Five Books from 2007: Wikinomics, Halo Effect, Firing Back, one on Starbucks and a Fable.

Carol Hymowitz over at the WSJ shared her list of business books for holiday reading (you may need to log in). On it, were these books:

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams.

This is what we've all been talking about in the past few years and even more so since the rise of Wikipedia. What's the future of mass collaboration and how is it changing what we do? Here's an introduction to our new wiki-ed world. For more, join Don, Anthony and friends over at their blog.

The Halo Effect ... and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers by Phil Rosenzweig.

One controversial title of the year as Phil debates the merits of many well-known business titles: Good to Great and In Search of Excellence. As Carol explains, "The Halo Effect is for executives who aren't looking for a quick-fix prescription and who understand that winning depends on knowing one's own company and on executing smart decisions well -- with a little luck mixed in." For the record, Tom Ehrenfeld highly recommends checking it out. And, a link to Phil's blog plus a ChangeThis manifesto Phil wrote.

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick Lencioni.

Here's a good airplane read and another of the Lencioni fables. The three signs of a miserable job: irrelevance, immeasurability, and anonymity. Even if you're not a friend of fables, check out the back portion for the guts of the book.

Firing Back -- How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Andrew Ward.

The title is self-explanatory. How do you get back up and revamp your career? By the way, Jeffrey was recently in a Fortune article.

How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill

This past fall, Michael visited us in Milwaukee. Jon had a chance to interview him. This is Michael's story of how he went from having everything to working at Starbucks -- quite a humbling experience.