Book Review: A Time for Mercy

A Time for Mercy by John Grisham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jake Brigance has been a favorite character of mine since I first read John Grisham in 1993 and will always look like Matthew McConaughey in my mine. A Time for Mercy is classic Grisham and right in his sweet spot as a legal novel set in north Mississippi. (I think every time he's left that topic and location except for some in DC his books fall short--think his attempts at sports writing, Camino Island, etc.)

My one complaint is how quickly the side plots are wrapped up in the last two chapters. Again, classic Grisham.

Written in the same vein as A Time To Kill but not quite as charged. It was a great read for my holiday weekend that kept me up too late on two nights to find out what happens.


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Book Review: Speaking for Myself

Speaking for Myself: Faith, Freedom, and the Fight of Our Lives Inside the Trump White House by Sarah Huckabee Sanders
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a Christmas gift that I started in January but had to put down for awhile due to work reading. I finally got back to it last week and couldn't put it down. Sarah Huckabee Sanders had probably the hardest job in politics--conveying Trump's message to a press that for the most hated him. The book details her childhood as daughter to governor of Arkansas, her introduction to politics working in her father's campaign, and her moving to the Trump campaign. Her faith and family transcended her work in the West Wing.
(One advantage of e-reader is being able to save quotes from a book. I haven't figured out how to save in GoodReads from a "real" book.)
Excellent read--highly recommend!

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Book Review: In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules

Living in Texas I've had a few In-N-Out burgers but not many. (The Texas dispute is Whataburger or In-N-Out, and I'd take In-N-Out any day of the week.) This book is 11 years old so much more to the story. The chain has spread far eastward since publication.

It's an interesting read about the cult burger chain but much is repeated--example the location of store #1 in Baldwin Park. The book also goes back and forth in time which is somewhat confusing. 

My heart really went out to Esther Snyder, co-founder of the chain with her husband, as she endured so much tragedy after a long life of hard work.

Mostly I'm hungry for a burger and plan to look up the secret menu on the internet.

I got the book because I saw it listed in two or more important business books to read within just a few days. After reading I'm not sure I'd include it in that type of list; however, it was a good train read.

Book Review: The Colour Box

 

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The lives of Anne Hart Gilbert and Elizabeth Hart Thwaites are perfectly summed up on the last page of the book, “The thousands of slaves—they are their memorial.” What an amazing story of two mixed-race sisters whose Christian beliefs caused them to value all people. Their concerted efforts to teach slaves how to read and do numbers along with teaching the Bible prepared the slaves in Antigua to be ready for freedom in one step in 1834 rather than in stages as occurred on most Caribbean islands.

 Having lived in Antigua for 38 years, Barbara Waite very capably captures Antiguan culture including dialect. She also carefully crafts the story to be historically accurate while filling in the gaps with a compelling characters and sub-plots. 

The Colour Box will leave you challenged to deeper Christian living and care of all—messages we all need in today’s world.

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.

Books Read 2019

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?

My 2018 Book List

I am far from a prolific reader, and even though unemployed for just under six months  in 2018, I couldn't get into reading as I have in other times while out of work.

This is the list of books I read this year. It included more fiction than usual because once I started The Walk series I had to finish it. I read the first book thinking it was a true story and was a bit disappointed to realize it wasn't. By the fifth book I was ready for it to be over but had too much time invested in it to not finish.

As of the end of September I ride the train to work so I have had much more time to read.

Not included are the two books I'm currently reading: Sticking Points for work and Bad Blood for personal enjoyment.

Here are the 15 books for 2018:

Title	Author	Date
The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are	Brene Brown	2/18
A Man Called Ove: A Novel	Fredrick Backman	3/18
The Walk: A Novel	Richard Paul Evans	5/18
Miles to Go: The Second Journal of the Walk Series	Richard Paul Evans	5/18
The Road to Grace (Book 3)	Richard Paul Evans	5/18
Killing England	Bill O'Reilly	5/18
A Step of Faith: A Novel (Book 4)	Richard Paul Evans	5/18
Walking on Water (Book 5)	Richard Paul Evans	6/18
This Land of Strangers	Robert Hall	10/18
Measuring Performance Harvard Pocket Mentor Series	for work	10/18
Giving Feedback Harvard Pocket Mentor Series	for work	11/18
Miracle on Buffalo Pass: Rocky Mountain Airways Flight 217	Harrison Jones	11/18
Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom	Condoleeza Rice	12/18
Educated: A Memoir	Tara Westover	12/18
Journey to the Dance	Laura Gilbert	12/18

I've had several friends recommend Brene Brown and chose The Gifts of Imperfection as my first read as several recommended that one. Excellent. Friday I plan to attend a monthly book synopsis networking breakfast that will feature her book Dare to Lead.

Multiple friends recommended A Man Called Ove for reading while I was on a short vacation cruise. Got to admit it was just ok. He was just too grouchy for me.

Several recommended The Walk series. See explanation above.

This Land of Strangers was a long read. Getting a book on Kindle makes it hard to judge how big the book is and this one took awhile to complete. It was very interesting to look at how relationships or lack thereof affect us in our family, work, politics, and faith.

Miracle on Buffalo Pass is the story of an airplane crash that took the life of Scott Klopfenstein, the pilot. His sister told the story and made attendees of the 2018 Klopfenstein Family Meeting in July aware of the book. I actually ordered it while she spoke but didn't get to read it until November. Weather was certainly not an issue, but this probably wasn't the best choice to read just before flying to SC for Thanksgiving.

Condoleeza Rice's book was another interesting read although sometimes I got bogged down in too many details.

Educated was recommended on multiple end of year book lists for top books (personal choice and commercial) of 2018. If I didn't know it was autobiographical, I would surely think it was fiction. Tara Westover endured an awful upbringing but literally taught herself within a short period of time to get a high enough score on the ACT to enter BYU. The downside is that it appears to this point her desire for education has not led her to truth in Jesus Christ.

Journey to the Dance was a very quick read that I couldn't put down. The author is the wife of the former managing partner of my firm and the mother of a current employee. I wish her oldest son would have warned me not to read it on the train--crying makes other riders nervous. She details the year-long journey of her middle son's battle with cancer. I cannot imagine a parent watching her child suffer through such an illness and its treatments and then ultimately giving that child back to God to relieve him of earthly suffering. Through it all the family draws strength in the love and care of their Heavenly Father.

I have a birthday check to buy two more books so always looking for recommendations.

Happy Reading in 2019!