Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, and gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.

Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you?

Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final 'class': lessons in how to live.(Goodreads)

Red Azalea is Anchee Min’s celebrated memoir of growing up in the last years of Mao’s China. (Goodreads)

A revelatory and disturbing portrait of China, Anchee Min's memoir is exceptional for its candor, its poignancy, its courage, and its prose that Newsweek calls "as delicate and evocative as a traditional Chinese brush painting."

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. A tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that, despite its profound flaws, gave the author the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms. (Goodreads)

The Art of Possibility combines Benjamin Zander's experience as conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and his talent as a teacher and communicator with psychotherapist Rosamund Stone Zander's genius for designing innovative paradigms for personal and professional fulfillment (Goodreads).

Blue Nights opens on July 26, 2010, as Didion thinks back to Quintana’s wedding in New York seven years before. Today would be her wedding anniversary. This fact triggers vivid snapshots of Quintana’s childhood—in Malibu, in Brentwood, at school in Holmby Hills. Reflecting on her daughter but also on her role as a parent, Didion asks the candid questions any parent might about how she feels she failed either because cues were not taken or perhaps displaced. “How could I have missed what was clearly there to be seen?” (Goodreads)

A visioner is an individual who has the ability to find new opportunities based on trend forecasting (McKinsey, 2014). Jim Collins published “Built to Last” that focuses on visionary companies. Drawing upon a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Collins and Portas selected 18 long-lasting companies. Throughout, authors ask: “What makes the truly exceptional companies different from other companies?”

Collins mentions that the only reliable source of stability is a strong inner core and the willingness to change and adapt everything except that core. Early in the beginning, we see that he looks far to the future, to look for the 'visionary companies'. His focused approach and crisped style will engage you to understand the successful habits of visionary companies.