Books like Callings by David Isay

A groundbreaking guide to embracing vulnerability and courage.

Elizabeth Gilbert shares her personal creative process, guiding readers to embrace curiosity, overcome fear, and unlock hidden inspiration through practical attitudes and habits for a more creative, passionate life.

Grit shows that success depends more on passion, perseverance, self‑control and determination than on talent or luck; Angela Duckworth’s research explains how these qualities can be cultivated to achieve excellence.

A concise guide from retired Navy SEAL Admiral William H. McRaven, showing how small, disciplined actions—like making your bed—build character, resilience, and success, inspired by his celebrated graduation speech.

Simon Sinek’s Start with Why explores how leaders and organizations that answer the fundamental question of purpose drive lasting success.

A spirited woman on a Costa Rican mission finds love and self-discovery with an entertainment entrepreneur who learns to open his heart.

Coming of Age: The Story of Our Century by Those Who've Lived It is a collective portrait of our times, woven from the voices of seventy very different people, the youngest of whom is seventy and the oldest ninety-nine. Together they give us an extraordinary panorama of American life and work throughout this century and underscore the ways in which the times have changed. Coming of Age is also, in many ways, a sequel to Terkel's acclaimed Working (1974), for it traces the extraordinary ways our working lives have changed in the past few decades - often beyond recognition. We meet politicians and preachers, advertising men and hucksters. Here is the partner in a large law firm, suing the colleagues who have forced him out; here, too, is the carpenter, accepting as inevitable the replacement of his skilled tasks by machine. But this is not a group of disgruntled Luddites; most accept - indeed welcome - the new technologies, yet they all deplore the degree to which human contact has declined and how traditional hopes and aspirations have been superseded by the often ruthless demands of the modern corporation.

A father's journey of understanding and caring for his autistic son.

Dave Isay curates the most compelling stories from StoryCorps’ vast oral‑history archive, weaving them into a revealing portrait of American life that celebrates the shared humanity behind every voice.