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How does one achieve great success? Is it genius, talent or luck? Author Angela Duckworth contends that the magic, many times, is in grit.

What I’m reading: The Secret Lives of Color, by Kassia St. Clair. This is the perfect book for me right now, especially as I’m cutting it with a chaser of a wonderful historical novel, A God In Ruins, by Kate Atkinson.

The Poison Squad tells the story of Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, head chemist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 30 years beginning in the late 1880s, who was instrumental in the passing of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. Not only an account of Wiley’s career, this book also describes in detail the horrifying food industry practices that led to the need for national regulations.

In Erik Larson’s latest book, The Splendid and the Vile, we join Winston Churchill on the day he is sworn in as Prime Minister of England, momentous as it is the same day that Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium.

Dave Barry turns seventy, not happily, he realizes that his elderly dog, Lucy, is dealing with old age far better that he is. She has more friends, fewer worries, and way more fun. So Dave decides to figure out how Lucy manages to stay so happy, to see if he can make his own life happier by doing the things she does.

The Disappearing Spoon takes readers on a strange and wonderful tour of the periodic table. Touching on history, politics, medicine, art, economics, and more, Kean tells fascinating anecdotes about every single element, often recounting the unusual ways that an element has been used or odd details about the scientist who discovered it.

First published in 1989, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change is

If you love to read memoirs, you will love Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. Gottlieb does a wonderful job with making the topic of therapy fun, engaging, human and relatable.

In these turbulent times of rapid crisis and change, masterful leadership is vital. Key faculty members of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard University present a framework and practice method called Meta Leadership in which the leader seeks a bigger picture of the intricate complexity of the problems, opportunities, and solutions of a crisis in order to take decisive action. This holistic leadership view consists of three connected elements – the person or leader, the situation, and those the leader leads or the team.

A heartbreaking yet triumphant story. Educated is a beautifully written memoir about Westover’s pursuit of knowledge and struggle to find her place in the world.

Every business, large and small, should have a current contingency plan when emergencies or disasters strike – whether man-made or natural – to minimize risk and limit damage.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & other lessons from the crematory is a collection of personal stories and lessons learned by Caitlin Doughty, a current mortician, writing about her time as a crematory operator in California. It sounds pretty morbid, and at times it is, but it’s also entertaining, funny at times, and refreshingly honest. I learned a lot about the death industry and what happens behind the curtains. I’m sure I’m not the only one to wonder.