Don's 2011 Book Page
|
To see the books I read in 2010, click here.
To see the books I read in 2009, click here.
To see the books I read in 2008, click here.
To see the books I read in 2007, click here.
|
To see the books I read in 2006, click here.
To see the books I read in 2005, click here.
To see the books I read in 2004, click here.
To see the books I read in 2003, click here.
|
You can see the books at the Barnes and Noble or Amazon web site by clicking on the picture of the book on each entry. This will open in a new window.
Books I Completed in 2011
|
Leaders Who Last
by Dave Kraft
Date Started: December 12, 2011
Date Completed: December 19, 2011
This is a very short book written for Evangelical pastors about how to become good leaders. While the book is written for that very particular audience, it has some teaching that is applicable to anyone in a leadership role. The author states that those who go into the ministry are not prepared to be leaders and this is a statement that applies to any discipline. This is a good book for anyone going into or who is already in the ministry but it does not work well for other disciplines and there are other books more suited to building leaders in the secular industries.
|
|
More Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas
by Ace Collins
Date Started: December 9, 2011
Date Completed: December 10, 2011
This was a book that came free with my Kindle so, given the season, I thought it was the right time to pick it up and give it a try. This book covers the origins and histories of a number of Christmas songs, some ancient and some very new. These are interesting stories with some surprises. A nice book for the season.
|
|
1Q84
by Haruki Murakami
Date Started: November 26, 2011
Date Completed: December 9, 2010
This huge novel is easily Murakami’s greatest work and there are many reviewers out there who have already had much to say about this book. Full of classic Murakami imagery, symbols and peeks into the unknown, the book was so captivating I could not put it down. As with his past works when I had finished the last page, I found myself just sitting and wondering what it was I just read and what it all meant. Two lovers, Tengo and Aomame; seven little people; a dead goat; an ugly private investigator; a cult; a rich widow and her gay bodyguard; a town populated by cats and a strange staircase descending from an elevated expressway are just some of the things to be found here that, woven together in Murakami style becomes a love story, a science fiction story, a fantasy, an investigation into the metaphysical and a whole list of other things. How Murakami does this and pulls it off if a mystery to me, just as it has been in his former novels, but he does pull it off time and again. It is no wonder many have rated this one of the “must read” books of 2011.
|
|
The Great Stagnation
by Tyler Cowen
This is another short book by the economist Tyler Cowen who has a unique idea about what the economy is in the shape it is in. His thesis is that for the past decades America has seen great economic advances due to, what he calls, low hanging fruit and huge advances in technology and innovation. The problem now is that there is no longer any low hanging fruit and that innovation has stagnated. At first, this was hard for me to swallow given the advances we have made, particularly in information technology the past few decades. It would seem to me that this is counter intuitive since efficiencies have grown greatly due to information technology. But I have to agree that these innovations do not create jobs and seem to concentrate newly created wealth to just a few innovators (think Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and so forth). Cowen also points out that much of the economy is in underperforming sectors such as government, healthcare and education. This is an interesting book and presents a hypothesis I am not completely sold on. But it offers an interesting contrast to the book I read just previous to this Race Against the Machine.
Date Started: November 29, 2011
Date Completed: December 2, 2011
|
|
Race Against the Machine
by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
Date Started: November 28, 2011
Date Completed: November 29, 2011
This very short book by two economists attempts to explain why, even though there has been some recovery in the economy since 2008, unemployment remains high and wages have stagnated and may have even declined in real terms. As the authors point out not only is unemployment high but the percentage of the American population that works has declined as have median incomes. Their explanation has much to do with the effects of technology on the economy and their premise is technology, and the efficiencies it brings, are destroying many jobs that were once considered skilled. They point out the rapid and giant leaps in technology the past half century and the effects of Moore's law and compare what is happening now to historical changes that occured in agriculture as well as manufacturing and how those industries, and the numbers they employed, changed with the introduction of technology. The big difference seems to be that this technology induced change is substantially larger and came much faster than previous episodes and employment is suffereing for it. They offer a bright future, however, with a list of suggestions to tackle the problems that seem rather simple to me - such as more education, less regulation and so forth. These are good ideas but they do nothing to mitigate the unemployment problem now and, as with past disruptions, this will take time to work itself out.
|
|
Steve Jobs
by Walter Isaacson
Steve Jobs could not have picked a better biographer than Walter Isaacson. I had read both the Franklin and Einstein biographies by Isaacson and loved them both but I was a little leery of jumping into this so soon after Jobs’s death and due to the fact the biography was written mostly when Jobs was still alive. For some reason it just seems that a real biography needs to include, in some sense, a decades seasoned legacy that the subject left behind. However, I was not disappointed at all in this book and think it may be Isaacson’s best. Wonderfully written, he opens up the life of a man many of us have grown up with. For me, a man who has spent a portion of his career in IT, I found myself relating in a much more personal way to the story given I owned an Apple II computer an iPod and now an iPad. Isaacson shows the drive and passion of this man driven in some sense by a personality that saw only black and white and was, therefore either loved or hated the things he encountered with nothing in between. This is also a book about business and leadership with some very valuable things we can learn as it shows how one man operated and contrasts him with other giants in his field such as Bill Gates. This is a true American dream story of a kid that came from middle class roots to found and become the CEO of the most valuable company in America. Truly an amazing book about an amazing, but sadly short life.
Date Started: October 30, 2011
Date Completed: November 26, 2011
|
|
Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time
by Sarah Ruden
Date Started: October 14, 2011
Date Completed: October 29, 2011
Sarah Ruden is a translator of Greek and a scholar in Greek literature and using her vast knowledge and skills in reading the original Greek texts, she presents an interpretation of St. Paul that differs considerably from what the modern day reader of English versions of Paul’s work seems to reveal. For instance, many readers of modern English translations have viewed Paul as homophobic, chauvinistic and a supporter of slavery. Some would even say he was mean spirited. However, Ruden sheds new light on Paul by placing his writings in the appropriate context of the society in which he lived. As a result, for example, he is not so much a sponsor of slavery but, rather, a realist in knowing that slavery was a part of society but that Christians had a higher being to answer to that makes us all slaves and subject to God. Further, he did not put women down as some claim, but the reality was that married women were highly differentiated from prostitutes and female slaves who were never really considered fully human or part of the society. I cannot argue with Ruden on any of this since I do not read Greek, but her ideas fit my belief that scripture must be read in light of the time in which it was written and with an understanding of who the intended audience was and the purpose for which it was written.
|
|
Biography of the Dollar
by Craig Karmin
Date Started: September 24, 2011
Date Completed: October 4, 2011
This book has been on my shelf for some time now and, as a result, is a bit dated, but still has some pertinent and interesting stuff in it. Published in 2008 before the big market meltdown and start of the world-wide recession, this book is, in some ways, almost prophetic when it mentions what would happen to the world economy given a steep recession or sudden shock to the economy in the United States (which is just what happened shortly after this book was published.) Things have changed with the way the dollar is viewed and valued around the globe since 2008 but that still makes most of this book relevant. It tells a brief biography of the dollar and how it became the prominent currency in the world after President Nixon took it off the gold standard in the 1970s. It also outlines how currencies are traded which is still relevant today. It would be an even more interesting read to have it updated in light of what has happened the past three years.
|
|
Brain Fit for Life: A User's Guide to Life-Long Brain Health and Fitness
by Simon J. Evans and Paul R. Burghardt
Date Started: September 10, 2011
Date Completed: September 25,2011
I stumbled across a reference for this book while reading an online article about fitness for those over 50. (Yes, that includes me!) This is an interesting book on steps the authors believe we should take to keep our brains fit into our later years. There are some parts that are very interesting and informative such as the sections on vitamins and nutrition and the need for good sleep. They not only say we need good nutrition and good sleep, but they explain why. The section on managing stress is also very interesting and pertinent for our modern age. In fact, it suggests some stress relief techniques that I plan to use. The sections on exercise seemed lacking and very entry-level to me as if these sections were written for someone who has never exercised or has been a couch potato for decades. Also, while the section on getting adequate and good sleep was good, it seemed lacking in suggestions on how to really accomplish this, other than suggesting some meditation techniques and so forth. So, there is enough here to make it worth reading but one who has any experience at all with exercise may need to look elsewhere for more substance.
|
|
Rediscovering Catholicism
by Matthew Kelly
Matthew Kelly is an Australian who works in his own Catholic ministry as a lay person teaching and sharing the Catholic faith as well as giving instruction on becoming what he calls “the best version yourself.” I have listened to a number of Kelly’s talks over the years and have always found them informative while entertaining at the same time. This book is no different and I read it as a preparation to help in my teaching of RCIA this year. The book is not any deep theological study or anything of the like, but rather a call to those who have fallen away from the faith to come back and find the wealth that is offered through the Catholic Church. This would be an excellent book just for that purpose or even for those who are not Catholic as it talks on a very personal and down-to-earth level about the faith and the truths of Christianity. This is a very easy read, full of the Kellyisms found in his other teachings.
Date Started: August 30, 2011
Date Completed: September 10, 2011
|
|
A Rabbi Talks With Jesus
by Jacob Neusner
Date Started: August 20, 2011
Date Completed: August 29, 2011
This book came highly recommended by Pope Benedict XVI and I enjoyed it very much. The Rabbi speaks openly with Jesus and, while he admires and respects Jesus, he is not converted and explains why. The basis seems to be that the Rabbi sees Jesus teaching to be in conflict with the Torah, at times. Additionally, he sees the Torah as instruction on how the community (all of Israel or a plural you) should obey and worship God, whereas the Gospel as instructions on how the individual (a singular you and not all of Israel as community) should follow Christ. At times I can see the Rabbi’s point and I came away thinking that what he says is still pertinent to modern Christians and that maybe we should view the Torah as addressed to the whole and the Gospel as addressed to the individual. The Rabbi claims that there are points where Jesus directly contradicts the Torah as in the instance of the commandment to honor father and mother, but yet Jesus says to follow him one must abandon father and mother. To me, the big disconnect between me (and most Christians) and the Rabbi is that I believe that Jesus is God incarnate and that changes the whole picture. For to abandon father and mother to follow something else would be in conflict with the Torah, but to do so to follow God is in accordance with the commandment to have no other Gods. This is a very thoughtful and interesting book, one which I will return to again.
|
|
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happines
by Richard H. Thaler and Cass Sunstein
Date Started: August 8, 2011
Date Completed: August 20, 2011
This book is one of the better I have seen coming out of behavioral economics. It shows the various ways people can be nudged into certain acts or actions without being directly manipulated and without their free well or free choice being violated. This is what the authors call “libertarian paternalism” which is their view that we can be paternal without forcing people to abandon their liberties to choose. At times this almost seems like manipulation, but I came away thinking it really is not and from this I can see where there are some very good ideas in this book concerning how any of us in any role can give people the nudge in the direction they need to choose to do the right thing.
|
|
Breaking up with God
by Sarah Sentilles
Date Started: July 30, 2011
Date Completed: August 8, 2011
This book was a complete surprise given it was mentioned (but not necessarily recommended) by Fr. Bill Mills, one of my Theology Professors in my masters program. Sarah Sentilles has a doctorate in theology and was on the verge of becoming an ordained priest when she quit, broke up with God and seemed to do an about-face with her religion. She is no longer a Christian and she makes her point boldly in this book. She presents a case that too much violence and wrong doing has been done in God’s name, which I agree with. But she also refutes the proper arguments that this is the work of man and not God and says she cannot believe in a benevolent God that allows such atrocities. She speaks much of torture, which she wrote her thesis on and she also speaks very critically of the atrocities committed not only against humans but against animals as well and promotes her vegetarian life. While I cannot disagree with her and her thoughts on violence, I have to hold on to my belief that the Christian faith, while terribly mistaught and misapplied by many church leaders, theologians and fanatics, is a pathway to right these wrongs and bring peace. It is tough, I admit, but I am not ready to abandon my God and Christ.
|
|
Out of Character: Surprising Truths About the Liar, Cheat, Sinner (and Saint) Lurking in All of Us
by Piercarlo Valdesolo and David Desteno
Date Started: July 2, 2011
Date Completed: July 30, 3011
OK, I had to read this book twice and I am not sure why, probably because it was not what I expected. The book is very academic and presents the results of a number of lab experiments that attempt to show why people do the things they do and why seemingly ethical and moral individuals sometimes to unethical or immoral acts. For instance, as the authors point out, how can a man like Elliot Spitzer, who claimed to be cracking down on illegal prostitution, be caught patronizing one of the highest cost prostitution services in his home state? And how can a highly regarded state governor, in an apparent perfect marriage, finally have to confess to a long affair with a woman from South America? These questions fascinate us, I must admit and the authors try to explain these behaviors through lab work. While the lab work is fascinating and show that character is fluid, there is no mention of what I would consider universal laws, a soul and so forth. Instead, all theories are presented in light of evolution and how we evolved in this way to react differently in certain circumstances, such as the ant vs. the grasshopper in the old fable. While I understand evolution, I would still like to hear ideas on the existence of a universal moral law and why we continue to break that law.
|
|
The Fifth Discipline
by Peter Senge
Date Started: May 4, 2011
Date Completed: July 2, 2011
I read the first edition of this book many years ago and now that I have read this new edition I realize once again what a deep and complex book it is. There is simply too much in here to absorb at once, which is one reason I spent two months reading it. Senge’s ideas of a learning organization are very well thought out and very well presented. Additionally, he is able to tie the ideas of personal commitment and personal ethics into the corporate world which is something industry of all kinds needs more of these days. Further, his ideas on personal mastery are excellent and he shows that no one really ever becomes a master as learning is a life-long process. The only drawback is that he, on more than one occasions, seems to pontificate on ethical issues and takes a side not everyone would agree with and it seems this has no place in a book of this caliber.
|
|
Covenant and Communion: The Biblical Theology of Pope Benedict XVI
by Scott Hahn
Date Started: May 5, 2011
Date Completed: May 21, 2011
This book is Dr. Hahn's synopsis, or essay as he calls it, of the theology of Pope Benedict XVI, arguably one of the best theologians to ever ascend to the Chair of Peter. As Pope and previously as Joseph Ratzinger, Priest, Bishop and Cardinal, Benedict has written and taught extensively over the years and his message has been a consistent one, arguing that the church needs to return to the study and belief in the Sacred Scriptures and ground itself in the Holy Word of God. Benedict is very critical of the modern forms of scripture study, particularly the historical critical method which tends to discount much of what is said in the scripture. Benedict, through his hermeneutic of faith binds both the positive aspects of the modern methods with the long standing traditions of faith. As Dr. Hahn says, "Bringing the truths of faith to bear on biblical questions does not stifle reason but rather frees it from the prisons of its own self-imposed limitations. The cooperation of faith and reason holds open the promise of understanding the true meaning of the events and teachings found in Scripture." For Benedict, faith is a way of knowing as is reason and reason, through scientific study, new theories and technologies, points beyond itself, "beyond the world of appearances and sense phenomena, to God." So, it is not good enough to analyze scripture just via reason, but also via faith since is is through faith that we find God in the Word. "The Scriptures cannot be understood without taking into account the faith that the Word of God seeks from its readers."
|
|
The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible
by The Pontifical Biblical Commission
Date Started: April 25, 2011
Dare Completed: May 4, 2011
This book aims to prove something I have doubted: that the Old Testament is not only a necessary part of the canon of sacred scripture, but is also required to understand what the New Testament says. We cannot understand Jesus without the Jewish scriptures, although various heresies through the centuries have tried to discount or completely remove the Old Testament from the canon. The conclusion this book comes to is that the Jewish people and the Old Testament are not only important to Christians, but are essential and without the Old Testament, the New Testament would be an incomprehensible book. Further, Jews and Christians share a common heritage. There are many interesting examples of this throughout this work that show the intricate connections between all scripture.
|
|
The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A Remarkable Account of Miracles, Angels, and Life beyond This World
by Kevin Malarkey
Date Started: April 21, 2011
Date Completed: April 24, 2011
As you can tell this was a very fast read. This is also the second book I have read this year about a young child who had a near death experience and reported back about their visit to heaven. As many of you know I have also experienced a near death event and believe in them whole-heartedly. The innocent way in which the young man in this book reports his experiences is convincing and, more than that, his encounters with Satan seem to be even more convincing and frightening to some extent. But the fact that he is still having visits to heaven now that he is alive and well troubles me for some reason. Not that I outright reject his claims, but I guess it may be my good ole Catholic skepticism that is keeping me from accepting this outright. I have never encountered this type of re-visit to heaven after a near death experience before. However, there does not seem to be anything in his message that is contrary to the faith, so that is a big positive. You can read this book and get something from it and, if you do, let me know if you have the same level of skepticism
|
|
Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper
by Brant Pitre
Date Started: April 13, 2011
Date Completed: April 21, 2011
I wish I would have had this book as a reference when I was studying theology, specifically the Gospel of John, which contains the somewhat hard to understand Bread of Life Discourse. This is a very well done work which links the Eucharist with the Jewish practices going back to the time of the Exodus, specifically the Passover, manna from heaven and the Bread of the Presence that was kept in the tabernacle. Pitre shows how easy it was for Jesus’ disciples to accept the fact that He was asking them to eat His body and drink His blood when the Mosaic Law strictly prohibited cannibalism and the consumption of blood. I particularly liked his treatment of how the idea of manna is contained in the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.” This bread refers to the manna from heaven, but this can only be seen when one drills down into the original Greek from which we get the English translation. While probing some deeper theology, this book is a good read for anyone wanting to learn more of the continuity of scripture from the first of Genesis to the end of Revelation.
|
|
The Rite
by Matt Baglio
Date Started: April 8, 2011
Date COmpleted: April 13, 2011
I have read numerous books about exorcism over the years, some good, some bad and the most fall in between. This book ends up more to the good side as it follows Fr. Gary Thomas’s training to become an exorcist. This is an angle I had not seen before and, as a result, Baglio gives us some insight into the struggles a priest has on this journey given that it is a rare ministry, shrouded in mystery and the misinformation Hollywood has provided concerning it. Fr. Gary struggled a great deal with becoming an exorcist in his attempts to discern and learn the truths of demonic activity in the world. Also, Baglio shares how writing this book affected his own faith, something I particularly liked, since it moved his faith along quite a bit.
|
|
Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection
by Pope Benedict XVI
Date Started: March 26, 2011
Date Completed: April 8, 2011
Just like the first volume of this series, this book is an excellent theological work, covering the last week of Jesus’ life on earth. In fact, I found this book to be even better than the first as it explores Holy Week and the seeming contradictions between the gospels and Paul’s letters. The Pope does an excellent job exploring the differences and explaining that the contradictions are not contradictions at all. I particularly liked the discussion on the High Priestly Prayer that is found in all four gospels and his comments on the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70AD and how all of that history was the signal that there was a new worship required of God, moving away from the temple sacrifices to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ. This is not a book for everyone as it takes some theology background to understand what the Pope is saying. I anxiously await volume three which, the Pope says, will cover Christ birth.
|
|
Jesus of Nazareth
by Pope Benedict XVI
Date Started: March 6, 2011
Date Completed: April 2, 2011
Sometimes I think we see the Pope in a pastoral role more than anything else which causes us to lose sight of what great theologians they are. This was certainly the case with John Paul II who did some marvelous theological work clear back to the days of the Second Vatican Council. I always knew that Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI was a good theologian but I never realized how good until I read this book. This is not a book for just any reader as the life of Jesus presented comes with a theological depth that not everyone could grasp unless they have had some exposure to the various teachings of Christology. I found myself having to put the book down from time to time to reflect on the text and analyze what Benedict was saying in light of what I knew and believed about Christ. This book shows, once again, the endless depth of scripture and what we have yet to learn even though the subject matter stems from 2000 years ago.
|
|
A Sense of Urgency
by John Kotter
Date Started: March 9, 2011
Date Completed: March 16, 2011
John Kotter has always made sense to me, especially when compared to some other writers on leadership. I remember his Harvard Business Review article “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail” and how it impacted me and how I have gone back to it several times. This book has much of the same thought as his other work and I was struck about his ideas on how to handle complacency and how to create and sustain a sense of urgency. Like with most of these types of books, the trick is to actually implement it and pull it off.
|
|
Super Freakonomics
by Steven D.Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Date Started: February 9, 2011
Date Completed: March 6, 2011
I just love books like this that take a deeper look at some things we consider gospel truth and tears them apart. Just like the first book Freakonomics this book takes on a number of sacred cows such as just how safe child car seats are (not any safer that a standard seatbelt) to global warming (it is not what we think it is) to the causes of infections in hospitals (doctors not washing their hands). This book is easy to read, just like the first, and takes some complex scientific and economic principals and puts them in common, daily language that anyone can understand. I particularly liked their analysis of global warming showing that carbon emissions are only a small percentage of the cause (cattle belching and farting methane are a far larger problem) and that much of what is bandied about in the press is done only to scare people just as Al Gore did in his movie. The analysis of child car seats is interesting too. But overall what they show in the book is that the simplest solutions to problems are usually the best. I just wonder what the next book will be called.
|
|
Blue Skies, No Fences
by Lynn Cheney
Date Started: January 27, 2011
Date Completed: February 7,2011
This was a fast read and something I found interesting since the setting is my home town and I know many of the people mentioned in this book, including my dad who gets several mentions, primarily as a football star at Natrona County High School. This book only covers Lynne Cheney’s life through high school and does not go into anything past that, and never mentions the fact that Dick became Vice President of the United States and so forth. While I thought this book was fun, I doubt anyone outside of Wyoming would find it all that interesting. I will try and get my dad to read it, however, as he will remember many of the people, places and events.
|
|
Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back
by Todd Burpo
Date Started: January 24, 2011
Date Completed: January 27, 2011
This is a short but fascinating little book the tells the story of a young four year old boy who, after recovering from a very serious illness and hospitalization begins telling his family about his time in heaven. Although it was not domentented that he died during his illness, it is clear something happened that allowed him his "three minutes" in heaven. He tells his parents striking details of heaven and the people there including the long-dead great grandfather he never knew and the unborn sister he never knew that was lost in a miscarraige. As one who has experienced death and gazed into the gates of that Holy Place, I found much in here I could relate to, although my visit was much shorter and not as detailed as young Colton's. Read this book whether you are a believer or not as it will change your attitude about the afterlife.
|
|
The Magic Mountain
by Thomas Mann
Date Started: December 19, 2010
Date Completed: January 24, 2011
This book was originally suggested to me by my old friend Harry (God rest his soul). Harry told me he read this book once every year and now that I have read it for the first time I can see why he read it so often. I cannot add to the mounds of commentary, discussion and analysis on this book that already exists except to say it is one of the deepest, most complex books I have ever read. For me, it is nothing but a large presentation of contradicting philosophies set in a long novel. The various philosophies are not hard to spot, for instance Settembrini and his humanism and Naphta and his conservatism. Full of symbolism, this book takes on illness, death, suicide, lust and a host of other social topics and examines them from all sides in many very long debates between the various characters. I have read commentaries that say that this book presents a microcosm of Eurpop in the early 20th century. But as I read it and as the book came to a close, I almost wondered if it was not a presentation of the world as a whole where conflicting philosophies confront one another until they can no longer co-exist and end up in violent confrontation - a la Settembrini and Naphta and their duel. Further, the system then degrades to the point where innocent wayfarers, such as Hans Castorp, are sucked in to a bloody, brutal war to be sacrificed on the battlefield of ideological conflict. Perhaps history repeats itself in this way as it has the past 100 years with two world wars, Korea, Viet Nam, the Soviets in Afghanistan, Iraq and now the United States in Afghanistan? Perhaps. A very intense book and, unlike Harry, one I probably will not dive into again.
|
|
