📚 November 2025

A month’s worth of wisdom

November 30, 2025

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It’s the last day of November, so we’re revisiting the books we featured last month.

Here’s your November 2025 recap:

What if competition isn’t the best way or the only way to progress?

What if, instead, it’s actually making us feel isolated, anxious, and burned out?

In Uncompete, Ruchika Malhotra—a leading voice on workplace culture—calls for a radical reset: less rivalry, more solidarity. Drawing from her work with companies and research (plus interviews with real leaders and change-makers), Malhotra lays out a framework that doesn’t just make work happier, but actually makes everyone more successful.

Ever feel drained when interacting with certain people?

In Personality Intelligence, Merrick Rosenberg explains that understanding personality styles is your key to building healthy, enduring relationships at home, work, and everywhere in between.

What if you provided mentorship without strings attached?

In Give First, renowned entrepreneur and investor Brad Feld offers more than startup advice; he shares a timeless philosophy that has become the guiding principle of his life.

What if your biggest setbacks are the key to your breakthrough?

In Wealthy and Well-Known, Rory and AJ Vaden reveal how losing everything became the catalyst for building not just wealth, but a powerful personal brand. They show that success isn’t a trade-off between money and reputation—it’s about mastering both.

Which Book Spotlight was your favorite?

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Every Thursday we send a short email featuring an interesting word.

Revisit our November Words and the books we found them in:

  • Authenticity 👉 as used in Dare to Lead by Brené Brown

  • Cortisol 👉 as used in Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky

  • Vipassana 👉 as used in Why Buddhism Is True by Robert Wright

  • Gratitude 👉 as used in Evolving with Gratitude by Lainie Rowell

Want more? Explore the archive of our One Word Smarter series.

This month we featured two authors:

4 books that influenced Brad:

3 books that made Merrick fall in love with reading:

2 of Merrick’s hidden gems (books you probably haven’t heard of):

1 book that made Merrick change his mind about a topic:

Have an author you’d like us to feature? Reply to this email with your favorite author, and we’ll do our best to connect with them.

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