First up this week, serial entrepreneur and ADHDer Amanda Perry "rewrites the rules of entrepreneurship for neurodivergent minds" in Brain First Business. Next we turn to the "godfather of the video game world" Bing Gordon—and his daugther Chloe, a director, writer, and documentarian—to see how we can "recreate the satisfaction we feel playing games in day-to-day life" and "harness that feeling to grow better businesses." Then, one of Porchlight founder Jack Covert's favorite authors, Marc Levinson, "provides the first-ever biography of the self-taught executive who started a bicycle messenger service in 1907 and built it into a giant of modern logistics." Finally, CEO of Cincinnati's La Terza Coffee and author of Radical Business David Gaines delivers up "a thoughtful book about conscious consumerism, ethical buying, and the small choices that help us reconnect with the people behind what we use every day."

All four of this week's books opens our eyes to uncomfortable realities—and in the process offer opportunities to correct course. Each is arriving on local bookstore shelves and are available through online retailers today. 

Interested in buying multiple copies for your team, book club, or neighbors? Follow the links below, give us a call to purchase the books, or check out our services for bulk book buyers to learn more about how we can help.

Unless otherwise noted, all descriptions of the books below come from the publisher.

Brain First Business: The ADHD Entrepreneur’s Guide to Success by Amanda Perry, published by Basic Venture

A practical and inspiring guide that helps ADHD entrepreneurs harness their unique brains to build a thriving business.

For entrepreneurs with ADHD, some traits, such as creativity, hyper-focus, and risk-taking—are rocket fuel for launching a new venture. Others, such as trouble with attention to detail and time management, can make running a business feel impossibly overwhelming. Traditional business advice, designed for neurotypical brains, doesn’t help—it can even intensify stress and self-doubt, leading to burnout.

That’s why serial entrepreneur and ADHDer Amanda Perry wrote Brain First Business: a groundbreaking guide that rewrites the rules of entrepreneurship for neurodivergent minds. With her Brain First method, she blends lived experience and neuroscience to help founders with ADHD reach their goals without compromising their sanity. By redesigning their approach and adopting proven techniques that work with their brains and not against them, they’ll unlock a sustainable path to building a productive and profitable business.

Everybody Wins: What Games Teach Us About Making Products People Love by Bing Gordon & Chloe Gordon, published by Portfolio

From the visionary force behind EA’s most beloved video games, a must-read book on what the billion-dollar secrets of game design can teach us about building products better and making customers happier.

Video games are the biggest entertainment industry in the world—for a reason. Games tap into human psychology and drives like nothing else. So how can we recreate the satisfaction we feel playing games in day-to-day life? How can we harness that feeling to grow better businesses?

These are the questions Bing Gordon has been trying to answer over his 40 year career in tech. Affectionately known as the godfather of the video game world, his influence and canonized “Gamification Checklist” have shaped the games and companies we engage with every day: EA Sports, Farmville, The Sims, Amazon Prime, Zynga, Spotify, Audible, Twitch, Duolingo, and Cameo, to name a few.

Now, in Everybody Wins, Bing dives into each of the eight core elements of his checklist, lessons extracted from a lifetime in games:

• Wow Moments: Lead with unforgettable moments of exaltation
  
• Everybody Wins: Engineer wins to be frequent, evident, and earned
  
• Invest and Express: Create opportunities for self-expression and recognition
  
• Session Economics: Make every session feel worth the time it took
  
• Social Integration: Prioritize integrating social connection, always
  
• Retention Hacking: Build “forever franchises” that delight and grow
  
• Game Loops: Design satisfying repetition
  
• Quantify Everything: Measure achievements at the micro-level

Packed with unforgettable stories of Bing’s mind-boggling career, Everybody Wins imparts hard-earned wisdom that any business and anyone can implement for creating irresistible products and experiences. As all well-designed games show, when these principles are applied, you’ll always feel like you’re winning.

The UPS Man: James E. Casey and the Creation of Modern Logistics by Marc Levinson, published by NYU Press

How a little-known executive revolutionized the delivery business.

James E. Casey was a most improbable revolutionary. Shy and soft-spoken, in his day he was all but unknown to the public at large. Drawing little attention to himself, he laid the foundation of an industry that is fundamental to the modern world economy—the industry that manages businesses’ long-distance supply chains and allows consumers to obtain almost anything from anywhere with just a credit card and a couple of days’ patience.

In The UPS Man, Marc Levinson provides the first-ever biography of the self-taught executive who started a bicycle messenger service in 1907 and built it into a giant of modern logistics. Casey was associated with United Parcel Service for seventy-six years, introducing innovation after innovation into the stodgiest of industries as UPS conquered the retail delivery market, then reshaped itself into the first company able to collect packages from hundreds of thousands of senders and deliver them when promised to recipients far away, and then changed itself yet again to move parcels around the globe. That more than three hundred thousand packages are delivered somewhere in the world every minute of every day is a monument to Casey’s accomplishments.

While Casey was an inspiring leader, he was also a ferocious competitor and a demanding boss. Under his leadership, UPS frequently acted in ways that it prefers not to include in its corporate mythology. Some of these actions were dubious. Others were flat-out illegal. Certainly some of these actions might not make current employees proud, yet were indispensable to UPS’s emergence as a powerful force in freight transportation. Drawing on previously neglected sources, The UPS Man offers a nuanced portrait of an entrepreneur and executive whose obsession with small parcels still affects our lives today.

Why We Buy and Why It Matters: Small Choices, Big Impact by David Gaines, published by The Collective Book Studio

An empowering guide to conscious consumerism that shows how small everyday choices can create meaningful impact.

In a culture shaped by speed, convenience, and algorithms, it is easy to forget the people behind the things we buy. Why We Buy and Why It Matters invites readers to slow down and see consumption not as a mindless transaction, but as a human act of connection and interdependence.

Drawing on cultural research, personal reflection, consumer history, and his experience as a small-business owner, David Gaines reframes buying as an opportunity to honor the people, labor, and stories behind everyday goods. Through clear, accessible practices, he offers a compassionate path toward more intentional choices—without guilt, perfectionism, or overwhelm.

Here’s what makes Why We Buy and Why It Matters a practical and hopeful guide:

• A Fresh Look at Conscious Consumerism: Reframes ethical consumption as human, relational, and hopeful rather than guilt-driven or out of reach.
• Small Choices, Real Impact: Shows how everyday purchasing decisions can support human dignity, stronger communities, and deeper connection.
• Practical Daily Framework: The “Plant, Water, Grow” structure helps readers build habits of awareness, care, and intentional buying.
• Accessible and Grounded: Real-world examples and budget-conscious steps help readers align their choices with their values.

Why We Buy and Why It Matters is a thoughtful book about conscious consumerism, ethical buying, and the small choices that help us reconnect with the people behind what we use every day.