From the editors of the New York Times bestseller Not Quite What I Was Planning comes another collection of terse true tales—this time simple sagas exploring the complexities of the human heart. Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak contains hundreds of personal stories about the pinnacles and pitfalls of romance. Brilliant in their brevity, these insightful slivers of passion, pain, and connection capture every shade of love and loss—six words at a time.

2. WHY HIM?  WHY HER?  Finding Real Love by Understanding Your Personality Type

by Helen Fisher
Why do you fall in love with one person rather than another? In this fascinating and informative book, Helen Fisher, one of the world’s leading experts on romantic love, unlocks the hidden code of desire and attachment. Each of us, it turns out, primarily expresses one of four broad personality types—Explorer, Builder, Director, or Negotiator—and each of these types is governed by different chemical systems in the brain. Driven by this biology, we are attracted to partners who both mirror and complement our own personality type.
Dr. Fisher was featured on 20/20 about two weeks ago and here in our office to talk to earlier this week.  I’ll be posting my podcast with her shortly!

3. Love The One You’re With by Emily Giffin

How do you know if you’ve found the one? Can you really love the one you’re with when you can’t forget the one who got away?

Emily Giffin, author of the New York Times bestselling novels Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and Baby Proof, poses these questions—and many more—with her highly anticipated, thought-provoking new novel Love the One You’re With.

4. DESSERT FOURPLAY: Sweet Quartets from a Four-Star Pastry Chef by Johnny Iuzzini & Roy Finamore

Whether you’ve sworn off the whole dating game or you have someone to share it with…there is no love like the love of sweets.

Far from the conventional slice of cake at the end of a meal, Johnny’s seasonal creations—four mini desserts in a quartet of complementary flavors and textures—are a culinary adventure. In Dessert FourPlay, he shares his secrets and inspirations, delivering standout recipes for incredible desserts that can be served alone or combined into his signature fourplay groupings, creating the perfect sweet finale for any meal.

5. LOVE by Toni Morrison

No list of books about love would be complete without Toni Morrison.

May, Christine, Heed, Junior, Vida–even L: all women obsessed with Bill Cosey. The wealthy owner of the famous Cosey’s Hotel and Resort, he shapes their yearnings for father, husband, lover, guardian, and friend, yearnings that dominate the lives of these women long after his death. Yet while he is either the void in, or the center of, their stories, he himself is driven by secret forces–a troubled past and a spellbinding woman named Celestial.

This audacious exploration into the nature of love–its appetite, its sublime possession, its dread–is rich in characters, striking scenes, and a profound understanding of how alive the past can be.

6. THE FIVE LOVE LANGUAGES by Gary Chapman

Are you and your spouse speaking the same language?

While love is a many splendored thing, it is sometimes a very confusing thing, too. And as people come in all varieties, shapes, and sizes, so do their choices of personal expressions of love. But more often than not, the giver and the receiver express love in two different ways. This can lead to misunderstanding, quarrels, and even divorce. Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, Gifts, Acts of Service and Physical Touch.  Dr. Gary Chapman identifies five basic languages of love and then guides couples towards a better understanding of their unique languages of love.

7. LOVE MATTERS by Delilah

Delilah opens her heart to explain why love is, truly, what matters most…

Delilah dominates nighttime radio with her mesmerizing voice and unique offering of popular music, superb storytelling and sympathetic listening.

In this unforgettable book Delilah presents her favorite listener stories compiled from the thousands she receives every week.

8. THE GHIRARDELLI CHOCOLATE COOKBOOK

The cover photo on this book is enough to make me not need another date for quite some time.  Yum!

America is experiencing a chocolate renaissance, and the epicenter is in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Ghirardelli has long been the standard-bearer for great chocolate.  The experts at Ghirardelli are back with a revised and updated collection of classic cookies, bars, cakes, and drinks. The recipes range from simple sweets to show-stopping desserts, with a special section on hosting a chocolate party.

9. AskMen.com Presents THE GUY’S GUIDE TO ROMANCE by James Bassil
The Guy’s Guide to Romance is an indispensable handbook filled with fundamentals that every man can use to enter into or maintain a happy, healthy relationship. Divided into 11 rules, The Guy’s Guide to Romance helps you cater to your girlfriend’s wants and needs and teaches you how to get her to do the same for you.

10. LOVE by Ferdinand Protzman

Universally desired and uniquely experienced, love finds expression in every land and culture. This enchanting new book celebrates the depth and diversity of love—at many moments in history, and at every human age—in an exquisite collection of photographs from National Geographic’s famous archives and beyond. Each picture tells a tantalizing story and captures an intimate, unforgettable glimpse of love’s many facets, from courtship to friendship to charity and more.

My favorite quotes from emails I received:
“A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father by Augusten Burroughs
I bet I’m the ONLY person who read that one! ”

“Getting to Scale, Curious George, Cat in the Hat”

“Here’s the list of ‘books I read in the past year, despite the fact that only one of them was either published or written in the past year’…”

“Sorry, I’m a loser and mostly only read instruction manuals.”
 

Without further ado…

Honorable Mention: High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
 

10. Cradle to Cradle

9. Pearls, Politics and Power

8. Twilight

7. The Road

6. Hot, Flat and Crowded

5. A New Earth

4. Gods Behaving Badly

3. Choke

2. Middlesex

1. Eat Pray Love

1. Hot, Flat and Crowded – Barack’s favorite economist is a hot author lately, and between his tomes on the Middle East and takes on the world, this is a must read. 

2. Green to Gold – If you are someone at a decision making level in your company, no matter what industry, this is a must read.  It’s the new Bible of green business.

3. Natural Capitalism – Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins are three of the smartest people in the green space and they’ve been doing this for years.  This amalgamation of thoughts from the three pundits is rife with information vital to understanding how the world economy will change over the next years.

4. The Green Collar Economy – Van Jones doesn’t talk about it, he IS about it.  This book discusses where he sees potential for growth and how he would like to see the new “Green Collar Economy” produce high paying jobs for those who are in poverty.

5. Cradle to Cradle – This book isn’t just a story, now it’s a level of certification.  Cradle to Cradle is so entrenched in the mission that it isn’t even made of paper; it’s waterproof and biodegradable.

6. Exposed – If you knew what was in the chemicals that you use or what went into making your favorite products, maybe you would think twice…

7. The Thrive Diet – Throw those so-called diets out the window.  If you really believe that just changing what you eat and not doing anything is going to work, don’t bother.  Thrive is written by ex-Ironman Brendan Brazier and tells you how to save money and eat foods that that will help you physically AND mentally.

8. The Green Parent – Going green at work is fine, and in the home it makes sense, but how am I supposed to be green with kids?  Jenn Savedge has tackled these problems for years on her blog and continues with a great text.

9. Go Green, Live Rich – Plenty is said about how going green will help the world, but how about helping yourself?  David Bach, author of the Automatic Million, describes how going green can save you serious cash. 

10. 2012 – Daniel Pinchbeck’s effort has been lauded as visionary and trashed as psychadelic babble.  Either way, it’s a fascinating read, and love it or hate it his voice is a vital one in the green scene.

Close, but not quite: The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud, Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Das Kapital by Karl Marx

10. Relativity by Albert Einstein
Set up the splitting of the atom, the creation of the atomic bomb, the phrase E=mc(squared) and myriad scientific discoveries that were previous unthinkable.

9. Principia by Sir Isaac Newton
One word: gravity.

8. Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
“That government rules best which governs least.”  Also influenced a little known guy named “Ghandi.”

7. Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Evolution, a word that still rubs folks the wrong way as Intelligent Design arguments rage in the US.  These spats are nothing however in comparison to the flak received when the book was originally published.

6. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
The original proponent of “The end justifies the means,” this text teaches you how to rule (not in the 1980’s “San Dimas High School Football Rules!” kind of way)

5. Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
The treatise on capitalism and the source of the “Invisible Hand” theory.  A must read.

4. Common Sense by Thomas Paine
Set the stage for separation from the British and laid the groundwork for the wording of the Declaration of Independence.

3. The Republic by Plato
Formed the concepts of civilized society and set in motion a philosophical world that still spins at breakneck speed, this text is both reasonable and completely “out there.”

Tied:

1. The Quran by Muhammed
1. The Bible by Various

These two books are said to be the words of God, passed down to people on earth so his people could know how to act.  From these have come some of the greatest virtues and kindness the world has ever seen, as well as some of the most horrid and despicable actions in history.

10. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann (19,300,000 copies)

9. The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care by Dr. Benjamin Spock (24,000,000)

7. Guinness Book of World Records (28,500,000)

7. In His Steps by C.M. Sheldon (28,500,000)

6. The World Almanac (36,000,000)

5. A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard (50,000,000)
[No Image]
4. The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life by the Jehovah’s Witnesses (74,000,000)

3. American Spelling Book by Noah Webster (100,000,000)

2. Quotations from the Work of Mao Tse-tung (800,000,000)
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1. The Bible (over 3,000,000,000)

10. I Am America (And So Can You) (Stephen Colbert)

9. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Tom Stoppard) [dark but brilliant]

8. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (Tucker Max) [despicable but hilarious]

7. A Confederacy of Dunces ( John Kennedy Toole)

6. Lamb (Christopher Moore)

5. Our Dumb Century (The Onion Collection)

4. The Far Side Gallery (Gary Larson)

3. Catch 22 (Joseph Heller)

2. The Princess Bride (William Goldman)

1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)

(N.B. click on the images to go to the product page at betterworld.com):

10. A Long Way Gone (Sierra Leone)

9. Unbowed (Kenya)

8. Ake: The Years of Childhood (Nigeria)

7. What is the What (Sudan)

6. Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (Zimbabwe)

5. King Leopold’s Ghost (Congo)

4. We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families (Rwanda)

3. Cry Beloved Country (South Africa)

2. Things Fall Apart (Nigeria)

1. Long Walk to Freedom (South Africa)

The empirical process – there was a rigorous selection process that I went through to arrive at this top ten which included moving to South Africa for a year and a half and reading a lot. What would you add?

Honorable mention:
Unheard, Heart of Darkness, The Power of One, I Write What I Like, Country of My Skull, Spud

[Bonus: If you're more interested in traditional storytelling in Africa, rather than these great stories about Africa, read My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (the book from which David Byrne and Brian Eno got the name of their first record).  It's amazing.]

-First, BOTH the book and the movie have to be great.  That eliminates such luminaries as Starship Troopers (same, by Heinlein:  GREAT book, but only a good movie.  Underrated, but still only good) and The 13th Warrior (Eaters of the Dead – Crichton: GREAT movie, but the book… not so much.)

-Second, it must be a book, not a short story.  Read:  The Shawshank Redemption (Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King, of course) and A Christmas Story (In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash – Jean Shepherd) are out.

-Third, I eliminated the Lord of the Rings trilogy because it’s a trilogy.  Felt like cheating.

As compiled by Jack, not in order (N.B. click on the images to go to the product page at betterworld.com):

To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

The Godfather (Mario Puzo)

Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton)

Blade Runner originally “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” (Philip K. Dick)

The Princess Bride (William Goldman)

Field of Dreams (Jerry Blaton)

Fight Club (Chuck Palahniuk)

Cool Hand Luke (Donn Pearce)

A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess)

High Fidelity (Nick Hornby)

Eight Men Out (Eliot Asinof)

The Firm (John Grisham)

Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl)

There Will Be Blood (Upton Sinclair)

Love it?  Hate it?  Tell us in the comments section!