By James McBride Oof. I had a tough book club month. While I was hating No Bad Parts for one club, I was also slogging through this one. It was long. It had a lot of characters with their own backstories. Nothing happens. The reader just gets fed backstories of new characters over and over […]
By Richard Schwartz I did not care for this one. It makes a lot of claims about the magic of his Internal Family Systems approach but it was painfully light on both evidence and helpful instruction. The included patient dialogues read like a faith healer, novelty hypnotist, or medium who talks to ghosts. A few
By Bee Wilson This is an Armchair Adventure Book Club selection. The first non-fiction in a few months. I am again taking it in via audiobook because Spotify was the one place I could get the book without additional cost. It also helps to be able to listen during cardio to multitask. I prefer non-fiction
By Edward Snowden I just finished the audio book since it was a book club selection for the Personal Development Book Lovers club. I didn’t get much new from it. Having already watched Citizenfour, read This is How They Tell Me the World Ends, and generally lived in the cybersecurity space for the last 15
By Kristin Hannah This was the next Armchair Adventure Book Club selection. It reminded me of the prior selection In the Time of the Butterflies. Again, sisters were forced into tough circumstances by hostile governments. One sister was quickly drawn into rebellion where the other more cautious sister wanted to keep the family safe by
By Stephen Covey This is only my second time through this one, although I think of it as the book that started my self improvement reading. The first time I read it, I was inspired to maintain an aggressive reading schedule and to consume the top titles in management, leadership, and personal growth. This time
By Cal Newport This was another selection of the Self-Improvement book club. Like the previous selection, The Untethered Soul, I had already read this twice and I consumed it a third time on audiobook. I did the full digital detox the first time. I did not do that this time. I agree with the author
By Kaui Hart Hemmings Another Armchair Adventure Book Club selection. Again, not something that I would have selected for myself, but it was a quick, easy read. I found myself turning the pages easy enough, but I don’t think I will leave with much lasting thoughts about the content. The dying wife seemed awful. The
By Walter Isaacson I’ve been meaning to start reading more biographies. I think this was an impulse purchase while I was shopping at Changing Hands. It was an easy read. I appreciate that Isaacson seemed to provide a balanced view of Elon. He acknowledged his genius and also his ridiculous, self defeating behavior. At the
By Matt Beane The front half was very familiar. It felt a bit overstated/over dramatized. The author described Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development in different words. People learn best by stretching to the edges of their capability but not too far past them. The book emphasizes Challenge, Complexity, and Connection as the keys to skill
By Tara Brach I listened to the audio book after Heather mentioned it in the Untethered Soul conversation. She preferred Brach’s treatment of the material to Singer’s. I think I am the opposite, but we both agree that it likely has to do with the order that we consumed them. I’ve been through many books
By Michael Singer I re-listened to this to prepare for the Self Development Book Club meeting. This was my third lap through the book. The reminder that “you are not your thoughts” is the point that I take away from it. The book is pretty repetitive. I don’t find that to be a significant problem.
By James Clear I was familiar with the title, but for some reason never compelled to grab the book until Clear was on a podcast. He was a solid guest with useful information, so I immediately added Atomic Habits to my reading list. More than anything else, I appreciated the emphasis of habits over goals.
By Julia Alvarez Historical fiction is not typically my lane. I decided to give it a shot to participate in this month’s book club. I decided it would minimally disrupt my other reading plans if I listened to the audio book. I ended up splitting my consumption between the audio book on Spotify and the
By Viktor Frankl Primarily it’s an account of Frankl’s experience in Nazi concentration camps. In those brutal conditions, Frankl finds meaning in suffering which contributes to his survival where others gave up. He repeatedly clarifies that meaning does not require suffering and that unnecessary is to be avoided. Don’t aim at success–the more you aim
By Joshua Foer I read this book years ago and really enjoyed it. I joined a book club that selected this book, so I read it again. The book ponders the meaning and importance of human memory. It is clearly critical to the experience of life, but extreme stunts of memorization don’t appear to correlate
Jon Ronson This one was a fun, quick read. I zipped through it in two days. I’ve already separated myself from social media. I don’t have any accounts beyond LinkedIn where I very rarely comment or post. The internet really brings out the most vile side of people. Like the author, I’ve certainly participated before,
Trauma, Illness, & Healing in a Toxic Culture Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté I am listening to the audio book. It’s harder for me to catch quotes while listening compared to reading a book. What have I taken from it:
A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness Frederic Laloux https://www.reinventingorganizations.com/ This was probably the biggest departure from the collection of management books that I’ve read so far. The author argues that all of the prior works fall into prior stages of organizational evolution. The future, in his mind, is