My 2020 Reading

And now for my annual post on books I’ve read in 2020.

This year my sister and friends suggested using GoodReads, and I’ve really enjoyed tracking my reading and learning about potential reading from this resource. I set up a reading challenge of 25 books for 2020. I changed it to 29 since I read 4 children’s books and didn’t seem right to count those towards the 25. I ended the year with 30 books. As of today I do not anticipate completing any of the 3 I’m currently reading including the one Bible study book.

 Here is my list in the order I completed with a brief explanation of each:

1. Silver Sparrow (Tayari Jones). Bill Gates recommended this author in 2019 so I read An American Marriage. Based on that I read this, but it’s probably my least favorite book of the year. It was a train read.
2. With All Due Respect (Nikki Haley) This was my favorite book of the year which is kind of a bummer that I read it in January. This was an excellent explanation of foreign policy in laymen’s terms and an interesting perspective on Donald Trump. Looking forward to seeing how Nikki plays in the 2024 election.
3. Sisters (Jenna Bush Hager/Barbara Pierce Bush) I enjoyed the book but can’t really say much about it since it was another January read. I know it included interesting stories about their grandmother, Barbara Bush.
4. The Ideal Team Player (Patrick Lencioni) This was a work book that all on the leadership team were to read. I read in February and am now my team is leading the firm in implementing the concept of an ideal team player being Hungry, Humble, and Smart. FYI—smart does not mean intelligent.
5.  The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) I’ve seen this on many people’s recommended reading list. I’m good to have read it but it was not my style and found the message to be quite unbiblical.
6. The Power of Moments (Chip Heath/Dan Heath) Another re-read for work. This is a great book to help build memorable moments for people. We remember beginnings, endings, and the unexpected. It’s made me think about how to recognize our team members.
7. 7.     Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans (Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate) This is the outcome of Wingate’s Before We Were Yours which is historical fiction documenting the horrors of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage and baby/child brokerage. This book tells the stories of children who were stolen and sold by the evil Georgia Tann. Through collecting these stories that authors realized the need for a reunion. The books on this topic may be difficult for some readers because the actions of Tann and her minions are awful.
8. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (Trevor Noah) This was recommended by my friend Jayne. A good memoir of a mixed race child born during apartheid and then life afterwards in South Africa. Certainly a different life than mine.
9. Indigo Girl (Natasha Boyd) Recommended by Barb Waite and after getting into it, I realized I’d read this probably 20 years ago. A good read but somewhat unbelievable of a girl who takes over her father’s plantation. There are ties to Antigua which made it interesting when I read it previously and currently.
10. Just Mercy (Bryan Stevenson) This book really opens your eyes to the injustices of our legal system. My guess is that it is better than 99% of other countries, but we have work to do so that everyone has an opportunity for justice. I read it after watching the movie.
11. Nine Lies About Work (Marcus Buckingham/Ashley Goodall) This book was a feature at the First Friday Book Synopsis I attend somewhat regularly in Dallas. Another book for work but what a great read. It questions the many things we believe about performance reviews, leadership development, feedback, etc. All the programs I manage in my position. It was timely in that I was putting together a leadership development program for our managers. My goal is to ensure that the managers know we aren’t saying this is what a good leader looks like, and you need to fit this mold. Instead my approach is that we each have strengths in a variety of characteristics so as leaders in the firm lets learn what our strengths are as well as others’ strengths so that we leverage those to provide better client service thus growing our firm.
12. Lunch with Lucy (Sherry Stewart Deutschmann) I “won” this digital copy in a GoodReads giveaway and was pleasantly surprised to see it in hard copy yesterday at an airport shop. Great book of the author’s journey to build a company truly based on people values. She had many practices that showed the value and honor she gave to employees through pay, benefits, and other programs.
13. Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and A Mother’s Will to Survive (Stephanie Land) This is a good follow-up to Hillbilly Elegy which I read three years ago. The author’s lifestyle is very different from mine so it opened my eyes to how difficult it is to move forward in life when on government assistance. The programs actually de-incentivize people from working harder or longer to make more money to improve their situation.
14.  Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers (Brian Kilmeade) Since I’m a new Texan, this was an excellent book to learn about Texas’ history. However, I’m not big on battle descriptions so it was a bit of a wade through for me. It does make me want to go to San Antonio and visit the Alamo.
15. Orbiting the Giant Hairball (Gordon MacKanzie) The author is a former designer for Hallmark cards. The book is a bit “out there” in design, but I loved it. Biggest takeaway—org charts shouldn’t be a diagram of boxes but rather a tree. A good idea generator for work. A Jon Acuff recommendation.
16. The Things We Cannot Say (Kelly Rimmer) I actually had to go back and look up this book to remember it. This is the story of a couple’s love surviving the difficulties of existing in WWII Poland.
17. A Technique for Producing Ideas (James Webb Young) This is another Jon Acuff recommendation. It’s a quick read about a 5-step process to generate ideas for advertising but applicable to any type of creativity.
18.  Be Mature (Warren Wiersbe) We ended our BSF study in James last year. I studied through James with Wiersbe over the summer as I never realized just how many practical life commands the book includes.
19. The Garden (Jon Gordon) I’ve read several Gordon parable books. The stories are a bit trite but have good messages. This was not my favorite.
20. Telling Ain’t Training (Harold d. Stolovitch) Obviously another work book as I develop a program to improve our training. After all, how do you make accounting interesting and engaging?
21. Found: Psalm 23 (Sally Lloyd Jones) The first of my four children’s books. This is such a sweet read. I gave it to my great niece for her second birthday, and her mother cried the first three times they read it before bed. I give The Jesus Storybook Bible for new baby gifts and this will be my second go-to book for children.
22.  Camino Island (John Grisham) Huge John Grisham fan here, but this was probably my least liked. He needs to stick to the legal plots.
23.  Loved: The Lord’s Prayer (Sally Lloyd Jones) The second of my children’s books. This doesn’t match the level of Found. I wouldn’t read this and think The Lord’s Prayer if I didn’t know that is what it is reimagining.
24. The Biggest Story: How the Snake Crusher Brings Us Back to the Garden (Kevin DeYoung) An excellent read for families to read to help children understand the Gospel.
25. The Biggest Story ABC (Kevin DeYoung) What a great way for children to learn the alphabet using words that tell the Gospel. This will be book 3 in my go-to list for children’s gifts.
26. A Trainer’s Guide to PowerPoint: Best Practices for Master Presenters (Mike Parkinson) This is a great book to learn how to use PowerPoint and then take it to the next level. I’ll be working it into my training improvement program at work.
27. Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies, and Wimps (Burgess Owens) This book was recommended to me in June. When I wanted to discuss it with the person who recommended it I found out he had only skimmed a few parts. This book took me quite awhile to wade through. It’s a collection of essays (some quite long) about conservative principles. I’m glad to hear that Owens won his election to become a US Rep from Utah. The book has challenged me to read more about Booker T. Washington as many times the book compared him to WEB DuBois and how the two philosophies they embraced impacted the black population differently.
28. Broken Roads: Returning to My Amish Father (Ira Wagler) I saw this on GoodReads, and I’ve long been interested in the Amish. I didn’t know this and was surprised to read that the author attended Bob Jones University. The book? Meh.
29. Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice (Adam Makos) Recommended by the minister of a former church. I haven’t read much about the Korean Conflict so this was a good read for that. As I mentioned previously, I don’t really get into battle details so parts got a bit laborious for me, but I really enjoyed the story. Definitely recommend.
30. The Book of Lost Friends (Lisa Wingate) The third of her books I’ve read. It is based on a series of ads people placed in a Southern newspaper sent to churches in the 1860s and 70s asking about the whereabouts or news of family members and friends who were sold under slavery. What a horrific past in our country’s history. The story moves back and forth between then and current day. There were several parts of the 1860s portion in which I found it difficult to follow the action but I just kept reading to get to the continuing story.

30 books

8 specifically for work—3 I’d highly recommend

4 that I’d tell anyone to read (With All Due Respect, Devotion, Maid, and Found)

While I read more this year than probably any other, I realized that very little really grabbed me in a can’t put down sense. Writing the blurbs above made me realize that as I typically thought about what I didn’t care for rather than what was great.

 Now . . . on to my 2021 reading.