What I Read (7)

Date: January 23, 2006
Title: Don’t Grow Old—Grow Up! Author: Dorothy Carnegie
Thoughts: “The moment a man’s attention is center on service to others, he becomes more dynamic, more forceful and harder to resist” (quote from the book).

Date: January 30, 2006
Title: The Great Bridge
Author: David McCollough
Thoughts: A good book about a great accomplishment.

Date: February 26, 2006
Title: Positive Imaging Author: Norman Vincent Peale
Thoughts: The launch of Infra Consulting LC in March 2006 receives a huge, positive response from potential clients and the media. Within days I’m having consultations and negotiating contracts for grant writing and management consulting projects. I have a training session scheduled for April that is filling fast. (I didn’t launch my business until November 2006 and it didn’t go this smoothly.)

Date: March 13, 2006
Title: Change the Way You See Everything Author: Kathryn D. Cramer & Hank Wasiak
Thoughts: Connie and I have been talking about similar things for months. We just didn’t have the term ABT. Though Cramer & Wasiak suggest ABT is more than just positive thinking, it seems not far from Peale and Carnegie. Thinking isn’t magic, it leads to action.

Date: April 19, 2006
Title: Getting Started in Consulting
Author: Allen Weiss
Thoughts: I will be a successful consultant. I am attracting great clients to me and my business.

Date: May 11, 2006
Title: The Success Principles Author: Jack Canfield with Janet Switzer
Thoughts: I’m going to achieve all the good I can imagine now and even more.

Date: May 16, 2006
Title: Self-Love
Author: Robert H. Schuller
Thoughts: “Man is a dignity seeker” (quote from the book).

Date: June 26, 2006
Title: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Tested by Time Author: James L. Garlow
Thoughts: “I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private,” Socrates.

Other parts of What I Read
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,
Part 6

What I Read (6)

Date: October 31, 2005
Title: Einstein’s Clocks, Poincare’s Maps: Empires of Time Author: Peter Galison
Thoughts: It’s amazing how many things, ideas, philosophy, technology, science, can come together within people to revolutionize our understanding of the world.

Date: November 2, 2005
Title: How We Got Here
Author: Andy Kessler
Thoughts: Tongue in cheek. Readable. Interesting.

Date: November 16, 2005
Title: Sea of Glory Author: Nathaniel Philbrook
Thoughts: A great adventure turned cautionary tale. Wilkes certainly had determination, perseverance and dedication. He lacked character, integrity and patience. With what he had he accomplished something great, and by sad display of what he lacked he denied himself the fame he sought.

Date: December 4, 2005
Title: The Power of Positive Thinking Author: Norman Vincent Peale
Thoughts: I’m going to improve my thinking and keep at it. I’m going to do what it takes to have the good life I desire.

Date: January 1, 2006
Title: Simple Pictures Are Best
Author: Nancy Willard, illustrations by Tomie De Paola
Thoughts: Possibly my favorite book. It has influence me more than any book except the Bible. I am a firm believer in simplicity.

My parents got me a copy as a child and I’ve always remembered it.

Date: January 3, 2006
Title: The Millionaire Maker Author: Loral Langemeier
Thoughts: I’m looking forward to being a millionaire. Even more, I’m looking forward to financial freedom.

Date: January 10, 2006
Title: IBM and the Holocaust
Author: Edwin Black
Thoughts: Heavenly Father, keep me always aware of the eternal value of righteousness and justice.

Date: January 16, 2006
Title: No More Christian Nice Guy Author: Paul Coughlin
Thoughts: “God is an odds-breaker—He loves that game, and when you flex even a small amount of faith, he’ll open doors for you” (quote from the book).

Date: January 16, 2006
Title: Starting from Scratch
Author: Wes Moss
Thoughts: I’m starting a successful business, too.

Other parts of What I Read:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

The Language of God by Francis S. Collins

In The Language of God, physician and chemist Francis S. Collins considers the compatibility of science and religion. At the time this book was published (2006), Collins was head of the National Human Genome Research Institute. Since 2009, he has served as director of the National Institutes of Health.

Collins is a Christian, but he did not come to the faith until after starting his career in medicine and science. His interactions with patients drew him to consider the spiritual aspects of life. Through this God eventually drew Collins to Christ.

Collins is very much a supporter of science. He readily calls people of faith to task for damaging their own cause through ignorance of science or abandonment of reason. A true god won’t be damaged if we come to a better knowledge of his creation.

Science, however, is hardly able to answer all of humanity’s important questions. It isn’t designed to do that, and sometimes it simply cannot do it.

In exploring the issue, Collins considers several potential stands on religion. He finds atheism impossible to defend. His own former agnosticism was something he could hold to so long as he did not seriously delve into the questions of existence, human life and ethics. He argues that theism is the most reasonable belief, though it may take a few more steps to get from theism to Christianity.

He also gives some attention to the idea of how we can live peaceably with science and religion. He has plenty to find in history. The seeming antagonism between science and religion, which he attributes mostly to proponents of extreme views on both sides, is a relatively new phenomenon. Historically (and currently) many scientists were people of faith and the church was a supporter of scientific discovery. He finds model of harmony between science and religion going back to St. Augustine.

Collins addresses this book to both believers and nonbelievers. To both he argues that belief in God is rational, and that faith is complementary to science.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis

Copernicus’ Secret by Jack Repcheck

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Victory of Reason by Rodney Stark

Why Science Does Not Disprove God by Amir Aczel

Collins, Francis S. The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. New York: Free Press, 2006.

This Year I Will... by M. J. Ryan

Many of us make New Year’s resolutions, but few of us keep them. There is less interest on the statistics of other goals, but it seems likely that resolutions are hard to keep whenever we make them. Self-help author and consultant M. J. Ryan would like to change that sorry state of affairs. Her book This Year I Will… has advice on how to turn goals into action and dreams into reality.

Ryan makes the important point that much of our behavior is habitual. We have repeated behaviors so many times that we unthinkingly return to them when we encounter the stimulus that triggers them. To complicate the matter, our behaviors fill a need or solve a problem. If they hadn’t they wouldn’t have become ingrained habits.

You don’t have to delve into you half-remembered childhood to change behavior, though. You just need to identify the underlying need or problem and find other means of dealing with them. Ideally, the new behaviors will also help you meet your goals instead of getting in the way.

I suppose I have made it sound easy.  It is not, and Ryan does not promise quick fixes. In fact, she warns her readers they will face internal resistance to change. There are parts of brain, power emotional parts that exert a lot of control over us, that see change as a threat and will not easily leave the familiar path. Ryan offers advice on how to handle this, and even how to get our emotional brain to help us instead of hinder our change.

The book is organized into short chapters. Ryan suggests you can go directly to the parts you need and return to the other parts later, or when they seem more useful. Instead of being a book you read through once, she wants This Year I Will… to be a reference you can return to when you need fresh ideas or a refresher on techniques you’ve used before.  Some of the subjects that stood out to me were

• concentrate on “what” instead of “why,”
• dealing with doubt,
• taking action,
• focusing on one or a few changes at a time,
• taking one step at a time (though sometimes we need a big goal to motivate us),
• track your progress (I’m a believer in this),
• have a Plan B (and C, and D…),
• tips for effective visualization,
• performance review, and
• remember to have fun.

There is more than that. The book is not a collection of unrelated mini-chapters. Though the book isn’t necessarily made to be read linearly, I found that later chapters tend to build on earlier ones. There is also a subtle shift from an almost wholly practical to a somewhat philosophical view. You’re not just doing a better job of setting and achieving goals. The goals you achieve and the habits you form shape and define your life.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer

Secrets You Keep from Yourself by Dan Neuharth

Succeed by Heidi Grant Halvorson

Ryan, M. J. This Year I Will…: How to Finally Change a Habit, Keep a Resolution, or Make a Dream Come True. New York: MJF, 2006.

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A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin

In A Slight Trick of the Mind, Mitch Cullin imagines the life of an aged Sherlock Holmes. He has lived through two world wars and seen most of his closest friends and family die. He is a man with no place in the world, and even the little place he has separated out for himself cannot hold back time.

This is not a crime story, but it deals with mysteries. These are not mysteries in the secret society sense of things revealed only to the cognoscenti. They are mysteries in the Christian sense of things that are beyond the understanding of man. The Holmes of this book is struggling with memory, death, war, abandonment, relationships, and grief. Even with diminished capacity, Holmes can tell how a boy died. What Holmes can’t grasp is how this boy he had come to love should die for no apparent reason while he has lived long after his place in the world faded away.

I have always thought that part of the appeal of Holmes was his humanity. Though he has a cool demeanor and focuses on reason, these things don’t motivate him. Beneath the surface is a passion for justice and a compassion for his fellow man. Cullin captures both of these sides of a very old Holmes who is struggling with mysteries that stump us all.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons

The Peerless Peer by Philip Jose Farmer

The Real World of Sherlock Holmes by Peter Costello

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer

The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

Cullin, Mitch. A Slight Trick of the Mind. 2005. New York: Anchor, 2006.

The Explorer King by Robert Wilson

Clarence King was probably the most well-known American scientist of his time. It doesn’t hurt that his scientific reputation was built on exploration of the then still wild west of the United States of that he could spin a tale. Robert Wilson recounts the life of the accomplished geologist in The Explorer King.

King was born in 1842. He was raised in Newport, Massachusetts. He was educated at Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School.

As a young man, King was enamored of art critic John Ruskin. Ruskin thought the rugged Alps of Europe to be the best subject of art for their beauty, colorfulness, ruggedness and variety. When he met western geologists and mountaineers through mentors at Sheffield, he wanted to be part of it.

He headed out for California in 1863 and became part of the state’s geologic survey. He would spend the next decade studying the geology and geography of the American west, especially its mountains. He showed great physical prowess and courage as a mountaineer.

After working on the California survey, he went on to lead surveys. In 1864, he was chosen to lead a survey of Yosemite.

He built on his reputation from the Yosemite survey to lobby Congress to fund a survey of the 40^th Parallel, roughly the route the transcontinental railroads would follow. Though it was under the auspices of the Army Corp of Engineers, it was the first federally-funded scientific endeavor that was completely staffed by civilians. While working on this survey, he was the first to discover active glaciers in the U.S. His team published new methods of silver smelting to make the mines for productive (the survey’s first report dealt with mining in order to show the commercial value of their research to money-conscious Congressmen).

The 40^th Parallel survey made King famous, though not because of the many contributions to science that came from it. King’s team heard rumors of a diamond discovery in Colorado. It would have been very embarrassing for them to have walked over such a valuable mineral resource without observing it. They tracked down the site of the discovery and determined it was a hoax; the site had been planted with rough diamonds and other uncut gemstones that the con men had bought mostly with money from their marks. Stories of massive fraud sells newspapers, especially when the names of big money men in San Francisco and New York are attached to it. King was the hero of the story.

When the U.S. Geological Survey was created, King was appointed to be its first director. His career as a scientist was already on the decline. He would turn his attention to making money in mining, but he would not be successful. He would have no money when he died.

This leads to an interesting point about King, though it is not the focus of Wilson’s biography. King had nothing to leave for his secret family. He was married to a black woman. This was a very unusual thing at the time. To protect his reputation, he kept the marriage a secret. He did not even reveal to his wife his real identity until shortly before he died (she knew him as James Todd). His friend John Hay provided for Ada Copeland Todd (and the five children she had with King) after King died in 1901.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

A Professor, a President, and a Meteor by Cathryn J. Prince

The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons

Sea of Glory by Nathaniel Philbrick

Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

Wilson, Robert. The Explorer King: Adventure, Science, and the Great Diamond Hoax—Clarence King in the Old West. New York: Scribner, 2006.

The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

Johnson, Steven. The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. New York: Riverhead Books, 2006.

Steven Johnson presents the London cholera epidemic of 1854, and the work of Dr. John Snow and Rev. Henry Whitehead to link cholera to a water source, as multiple conflicts. It is a conflict between two species, Vibrio cholerae and Homo sapiens. It is a conflict of ideas between tradition and evidence. It is also a conflict between the problems arising from the high density living of cities and the human capacity to solve those problems.

In the first case, a colony of V. cholerae arguably won the bout in 1854. The outbreak was one of the most intense in London’s history, especially considering how rapidly it spread and killed. That it ended when it did may be due as much to happenstance and desperation to act as to a winning argument from evidence. In the immediate wake of the outbreak, the view that cholera was a waterborne illness was not widely accepted.

In the second case, the reasoned case from evidence eventually won over tradition. This led to a victory over cholera in London also. Though cholera is still a problem in parts of the world, the answers implemented in London (better sanitation and clean drinking water) will work anywhere.

Johnson is not too hard on the opponents of Snow. It was widely accepted that disease was caused by miasma, or bad air. It was hard for even intelligent people of the time to accept that disease could be caused by something that could not be detected by the senses (though an Italian scientist had viewed V. cholera under the microscope, it was not widely known). In fact, Snow hadn’t found the cause of cholera, only how it was transmitted.

In the last case, Johnson happily reports that human innovation has triumphed over the problems of cities so far. In many ways, cities are very advantages ways for people to live.

The last chapter launches from Snow’s study of the cholera epidemic, and the map he used to illustrate his findings, to how smarter maps and other innovations are creating a bright future for cities. Snow, Whitehead and science eventually are victorious in the aftermath of the 1854 epidemic, but it is cities that are the big winners.

Johnson brings up a number of vulnerabilities of cities in the next several decades. He is confident that the ingenuity show by the likes of Snow and Whitehead, and modern technology they couldn’t imagine, will overcome most of these problems. Even the problems that can’t be overcome don’t seem to be enough to end the urbanizing trend around the globe.

Order this book here.

Revved! by Harry Paul and Ross Reck

Paul, Harry, and Ross Reck.  Revved!  New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006.

Revved! is a business parable.  Harry Paul and Ross Reck tell the story of Katie, a woman hurt by personal betrayal whose career suffers from her attempts to protect herself for additional injury.  She turns things around with the help and advice of an old friend and a radio psychologist.

In the context of a simple story, Paul and Reck describe a system intended motivate employees to perform at a new level, get engaged in their work and go above and beyond what is required in their job description.  It makes the supervisors and managers feel good, too.

The secret to getting the best out of people is this: care about them.  Honestly, demonstrably care.  People care about the people who care about them.  The care a supervisor shows for her employees will be reflected back in enthusiasm, performance, improvements and ideas.

The authors offer a note of warning.  Real caring can’t be faked.  If you jerk people around, it will backfire.

Paul and Reck offer a way to mitigate this potential problem.  Real caring can’t be faked.  Katie doesn’t want to risk getting hurt again by opening herself to genuine caring for others, so her counselors tell her to go through the motions even if she doesn’t really mean it.  It is a trick to get over the impediment of her self-preservation.  After a few weeks, she finds she genuinely cares for her employees.  The authors agree with William James that emotions follow actions, and if you act as if you care for someone, you soon will.

By stages, Katie is introduced to the few simple steps to demonstrate caring for others in the workplace.  The intent is to help her build new habits in manageable pieces and to prevent too much shock from her embattled and suspicious employees.

The authors give their system a name, Looking Out for Number Two.  Each step is named as well: Winning Them Over, Blowing Them Away, and Keeping Them Revved.  In spite of the fancy marketing language, program is straightforward.   The authors summarize it in three pages at the end of the book, and that could be shorter.  The titles are big, but the actions are small.

As you might expect, Katie sees amazing results in just two months.  Katie is a fictional character.  Real life might proceed a little slower an more messily.

Even so, the advice presented is sound.  It has the advantage of being simple and actionable.  It’s not about trying to stir up a feeling of caring.  It’s about specific actions that show caring in practical, meaningful ways, knowing that the response in our emotions and in others will come naturally.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Developing the Leader Within by John C. Maxwell
Winning with People by John C. Maxwell

Vital Friends by Tom Rath

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The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont

Malmont, Paul. The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.

There is trouble in Chinatown. The war god that sets faction against faction in Asia stretches a tentacle across the world to stir plots and revenge in America. Heroes rise to meet this menace, very unlikely heroes: writers.

Malmont takes real life writers of pulp magazines, who he clearly regards with great respect and affection, and puts fictional versions of them in the middle of the kind of adventure they may have written. Some of these writers were legends in their time, but may be little know today. For instance, the main characters are Walter Gibson, who wrote The Shadow as Maxwell Grant, and Lester Dent, who penned Doc Savage as Kenneth Robeson. Other names may be more familiar to modern readers of genre fiction, especially L. Ron Hubbard and Robert Heinlein. H. P. Lovecraft plays a brief but pivotal role in a creepy way suited to his weird tales. Several lesser know pulp writers play lesser roles in the story.

I enjoyed these intrusions of biography into the wild fiction. I don’t think anyone would need to be a fan of pulps to enjoy the book. If someone enjoys adventure stories, he’ll probably enjoy this one. The characters sometimes discuss what might be real, if improbable, and what is pulp, a good yarn. Malmont puts the pulp first.

Malmont achieves the right balance of fact and fiction by throwing out the balance. It’s fiction first. The reality is informative and fun, but Malmont makes it work double duty. It is biography and history, but it also helps the reader connect to the characters and their world, which does much to serve the fictional story.

The best thing about the book is that it is fun. It’s a thriller that thrills. It’s a twisty tale that doesn’t try to throw the reader, but sweep them along.

Esther

Esther is one of the most famous people from the Old Testament. The story of her life, as told in the Biblical book bearing her name, has been adapted to the stage and film. Joan Collins played her in Esther and the King (1960); Tiffany Dupont played her in One Night with the King (2006) based on the novel by Tommy Tenney. In 2013, Jen Lilley played the role in The Book of Esther.

It is easy to see why the book has captured the interest of storytellers in several media. It has court intrigues, romance, poetic justice, a beauty pageant, culture clashes, political and religious oppression, just to name a few elements a storyteller or reader of almost any persuasion might latch onto. You can bring many viewpoints to this book and carry many interpretations from it, though the book also provides its own interpretation.

Esther takes place during the reign of the Persian King Ahasuerus (generally identified as Xerxes I). He puts aside his wife, Queen Vashti, and his princes arrange an elaborate campaign to find a replacement. Esther is forcibly recruited into the competition. Esther is a Jewish woman, a ward of her relative Mordecai, who serves in Ahasuerus’ court. He secretly advises her, her humility and kindness win her favor in with the head caretaker of the harem, and her beauty wins the king. Meanwhile, Haman, a high official who has come to hate Mordecai, hatches a plan to destroy the Jewish people through the empire. Esther risks her life to appeal to the king and thwart Haman’s plan. This summary hardly does justice to the story, though even in the Bible the style is plain.

These events are the genesis of the Jewish festival of Purim. This is where the internal interpretation of the book comes in. Esther is celebrated for her courage to act. In addition to that, the hand of God, who is barely mentioned in the book, is seen throughout the events. He puts someone in place to rescue the Jewish captives from their enemies. He elevates Esther and Mordecai to give them protection while they are under the rule of foreigners. Though the people were threatened with genocide, God used the situation to preserve them and possibly even set up their eventual return to their homeland.

The historical books of the Bible are generally written in a plain, narrative style, though it occasionally records songs or other literary forms. Esther stands out in that it is almost novelistic. The conflict escalates to a climax followed by a brief denouement. This makes it a very engaging book.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Deal with It! by Paula White

Second Kings

Esther. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Vital Friends by Tom Rath

Rath, Tom. Vital Friends. New York: Gallup Press, 2006.

Do we need scientific research to tell us that friends make us more happy, healthy, engaged, and productive? Apparently we do, at least in the context of work.


Tom Rath describes the work he and his associates at The Gallup Organization have undertaken to study friendship and identify important friendship roles in his book Vital Friends. He uses the term vital friend to describe someone who significantly improves your life, who you wouldn’t want to live without, to distinguish him or her from less close friends or acquaintances.

Rath begins with a discussion of friendship in general. He describes the benefits of friendship to human health and happiness.

From there he moves into friendships at work, which is more the focus of the book. People who have a best friend at work enjoy many benefits in terms of their satisfaction with their employer, work, and compensation. Employers benefit from more engaged, safe, and productive employees.

Unfortunately, the traditional culture of many workplaces discourages friendship, both among peers as well as at different levels. Those businesses suffer the results of less engaged employees like lower productivity, quality and customer satisfaction (at the extreme, actively disengaged employees may sabotage their employers).

Part of Rath’s purpose is to help organizations turn this around and create opportunities for their employees to develop friendships with each other. A part of the book is devoted to these ideas.

A larger part of the book is useful to individuals who are looking to indentify vital friends, or friends who might become vital. Through their research, Gallup identified eight roles that friends play in our lives that correlate to our engagement at work and our overall sense of wellbeing. Each is described in some detail. Rath provides pointers on how to find people who may fill these roles for you, strengthen friendships with those who do, and how to be a better friend of this type if it is your inclination. He assumes that no friend can fulfill all these roles, and you and your friends will be more satisfied if you rely on them for their strengths and not try to fit them into another mold.

This aspect of the book is supported by on online tool in which you can answer questions about your friends and the way they relate to you. It’s designed to help you identify which friends play what roles in your life. It is meant to be a launching pad for discussions with your friends, both as a way to express you gratitude for the ways they help you and to help them be even better friends to you (you may find them responding in kind). I didn’t use this tool because the book was loaned to me. Even so, reading the chapters on the roles will give you ideas to make your own determinations of what friend are filling these roles in your life and who might fill the gaps.

The book wraps up with a description of the research that supports the ideas it presents. The research-oriented sections are in appendices; the main text has a much more casual style.

I started this review with a somewhat flippant question about needing science to tell us what we should already know about needing friends. The thing Vital Friends adds is a framework for identifying and discussing important friendships. You probably don’t want to over-intellectualize your friendships, but you may find it helpful to have some specific ideas and terms you can use as a springboard for your own thoughts and discussions with friends.

Tom Rath also co-wrote How Full Is Your Bucket?

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary
Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

Reading Like a Writer by the Aptly Named Francine Prose

Prose, Francine.  Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them.  New York: HarperCollins, 2006.

Reading Like a Writer is different than the other books about reading that I’ve read so far.  Francine Prose doesn’t discuss judging what you read, but learning from it.  She wants readers, like herself and the aspiring writers she teaches, to look at how great writers accomplish what they do.  In that sense it is as much a book about writing as it is about literary criticism.

The book is organized with writing in mind.  Prose covers topics that are of interest to writers of fiction: words, sentences, paragraphs, narrative, character, dialogue, details and gesture.  In each chapter she discusses these issues using examples from works of classic literature.  I confess that I’ve read very few of the books she references, but she provides enough of a quotation or explanation that you don’t need to have read the book to follow her illustrations.  You don’t need to have a degree in literature to follow; this book might serve as an introduction to some classic literature.

The method Prose proposes is close reading.  This is slow, attentive reading.  It can be very purposeful, such as seeking out every time an author uses a particular word or concept.  Of course, to read with such a particular purpose in mind suggest you or someone else has already done a close reading with a more general purpose of paying attention and noticing how the book affects you and how the author accomplishes those effects.

Close reading is not intended to be a dry and analytical.  Books can be enjoyable, moving and fun.  If a fiction book doesn’t have some emotional impact on you, even if simply the pleasure of entertainment, then why would you bother to read it?  Close reading includes taking in the beauty of a story and the words used to express it.  You may not want to approach every book this way, but great books are worth the time and effort.

This book might be interesting to the critic or reviewer, professional or amateur.  I think it will be more interesting to aspiring writers who want to learn from the masters.  Prose has several masters to recommend and an approach to setting at their feet as they teach.  She won’t tell you how to write.  As much as there may be rules to writing there are examples of great writers who have bent or broken them. Reading Like a Writer may help you discover how writers did it well and hopefully you’ll continue that course on your own.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard

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The Innocent Man by John Grisham (audio book)

The Innocent Man by John Grisham (Random House, 2006)

Audio book read by Dennis Boutsikaris

This is the story of the trial of two men for the murder of Debra Sue Carter, a young woman who worked as a waitress in Ada, Oklahoma. Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz were convicted of a crime they did not commit, and the justice system consumed more than a decade of their lives before minimally correcting its error.

I’m not surprised it took so long to overturn the convictions of these men. I’m surprised it got so far to begin with. The police investigation was very incomplete and shoddy, even for 30 years ago when technology and science played a much lesser role in collecting and analyzing evidence (Grisham strongly suggests the Ada police had ties to drug dealer, including one of the detectives on the case, and that influenced the investigation). The lawyers for the defense were competent, but they were not supplied with the means to mount a good defense for their poor clients. Williamson was clearly mentally ill, but there was never a proper determination of his fitness to stand trial. The evidence was so thin I’m surprised a trial was permitted. They even let a former Ada police chief sit on the jury (admittedly, he was not forthcoming during jury selection, but you would think someone in that small town would have known or pressed the issue more).

I can understand the thirst for answers, especially in a small community where a violent crime captures the public attention. It reminds me of the 2005 conviction here in central Missouri of Ryan Ferguson for the of journalist Kent Heitholt in 2001, when Ferguson was still in high school. The conviction rested on some uncertain eyewitness accounts, possibly influenced by police and prosecutors, and the confession Charles Erickson. There seems to be little evidence against Erickson except his drug-induced loss of memories of the night of the crime. He took a plea bargain to testify against Ferguson. As with Williamson, police and courts seemed to pay little attention to the mental state of Erickson.

In spite of the lack of evidence to back up the witnesses few, in my mind Erickson is a very sketchy witness even to his own involvement, the jury convicted Ferguson. People wanted answers, order, justice, and a sense that the issue was resolved so they could return to a safe life. This made them blind to all the problems with the case against Ferguson. The police felt those public pressures and were too ready to go with a problematic case rather than go through a tough investigation that might lead to no answers. The case had other problems, and as people began to admit to false confessions and prosecutorial influence of witnesses, the conviction was revisited and overturned in 2013, after Ferguson had spent most of his 20s in prison.

I think our justice system is often close to the mark and produces mostly good results. However, it should not take years, or decades, to correct such problematic cases as these. In fact, these cases should have never come to trial based on such flimsy evidence.

The Last Self-Help Book You'll Ever Need by Paul Pearsall

Self-help books are baloney. Psychologist Paul Pearsall didn’t go that far, but he encouraged readers of his book The Last Self-Help Book You’ll Ever Need to have a healthy skepticism about the advice and claims of self-help books. Much of the standard advice in the genre is unsupported by research and sometimes just wrong.

Pearsall’s chief criticism of self-help is its focus on the personal and individual. He argued that there is more joy and fulfillment, along with better solutions to our problems, to be found in the interpersonal and relational aspects of life.

Good relationships are largely a matter of the value you place in them. If you want to others to like you, find ways to like them first. To get love, give love. To find a partner, become someone who would be a good partner. Look for the best in others and overlook their faults. Lasting, loving relationships are based on commitment, not passing, emotional passion.

Another important aspect of Pearsall’s perspective is that there is much to be said for accepting life as it is, good and bad, instead of buying into self-help’s striving for the perfect life.

Life is never going to be perfect anyway. There is no reason to make yourself crazy trying. Instead, aim for a good life of deep enjoyment and engagement. Life is chaotic. Remain calm and learn to enjoy the messy reality. Practice mindfulness; accept the facts of life as it is, but do not passively accept the interpretation you may receive from others. You find the great pleasures and great challenges of living in thinking for yourself.

The themes of relationships and mindful acceptance run through all the chapters of the book. In addition to those areas already mentioned, Pearsall address health and work.

If you’ve read a lot of self-help, you may feel burdened by the gap between where you are and where self-help authors say you can be. Pearsall’s book may be an antidote for that. At the very least, reading it may put things in perspective and help you give yourself a break.

Paul Pearsall also wrote

The Beethoven Factor

Toxic Success

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck

Solve for Happy by Mo Gawdat

Pearsall, Paul. The Last Self-Help Book You’ll Ever Need. New York: Basic Books, 2006.

What I Read (8)

Books I want to read:
Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway, Susan Jeffers
The Aladdin Factor, Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen
The Success System that Never Fails, W. Clement Stone
Work Less, Make More, Jennifer White
Multiple Streams of Income, Robert G. Allen
A biography of Beethoven
A biography of William Wilberforce
You Were Born Rich, Bob Proctor
Skills for Success, Adele Scheele
Getting Business to Come to You, Paul & Sarah Edwards & Laura Clempitt Douglas
Mentored by a Millionaire, Steven K. Scott
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas, Dan S. Kennedy

Date: November 4, 2006
Title: The Difference Maker
Author: John C. Maxwell
Thoughts: “If you’ve done the best you can—if you have done what you have to do—there Is no use worrying about it, because nothing can change it,” Harry S Truman.

If your interested in The Diffrence Maker, you may also by interested in The 21 Irrifutable Laws of Leadership Tested by Time.


Date: January 9, 2007
Title: The Way of the Wild Heart
Author: John Eldredge
Thoughts: “Be decisive. Every time a man makes a hard decision, the Warrior in him is strengthened” (quote from the book).

John Eldredge also wrote Epic and Walking with God and co-wrote The Sacred Romance.


Date: January 20, 2007
Title: The Club of Queer Trades
Author: G. K. Chesterton
Thoughts: “’Truth must of necessity be stranger than fiction,’ said Basil placidly. ‘For fiction is the creation of the human mind, and therefore must be congenial to it’” (quote from the book).


Date: February 12, 2007
Title: Tortilla Flat
Author: John Steinbeck
Thoughts: A beautiful, funny, sad, wonderful book.


Date: February 16, 2007
Title: The Dangerous Duty of Delight
Author: John Piper
Thoughts: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him” (quote from the book).


Date: March 19, 2007
Title: The Innocence of Father Brown
Author: G. K. Chesterton
Thoughts: “’All right,” said Father Brown. ‘I never said it was always wrong to enter fairyland. I only said it was always dangerous’” (quote from the story “The Sins of Prince Saradine” in the book).


Other parts of What I Read:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,
Part 6, Part 7

A Complaint Free World by Will Bowen

It was big news back in 2006 to 2007 when a Kansas City church challenged its members, and the eventually the world, to stop complaining. The pastor, Will Bowen who authored A Complaint Free World, appeared on Oprah. The method was simple. Wear a purple bracelet; every time you complain, switch the bracelet from one wrist to the other. When you manage to go 21 days without speaking a complaint (it will take months for most people), you form habits that reduce even your complaining thoughts. A rubber band, a token you switch from pocket to pocket, or similar reminder will do the trick.

Complaining is talking about what we don’t want instead of what we want. This is important in Bowen’s view because our words are a reflection of our thoughts and, as Earl Nightingale put it, “We become what we think about.” Complaining creates in our lives more of what we complain about. When we start thinking more about what we want, we’ll get more of what we want.

Why do we complain? We do it to get sympathy, to avoid something we don’t want to do, to demonstrate our sophistication, or even as a way of bragging.

Bowen gives several reasons to quit complaining. One is health. He cites a study that indicates complaining makes us sick; as much as two-thirds of illness is psychological in origin. In addition, complaining about others (criticism) is rarely works to change them; people respond to appreciation. Even great social movements that started in deep dissatisfaction moved forward by showing a positive vision of the world as it could be.

I visited the web site established for the movement, AComplaintFreeWorld.org. It looks like they no longer give out free purple bracelets, but you can order them or get a free widget.

The notion of becoming what you think is in line with Bowens faith. This is a teaching of Unity, a religion founded in Kansas City. (Incidentally, I used to work in Lee’s Summit a short distance from the organization’s headquarters in Unity Village.) Though Unity expresses esteem for the Bible and Jesus Christ, it’s teachings about the nature of God, the Bible, Jesus, the notion of Christ, and the relationship of man and God is very different from traditional Christianity.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Acres of Diamonds by Russel H. Conwell

The 4:8 Principle by Tommy Newberry

Gratitude by Melody Beattie

Help, Thanks, Wow by Anne Lamott

I Declare by Joel Osteen

Just Say Thanks! by R. T. Kendall

Life's Not Fair, but God is Good by Robert H. Schuller

Make Miracles in Forty Days by Melody Beattie

Positive Imaging by Norman Vincent Peale

Power in Praise by Merlin R. Carothers

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

The Secret of the Ages by Robert Collier

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker

The Success Principles by Jack Canfield with Janet Switzer

Thanks! by Robert A. Emmons

365 Thank Yous by John Kralik

Write It Down, Make It Happen by Henriette Anne Klaus

You Can if You Think You Can by Norman Vincent Peale

Bowen, Will. A Complaint Free World: How to Stop Complaining and Start Enjoying the Life You Always Wanted. New York: Doubleday, 2007.

Arthur & George by Julian Barnes

I was going read only fiction over the holidays and give myself a break from writing reviews.  So I picked up Arthur & George by Julian Barnes.  I remembered I reviewed The Sherlockian by Graham Moore and began to feel obligated to review this other novel about Arthur Conan Doyle as well.

The books are very different.  The Sherlockian is a thriller and it is entirely fictional.  Barnes’ book is a more literary, historical novel based on real events.  If he had been writing a thriller, the story would have started when Doyle got involved in overturning the wrongful conviction of solicitor George Adelji for mutilating and killing animals in the rural community where he was raised by a Scottish mother and an Indian father who converted to Anglicanism and served as a vicar.  This doesn’t occur until you’ve already read 70 percent of the book.  Barnes doesn’t indulge the achronologic order a novel permits, but he does take his time, gets into the heads of his protagonists, and takes a long look at side stories.  This is why I refer to it as a literary novel in contrast to a thriller, which is more to-the-point and plot driven.

I wonder why Barnes decided to write a novel instead of a nonfiction account of the events.  I suspect there was plenty of source material.  Doyle was a prolific writer.  Newspapers abounded in England at the time.  Clues to the truth can be found in even the most obfuscatory court and government documents.  The Adelji case led to new laws, including the introduction of appeals courts to the British criminal justice system.  I suspect he wanted to explore themes that interested him without too strictly bound to a factual narrative.

There is the suggestion of a theme in the opening chapters.  Doyle and Adelji are introduced through their childhood exposures to death, something that would have been common in the 1800s.  Doyle famously became a spiritualist.  He was committed to the idea that death was passage into another life and that gifted people could communicate with the departed.  I do not know if Adelji’s views are on the record, but Barnes depicts him as something between neutral and skeptical.  He also seems indifferent and uncurious.  The only fact he is sure of is that everyone dies.  What happens after death, if anything, is unknown, and he finds the evidence of an afterlife to be weak.  These views are not contrasted; they are juxtaposed.

Ethics may be another theme.  Doyle derived his ethical view from his notions of chivalry.  Adelji, who comes across as a high-functioning person with Asperger’s syndrome, found his place in the order and logic of the law.  There was plenty of unethical activity, or at least human venality, presented in the story: racism, eugenic notions, sloppy police work, unjust courts, and heel-dragging bureaucrats.

I might have preferred a straight nonfiction account of the events.  Barnes novelization worked for me, though.  It was certainly more effective than the partial fictionalization attempted by David Gelernter in his history of the 1939 World’s Fair.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown by Paul Malmont

The Great Stink by Clare Clark

The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

Barnes, Julian.  Arthur & George.  New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

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