Category: Bookshelf

Reading Time: 3 minutes Simon Sinek’s TED talks have reached over 100 million people. His first and most famous talk from 2009 was “How great leaders […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Run for Your Life is a delightful, courageous and down-to-earth book about a champion’s discovery and perseverance as a runner, alongside her fight […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Note: Content within this book and review regarding family trauma, mental health challenges and suicide may be distressing to some people.   Augustus […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes As I reflect on capacity for leadership and resilience in the context of significant changes, part of where I need to do […]

Reading Time: 8 minutes Stephen Covey is internationally respected as a teacher of leadership development and organisational health. His most popular book, The 7 Habits of Highly […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes Lots of soldiers come to their Physical Training Instructor asking for advice on how to get a faster Basic Fitness Assessment. Sometimes […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes If you are like the average ADF member, you have likely struggled with injury from some exercise or another. Running is an […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes A Life Without Limits is a delightful sport auto-biography by legendary Ironman world champion Chrissie Wellington. Part of her inspiration is that Chrissie […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes Warning: Content within this review and book regarding trauma and mental health challenges may be distressing to some people.  Support is available through […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Pink’s assertion that “there’s a mismatch between what science knows and what business does” challenges the classic “carrots and sticks” model of […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes The Royal Australian Corps of Signals (RASIGS) is looking back into its history and reflecting on its present environment and future challenges, […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes The Fifth Discipline is my all-time favourite book on leadership for change and development.  The author Peter Senge is a master of […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Dysfunctional team behaviours can derail our mission objectives and make the workplace miserable. When Commanders and subordinates lock horns over decisions, when […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes This book has two great strengths – firstly its inspiring stories. Beginning with Captain Will Swenson’s heroic actions in Afghanistan showing heroic courage […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes The Defence Strategic Review urges a rapidly evolved integrated Force that harnesses affects across domains including Cyber (p.54). It recommends “cyber and information capabilities […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes L. David Marquet trained to command the USS Olympia, but then at the last moment was vectored to command USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered Los Angeles […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Note: Content within this review regarding trauma and mental health challenges may be distressing to some people.   Not just soldiers are exposed […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes RAAF has had a remarkable history and chaplaincy has grown and developed alongside and in support. Sky Pilot narrates the development of chaplaincy organisationally […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes What does it take to perform as best as we can? And how do we help those we train to develop their […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes In Tales From the Cold War: The US Army in West Germany 1960-1975 MD Mahler recounts his personal experiences living and serving […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Chaplain Matthew Stuart at Kapooka inspired my curiosity about Kokoda when he said Australia looks back to Gallipoli as the founding moment […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes It seems to be a constant theme that Clausewitz’s statement that “the character of warfare is constantly changing but its nature is […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes  It is a sad fact of history that the history of religion and the history of war are often enmeshed. Religion, which […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes The Resilience Shield is a contribution by Dr Dan Pronk, Ben Pronk and Tim Curtis to support character training with a particular […]

Reading Time: 6 minutes What happens when you simultaneously task a military unit with civil administration, security force capacity building, long-range reconnaissance, indigenous labour recruitment, operational-level […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes Steve Hansen, The Legacy by Gregor Paul is an in depth look behind the scenes at one of the most dominant teams […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes A problem of Just War Theory is that most governments who engage in military action assert their cause is just, but what […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes It’s challenging offering a ‘unique’ review of Dan Keighran VC’s autobiography Courage Under Fire. Written with Tony Park, the book has already received a […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes Note: Content within this article regarding mental health, suicide and trauma may be distressing to some people.   Veteran suicides number 500 in […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes In this book, Van Creveld explores the impact logistics has had on some of history’s most notable military campaigns across almost three […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes Invasion Rabaul is the first entry in Bruce Gamble’s three part series on the role of Rabaul (New Britain) during the Pacific […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes  Note: Content within this article regarding mental health issues may be distressing to some people.   I tell recruits that one of the […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes A compelling explanation of how techniques used on the battlefield can be applied to business leadership Extreme Ownership is a must read […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes “it takes a veering route, up & backwards, overshooting & correcting, back down again south & west, crossing its own earlier path, […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Trust and Leadership: The Australian Army Approach to Mission Command serves as an answer to the philosophy that is mission command. Often junior […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes  ‘On Tactics’ by B.A. Friedman is a fantastic book for building an understanding of tactics, and where they fit into war. I […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes Monash and Chauvel (by Roland Perry) follows the journey of two of Australia’s most prominent generals through the latter half of the […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes Tensions between China, the United States and Russia are at an all-time high. In this era, everyone has access to wearable technology, […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes Brian Vlaun’s Selling Schweinfurt is an insightful examination of the American contribution to the Second World War’s Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) through […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes LTGEN Sir Frederick Morgan and the Genesis of Operation Overlord LTGEN Sir Frederick Morgan and the Genesis of Operation OverlordThe D-Day landings […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Drawn from the Centre for Australian Army Leadership reading list, you’ll find this book a refreshing change if you want professional development […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes I began reading this book in 2008 aboard multiple Charter and Hercules flights heading from Darwin into Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan; and I […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes George Orwell’s 1984 is a grim read that tells of a future in which something has gone horribly wrong in society resulting […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Can you lose a war you do not even know you are fighting? That is the fundamental question Hugh Taylor askes of […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes On the third page of the introduction to Martin Dempsey’s latest book I knew I was onto another excellent and timeless look […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Annie Duke’s main premise in ‘Thinking in Bets’is that all decisions are bets. What jobs we choose, where we live, what partners […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Richard Holmes’ Marlborough, England’s Fragile Genius is a military focused biography of John Churchill, the 1st Earl of Marlborough. This book was […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘David and Goliath’ is about how people face giants, whether they’re powerful opponents or forces outside our control. Opening with […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes I was browsing through a list of books about leadership until I stumbled across Principles – a book by Ray Dalio, founder […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes ‘Ultralearning’ by Scott Young is about how we can learn difficult skills effectively, particularly over short periods of time. It is an […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes The national war hero who is a terrible adulterer and the shameless torturer who devotes his life to being the caring and […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes North Korea has continuously been in the news in recent years, posing a greater threat than what had previously been a powerless […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes This greatly anticipated leadership tome from one of America’s most notable generals of recent times is a treasure trove of leadership lessons […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes It was a cold Monday night in Oxford when I went to see Erling Kagge speak in Blackwell’s bookshop. I wasn’t too […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Roland Perry’s book Bill the Bastard takes a novelistic approach to the story behind not only “Bill the Bastard” but the only person able […]

Reading Time: < 1 minute The Bookshelf is curated by Jess Ward and is a channel for military, history, fiction, biography and leadership book reviews. Continued personal and professional development is the backbone of this channel. We look forward to hearing from you about the books you are reading and learning from your reviews!

Reading Time: 3 minutes Tribe: On homecoming and belonging by Sebastian Junger Sebastian Junger’s book ‘Tribe : On homecoming and belonging’ is an easy to read […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes All you need is kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka The importance of commanders reading fiction – and in particular science fiction, to explore […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Martin Moore’s Democracy Hacked: Political Turmoil and Information Warfare in the Digital Age explores what kind of influence social media wields, how it has evolved and where it might lead.

Reading Time: 3 minutes Asymmetrical Warfare by Roger W. Barnett This book is a detailed look at the modern challenges to US military power written by […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes Snipers at War: An Equipment and Operations History chronologically overviews snipers and their weapons of choice. It is an excellent examination of […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes The enemy you can’t see – the toll was 500 and rising, more than 100 in the previous day alone and more likely to perish. The year was 1918, and the enemy was Spanish Influenza.

Reading Time: 2 minutes Highly recommended for those interested in the Falklands War, the conduct of special operations and operational leadership.

Reading Time: 2 minutes Goodbye to all that should be on every junior leaders reading list because of its powerful message around the brutality and impact of war

Reading Time: 6 minutes ANZAC’s Long Shadow: The cost of our national obsession by James Brown As most people who have an understanding of the origins […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal US Army, retd. with Tantum Collins, David Silverman and Chris Fussell In this book, General […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes The title of John Kiszely’s book, Anatomy of a Campaign, the British Fiasco in Norway, holds promise. Fiascoes: ‘ludicrous and humiliating failures’, […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes Anatomy of Failure: Why America Loses Every War It Starts is a meticulous examination of American strategic choices about fighting wars  written through […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes In the Warlords’ Shadow, written by Daniel Green, examines the effect of the Village Stability Operations program in the fight against the […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Last year I deployed as a Medical Officer in support of a company sized infantry training activity on the northern coast of […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes In The Future of War: A History, Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College, London, takes readers on an unorthodox study of how […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes ANZAC Sniper by Roland Perry Roland Perry has delivered an incredibly entertaining and intriguing rendition of the life of Australian soldier Sir […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes Generals die in bed by Charles Yale Harrison Warning – this review contains spoilers. Charles Yale Harrison’s book ‘Generals die in bed’ […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes Pure Logistics: The science of war preparation by George C. Thorpe In this book, LTCOL George C Thorpe, USMC, does that which […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Don’t be fooled by the cover of “Das Reich.” The burning village and camouflage smocked SS Troopers hint at something in the […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes British Generals in Blair’s Wars is a collection of essays covering the British Army’s campaigns during the premiership of Prime Minister Tony […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Any army would be better if its officers displayed a more questioning attitude to their profession. Jim Storr Jim Storr’s The Human Face […]

Reading Time: 10 minutes Trust, Common Purpose, Shared Consciousness, and Empowered Execution  “Few of us are criticised if we faithfully do what has worked many times before.” […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes Do you work in an organisation where the pursuit of getting more from less is the ultimate goal? Have you always thought […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes Blood Year, written by David Kilcullen, captures the events leading up to and following the 2014 crisis in the Middle East. The […]