Brief Book Reviews
General Reading - Non-fiction
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson +++
The MOST inspiring book I've ever read. (And that's' saying something.) This book is the story of one man's remarkable journey from getting lost on the mountain we call K2 in 1993, to building more than 150 schools for girls in the worst areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan by 2009. It's about what one person can do with inspiration, laser-like focus and boundless compassion.
Stones to Schools by Greg Mortenson +++
Greg Mortenson was able to start with nothing and build a grass roots organization that has the backing of the people in the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. This book explains the fascinating Nuts and Bolts of how he could succeed where hundreds of years of failures have persisted. This book puts together the cast of characters that made Three Cups of Tea possible. It is an amazing story of perseverance, intuition, coincidence, and magnetic kindness.
After the Ice by Alun Anderson ++
I heard this fellow speaking about his book and just HAD to order it right then. This is a dazzling guide to the range of connections we all have to the defrosting of the Arctic North. If you didn't think you needed to care about polar bears, think again... the geopolitics and economics of climate science will be everyone's concern. I can't believe how much more I understand about the evening news after reading this book.
Collapse by Jared Diamond ++
This was a great "vacation read" for me. I love a book that tackles a subject like a mystery novel. I found myself exclaiming things to my husband constantly. The author essentially walks you through the history of many well-known cultures - the Mayan, Easter Island, Vikings on Greenland and many more - that went from greatness to collapse. Without lecturing too much, he casts some light on our own future if we don't heed some critical lessons from the past. I listen to the evening news now differently because of the connections this fellow makes, very substantially, through hard scientific facts. He digs into the layers of trash piles a little too specifically, but if you can get through is counting fish bones, the insights here are wonderful.
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
I've heard this is a wonderfully written history of our current geo-political situation so I'm taking this one on vacation with me next month. I'll let you know.... (I LOVED the book the author wrote after this one - Collapse.)
What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell ++
Gladwell's 2009 book of his essays on 20 or so subjects. All are fascinating, funny, and thought provoking. Great airplane or beach reading. Gladwell just seems to hit the ball out of the park at every at bat. His first three books: Blink, Tipping point, and Outliers, are on my all time "must read" list.
Green Made Easy by Chris Prelitz ++
Take all the "going green" books you've bought and give them to the public library. This is the only book you need. It's got great links to hundreds of website resources, tells the bottom-line story on most subjects related to living "greener". Most importantly, it skips the really elementary, common sense stuff that is too boring to sift through for the pearls. (I hate that about "how to" books, don't you?) This book will save you so much money if you follow just a few of the insights here and you will help the environment at the same time. Every subject from Cosmetics to Mattresses, from Gardening to Driving smarter, from Cleaning to Vacationing .
Business
PEAK by Chip Conley +++
One of the top 6 books I've ever read. If there was only one book on business philosophy it should be this one. If there was only one book on parenting, it might be this one,.. or one for dealing with your mother-in-law, or shiftless nephew, or your kid's teacher,.. it should be this one. THIS is an amazing concept book that you can apply to most human interactions that frustrate you. The book is essentially the story of a very successful hotel entrepreneur, but the concept is about listening for what the other person needs, before worrying about your own needs: An amazing tack in business as well as personal relationships! Not novel, but amazingly important. I skipped the whole section on Investor sentiment, but the rest was so applicable to everything I see happening good and bad in businesses these days. Read this while thinking about why your customers should return to see you, if they have 10 other choices. Read this while thinking about why your teenager bases her self-esteem on, and literally counts, the number of text messages they receive in a week. I read it and learned why my employee, and my mother sometimes seem frustrated with me! Now that's saying something.
A Good Talk by Daniel Menaker ++
This book is a MUST for anyone who writes, speaks publicly, or is trying to lead others with compelling grace. It's a story about telling a story and listening better. There's a lot of history in here for history buffs, and so many common insights that I practically starred and underlined the whole thing. After I read this book I listened to others from a WHOLE different dimension, and I hope I speak from one.
The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda ++
This is a book I picked up at the MIT book story. It's author is an MIT professor who we can relate to. He has that perfect blend of right and left brain thinking. He has really picked up a thread of hope for our sanity as business people and busy people. If you need to simplify - Read this. If you are leading a team that seems to be working with a million loose ends - Read this. Every time I wanted to put it down he would through in a "wow factor" insight that was amazingly applicable to the problems I face as a parent and business person.
What Matters Most by Jeffrey Hollender +
I loved the sentiments in this book and was inspired to do our part for social change. The sub-title tells it all "How a Small Group of Pioneers is Teaching Social Responsibility to Big Business and Why Big Business is listening". The book is geared towards illuminating the motives and efforts of huge companies we all know and love - Starbucks, Nike, MacDonald's, Dow - and I don't expect to be running any of those soon. But from a consumer's standpoint, it was a very interesting read. There are now companies I support more than I did, and some I have turned my back on completely .
The Starfish and the Spider by Oki Brafman +
If you delegate poorly, have a lot of weak team members, and/or need to control everything you can, then this book will strike you as "interesting" at best. BUT.. If you can see your way to unleashing the power of your individual employees, this book is full of cool insights. I let go of a lot of reins after reading this book and many of the people I left things to just took off when left to their own energies. It really explains the success and history of current market giants in pop culture, so it's a great read if you just want to understand the current culture of emerging business based on networking.
The Back of the Napkin By Dan Roam +++
I bought this book when I wanted to start doing more interesting Power Point presentations, but it turns out to be a great framework concept for thinking your way through problem solving in business and designing solutions and new systems. THEN the author tells you how to sell your ideas to others. COOL!
Slide:ology by Nancy Duarte ++
A very good primer on concepts of design that make Power Point presentations FAR more interesting. Don't read anything else before getting the basics with this book. Then build with your own style from here.
Presentation Zen by Reynolds +++
THIS IS the definitive work on making a presentation that is "special". After you get the essential do's and don'ts from Slide:ology, then this book shows you how to spin in your own flare through simplicity and story telling with artfully presented slides.
A Whole New Mind By Daniel Pink ++
Why will "right brainers" eventually rule the world? This is a fabulous book for those of us who are not prone to have perfectly ordered desks, and who are not in the "popular" crowd. This book is for the folks who walk to the beat of their own drum, are comfortable with a little chaos, who see connections that others don't, and who will prosper in a "information age".
MOJO by Marshall Goldsmith ++
This book looks at the subject of working with a constant positive spirit that radiates outward. What's central to this concept is that Mojo is like a pool of light that draws others in. It is one of the best business philosophy books I've ever come across. I kept thinking that there was a gimmicky quality to it, and then the author would illustrate a conclusion so brilliantly that I would have to underline and star whole paragraphs. This book would be a fabulous triad with a the books PEAK and The Law of Simplicity, both mentioned here.
Philosophy
The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander +++
This is an absolutely transforming book. One of the top six books I've ever read. The stories and personal insights invite us all to change our paradigms about what is possible and what qualifies as fulfillment. Ben Zander's genius is in his ability to passionately Shepard us to a place we didn't know we could get to. I will probably read this book every 2 years for the rest of my life. It's one of those that you could read at different stages of life and it would have an evolving meaning.
The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey +
I can't imagine a better read about the mental side of peak performance. The book is essentially about the art of relaxed concentration. I guess it's about tennis, but I read it while thinking about my performance as a dentist, a business leader and a parent. The tennis references are great if you are a tennis player. For myself, I'm always looking for metaphors for insight and there were some key concepts here that I could apply every day to my business life.
101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthew Frederick +
This is a funny little hard cover book I picked up at the Harvard book store and leave on the corner of my desk. I use it like an oracle. Sounds spooky I know, but if I'm preoccupied by a problem, I'll just pick up this little gem and open it randomly and then read the page that appears. Almost unfailingly, I can gain a useful perspective by using the brief design statement on the page metaphorically. (I also use the design concepts at face value for composing/cropping photographs and doing my sculptures. Great book if you do any form of art.)
The Art of Giving by Charles Bronfman ++
If you have an opportunity to work on behalf of a charitable cause, read this book. If you are raising your kids to be committed "givers", read this book. It is a fundamental glimpse into philanthropic mindsets and a journey through the world of non-profits, donors and administrators. Anyone volunteering for a good cause, something they are passionate about, would be so much more effective with the perspective gained here. My husband and I are in the process of starting our own foundation, and this book was literally a sanity-saver.
The Power of the Postive NO by William Ury
I SO needed this book about the time I came across it. I was over-committed, over-stressed and over-eager to please as many people as humanly possible. This book is a God-send if you feel the same much of the time. It basically lays out a 3 step method for saying "no" without relationship failures. I actually came to enjoy negotiating my way through "no" because the concepts work so well. I used to perceive every request on my time as a significant emotional event. This book is a good one to crack open randomly once in a while just to brush up on the concepts.
History
Angels and Ages by Adam Gopnik ***
One of the top 6 books I've ever read. Did you know that Lincoln and Darwin were born on the same day in history? This book had two objectives that it absolutely nailed: 1. To illustrate the uncanny parallels in the lives of Lincoln and Darwin. 2. To demonstrate how both men changed the world by eloquently arguing respectively for freedom and free inquiry. I have never read a book that so artfully converged two seemingly unrelated subjects. Then, as if he couldn't just leave it there, the author proposes that there should be no struggle, what-so-ever, between evolutionary biology and spiritual faith. He give such a fantastic argument for this perspective that there were whole paragraphs I wanted to memorize. In fact, he celebrates the importance of the gap between our knowledge and our experiences, and then insists that our spiritual lives can flourish in that gap.
Books for kids
The Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Math Usborn ++
Terrific book for kids (and parents) who learn better with visual representation of abstract concepts in math. Really helpful. We keep it right out on the kitchen desk.
Math Doesn't Suck Danica Mckellar +++
A WONDERFUL way to explain math concepts to teen, and better yet - get them interest! The author uses totally relevant stories and weaves the concepts in to subjects that kids identify with: Cell phone minutes, Iced Lattes, and sharing a pizza fairly.
The Cartoon Guide To Statistics by Gonick and Smith +
The Cartoon Guide To Physics By Gonick and Huffman ++
All the "Cartoon Guide" books are "kid magnets". If your kid has a gift for one subject or another, it really makes the topics real. Probably best for kids not younger than 7th grade. (Pretty complex stuff illustrated.)