Best Independent Books April 2
We are delighted to recommend the following books from the independent publishing sector.
NON-FICTION
Unshakable Leadership:
thriving in a world of constant change
by Alinka Rutkowska, Adeolu Adewumi-Zer et al.
This powerful anthology, featuring voices from across industries, brings together real stories of resilience, reinvention and leadership under pressure. Each contributor shares personal experiences of setbacks, tough decisions and the lessons that shaped how they lead today, creating a collection that feels both honest and grounded.
The book moves beyond theory to show what leadership actually looks like in uncertain and high-stakes environments.
Readers are guided through key aspects of modern leadership, from developing self-awareness and making decisions without clear answers to building strong relationships and maintaining balance in demanding roles. The stories offer practical insights while also highlighting the emotional and human side of leadership. Together they comprise a reflective and practical read, which enables leaders to navigate change with clarity, resilience and purpose.
What sets this book apart is its focus on authenticity. Rather than presenting polished success, it embraces the messy reality of growth and change, making the lessons more relatable and easier to apply.
Honors: seen on MarketWatch
Category: Business
ISBN: 978-1637350546
The Analytics Operating System:
teams, governance, and the path to AI
by Fatima Soomro
This book serves as both a strategic roadmap and a reality check for leaders who want to move beyond AI hype and build systems that actually deliver.
Drawing on years of experience in corporate data environments, the author challenges the idea that technology alone drives success. Instead, she shows how strong operating models, aligned teams and clear governance are the real foundations of effective analytics and AI initiatives. She demonstrates how to structure teams, connect business and technical functions, and create decision-making processes that support long-term outcomes. The book blends strategic frameworks with real-world context, helping leaders understand not just what to do, but how to do it effectively.
What sets this book apart is its systems-level perspective. It shifts the focus from tools and trends to the underlying structures that make analytics sustainable and impactful.
Honors: seen on MarketWatch
Category: Business
ISBN: 978-2970202615
Diagnosis Leader: a doctor’s prescription for success
by James Wallace
This book is a practical leadership guide rooted in the fast-paced, high-pressure world of emergency medicine.
Drawing on years of professional service on the medical frontline, the author shares real stories that illustrate how leadership shows up in everyday decisions, not just in formal titles. His experiences highlight the importance of staying calm under pressure, building trust within teams, and making clear decisions when the stakes are high. Readers are guided through essential leadership skills, including emotional intelligence, team dynamics and personal accountability. The lessons are presented in a straightforward, no-nonsense way, making them easy to understand and apply across different professions.
What sets this book apart is its real-world perspective. Instead of abstract concepts, it offers insights shaped by lived experience in environments in which quick thinking and strong leadership are critical.
Honors: seen on MarketWatch
Category: Business
ISBN: 978-1919405018
The Future of Accounting
by Dave McComb and Cheryl Dunn
This book is a forward-thinking exploration of how accounting can evolve to meet the demands of modern, data-driven organizations.
The authors explain why accounting has been a major barrier to progress and how it can become a powerful enabler instead. Rather than focusing on incremental improvements, they challenge long-standing assumptions about how accounting systems should work. They introduce a data-centric approach that captures information in real time, giving leaders faster and more complete insights into their business. Readers are guided through how modern systems can replace delayed reporting with continuous, accurate data that can improve transparency and decision-making.
The book connects accounting principles with advances in information systems, offering a fresh perspective on how financial data can be used more effectively. It positions accounting not as a backward-looking function, but as a powerful tool for guiding strategy and performance.
Honors: seen on MarketWatch
Category: Business
ISBN: 978-1637352205
Backseat to Driver’s Seat: because “waiting for rescue” is not a sustainable life plan
by Yinka Kuye-Romelus
This book is a concise, reflective guide that challenges readers to take ownership of their direction in life.
Through personal insights and thoughtful observations, the book explores what happens when individuals move from passively experiencing life to actively shaping it. It focuses on small but meaningful internal shifts that can lead to lasting change. Each chapter explores a theme of self-determination — resilience, independence, courage, vision, discipline, faith and legacy. The writing is simple and grounded, making the concepts easy to absorb and reflect on.
What sets this book apart is its quiet, realistic approach. It avoids exaggerated promises and instead offers a clear perspective on personal responsibility and growth.
Honors: seen on MarketWatch
Category: Self-Help
ISBN: 979-8994851432
In case you missed the books featured in the last newsletter, here they are again:
NON-FICTION
Lifting the Curtain: memoirs of a CFO
by Jörg Kornblum
This is a candid and insightful journey through a global career shaped by culture, challenge and leadership. From his early days as a ski instructor to executive roles across Europe and Asia, the author shares his experiences of working and leading in unfamiliar environments. His story captures what it feels like to step into new cultures, navigate unspoken rules, and earn trust as an outsider.
Blending personal memoir with practical guidance, the book explores what it truly takes to lead across borders. Readers gain valuable insights into adapting leadership styles between Western and Asian contexts, building strong teams and respecting cultural differences as a foundation for success.
More than a career story, this book offers lessons on courage in decision-making, the importance of mentorship, and redefining success in an international life. It also sheds light on the realities of living abroad and the complex choices professionals face when deciding whether to stay or return home.
Honors: seen on MarketWatch
Category: Business
ISBN: 978-3982819433
Author Inc: the entrepreneur's secret playbook to skyrocketing leads and sales
by self-publishing a book (Book One of the Entrepreneur Success series)
by Ray Brehm, Nathan Andersen et al.
Successfully integrating a book into a business strategy requires hard work. More than 30 successful entrepreneurs shared their insights, and the common thread is effort and dedication. The strategies in this book are effective, but only for those willing to put in the work.
The book shows how to build a list and make sales immediately, even without an existing list or product. It teaches 15 counterintuitive habits that successful entrepreneurs use to boost their daily success. It tells where to locate the best people for email and reader lists and how to bypass the lengthy trial-and-error process while building an online empire. It explains why no one should ever go it alone as an author and why advertising less might actually help grow a list faster.
The intention behind the book was to gather a unique group of entrepreneurs and delve into their success stories. It went a step further by asking them to outline what they would do if they had to start from scratch in 30 days. The results were astounding! What had started out as an interview anthology was transformed into a world-class handbook for entrepreneurs aiming to use a book as a primary business tool.
Honors: seen on MarketWatch
Category: Business
ISBN: 978-1732783058
InvestPreneur: real estate lessons for the determined investor (Book Two of the I Can. I Will. Watch Me! series)
by Kristin Cripps
This book lays out the proven track that the author — a former bartender and massage therapist — followed to become a real-estate mogul and a millionaire before her 30th birthday.
The author explains the first crucial step toward investing. She describes some out-of-the-box ways to save for the first down payment. She explores different types of loans available and discusses the common investments that can result in a loss. When deciding on properties, she points out those that should be avoided like the plague, but also shows the right way to fix up a fixer-upper. There is also guidance on when and why to sell properties and an insider’s scoop on what buyers are likely to be looking for.
The author has built an empire from the ground up. She’s spent years learning the ins and outs of real-estate investing. In this book, she shares her hard-earned knowledge so that others can follow her lead.
Honors: seen on CBS and NBC
Category: Business
ISBN: 978-1943386857
Play Bold: how to win the business game through creative destruction
by Magnus Penker
In this book, the author, a world-renowned thought leader, details a modern approach to innovation. He finally and comprehensively answers the question why it is that some companies succeed where others — even those with great potential — fail.
The author teaches how to identify and mitigate the corporate antibodies that kill innovation. He outlines how to gain the capability and culture necessary to jump from S-curve to S-curve so as to avoid going down with the ship. He explains why playing it safe is the surest way to a slow death in today’s globalized economy.
The lifespan of companies is rapidly shrinking. This book points the way forward. Innovation at its best destroys what doesn’t work and builds something brilliant from the pieces. Everything we need is right in front of us. All we need to know is how to bring it together.
Honors: seen on CBS and Fox
Category: Business
ISBN: 978-1637350584
Captain’s Logbook:
escaping nine to five for 24/7
by John De Silva
This book comprises recollections of a life spent at sea. Throughout this first-person account of the voyage, the author explores the exquisite miseries and vicissitudes of life on the unforgiving oceans of our planet.
The long, tiresome journey begins in January 2006. The author assumes command of Cape Agulhas and a misanthropic crew. Before the ship has completed its circuitous route along the African coastline, however, he must respond to everything from biblical infestations of cockroaches to engine failures, duplicity and deceit. Nearly every imaginable disaster that can occur on a seafaring vessel does occur. Yet the palpable tension of the narrative underscores the tenacity of the human spirit as it is tested by God and nature alike. Through optimism, faith and a relentless desire to make it back to his family, the author guides the vessel through one hardship after another.
This book offers a darkly humorous examination of man as he faces the best and the worst of his own kind. The colorful cast of characters includes barbarous sailors, corrupt port officials and a seasick cook with the culinary aptitude of a barnacle.
A vivid, practical and insightful look in the life of those who choose to navigate the open seas and earn a livelihood — Goodreads
Honors: seen on CBS and Fox
Category: Biographies & Memoirs
ISBN: 978-1637350560
We trust that your readers will enjoy our hand-picked selection.
For more bestselling and award-winning books from the independent publishing sector, please go here.
Warm regards,
Alinka Rutkowska
CEO, LibraryBub
