The 12 Books I’ve Read This Spring
My Book Reading List From January Through April
This is the list of books I’ve read/listened to chronologically since the start of 2016 until now. This doesn’t include books that I started and stopped, because if I start a book and don’t like it, I quickly discard it. As the meme goes, “Ain’t no one got time for that!”
If you are curious why, how, and when I find the time to read 3 books a month, besides being a husband, dad to three kids, and running Buzzshift… that’s fodder for an upcoming blog post. Until then, enjoy!
The Harbinger — A couple of friends mentioned this book, so I picked it up one evening. IMHO, it’s one interesting idea drawn from the Bible, spread thinly, and exegetically incorrectly, over a whole book. Find a Goodreads summary of this book, and you will be just fine. Or skip it altogether.
For Men Only — I highly recommend this little book of insights for marriage by a husband and wife. Unlike many books, this one is actually based on quantitative and qualitative data to back up the authors’ advice. Bonus: For Women Only, a companion book by the wife. It’s equally as insightful for a husband to read this book, too.
Star Wars Aftermath — Geek out on this one, Star Wars fans! This book fills in some gaps between Episode 6 & 7. It follows some seemingly unrelated personal storylines, culminating in a, what else, final battle scene, albeit minor compared to the movies. It’s an average read, but in my excitement after seeing The Force Awakens, I went through it pretty quickly.
China Rich Girlfriend — the follow up to Crazy Rich Asians, it’s a fictional story of a group of young, rich Chinese scions. Totally useless, dishy, and funny look at how the other half live on the other side of the world.
The Good Spy — this is a bio of famed Middle East CIA officer Robert Ames. It’s a glimpse into the relationships and politics that are par for the course for CIA officers and the agents that they try and recruit. If you have been in this world, you would have no doubt heard of Ames and his exploits. This book puts flesh and bones to this Agency legend, and it also reminds me of the seminal account of the US Foreign Service in the Middle East, The Arabists.
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit Of Less — a fantastic exploration of minimal lifestyle, Essentialism will change the way you look and think about clutter, both mentally and physically. It confirms my notion that there is a huge difference between liking a minimal design aesthetic and living a minimalistic lifestyle. Most people just do the latter, but have a ton of stuff floating around in their minds, or storage units.
Prayer — a lot of books have been written on prayer, but Tim Keller’s modern take is well worth meditating on. In five parts, Keller eloquently addresses the “why” and the “how” of deep, meaningful prayer, drawing on historical and personal resources to put color and clarity to a practice that is mysterious and ungraspeable to most of us.
In The Garden Of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin — I listened to this Audible book on the way to/from skiing in Vail. From this point on, my view of the Panhandle and the Colorado mountains will always be intertwined with descriptions of 1930s Berlin. This book compiles the memoirs of William Dodd, the American ambassador to Germany from 1933–1937, as well as letters from his daughter, who ran in the Berlin social scene during the rise of Hitler. I’ve always enjoyed reading historical books from a biographical point of view, and this book was no exception.
The Virgin Way — the latest book by Richard Branson, it is his own account of how he operates and thinks, his mindset that was reinforced by his mother, and his view into building up people and businesses around him, while having fun and taking risks. It reminds me of the misunderstood, inherent difference between “risk” and “risky”. Branson, often seen as making risky decisions, is actually very thoughtful and measured about how he as gone about pursuing his dreams. He is a risk-taker for sure, but careless and risky he is not.
Disrupted : My Misadventure In The Startup Bubble — a cynical and humorous account about a journalist in a high-growth tech company (Hubspot), Dan Lyons is the prototypical writer placed in a prototypical startup environment. His view of the startup culture is spot-on, and sometimes hits close to home for me. He rightly questions the current venture capitalist and startup valuation relationship, but his sarcastic take on companies like Salesforce and Amazon, which he ridicules for their low profit margins, underscore the fact that he doesn’t know how to manage, much less start, a business or see it for its long term value. Nonetheless, it’s a great outsider-looking-in view of a tech company.
The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision Of The Future — drawing on his successes and failures in the past, Steve Case looks at the initial growth of the internet, and how he sees parallels, and differences, during this current Internet boom. Case, who founded AOL and is now investing his time heavily in Startup America, rightly sees and preaches the idea that successful startups must be more aware and ready to navigate governmental and global factors, much more cognizant that the startups of even 5–10 years ago. This book will help guide startup founders to think more holistically, and possibly help their “big idea” grow even bigger.
The Ideal Team Player : How To Recognize And Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues — I was put onto Patrick Lencioni by my buddy Greg Crooks, and Greg’s comprehensive notes that he wrote on the book compelled me to go back and read it in full. I just finished it, and am still processing it, but Lencioni makes a compelling case for what a team player in an organization should look like: humble, hungry, and people smart. Lencioni then goes one step further, and applies this model to organizational growth and culture-building. For any hiring manager or business owner, this book should be one that you read over and over to remind you of what a healthy organizational culture looks like, and how to hire and measure your team members to grow and maintain that healthy state.
