Sherpa’s #GoodReads Selection

Sherpa’s #GoodReads Selection

Big Ideas

View More
October 31 2017
Big Ideas
Author: Yeti Club

Regardless of job title, all Sherpas have a few things in common: big imaginations, and open minds.

While these traits are great assets in the marketing industry, they must be maintained with a steady diet of great literature. Take a page out of our book with the Sherpa Marketing GoodReads list, and see what we’re reading this month.  

 

1 – 100 Years of Solitude

By Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Probably Garcí­a Márquez finest and most famous work. One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of a mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, alive with unforgettable men and women, and with a truth and understanding that strike the soul. One Hundred Years of Solitudeis a masterpiece of the art of fiction. 

 

2 – The Neapolitan Novels

By Elena Ferrante

Nothing quite like this has ever been published before” proclaimed The Guardian about the Neapolitan novels in 2014. 

Against the backdrop of a Naples that is as seductive as it is perilous and a world undergoing epochal change, Elena Ferrante tells the story of a sixty-year friendship between the brilliant and bookish Elena and the fiery, rebellious Lila with unmatched honesty and brilliance.

The four books in this novel cycle constitute a long, remarkable story, one that Vogue described as “gutsy and compulsively readable,” which readers will return to again and again, and each return will bring with it new revelations.  

 

3 – Thanos Rising

By Jason Aaron (Marvel)

The vile face of Thanos left audiences in shock after last summer's Marvel Studios' "The Avengers" movie...but who is this eerily disturbing villain? Discover the hidden truth, as Thanos rises as the unrivaled rogue of wretchedness in this gripping tale of tragedy, deceit and destiny. Where did this demi-god of destruction come from - and more importantly, what does he want from the universe? Death has been shadowing Thanos for his entire life, watching his inner darkness grow...but why? The answers come from the incredible creative team of Jason Aaron (Wolverine, X-Men Origins) and Simone Bianchi (Wolverine, Astonishing X-Men)! Prepare for a journey that will not only change the course of one boy's life...but will soon change the very nature of the Marvel Universe. What comes after "Marvel NOW!"? Whatever it is, it starts HERE!

 

4- World War Hulk

By Greg Pak (Marvel)

Exiled by a group of Marvel 'heroes' to the savage alien planet of Sakaar, the Hulk raged, bled & conquered through the pages of last year's 'Planet Hulk' epic, rising from slave to gladiator to king. Now the Hulk returns to Earth to wreak his terrible vengeance on Iron Man, Reed Richards, Dr. Strange & Black Bolt.

 

5 – The Blind Watchmaker

By Richard Dawkins

Acclaimed as the most influential work on evolution written in the last hundred years, The Blind Watchmaker offers an inspiring and accessible introduction to one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time. A brilliant and controversial book which demonstrates that evolution by natural selection - the unconscious, automatic, blind yet essentially non-random process discovered by Darwin - is the only answer to the biggest question of all: why do we exist?

6- Building a Better Vocabulary

By Kevin Flanigan

What does the word bombast have to do with cushion stuffing? What is the difference between specious and spurious? Would you want someone to call you a snollygoster?

The hallmark of a powerful vocabulary is not simply knowing many words; rather, it’s knowing the exact word to use in a specific context or situation. A great vocabulary can enhance your speaking, writing, and even thinking skills. This course will boost your vocabulary, whether you want to enhance your personal lexicon, write or speak more articulately in professional settings, or advance your knowledge of the English language. For anyone who has ever grasped for the perfect word at a particular moment, this course provides a research-based and enjoyable method for improving your vocabulary.

 

7 – The Way of Kings

By Brandon Sanderson

Roshar is a world of stone swept by tempests that shape ecology and civilization. Animals and plants retract; cities are built in shelter. In centuries since ten orders of Knights fell, their Shardblade swords and Shardplate armor still transform men into near-invincible warriors. Wars are fought for them, and won by them.

In one such war on the ruined Shattered Plains, slave Kaladin struggles to save his men and fathom leaders who deem them expendable, in senseless wars where ten armies fight separately against one foe. 

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Fascinated by the ancient text namedThe Way of Kings and troubled by visions of ancient times, he doubts his sanity.

Across the ocean, Shallan trains under eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece Jasnah. Though Shallan genuinely loves learning, she plans a daring theft. Her research hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war. 

 

8 – How to Breathe Underwater: Field Reports From an Age of Radical Changes

By Chris turner

The essays and reportage in How to Breathe Underwater offer a panoramic overview of this age of radical change—from the online gambling boom in the Caribbean to Cyberjaya, the Malaysian government’s attempt to build its own Silicon Valley; from video game design to digital-age tabloid journalism to the artistry of The Simpsons; and from the fate of the Great Barrier Reef to Cuba’s economic limbo after the fall of the Soviet empire. In field reports that survey the rise of the internet in the 1990s, analyze the changing nature of mass culture in the digital age, and provide a multifaceted look at how human industry is shaping the planet’s foundations, this collection presents a fractal portrait of a society in rapid flux.

Chris Turner is the author of four previous books, a nine-time National Magazine Award winner and a sought-after speaker on the rise of the global green economy, as well as a celebrated feature writer for The Walrus, Canadian Geographic, The Globe & Mail and other major publications. His lively and passionate reportage, along with his incisive essays and shrewd cultural criticism, have for the past fifteen years made essential contributions to the debates on our climate, culture, and technology. They are collected here for the first time.

 

9 – Identity 

By Milan Kundera

There are situations in which we fail for a moment to recognize the person we are with, in which the identity of the other is erased while we simultaneously doubt our own. This also happens with couples--indeed, above all with couples, because lovers fear more than anything else "losing sight" of the loved one.

With stunning artfulness in expanding and playing variations on the meaningful moment, Milan Kundera has made this situation--and the vague sense of panic it inspires--the very fabric of his new novel. Here brevity goes hand in hand with intensity, and a moment of bewilderment marks the start of a labyrinthine journey during which the reader repeatedly crosses the border between the real and the unreal, between what occurs in the world outside and what the mind creates in its solitude.

Of all contemporary writers, only Kundera can transform such a hidden and disconcerting perception into the material for a novel, one of his finest, most painful, and most enlightening. Which, surprisingly, turns out to be a love story. 

 

10 -  The Sirens of Titan

By Kurt Vonnengut Jr.

The Sirens of Titan is an outrageous romp through space, time, and morality. The richest, most depraved man on Earth, Malachi Constant, is offered a chance to take a space journey to distant worlds with a beautiful woman at his side. Of course there's a catch to the invitation—and a prophetic vision about the purpose of human life that only Vonnegut has the courage to tell. 

 

Other books on our list:

11 - Dom Casmurro - Machado de Assis

12 - The Stranger - Albert Camus

13 - Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are - Rob Walker

14 - Elon Musk: Inventing the Future - Ashlee Vance

15 - The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls

16 - If Wishes Were Horses - Anne McCaffrey 

17 - Creativity Inc. - Ed Catmull

18 - Open - Andre Agassi

19 - Good is the New Cool: Market Like You Give a Damn - Afdhel Aziz

20 - Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

21 - Decoded - Jay Z

22 - A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman

23 - Persepolis - Marjane Sartrapi

24 - Roots of the Islamic Revolution in Iran - Hamid Algar

25 - Where'd You Go, Bernadette - Maria Semple

26 - Hidden Figures: "The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who helped Win the Space Race" - Margot Lee Shetterly

27 - The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business - Charles Duhigg

28 - Eddie Would Go: The Story of Eddie Aikau, Hawaiian Hero and Pioneer of Big Wave Surfing - Stuart Holmes Coleman

29 - All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity - Marshall Berman

*Book descriptions by GoodReads.com

 

 

Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this article, say Hello On: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn ​​​


Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this article, say Hello On: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn ​​
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this article, say Hello On: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn ​​

Sign up to get the latest content!


If you wish to receive information from Sherpa relevant to you and/or your organization going forward, please provide your first name, email address, and consent.

You may withdraw your consent at any time at the following address below or by clicking unsubscribe.

Sherpa Marketing Inc. Attn: Privacy Officer
500 - 211 Bannatyne Ave. Winnipeg, MB. R3B 3P2, Canada

1-888-447-7727       info@sherpamarketing.ca