A Candy Land-Inspired Journey Through the Books to Boost Your Career

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- Sweet as it may be, your working life is no cakewalk. Here are nine books to get you through any stage.

A Whopper of a Windfall 

Has someone in your family left you an inheritance or provided you with a trust fund? Congrats! You’ve won the DNA lottery. Manage your windfall wisely with one of Warren Buffett’s favorites, The Intelligent Investor, a book that’s guided his philosophy of value investing throughout his lucrative career.

Tweetable tip: “Day trading—holding stocks for a few hours at a time—is one of the best weapons ever invented for committing financial suicide. Some of your trades might make money, most of your trades will lose money, but your broker will always make money.”

Forest of No Flavor

Don’t get lost in a thicket of boring gigs! Richard Bolles’s bestseller What Color Is Your Parachute? has been helping job hunters for 50 years through careful self-assessment. What motivates and inspires you? What are you best at, what skills do you have, and which of them do you most enjoy using?

Tweetable tip: “Figure out who you are, and among all your gifts, which ones you most love to use. Then (and only then) you go looking for organizations that match you. Do not wait until they announce they have a vacancy. You approach them anyway, not through a résumé but through a person.”

Clouds of Sweet Insincerity

So you’ve found a nice little job, maybe been promoted to a nice little managerial role. The only problem? You—or your boss—are one of those nice-but-incompetent types. In Radical Candor, Kim Scott, a former Silicon Valley exec, gives firsthand stories about Steve Jobs, Larry Page, and Sheryl Sandberg to show how successful leaders prize bluntness.

Tweetable tip: “If nobody is ever mad at you, you’re probably not challenging them enough. The key, as in any relationship, is how you handle the anger. Don’t pretend it doesn’t hurt or say it ‘shouldn’t hurt.’ Eliminate the phrase ‘don’t take it personally’ from your vocabulary—it’s insulting.”

Career-Killing Chasm

No one stays in the same job forever, so expect a moment when you have to “pivot” in a different direction. The motto of this book by Jenny Blake, former career guru at Google, is refreshingly candid: If change is the only constant, then it’s time to get better at it.

Tweetable tip: “When you are unsure, what does your head say? What does your heart say? What does your gut say? Your gut acts as the referee between what your head says and what your heart wants.”

Ladder of Lost Inhibition

Does your new path put you in a panic? Maybe you just need some tough love, someone to throw cold water in your face. Calm the F--- Down, the latest from “anti-guru” Sarah Knight’s hilariously profane self-help series provides a “jacked-up” version of the Serenity Prayer and measures healthy anxiety via a method she calls Productive Helpful Effective Worry (PHEW).

Tweetable tip: “When you start thinking about shitstorms based on probability, you’ll realize you don’t have nearly as much to worry about as you thought. Logic can be very soothing.”

Avalanche of Antagonists

The idea that more for you means less for others is a false choice, argues Stuart Diamond, a leading expert on negotiation, in Getting More. Using examples from the 2008 Hollywood writers strike, billion-dollar business deals, and everyday parenting challenges, he spells out why leverage is overrated, when to reframe roadblocks, and how to build up your bargaining range.

Tweetable tip: “You are the least important person in the negotiation. The most important person is them. If you don’t accept this, you won’t persuade many people of anything.”

Midcareer Molasses

In Good Habits, Bad Habits, psychology and business professor Wendy Wood compiles the latest research on self-control and delayed gratification to show how our lives are governed by repetitive tasks we’re barely aware of—and the subtle ways to change them for the better. P.S.: Willpower isn’t the problem.

Tweetable tip: “You can miss a day or two and not be set back to zero. Your habit-in-formation is not so fragile that it requires perfection. It is still forming.”

Bridge of Boldness

Midcareer is sometimes when the most groundbreaking work happens. Robert Frost wrote 90% of his poems after the age of 40. Alfred Hitchcock finished his three most popular films after he turned 59. But to make the leap into greatness, one must be bold, which is where Adam Grant’s Originals comes in. Filled with life lessons learned by luminaries from the Warby Parker founders to Galileo to Susan B. Anthony, it’s a handbook on how to break expectations, build coalition support, question conventional wisdom, and time your innovations perfectly. (Spoiler: It’s never too late.)

Tweetable tip: “The downsides of being a first mover are frequently bigger than the upsides. Pioneers may capture greater market share, but end up with lower profits and chances of survival.”

Peaceful Peak

How to age gracefully? AgeProof from Today fixtures Jean Chatzky and Dr. Michael Roizen turns the retirement book on its head by emphasizing a “healthy portfolio” and a “wealthy body.” Along the way, the authors give a “fiscal physical” with well-rounded advice, steps to take, and concise chapters. It’s a good reminder that health is important to your career, too.

Tweetable tip: “You are the CEO of your body and your bank account. Ask questions. Check references. Make smart decisions about whom you want to add to your team.”

--With assistance from Chris Rovzar, Bernadette Walker and Justin Ocean.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Gaddy at jgaddy@bloomberg.net

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