Reading List

Books I've read and recommend — organized by topic. The professional side leans toward leadership and project management; the kitchen side covers food preservation, gluten-free baking, and plant-based cooking.

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Leadership & Performance

• Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High — Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, et al. Want to read
  Kindle Audiobook The go-to guide for navigating high-stakes, emotionally charged conversations without blowing them up.
• Crucial Influence, Third Edition: Leadership Skills to Create Lasting Behavior Change — Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, et al.
  Kindle Audiobook Companion to Crucial Conversations — focused on changing behavior at scale, not just in one conversation.
• Beyond Grit: Ten Powerful Practices to Gain the High-Performance Edge — Cindra Kamphoff
  Kindle Audiobook Research-backed mental performance practices used by elite athletes and executives.
• OUTPERFORM THE NORM for Leaders — Scott Welle Want to read
  Kindle Audiobook Leadership performance principles from performance coach Scott Welle, applied to leading teams.
• OUTPERFORM THE NORM: Health, Happiness and Performance — Scott Welle Want to read
  Kindle Audiobook Whole-life performance — applying the same principles to health, energy, and personal outcomes.
• Fearless Leadership: High-Performance Lessons from the Flight Deck — Carey D. Lohrenz
  Kindle Audiobook One of the first female F-14 pilots on high-stakes decision-making, team trust, and performing under pressure.
• Taming Your Gremlin: A Surprisingly Simple Method for Getting Out of Your Own Way — Rick Carson Want to read
  Kindle Audiobook Simple, practical method for recognizing and quieting the inner critic that limits performance.
• Uncommon Competitor — Scott Savor
  What separates good competitors from great ones — applied to business and life.
• Do the Unright Thing — Steve Fredlund
  Kindle Audiobook A challenge to conventional thinking on leadership, ethics, and doing good work in the world.

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Project Management

• The Standard for Earned Value Management — Project Management Institute
  Kindle PMI's official EVM standard — essential for anyone managing complex projects with performance measurement requirements.
• Contemporary Project Management: Plan-Driven and Agile Approaches — Timothy Kloppenborg, Vittal Anantatmula & Kathryn Wells
  Kindle A thorough textbook covering both traditional and agile PM methods — good for deepening your foundation or studying for credentials.
• A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) — Eighth Edition — Project Management Institute
  Kindle The core PMI reference — includes The Standard for Project Management. Eighth edition adds expanded coverage of AI, PMOs, and procurement.

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Food Preservation & Pantry Cooking

• Complete Book of Home Preserving: 400 Delicious and Creative Recipes for Today — Judi Kingry & Lauren Devine
  The Ball canning guide — an essential reference for water bath and pressure canning.
• The Ultimate Dehydrator Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Drying Food — Tammy Gangloff, Steven Gangloff & September Ferguson
  Kindle 398 recipes covering fruit, vegetables, meat, herbs, and full meals — the most comprehensive dehydrating reference I've found.
• Meals in a Jar: Quick and Easy, Just-Add-Water, Homemade Recipes — Julie Languille
  Kindle Build shelf-stable meal mixes from scratch — practical for deep pantry, camping, and emergency prep.
• Pantry Stuffers Soup Mixes: Using Dehydrated Products — Wanda Bailey Clark, Edie Mourey & David G. Danglis
  Focused on using dehydrated ingredients to build complete soup mixes for a well-stocked pantry.
• Recipes for Adventure: Healthy, Hearty and Homemade Backpacking Recipes — Chef Glenn McAllister
  Trail-tested backpacking recipes you can dehydrate at home — great overlap with pantry cooking.

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Gluten-Free Cooking

• How to Cook Gluten-Free: Over 150 Recipes That Really Work — Elizabeth Barbone
  Practical techniques and recipes from one of the most trusted voices in gluten-free cooking.
• Hugo's Restaurant Cookbook: Gluten Free, Soy Free, Cow Milk Dairy Free — Teri Sahm & Hugo Tapia Rodriguez
  Restaurant-quality cooking without gluten, soy, or cow dairy — useful if you're navigating multiple restrictions at once.

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Plant-Based Cooking

• But I Could Never Go Vegan!: 125 Recipes That Prove You Can Live Without Cheese — Kristy Turner
  Kindle Answers every objection to plant-based eating with genuinely satisfying recipes — not rabbit food.
• Bake and Destroy: Good Food for Bad Vegans — Natalie Slater
  Vegan baking with punk-rock energy — proof that plant-based desserts don't have to be boring or virtuous.

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Everyday Cooking

• Comfort Food The Cowboy Way: Backyard Favorites, Country Classics, and Stories from a Ranch Cook — Kent & Shannon Rollins
  Kindle Ranch-cook Kent Rollins on hearty, unpretentious food — good for feeding a crowd or just making something satisfying.

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Writing

• Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book on Novel Writing You'll Ever Need — Jessica Brody Want to read
  Kindle Audiobook Adapts Blake Snyder's legendary screenwriting beat sheet for fiction writers — a practical, structure-first approach to plotting any genre.

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