Houston Chronicle Sunday

This summer’s crop of business books offers the chance to help your career.

- By Ann Marie van den Hurk

LEXINGTON, Ky. — It looks like this summer is going to be scorching all over the country.

What a perfect opportunit­y to catch up on some summer reading while sitting poolside, traveling on summer holidays or just enjoying the cool of the air conditioni­ng at home.

So now’s the time to balance your summer reading with some business books to enhance your career and organizati­on. Enriching themselves

What books are peers reading to enrich themselves this summer? There are a diverse bunch of business books on tablets and in hardback.

Here are some suggestion­s:

• Amy Vernon, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Predictabl­e.ly, an analytics platform, suggests reading “Smartcuts” by Shane Snow.

What she liked is Snow talks about not taking shortcuts, but rather smartcuts by optimizing time, etc. Snow gives real examples of people who succeeded seemingly overnight, but only because they laid the groundwork years and years earlier.

• Kerry Bezzonno, principal of communicat­ions firm Modcom Strategies, has her nightstand filled with books and is reading many at the same time.

She recommends: “Do More Great Work” by Michael Bungay Stanier; “How to be a Power Connector: The 5+50+100 Rule for Turning Your Business Network into Profits” by Judy Robinett; “The Happiness Advantage” by Shawn Achor; and “Women and the Art of War: Sun Tzu’s Strategies for Winning Without Confrontat­ion” by Catherine Huang and A.D. Rosenberg.

• Another great book for giving new perspectiv­e for women in midlife about their careers is: “Breakdown, Breakthrou­gh: The Profes- sional Woman’s Guide to Claiming a Life of Passion, Power and Purpose” by Kathy Caprino.

• “The Three Laws of Performanc­e: Rewriting the Future of Your Organizati­on and Your Life” by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan is on the desk of Red Dot Digital founder Karima-Catherine Goundiam because it is about organizati­onal transforma­tion. Personal choices

What’s on my nightstand and Kindle? I’m reading “Youtility” by Jay Baer and “Brandjack” by Quentin Langley.

Both books will get me thinking of new concepts in marketing and reputation management.

Enjoy your summer reading. Ann Marie van den Hurk, an accredited public relations profession­al, is principal of Mind the Gap Public Relations and author of “Social Media Crisis Communicat­ions.”

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