and decisions that shaped Microsoft.
Who might benefit from reading the book? Business and technology leaders and influencers with a growth mindset. Business Leaders looking for ideas and strategies to take their businesses to new heights. People passionate about personal development, looking to learn how to better themselves personally and professionally.
Answers For Modern Communicators
Routledge and imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group10. Answers for Modern Communicators: A Guide to Effective Business Communication, by Deirdre Breakenridge, CEO of Pure Performance Communications
What’s the book about? Modern communicators need answers to pressing questions about reputation, building relationships, advocacy, storytelling and social media, and how to navigate an evolving media landscape. Answers for Modern Communicators responds to FAQs with advice and “in the trenches” perspectives grounded in decades of PR and marketing experience.
Who might benefit from reading the book? PR and marketing professionals and students, entrepreneurs and business owners ready to enhance their business communication skills to meet the challenges of quickly evolving media and changing consumer behavior.
11. Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, or Escape Velocity, by Geoffrey Moore
From Sameer Dholakia, CEO, SendGrid: 'Read anything by tech marketing genius, Geoffrey Moore. Depending on where your company is in its lifecycle, I recommend Crossing the Chasm (for an early stage company), Inside the Tornado (for a growth stage company), or Escape Velocity (for a mature, established business). Don’t get me wrong - there are countless (newer) books that are worth marketers’ attention. But I often recommend leaders go back and re-read the 'oldies but goodies'.'
What's the book about? Each targets a different phase of a company’s life stage. Crossing the Chasm gives marketers a framework to think about customer adoption patterns of disruptive or innovative technologies (and today, every company is a technology company). Inside the Tornado builds upon this idea, helping marketers navigate the hyper-growth phase that typically occurs once the adoption has hit the mainstream (or, in Moore’s parlance, the Early Majority). Escape Velocity is for marketers at a much later stage in their company’s lifecycle, where they need to be wary of over-dependence on the first innovation’s success, and ensure appropriate focus on next-generation growth opportunities.
Who might benefit from reading the book? Marketers in each stage of a company’s lifecycle including, early stage companies, growth stage companies and mature, established businesses.
Do Good: Embracing Brand Citizenship to Fuel Both Purpose and Profit
Best Network Marketing Books 2018
AMACOM12. Do Good: Embracing Brand Citizenship to Fuel Both Purpose and Profit, by Anne Bahr Thompson, founder of Onesixtyfourth and pioneer of the Brand Citizenship Movement
What’s the book about? Doing good is no longer a cost of doing business but an investment into brand loyalty, employee retention, and growth. Based on three years of research, Do Good presents a five-step model of Brand Citizenship that delivers value to individuals, investors, and society as a whole. Using widespread case studies to go beyond the theoretical, Bahr Thompson systematically guides large corporations and social enterprises alike to effectively align purpose and profit.
Who might benefit from reading the book? Do Good’s appeal is broad: from CEOs, CMOs, social responsibility and sustainability experts to entrepreneurs and those just starting out in business.
--
A bonus: The following book was recommended by Maynard Webb, founder of the Webb Investment Network, board of directors member at Salesforce and Visa, former Chairman of Yahoo and COO of eBay.
The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, by Steven Pinker
Why read the book? We live in a turbulent world of extreme violence, but the reality is that violence has dramatically declined so that we are now living in the most peaceful time in history. Pinker chronicles the “historical forces” for this including the modern judicial system, technological progress, increased literacy and elevating women--all of which had played a major role in making the world safer and more stable. Of course, we are still plagued by horrible violent acts, and any violence is too much, but I found this book was inspirational because it put where we are in context. It reminded me of the importance of not just seeing things in the moment but looking at it through a wider lens. That’s a pivotal lesson; it’s critical, as leaders, that we understand the broad picture rather than just the specifics that are right in front of us.
Join the discussion: @KimWhitler