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Book Reviews

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 …

Book Reviews,

Favorite Books of the Year

If you are looking for ideas to give to a reader on your gift list, here are my favorite books of the year. I’ve read around ninety books as I write this (it might not get to 100 by the end of the year, but it will be close). So the pool of choices is fairly broad, though of course there are thousands (millions?) unread. Still, I like these and think you might too.

So here goes, my favorites of the year:

The grand prize winner, my absolute favorite book of the year, is A Pilgrimage to Eternity by Timothy Egan. …

Book Reviews, Generosity, Leadership,

Wealth, Temptation, and Job

This story of Job has always fascinated and often confused me. It’s fascinating because it’s impressively rich in wisdom about why God allows evil in the world. It’s confusing because the logic in the dialogue is sometimes hard to follow — are you arguing for God’s goodness or not, Job? It’s also confusing because his buddies offer insane advice followed by what seems like sound advice.

But then that’s life, isn’t it? Life is … well, it’s messy, to use a word often found here at Junkyard Wisdom. And the story of Job is certainly messy.

As one who writes …

Book Reviews, Salvaged,

Books to Read or Give This Season

It’s that time of year when my annual list of favorite books is chosen. I do this in part as a suggested reading list, and in part as a gift guide. The year isn’t over of course, but I’ve read over 80 thus far and think the pool of candidates is deep enough to choose a few. Normally I’m at 100 books by now, but I think the stay at home orders minimized driving time, which shortened the number of completed audiobooks.

Anyway, here are my favorites and why:

If you want a daily devotional, the collection of writings by …

Book Reviews, PathLight,

PathLight and Becoming Brave

I’m going to be interviewing my friend Brenda Salter McNeil in an online forum on October 30. It’s completely free, and I’d love for you to join. Here’s a bit of background about how this came about and why Brenda is my guest.

Most of the readers of this blog know that I’m a co-founder of PathLight International, and I currently serve as board chair for the organization. PathLight provides educational opportunities for at-risk youth in Belize.

Every year I organize what we call PathLight Conversations. This is typically a luncheon with a fascinating guest speaker, like Bob Goff or …