Dreams from my Father - Barack Obama

Totally fascinating. Amazing.

A friend had recommended I listen to this on CD. Obama reads it himself, and he won for a Grammy for it. I ended up reading it because I don't spend enough time in my car to get through the CD in a reasonable time. But I would love to go back and listen to it.

It's incredible to see Obama's history, especially knowing where he is now. The difficulties he had to navigate, the complexity of his life. He wrote this in 1995, before getting into politics, so it feels less polished and packaged than campaign memoirs do. And I'm amazed at how unsentimentally he's able to write about his past - about issues he was struggling with, about actions he is now embarrassed by. I know I couldn't be so dispassionate about my own history.

The book has greater resonance than just the story of the man who became President. It talks about identity formation and group connection and finding one's way in the world.

Plus, wow he can write.

Dreams from my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
Barack Obama
1995, 2004
Available from Amazon

Talent Is Overrated - Geoff Colvin

Geoff Colvin makes a compelling argument that what makes people really good at things is deliberate practice. He systematically tears apart ideas of "talent" or "gifts", and points out how everyone who is good at something got that way by working really hard at it. The people we think of as prodigies (including Mozart and Tiger Woods), got that way by starting practicing younger, and with better teachers, than other people did.

Colvin goes beyond this to explain how we can apply deliberate practice ideas to all sorts of areas (sales, management, whatever we do). It's freeing, in a way, because we can choose to become good at whatever we want. It just takes careful thought and dedicated effort. I had to take a break from reading this in the middle, because I was overwhelmed with the thought that I could be excellent at whatever I wanted. And what did I want to be excellent at?

When I go back to doing counseling, I'm going to put these techniques into practice as a therapist. Getting regular feedback (like every session) from clients, working on particular areas of practice, examining what I do with an eye to getting better.

Talent is overrated: What really separates world-class performers from everyone else
Geoff Colvin
2008
Available from Amazon

How We Decide - Jonah Lehrer

Jonah Lehrer is one of the writers who clearly has more intellectual horsepower than me. And since I think of myself as pretty freaking smart, I'm impressed when I read his writing. This book is fascinating. He talks about what current neuroscience tells us about how our brains make decisions. Are our rational minds more sensible than our emotional minds? How do we make decisions under stress? When should we go with our gut instinct, and when should we think a decision through intellectually? He describes really interesting case scenarios: how did the fire jumper who invented the escape fire (in the face of an oncoming firestorm) do so? How do excellent poker players understand who is bluffing and decide when to bluff themselves? How do excellent quarterbacks make decisions about where to throw the ball?

I'm going to apply the lessons he describes here, and I'm going to make better decisions as a result.

How We Decide
Jonah Lehrer
2009
Available from Amazon

The United States Constitution - Hennessey and McConnell

A graphic version of the US Constitution. Covers the content and history of the Constitution in a readable and fun fashion.

I've never read a graphic novel, and I'm a really verbal person. (No visualization skills whatsoever.) But I found the drawings incredibly witty and illuminating. I'm going to start seeking out graphic books, because the pictures were an equal partner to the words and made the book much more fun to read.

The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation
Jonathan Hennessey and Aaron McConnell
2008
Available from Amazon

The Billionaire's Vinegar

Just fun. A book about a wine forger (who even knew such people existed?), and about fine wine in general. It's nice to read something with so little consequences for once. Because while the wine forger is clearly a jerk who should go to jail, I can't work up much sympathy for the millionaire's who allowed themselves to be defrauded by him.

The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine

Benjamin Wallace

2009

Available from Amazon

1-2-3 Magic - Thomas W. Phelan

My favorite discipline book for kids. Just awesome. It says at the beginning that you don't have to be a saint or a psychologist to use it effectively, and thank goodness for that. Some other discipline books require you to think quickly on your feet and come up with a plan, and I just can't do it under emotional pressure. But this technique works great for my kids. It has worked when my 2-year-old used to hit us, and it works now with my 4-year-old provoking the 2-year-old or just whining. It makes me a better parent.

1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12

Thomas W. Phelan

2004

Available from Amazon

The Magician's Book - Laura Miller

This book made me want to read more literary criticism. Or more literature in general. I wish I were half as smart as the author, or could speak so thoughtfully on a subject.

I read and re-read the Chronicles of Narnia as a child. At some point, someone clued me in to the religious symbolism, and while it didn’t relate to me, I still loved the books. I even kept reading them as a kind of comfort food as an adult. Then a couple of years ago, I read comments about them by Philip Pullman (author of the His Dark Materials trilogy), and he talked about the sexism, racism, and elitism in the books. Also about the disturbing view of religion and God (how God functions to punish people in the books, how death is presented as better than life). And I thought Pullman was so on the nose that I couldn’t read them anymore in good conscience. So I was really excited to read a book about Narnia from someone who had also loved them, and also was a skeptic. I was not disappointed.

Laura Miller divides the book into three sections. In the first, she talks about why the Chronicles of Narnia work for children. She talks about the magical writing and the way children approach the books. I thought her observations were dead-on. Then she talks about the problems with the books – the sexism, racism, and elitism that Philip Pullman identifies. She doesn’t pull any punches, but she also observes that if we judge writers by contemporary standards of conduct, we can’t read much great literature. In the third section, she talks about how Lewis’s life influenced his writing of the Chronicles, his friendship with Tolkien, and the context in which the books were written.

One of the unexpected pleasures in this book is reading about what other famous writers think of the Chronicles of Narnia, like Neil Gaiman (Stardust, among much else) and Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which is also a wonderful book).

I feel so much better educated for having read this discussion of the Chronicles of Narnia. I’m planning to re-read it (and them).

The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia
Laura Miller
2008

Available from Amazon