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Book Reviews

Annual Book Recommendations

Thanks to all of you who tell me how much you look forward to these recommendations. Writing this post is one of the few consistencies in this blog!

As of now I’ve read 70 books this year, and I’ll read a few more this December. The recommendations below come from the 70, but narrowing it down was difficult. My first list was 16 books! From there I got it down to eight, and I’ll call the other eight honorable mentions. So here goes.

My favorite work of fiction was The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. A brilliant …

Book Reviews,

Summer Reading

Lots of people know me as the junkyard guy. Or the Belize guy. Or the devotions guy. Or even, though increasingly less common, the real estate guy.

But here’s a surprise. I’m also the book guy. I read a lot of books. For a long time I averaged about 100 a year, but that’s lower lately. Lots of reasons why — though falling asleep faster when I go to bed is probably the main reason!

Now here we are at the halfway point of the year and I’ve read about 40 books. On the list you’ll find some fun …

Book Reviews,

Five Books That Changed My Life

A few years ago, when I published my second book, I was asked to write a short article about the five books that changed my life (and the Bible was assumed so they asked me not to include it). I recently came across the article and thought you might find it interesting. Or not.

Full disclosure, a lot more than five books have changed my life. But when I had to cut it down to just five it made me reach across various literary genres and styles. That was fun, but it created an eclectic list.

So here goes …

Book Reviews,

Ten Best Books of 2022

Okay, it’s actually the ten best books I read in 2022. Does that count? I think it does. It’s my list, so it reflects my interests. All of them would make good gifts to the right people. Or not, I don’t know. I just loved them.

So here goes:

My favorite book of the year is The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman. This is the third installment of the Thursday Murder Club series, and all of them are a blast. Great contemporary British mysteries that make you chuckle, keep you engaged, and won’t make you roll your eyes …

Book Reviews, Devotions, PathLight,

Smart Brevity

Emails, snail mail, Slack messages, texts, books, tweets, posts, blogs, reports, articles, shared documents … we are awash in communications!

Shouldn’t we stop a moment and think about how we write all this stuff?

Back in 2020, when the world felt unprecedented, a friend suggested the news service Axios. Short, simple emails that cover the top news stories in 2-3 minutes arrive each day, with links to go deeper.

Just recently the founders of Axios have written Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More With Less.

The world needs this book.

At least I do. And many …

Book Reviews, Junkyard Management, Leadership, Salvaged,

The Power of Stupid Questions

I want to be as constantly stupid as the disciples. Or rather, to ask the kind of stupid questions the disciples ask Jesus.

A trademark of my writing – especially in my books – is to contradict myself. I embrace the contradiction because we need to evaluate, ponder, and understand the wholeness of an issue. Besides, it makes people think.

So this post is going to contradict one of the chapters in my book Salvaged. In chapter 10, Questioning Captain Satellite, I talk about the power of asking good questions. The line, “The best leaders ask the best questions …

Book Reviews,

A book you should read, part II

This post was written years ago, but it’s worth reposting. It’s about a book almost everybody I know should read. A friend mentioned the book recently, so it seemed timely to repost my thoughts.

Henri Nouwen was brilliant, of course. He gave a talk on fundraising and somebody had the good sense to publish it as A Spirituality of Fundraising.

And I think everybody should read it. Here’s why.

In his book To Sell is Human, Daniel Pink said that we are all in sales now.

True, but we are all in fundraising now, too.

You don’t have …

Book Reviews,

Celebrities for Jesus

A friend of mine was sitting next to me in the front row of a conference. It was the opening session and we were listening to the host, a pastor, give the welcome. My friend was going to speak immediately after the pastor was finished.

But just before my friend was introduced, she whispered, “Our host likes the stage just a little too much.”

My friend’s snarky comment was exactly what I was thinking. There was something about the pastors mannerisms that just shouted, “I’m in charge, I’m important, and I belong on the stage.”

I started to laugh at …