Reading on the road

I’ve been traveling around California this week talking about Brandraising with fundraisers at AFP chapters (Golden Gate, Inland Empire, and Desert, to be specific).

Since I’m traveling for work (read: no children with me) I’m getting some great opportunities to read. In an earlier blog entry, I outlined my summer reading list. What I didn’t admit is that I a) read several books at a time and b) read in a feast-or-famine way. This week I’m feasting.

First, I’ve finished Kivl Leroux Miller’s terrific “Nonprofit Marketing Guide”, which just came out. Kivi’s been offering real-world practical marketing help to nonprofits for years, and her book synthesizes a ton of useful content into roughly 200 easy to read pages. It outlines bigger-picture marketing principles and strategies but also gets detailed and tactical too. If you’re new to nonprofit communications or an experienced communicator trying to build buy-in for change internally and in need of back up to make your case, it’s a must-read. Your office definitely needs a copy.

At Fundraising Day San Francisco, I picked up a copy of Kim Klein’s latest book, “Reliable Fundraising in Unreliable Times”. Kim’s a seasoned fundraiser and author we can all learn from, and man, her writing is clear and sharp. I’m still reading the book now but I can already hear myself recommending it to anyone that needs to create a sustainable fundraising program that can survive all types of economic weather.

While in the San Francisco, I popped in to the Contemporary Jewish Museum for a quick look see. In the bookstore, I picked up “Living Judaism: The Complete Guide to Jewish Belief, Tradition and Practice”, thinking it’d be a good addition to my household bookshelf. It’s proving to a be a great primer for anyone interested in understanding Judaism (not just Heebs like me). What I love about it is that it doesn’t assume a particular level of observance, which makes it very accessible no matter where you’re coming from.

Lastly, lest you think I’m all about nonfiction, I’m now listening (yes, giving the eyes a break) to Stieg Larson’s “Girl who Played with Fire”. That’s book 2 in the Millenium Series. (In New York everyone seems to be reading and talking about these books, but less so out here.) I can’t say I’m digging it as much as I did book 1 (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), but it’s nice to read a compelling mystery by a stranger with a British accent when driving through the desert.

Oh- and did I mention that Beth Kanter and Allison Fine’s book “The Networked Nonprofit” is coming out next week? I’ll have to finish up something to make room for that one on the bookshelf.

So much good stuff to read.. so little time… sigh! What’s on your shelf?