In this inspirational guide to success in business and personal relationships, Ferazzi, the son of a small-town steelworker and a cleaning lady, details how he used his ability to connect with others to land a scholarship at Yale, a Harvard MBA, several top executive posts and a network of relationships that include Hollywood's A-list and Washington's political elite. (amazon.com)

First published in 1937, Carnegie's advice—on making people like you instantly, persueding others to agree with you and navigating just about any social situation—is perhaps the best-known motivational tome around. Read it again to refresh your people skills. (amazon.com)

Harris's 1967 classic popularized transactional analyses (exploring personalities and understanding old decisions) as a method for solving life's problems. The book went on to sell an estimated 15 million copies. (amazon.com)

A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." For Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, his last lecture took on even more meaning: he was dying of pancreatic cancer and had only months to live. In this funny, moving book based on the lecture he gave, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch writes not about dying, but living. (amazon.com)

"Why do women stay in the place of girlhood long after it's productive for them?" asks Frankel in this book about how what women learn in girlhood can sabotage their path to success as adults. Here, her prescriptions for getting the corner office. (amazon.com)

Covey's prescription for improving your life follows these mantras for success: Be proactive; begin with the end in mind; put first things first; think win-win; seek first to understand, then to be understood; synergize; sharpen the saw. (amazon.com)

A.A. Miline's beloved cartoon bear highlights the principles of Taoist philosophy in Hoff's slim, irresistible read. (amazon.com)

Want to change your life? Start with the way you think about the world and read Gladwell's incredibly popular treatise on trends, social behavior and more. (amazon.com)

Scary, inconvenient, unavoidable—if change has you running scared, this charming parable about managing life's surprises is for you. (amazon.com)

Get out of debt, save the planet while saving money and learn to live well for less with this useful guide to getting financially fit. (amazon.com)

Don't miss out on MORE great articles like this one. Click here to sign up for our fabulous weekly newsletter!

For a slideshow of books on living with less, click here.