Ravi Zacharias provides a cogent response to Sam Harris and the new atheists. Zacharias shows the inconsistencies of the atheistic position, often turning atheistic arguments on their heads. Brief, insightful, challenging, helpful. A short read with a big punch. A great resource for students and their parents or for anyone who needs helps sorting out the confident cries of the atheists.
Hemingway's "A Farewell To Arms" is a 320 page exposé on Solomon's, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:1). Employing his brilliant literary brevity Hemingway paints that vanity of war and life "under the sun" during World War I. The book was not a page-turner for me, but his scenes of war, flight from it, intimacies of love, sad gripping conclusion, and masterly use of economy of language help me understand why it is considered a literary masterpiece.
A splendid pictorial biography on Winston Churchill, covering his entire life. Max Arthur provides historical context to each of the 260 pages of photographs. This book is fascination and education.
Tim Elmore combines diligent research, leadership development expertise, and wise observation to provide insight and practical help for anyone who wants to understand and work more effectively with Gen Z. Marching Off The Map is one of my “Top 5” reads for 2017. This book is for the reflective practitioner. You can’t read it and not think, “How am I going to implement this?”
Mark Smith delivers an extremely helpful and concise overview of a business plan with a practical template for writing one. Mark provides the introductory "what it is" with enough "how to" to help any prospective start-up cover the essential aspects of a thorough and compelling business plan. This resource is a thinking-person's tool to work through the business planning process. Mark combines his Stanford MBA smarts with two decades of business start-up expertise to deliver a tool that is easy to read, but will require careful thinking to complete. I found it extremely helpful as I work to expand and monetize my website and "brand."
Robert Caro has devoted a lifetime to analyzing political power in lives of Robert Morris and Lyndon B. Johnson. Here, in his own voice, he shares some of those key moments. Caro gives us a glimpse into the factors that motivated him to purse Morris and Johnson. He lets us see some of his research and writing methodology. And he provides his unique perspective on political power, how it is employed for good and ill, and consequences both intended and unintended that occur in its wake. "On Power" is fascinating listening (and learning).
Reaching For Glory by Michael Beschloss is "required reading" (listen to the audio version for an extra bonus as it includes LBJ's own voice) for those who want to better understand the enigmatic life that is Lyndon Johnson. Covering the years 1964-1965, Beschloss gives us the unvarnished and "uninterpreted" voice of Johnson, Lady Bird, and many of his associates. I especially appreciated the Editor's Note (some of Beschloss research methodology), the Cast of Characters (listing key players of the time), and the Appendix (some of Johnon's "ramblings" from 1969 as he reflected on his time in the Oval Office. Unfortunately, the Audible version is abridged only so one who would follow both the written and audible versions will have their work cut out for them. That said, it was worth all the time to follow both, which I did.
You don't really read Max De Pree, you just pull up a chair and soak up the wisdom that pours from his pages. While Mr. De Pree passed from this world in August of 2017, his legacy (he addresses the topic of legacy in this book) lives on, in part, in his writings. De Pree writes, "I have written Leading Without Power: Finding Hope in Serving Community in the hope that it will in some modest way help nonprofit organizations and the people in them understand leadership in a new light." As one serving in a nonprofit sector, I say, "Mission accomplished!" But these insights should not be reserved only for those in the not-for-profit tribe. No matter where you lead, pick up this book. I suspect you will be highlighting and making multiple notes with a view to serving better through your leadership.
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