6 Must-Read Nonfiction Books for November

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I finished reading all these nonfiction books some time ago, but I combined them for 6 Nonfiction Books for November post to make my life easier. I ended up reading and reviewing many more books than I had planned this year, and I still have a lot of reviews left to publish. Since this is my list of my 24 Books in 2024, I didn’t think it mattered too much how I presented the remaining reviews.

The Rest of the Nonfiction Selections I Made For 2024

The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure

Achieve “Massive Action” results and accomplish your business dreams!

While most people operate with only three degrees of action-no action, retreat, or normal action-if you’re after big goals, you don’t want to settle for the ordinary. To reach the next level, you must understand the coveted 4th degree of action. This 4th degree, also know as the 10 X Rule, is that level of action that guarantees companies and individuals realize their goals and dreams.

The 10 X Rule unveils the principle of “Massive Action,” allowing you to blast through business clichŽs and risk-aversion while taking concrete steps to reach your dreams. It also demonstrates why people get stuck in the first three actions and how to move into making the 10X Rule a discipline. Find out exactly where to start, what to do, and how to follow up each action you take with more action to achieve Massive Action results.

• Learn the “Estimation of Effort” calculation to ensure you exceed your targets
• Make the Fourth Degree a way of life and defy mediocrity
• Discover the time management myth
• Get the exact reasons why people fail and others succeed
• Know the exact formula to solve problems

Extreme success is by definition outside the realm of normal action. Instead of behaving like everybody else and settling for average results, take Massive Action with The 10 X Rule, remove luck and chance from your business equation, and lock in massive success.

My Review

I could not finish this book. It constantly reiterated the need to go the extra mile in everything we do by at least 10 times compared to those around us. I did not see why there was such a huge amount of hype around this book! I was sorely disappointed.

Superfans: The Easy Way to Stand Out, Grow Your Tribe, and Build a Successful Business

The magical moments that turn your followers into fans.

Customers, followers, subscribers.

It’s easy to just look at the numbers. How many likes? How many purchases? How many email subscribers?

But as entrepreneurs, we have to remember that there are people behind all that data. People who are looking to us to be a leader, to give advice, and to care. They are looking for trustworthy tools and resources, and for someone to help them to achieve their goals. In this dog-eat-dog world, these are the people who are looking for someone who they can trust, and who they know have their best interests in mind.

These are the people, if you connect with them in the right way, who will become Superfans.

Followers may “like” an Instagram post. Customers may buy a product. But “Superfans” will be your biggest supporters. They will promote you and your products because they know you have made a difference in their lives. They will tell their friends. They will send you encouraging emails. They will connect with you and your other fans.

Whether you’re a shy YouTuber just starting out, or the leader of a Fortune 500 company, your superfans are out there waiting for you to connect with them. You just need to create that journey, to pave the yellow-brick road that will guide them surely and steadily to superfandom.

You don’t need to change the entire world to build a successful business; you just need to change someone’s world.

People don’t become superfans the moment they find you. They become superfans because of the magical moments you create for them over time.

This book will help you do just that.

My Review

I’ve been a fan of Pat Flynn’s for some time now. He provides helpful advice in a simple-to-follow manner, and this book did not disappoint. He gave solid tips on how to create and keep super fans. His advice has helped me to build a small fan base already.

The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.

The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute.

Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.

My Review

This book is ideal for someone who wants to learn how to start a business without going broke. It provides some things to consider. You gain more from this book if you put it all into action.

Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person

She’s the creator and producer of some of the most groundbreaking and audacious shows on television today. Her iconic characters live boldly and speak their minds. So who would suspect that Shonda Rhimes is an introvert? That she hired a publicist so she could avoid public appearances? That she suffered panic attacks before media interviews?

With three children at home and three hit television shows, it was easy for Shonda to say she was simply too busy. But in truth, she was also afraid. And then, over Thanksgiving dinner, her sister muttered something that was both a wake up and a call to arms: You never say yes to anything. Shonda knew she had to embrace the challenge: for one year, she would say YES to everything that scared her.

This poignant, intimate, and hilarious memoir explores Shonda’s life before her Year of Yes—from her nerdy, book-loving childhood to her devotion to creating television characters who reflected the world she saw around her. The book chronicles her life after her Year of Yes had begun—when Shonda forced herself out of the house and onto the stage; when she learned to explore, empower, applaud, and love her truest self. Yes.

“Honest, raw, and revelatory” (The Washington Post), this wildly candid and compulsively readable book reveals how the mega talented Shonda Rhimes finally achieved badassery worthy of a Shondaland character. Best of all, she “can help motivate even the most determined homebody to get out and try something new” (Chicago Tribune).

My Review

I was eager to dive into this book because of my deep affection for Grey’s Anatomy. However, I found the narrative to be prolonged and sometimes meandering, which made it hard to stay engaged. That said, the overall message behind the book and the purpose for which the author wrote it resonated deeply with me. Her life story is incredibly poignant and mirrors the experiences of many, illustrating struggles and triumphs that feel universally relatable. I also felt a personal connection to her, as I share the difficulty of stepping out of my comfort zone and opening up to others.

This Will Only Hurt a Little

There’s no stopping Busy Philipps. From the time she was two and “aced out in her nudes” to explore the neighborhood (as her mom famously described her toddler jailbreak), Busy has always been headstrong, defiant, and determined not to miss out on all the fun. These qualities led her to leave Scottsdale, Arizona, at the age of nineteen to pursue her passion for acting in Hollywood. But much like her painful and painfully funny teenage years, chasing her dreams wasn’t always easy and sometimes hurt more than a little.

In a memoir “that often reads like a Real World confessional or an open diary” (Kirkus Reviews), Busy opens up about chafing against a sexist system rife with on-set bullying and body shaming, being there when friends face shattering loss, enduring devastating personal and professional betrayals from those she loved best, and struggling with postpartum anxiety and the challenges of motherhood.

But Busy also brings to the page her sly sense of humor and the unshakeable sense that disappointment shouldn’t stand in her way—even when she’s knocked down both figuratively and literally (from a knee injury at her seventh-grade dance to a violent encounter on the set of Freaks and Geeks). The rough patches in her life are tempered by times of hilarity and joy: leveraging a flawless impression of Cher from Clueless into her first paid acting gig, helping reinvent a genre with cult classic Freaks and Geeks, becoming fast friends with Dawson’s Creek castmate Michelle Williams, staging her own surprise wedding, conquering natural childbirth with the help of a Mad Men–themed hallucination, and of course, how her Instagram stories became “the most addictive thing on the internet right now” (Cosmopolitan).

Busy is the rare entertainer whose impressive arsenal of talents as an actress is equally matched by her storytelling ability, sense of humor, and sharp observations about life, love, and motherhood—“if you think you know Busy from her Instagram stories, you don’t know the half of it” (Jenni Konner). Her conversational writing reminds us what we love about her on screens large and small. From “candid tales of celebrity life, mom life, and general Busy-ness” (W Magazine), This Will Only Hurt a Little “is everything we’ve been dying to hear about” (Bustle).

My Review

This book is a captivating and effortless read. The author candidly shares her insights and experiences, making it relatable and engaging. She truly embodies the strength and resilience of a powerful woman.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

The daughter of a scientist who frequently noted her lack of “genius,” Angela Duckworth is now a celebrated researcher and professor. It was her early eye-opening stints in teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience that led to her hypothesis about what really drives success: not genius, but a unique combination of passion and long-term perseverance.

In Grit, she takes us into the field to visit cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, teachers working in some of the toughest schools, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she’s learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers—from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll.

“Duckworth’s ideas about the cultivation of tenacity have clearly changed some lives for the better” (The New York Times Book Review). Among Grit’s most valuable insights: any effort you make ultimately counts twice toward your goal; grit can be learned, regardless of IQ or circumstances; when it comes to child-rearing, neither a warm embrace nor high standards will work by themselves; how to trigger lifelong interest; the magic of the Hard Thing Rule; and so much more. Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that—not talent or luck—makes all the difference. This is “a fascinating tour of the psychological research on success” (The Wall Street Journal).

My Review

This book reminds people of the value of persevering through it all. The successful people you’re surrounded by are the ones who don’t give up when the going gets tough. My mother could have written this book. You get the full guide on how to have more GRIT in your own life.

The nonfiction books I read this year proved to be truly rewarding. Each title offered unique perspectives and valuable insights that deepened my understanding of various topics. I firmly believe that nonfiction books hold significant value, each for its own distinct reasons, enriching our knowledge and broadening our horizons.

Talk to me in the comments:

What nonfiction book has transformed your life?

Check Out The Rest of the 24 Books in 2024

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