April 2021
Spring is here with projects, sports, and other activities. We finally had a beautiful weather day for soccer this morning. I hope you all are well, active, and living your best lives. We have been watching a lot of Battle Bots lately. What are you reading or watching?
Here are the books I finished in April 2021 and my short reviews of them:
Fiction Books
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
This story was made into a big movie in 2007 with Will Smith as the lead. I could have sworn the monsters in the movie were zombies, so that confused me as I dug into this book which was published way back in 1954. In the book, the monsters are vampires and when I dug back in the memory banks a little harder, that lines up with the movie, though the vampires are not your classic Dracula, Lestat, or Blade variety. The main character is Robert Neville, who is a lonely survivor of a great plague that destroyed mankind by killing most people and turning the rest into vampires. Neville has mastered the survival skills needed in the new world. He bunkers in at night and works during the day. He suffers from depression and alcoholism. The only relief he finds is by having a mission-studying the monsters. He discovers that vampirism is a bacterial disease, which was spread by post-nuclear war dust and mosquitoes. Neville developed immunity to the bacteria after being bitten by a vampire bat long before the plague hit. This is where the book confused me. The monsters seem to have 2 forms- living infected, and dead reanimated. After three years of battling and studying alone, Neville finds a young woman, alive in the daylight. She turns out to be a vampire spy. She warns him that the vampires are reforming society and that he is now the monster. He is a legend.
This book is for monster hunters and survivalists.
(Rated R, Score 6/10, audiobook read by Robertson Dean, 5:20)
The first rule of fight club is you don’t talk about fight club. I’m a rule breaker, so I’m going to talk about fight club. As movie vs book comparisons go, this one is really close. A lot of the movie dialogue is straight out of the book. On the surface, the book seems crude and senseless- middle-aged men, fighting each other at night in basements, then forming gangs to sabotage modern society. When you dig deeper though, you can see a lot of angry questions that the author asks through the book, that don’t get answered. What makes us feel alive? Why do we work jobs we hate to buy [things] we don’t need to impress people we don’t even like? The media tells us we can all be famous or movie stars or sports celebrities, but we aren’t. Why do we keep listening to them? If our fathers were our model for God, and our fathers failed, what does that tell us about God? Is love enough to save us from self-destruction? What are we capable of if we are not afraid to die?
This book is for the rebels, the questioners, and the discontent.
(Rated R, Score 8/10, audiobook read by Jim Colby, 5:34)
The Coldest Case by James Patterson
I grew up listening to audio dramas on the radio. I think they helped me develop the ability to listen and imagine the characters. Those stories are the reason I love audiobooks so much. This audio drama is an audible original performed by a full cast. The story feels like Blue Bloods with the main characters being family and all cops. The chapters are nine episodes, which take Detective Billy Harney chasing a Black Book from a drug cartel, through a murder scene, NFL locker room, his partner’s trunk, and everyone in it want’s its contents kept secret. Who would be willing to kill for their secrets?
This book is for listeners, thrill-seekers, and crime solvers.
(Rated R, Score 7/10, audible audio drama 3:52)
True Believer by Jack Carr (Terminal List Book 2)
James Reese is fighting for survival right where Book 1 (Terminal List) left him, on a boat, alone, sailing away from a country reeling from the revenge he dealt his enemies. Fully expecting his brain tumor to kill him any time, he sails to Mozambique. There he is taken in and put to work by a friend who owns a hunting reserve. Reese recovers on the game reserve by putting his skills to use fighting poachers. The CIA finally hunts him down using some guesswork and a bit of luck. The CIA sends an old friend to recruit Reese to hunt a terrorist. Reese is reluctant to go to work for the government that conspired to kill his Seal team and family but eventually negotiates for pardons for himself and all his helpers for the damage in Terminal List. Reese also learns that his brain tumor is not cancer and not terminal. The CIA is hunting a rogue Iraqi officer, who leads them to a terror plot to assassinate the Russian President, the POTUS, and unleash toxic nerve gas in a devastating chemical attack. Reese and the CIA work to stop the attacks and are only partially successful. Once again Reese finds himself handing out revenge to corrupt and evil men.
This book is for the hunters, the Mitch Rapp fans, and the game wardens.
(Rated R, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Ray Porter, 15:44)
I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
Ed Kennedy gets put through a wringer of cards. After accidentally becoming a hero by stopping a bank robbery in progress, he gets a mission to give messages to 12 people. The first three are names and addresses sent to him on the ace of diamonds. They need to be protected- an old widow, a young runner, and an abused wife. The second set of three on the ace of clubs need help- a priest, a single mother, and a younger brother. The third set of three takes some digging- spades. A poor family gets new Christmas lights, Ed’s mother finally speaks her mind, and an old movie theater owner gets a new friend. Finally, the ace of hearts- Ed’s three closest friends Ritchie, then Marv, then Audrey get a message that changes their paths. Ed Kennedy makes many friends, along the way and grows out of his fears into a man who shapes futures with kindness and power. I didn’t fully understand the ending, which was supposed to tell how the whole game was played, so if you get it, reach out and help me.
This book is for readers who are stuck or scared to reach out or chase their dreams.
(Rated R, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Marc Aden Gray, 8:40)
Non-Fiction Books
Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War
This is an amazing biographical piece on John Boyd. Boyd’s story is broken into three major parts: The Fighter Pilot, The Engineer, and The Scholar. As the fighter pilot, Boyd was known as “40 second Boyd” because he could defeat any challenger in a dog fight in 40 seconds or less. He literally wrote the book on fighter jet combat because there wasn’t one. He turned the art of jet fighting into science that could be studied, thought, and repeated. As the engineer, Boyd developed a theory tying thermodynamic principles to fighter jets called Energy-Maneuverability (E-M). He commandeered millions of dollars worth of computer time to prove the theory. With his theory, he went to battle against the broken system of procurement in the Air Force and helped develop the F-16 and other fighter jets. Using his E-M theory he tried to design for simplicity, effectiveness, and lethality against the known quantities of the fighters flown by our nation’s enemies. The procurement process fought him for bigger-higher-faster-farther which ultimately destroys the combat effectiveness of a jet, but pulls big money out of Congress. As the scholar, Boyd dove deep into war theory, strategy and philosophy. He developed a brief called Patterns of Conflict, which ultimately changed the way the US Marine Corps operates. His ideas (the OODA Loop and others) were the spine of strategy for the invasion of Iraq in the Gulf War. Like all pioneers, Boyd faced harsh resistance to his ideas. His fighter pilot bravado and brash way with people made him many powerful enemies along the way. He believed you could be someone (seek promotion) or do something (change the world), but not both. He said you should put people first, then ideas (mission), then develop hardware to support the people and the ideas. Special thanks to Uncle John for the great recommendation.
This book is for the doers, the revolutionaries, the fighter pilots, and the military strategists.
(Rated R, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Patrick Lawlor, 19:41)
Turn the Ship Around by David Marquet
This is a book on changing an organization from a Leader-Follower model to a Leader-Leader model. The lessons are easy to understand because they are told with great examples from the author’s command of a US Submarine - The USS Santa Fe. Marquet’s orders were changed at the last minute so all of his preparation for a different class of submarine is for nothing. Marquet is asked to take the USS Santa Fe from failing to an effective battle-ready machine. To do this, Marquet pushes his new crew to change from a mindset of avoiding errors to a learning mindset to pursue excellence. He delegates control to the lowest possible levels in the ship and supports that control through training for competence and clarity of mission. This change does not happen right away and requires the whole command to embrace higher levels of accountability and execution. Instead of issuing commands, Marquet teaches his officers to think at the next level and take initiative. His officers initiate action by saying “Captain, I intend to…”. If the Captain agrees, he says “Very well.” And the action is approved. Marquet encourages the sailors to think out loud as they approach decisions so that everyone around understands their actions and intents and can correct themselves and each other in real-time. The Captain stops having briefs before procedures. Instead, he has certification meetings where everyone involved in the next procedure is required to account for their part of the process, answer questions, and claim readiness. The Captain wins the hearts and minds of his crew by giving them real authority in areas that mattered to them. He also beefed up training to help his men excel in advancement tests so that they could be promoted more efficiently in the Navy’s bureaucratic promotion process. Captain Marquet took a crew of sailors who was down, out, and defensive and transformed it into a crew of leaders. They learned together. They didn’t worry about making mistakes, because mistakes were ways to learn. My friend, Adrian, recommended this book and we are going to start using these ideas at work to be more awesome.
This book is for all leaders.
(Rated G, Score 10/10, ebook and audiobook read by the author, 6:26)
Preview/Currently Reading-
Here are the books I am currently working through:
I track all the books I read in a database called Goodreads. You might find it helpful in managing your reading lists.
Final Thoughts-
I learned so much from Boyd and Turn the Ship Around this month. I am trying to implement these lessons at work and at home to be a better friend, a more effective leader, and get more done with my people. I am thankful for friends who are willing to listen to my ideas and engage with me in getting better, failing forward, and building trust.
I learned that I don’t want to be someone, I want to challenge the status quo and do something that matters. I learned to tell my boss what I intend to do instead of waiting for orders. I learned that if I want more control, I need to demonstrate more competence and more clarity of vision. I intend to help write down what our guiding principles are for our group. I intend to think out loud and take deliberate actions so that others can coach me and we can all get better together.
Thanks for adventuring with me.
Joshua
PS. Send me book ideas, brand ideas, or questions. I love the feedback.