Book Review: First Friends

 

First Friends: The Powerful, Unsung (And Unelected) People Who Shaped Our Presidents by Gary Ginsberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book emphasizes the influences that good friends have on each other. Solomon speaks of iron sharpening iron, and this book shows the iron that sharpened the iron of several Presidents. Who our friends are determine who we are. Another saying is that who we are in 10 years are determined by the books we read and the friends we make.

Dee Brestin in The Friendships of Women described the difference in friendships of women and of men. Men do things with their friends. Women build intimacy with close friends. All of the Presidential friends detailed in this book show that the people are capable of building intimacy--so much so that others wondered if the relationships were tainted. 

When Clinton's transition team was vetting Al Gore, they were sorely concerned that Gore had no intimate friends. “If he can’t develop or even claim one real friendship, how’s he going to lead a nation?”

The author on the importance of friends for a President: "The point here is not to assert that a First Friend is essential to presidential success. It would be a reach—and a misreading of history—to draw that conclusion. And yet the deeper I delved into dozens of presidential friendships, the more convinced I became that those presidents who did have First Friends were almost always the better for it—and so was the country."

I'm very happy that I took Al Mohler's recommendation and encourage you to read this book as well.

And it took me awhile to read this book because work got very busy and my Libby check-out ended and couldn't renew immediately.

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Book Review: The Strength You Need

 

The Strength You Need: The Twelve Great Strength Passages of the Bible by Robert J. Morgan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The church I attend read this book over a 12 week period. The minister sent daily emails to discuss the chapter of the week. Each chapter discusses a verse that has "strength" in it. Morgan's wife, who has passed away from MS, wrote the ending to every chapter. I simply never got into the book or the emails.

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Book Review: The Day the World Came to Town

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Saw this book in an airport store and grabbed it from Libby to read on my Kindle. I was very happy to see my local library had it available through the app.

This is a very good book to read in its update for the 20th anniversary of 9/11. As planes were diverted and had to get out of the air that fateful morning, many were forced to land at Gander, Newfoundland. With 1000s of people on the ground, the local residents provided food and shelter. This was truly what I remember and miss from 9/11--the coming together to help each other regardless of color or political opinion.

The action keeps moving and even though there were many people to keep straight, the author made it easy to remember the characters' backgrounds and stories as he returned to their activities day by day.

Really enjoyed this book.

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Book Review: What's Your Formula?

What's Your Formula?: Combine Learning Elements for Impactful Training by Brian Washburn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There's the periodic table of the elements for chemistry and now there is the table of elements for training. Brian takes many elements that can be combined to produce engaging and effective training. I typically read the book on the train going home from work so it took a bit to get through it because I kept pulling out a notebook to write down ideas of how to use his ideas. Loved, loved, loved the practical ideas to help make accounting training interesting but informative. Written for corporate training but applicable for secondary education as well.

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Time to Stop Voting

 From James Clear's weekly newsletter 8/6/21:

"A quick and easy tip for building habits that last:

Pick a standard time and place to do it.

It’s easier to wake up knowing "I exercise at 4pm" than to decide each time when to fit a habit into your day.

If it’s already decided, all you need to do is show up."

I'm reminded of working with a vice principal who one day stated that he gave up voting many years before. As a former government teacher, I was appalled.

Then he said, "I gave up voting if I was going to walk and read my Bible every day. I go to bed every night and set my alarm to have time to read the Bible first and then walk every morning. I don't wake up in the morning and vote if I'm going to do those or not."

I'm thinking about the things I need to quit voting about.

I Am a Debtor

Yesterday the minister at church quoted from I Am a Debtor, a poem by Robert Murray McCheyne. These are two of my favorite stanzas from the poem.

When this passing world is done,
When has sunk yon glaring sun,
When we stand with Christ in glory,
Looking o’er life’s finished story,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know –
Not till then – how much I owe.

When I stand before the throne,
Dressed in beauty not my own,
When I see thee as thou art,
Love thee with unsinning heart,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know –
Not till then – how much I owe.

Then later in the afternoon I was doing my regular Bible reading and not being too excited about Isaiah. Then I read chapter 55 and I read these verses. Oh the wonderful invitation of God to seek Him, and I am reminded how much I owe.

“Come, everyone who thirsts,
    come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without price.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

“For you shall go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
    shall break forth into singing,
    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
    instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an excellent read--much is common sense but so easy to overlook when trying to establish good habits or end bad habits. I already have used Make it Easy to complete the book. I like to read on the train but lately I get on and am tired. I end up playing a game on my phone or just sit. To finish the book and establish the habit to read on my afternoon ride home, I now take the book out of my bag while still in my office and carry it to the train. It shouldn't be so hard to take a book out of a bag to read, but this ensures I've made it easy to read.

Another idea I've practiced is "the most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become." So my change of eating habits the past 9 months wasn't a diet to lose weight but to be a person who eats mostly healthy food.

The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become.

Pair this with The 7 Habits of highly Effective People. The two would set a high school graduate on a good life path.

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