August was a good month for reading for me. Some of these titles may prompt longer articles, where I dive into the topic a bit more. But I’m challenging myself to do a monthly book report as a way to sharpen my note-taking and assessment of the books I consume.
Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zaretzky– delightful, useful, actionable, philosophical, and grounded in science. Nothing in this book was new for me, but I still found it worthwhile to read, and it inspired me to take some very specific actions toward more intentional and fulfilling days.
Burnout: The Cost of Caring by Dr. Christina Maslach — The original groundbreaking work on burnout, published in the 1980s. Mostly interesting because it was the first thoughtful public press exploration of this concept I’m aware of.
Fit Matters: How To Love Your Job by Mo Carrick and Cammie Dunaway — very good book; a decent alternative to a career coach, with a respectable bibliography and some concrete, generative questions, checklists, and tools. Not tactical, but good for the exploration and self-evaluation part of career decision-making.
The Four Conversations by Blair Enns — A great book about selling expertise. Useful for me as a business owner, but surprisingly applicable for my clients when approaching interviews and networking. The distinction between an “expert” and a “vendor” has been a useful framework. I enjoy the author’s podcast 2Bobs, even though it’s ostensibly for a totally different audience than me. (This was an audio-book for me. I always feel like those count a little less.)
The Brain At Rest by Joseph Jebelli — A tour of the good things that happen to the brain with sleep, daydreaming, walks outside, solitude, exercise, creative noodling, and play, written by a PhD in neuroscience. Introduced me to the concept of the “default network” — the brain’s activity when it’s not using the “task network” to focus on a particular activity. B or B-; while I recognize the general truth of the concepts, I didn’t trust the author’s citations and conclusions for some points, and the feeling that the author was a little fast and loose with the bibliography tainted the book a bit.
The Stress Paradox by Dr. Sharon Bergquist — Distinguishes between chronic stress (bad) and episodic stress (good, builds resilience). Looks at the good stressors we can introduce for better physical and mental health. (e.g. veggies, high intensity interval training, cold and heat exposure, etc.). Pretty familiar concepts by now, but a quick read.
The Next Conversation by Jefferson Fisher — Forgettable book about effective communication. I gather the author is a YouTube or TikTok star? I have no doubt he’s a good communicator. But the book felt to me like a publisher’s idea of something that would be sure to sell, not a book in its own right.
Lizzie Borden: The Untold Story by Edward Radin — This is a 1961 true crime debunking. The eccentric and ancient books on the shelves of the vacation rental we go to always beckon to me, and I read things that I never would in “real life.” Lizzie was innocent, but Radin thinks the maid might have done the deed.
The best novel I read in August was Peter Heller’s Burn, which is beautiful and troubling and has stayed with me. Also read Mrs., by Caitlin Macy; Curtain Call by Anthony Quinn; I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue; and finished up the Murderbot series by Martha Wells.
Somehow all this progress hasn’t shrunk the “To Read Next” Pile, which is teetering behind me on my desk. There are books about transitions, negotiation, focus, and coaching techniques on deck, which I hope will have some nuggets of value for my clients.
