This is my annual post of books read. A dear friend from high school posted her favorite books of the year for 2019 and my total is far short of hers or most of the people that commented on her post, but I'm good with my 24 books for the year. Here is the list with comments afterwards.
| Title | Author | Date | |
| Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup | John Carreyrou | 1/19 | |
| Child of the Forest: Based on the Life Story of Charlene Perlmutter Schiff | Jack L. Grossman | 1/19 | |
| Sticking Points | Hadyn Shaw | 1/19 | |
| Gay Girl Good God | Jackie Hill Perry | 1/19 | |
| The Ride of Our Lives: Roadside Lessons of an American Family | Mike Leonard | 2/19 | |
| The Whistler | John Grisham | 2/19 | |
| All the Way Home | Ann Tatlock | 3/19 | |
| Miles from Where We Started: A Novel | Cynthia Ruchti | 4/19 | |
| What I Wasn't Expecting When I Was Expecting | Kristina Smith | 4/19 | |
| Degrees and Pedigrees: The Education of America's Top Executives | Michael T. Nietzel | 5/19 | |
| When I Was Yours: Absolutely Heartbreaking World War 2 historical fiction | Lizzie Page | 5/19 | |
| My Father's Wives | Mike Greenberg | 6/19 | |
| The Confessions of a Corporate Trainer: An Insider Tells All | Jonathan Halls | 6/19 | |
| The Alice Network: A Novel | Kate Quinn | 7/19 | |
| Power of Prayer | EM Bounds | 7/19 | |
| The Go Giver | Bob Burg/John David Mann | 7/19 | |
| Not Without My Father: One Woman's 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace | Andra Watkins | 8/19 | |
| Hiking Through: One Man's Journey to Peace and Freedom on the AT | Paul Stutzman | 8/19 | |
| 10 Steps to Successful Mentoring | Wendy Axelrod | 9/19 | |
| The Rooster Bar | John Grisham | 8/19 | |
| The Power of Moments | Chip Heath | 10/19 | |
| Before We Were Yours | Lisa Wingate | 11/19 | |
| The Carpenter | Jon Gordon | 12/29 | |
| An American Marriage | Tayari Jones | 12/19 |
My favorite book of the year was the first I completed: Bad Blood. It's the story of the rise and fall of Theranos, a blood testing start-up in Silicon Valley that was built on a hoax.
A different Lynn Klopfenstein recommended Child of the Forest which is written by his former student. It tells the real life story of a girl who escaped the ghettos of Warsaw to live in the forest for two years evading the Nazis. It is horrific but must be told and remembered. I hear it is in discussion to be made into a movie.
I always like Jayne Bartrand's recommendations and The Ride of Our Lives was no exception.
This year included several stories of people taking in children. Before We Were Yours was probably the most disturbing. Lisa Wingate has several other books about the Tennessee orphans but I don't know if I'm ready to read more.
I typically like Bill Gates year end recommendations. This year the only one that looked interesting was An American Marriage. It is fiction but is a perspective of how incarceration affects black families. I enjoyed it and am reading a second book by her but since I'm not finished with it so it will be on the 2020 list.
Five books were for work. All were physical books while the rest were e-books easily read on the train where I do most of my reading with the exception of vacation reading.
Mid-year I read two hiking books back-to-back about hiking thanks to my cousin Judy's influence.
The Power of Moments I read twice and hope to implement ideas into work and other parts of life. One thing I did was dress up as Rhoda from Acts 12 to greet the BSF leaders at our Monday morning meeting. That certainly was an unexpected moment for them as I stood at the door looking out, "Peter, Peter is that you? Oh, no, but please come in and pray with us for Peter's release. Pray, we must pray!!!"
Always look for suggestions for reading. What do you recommend?
