May 2021
After a slow and isolated year, my world seems to be picking back up to new levels of crazy. We wrapped up the spring soccer season, celebrated some birthdays and graduations, and wrapped up kindergarten. I've been working on house projects and starting the yearly mowing groove. What are you doing now that the world is slowly opening back up?
Here are the books I finished in May 2021 and my short reviews of them:
Fiction Books
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
This is an amazing adventure story with loads of sciencey bits. Most of the fun of reading this book is not knowing how the plot will develop. I will not spoil the plot here, but if you aren't into surprises I have written a separate plot summary with spoilers HERE. The story starts with the main character waking up with no idea what's going on, or where he is. He doesn't even immediately remember his name. Gradually, Dr. Ryland Grace recovers his memories and "sciences" his way through his adventure. This book is a lot like the author's previous book, The Martian, (which I highly recommend) however in this story the bad language is dialed way back. My math, science, engineer, computer, space, and physics people will love this book. Weir touches on other themes in the book like redemption, resilience, language, bio responsibility, survival, bureaucracy, and more. This one will leave you with lots to ponder.
This book is for survivors, students, and environmentalists.
(Rated PG/PG-13, Score 9/10, audiobook read by Ray Porter, 16:10)
The Dragonet Prophecy (Wings of Fire Book 1) by Tui T. Sutherland
I love dragons. I did my senior thesis on dragons in high school. So when a dragon book comes up, I dig in. Thanks, Lucas and Max for the recommendation. The book introduces the five dragonets (young dragons) who are supposed to fulfill the title prophecy and end the war of the seven dragon tribes. The dragonets- Clay, the MudWing, Tsunami, the SeaWing, Glory, the RainWing, Starflight, the NightWing, and Sunny, the SandWing are being raised in secret in a series of caves under a mountain. During their upbringing, they become a little family. They attempt an escape. During their escape, they are captured by Scarlet, the queen of the Sky Kingdom. During their imprisonment, the dragonets discover some of their hidden powers. Eventually, they are forced to fight and flee for their lives, possibly killing queen Scarlet in the process. After escaping they work to find their families, starting with Clay.
It took a little while for me to get the characters sorted (like Game of Thrones for littles), and the story moves pretty quickly. Lessons: take care of your crew, use your superpowers for good, and violence is not always the answer.
This book is for fantasy readers young and old, and anyone who likes a good fellowship tale.
(Rated PG, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Shannon McManus, 8:33)
The Lost Heir (Wings of Fire Book 2) by Tui T. Sutherland
Book 2 starts up about where Book 1 ended, and since I just read it, everything sorted together well. The Dragonets of Destiny are searching for the Sea Dragons and Tsunami's home and family. Tension is high after they escape from the Sky Kingdom, and the dragonets learn that everyone has plans for their destiny, and most of those plans involve controlling the dragonets. Queen Coral is thrilled to have Tsunami back home, but she's not about to give up any of her power or control. Her ally, Blister, is one of the three queens-to-be from the prophecy. Blister is nasty, conniving, and scheming. Blister would have Queen Coral keep the dragonettes under lock and key and control them and the destiny to take control of the dragon world. The main thread of this story is the mystery surrounding the death of all Queen Coral's heirs. The assassin could be several shady dragons and the dragonettes rule out several until they discover that the Queen's daughter Orca, has enchanted a statue to attack any future heirs. In the end, the dragonettes escape the Sea Kingdom, and head to find Glory's home and family with the RainWings.
This book is for young adventurers and young mystery readers.
(Rated PG, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Shannon McManus, 7:23)
Non-Fiction Books
Marc Pittman raised his two boys aggressively. Cole and Chase got tons of attention in the form of hugs, kisses, tough love, and dead man's talks.
Marc just tried to be the dad he wanted growing up. Growing up Marc was fearless. He courted death with crazy stunts like wrestling a bear. Running with a rough construction crowd, Marc didn't fear anything. Finally, he realized that he needed to heavily invest in his relationships with his sons. As Cole and Chase grew up, he used work as a reason to spend time together. As the boys grew up, they would have dead man's talks. The rules of dead man's talks were simple- when you tell a dead man a secret, he keeps it. A dead man doesn't panic or over-react when handed a secret. A dead man doesn't lecture or judge or get angry when they hear about secret mistakes or crimes. Marc built trust with his boys by holding their secrets, big and small, and never breaking their trust by breaking the rules of dead man's talks. Another way Marc built his relationship with his boys was through physical affection: hugs, kisses, and holding hands. He and the boys had love wars where there are no losers. In love wars, the goal is to prove you love the other person more.
Having such a close relationship with his sons made it almost unbearable for Marc when Cole was tragically killed in a car accident in college. Only in death was Marc able to see the amazing number of people Cole had influenced during his life. As the family and Texas football struggled to recover from losing Cole, their memories, feelings, and lessons eventually lead to the writing of this book. So, love your people hard. Hold secrets like a dead man. Don't be afraid to show love because you never know how long we have together. Thanks, Travis for this recommendation.
This book is for fathers and men in father roles.
(Rated PG-13, Score 8/10, audiobook read by the author, 3:38)
Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday has two tattoos; one on each forearm. One says- The Obstacle is the Way. The other- Ego is the Enemy. He uses those two ideas to guide his days, and he wrote books with those titles to help us use them too. I created From The Spine after reading The Obstacle is the Way, so I figured I should look into Holiday's other books. Holiday uses Ego is the Enemy as a way to help people avoid many of the struggles he experienced in his journey. To keep it from being too autobiographical, Holiday uses stories from other, well-known figures like Steve Jobs, William T. Sherman, Robert Boyd (interesting how these characters pop up in books so close together), Howard Hughes, and many others. The book is broken into three parts: Aspiration, Success, and Failure. In each part, Holiday explains how ego is the enemy in the respective context. First, though, he defines ego for the book as the toddler throwing the tantrum or arrogance that will do anything to get one's way.
When you aspire to greatness, ego is your enemy by stealing your focus, deafening you to feedback, and tricking you into being passionate at the wrong times. When you aspire, you need to be humble and learn from those who have gone before. You must be clear in your purpose. Ego blows these up.
In success, ego stops you from learning, growing, and aspiring. Ego thinks success is for coasting, consuming, gloating, and being comfortable. Ego is wrong. Success is when we should be looking to leverage our position to learn more, invest more, sacrifice more, and dig deeper.
In failure, ego is a liar. Ego says you were never good enough, you can't hack it, you blew it, you can never be successful again. Holiday says we need to be less tied to outcomes- do your work, do it well, and let it go. Fail forward. Learn from failures. Learn in the process. The only real failure is abandoning your principles. We all fail. Let's figure out how to fail early, fail cheaply, and fail in ways that drive us toward our goals.
One last challenge I got from this book was to do a better job of applying lessons from each of the books I read. I don't want to just read them and forget them. I want to implement lessons to be a better and more successful person.
This book is for all of us from the humble to the egomaniacs.
(Rated PG-13, Score 8/10, audiobook read by the author, 6:56)
Have you ever made a snap judgment about something that later you couldn't explain? Maybe it was reading someone's mood or something at work that just didn't feel right. We make these decisions in the blink of an eye. Gladwell unpacks some of these in this book. He starts with a famous sculpture that art critics instinctively know is fake. How do they know? They rely on their years of experience and their subconscious. They go with their gut. Malcolm further discusses how we develop this ability and how it works for us in some situations (areas of expertise) and how it can work against us in others (prejudice and biases we don't even know we have). Malcolm describes a technique called thin-slicing where videos are broken down and analyzed in very small chunks. Our subconscious does this every day in the background. Sometimes it helps us understand and make good decisions. Sometimes it prevents us from making logical choices by jumping to conclusions that are dangerous or wrong. This book challenged me to be more aware of my prejudices, biases, and gut instincts. I want to trust my gut more to make me curious. I want to slow down when under stress to make better decisions. And I want to learn to read people's minds and faces better. I got this book recommendation years ago from my cousin Naomi. I miss her.
This book is for anyone wanting to understand subconscious decisions and for the curious.
(Rated PG, Score 7/10, audiobook read by the author, 7:44)
India Charm Offensive: An Expat Pilot Flies the South Asia Jungle by Michael Sobotta
This was an interesting read about the private helicopter pilot's life abroad. Sobotta starts his story on a tuna fishing boat. He explains how he would hunt the fish with the helicopter, then the boat would follow and snatch up the tuna. Flying primarily over water, the reliability of the helicopter is paramount. When the Hughes 369 had a rotor bushing issue that management refused to repair properly, Sobotta decides to find a new job rather than test fate. He uses his connections and finds a job working for a company in India. The onboarding and preparation process takes months, but Sobotta uses the time to see some of the sites, acclimate to the new climate, and try to train his digestion to handle the new food. Sobotta meets many folks during his operations. Some of the folks he meets are helpful, others are dangerous, and he is constantly being stared at because he's a foreigner. Sobotta works missions to support Indian Police by moving troops and gear to camps in the jungle. He also flies executives around for meetings and events. His maintenance crew in India seems to do a much better job of keeping the pilot feeling safe and secure. The weather threatens his flight safety during the monsoon season. One theme that comes out in many of the stories in India is the crazy processes required by the DGCA (India's version of the FAA) to get clearance to fly. Faxes, phone calls, visits to the airport flight control tower, fees, in-person weather briefs- it's never easy to get up in the air and underway for the poor pilot. Sobotta also goes several rounds with stomach issues, though they all seem to be caused by questionable food. Thanks, Nolan for the recommendation.
This book is for world travelers and pilots.
(Rated R, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Doug Greene, 12:12)
Preview/Currently Reading-
Here are the books I am currently working through:
I track my books in a database called Goodreads. You might find it helpful in managing your reading lists.
Final Thoughts-
We are getting ready for a 1200 mile road trip to NM so I'll have time to read. Send me your favorite road trip audiobook suggestions.
So, What did I learn and how am I implementing the ideas in my life? Here are some thoughts- life is a science experiment; solve enough problems and you get to live. Family (biological and close friends) is critical; make sure you take good care of yours. Love hard. Keep secrets and trust. Don't let your ego get in the way of your ambitions, your successes, or your failures. Trust your gut. We can't grow inside our comfort zones, so try new things, travel, and meet new people. You won't like them all, but at least then you'll have good reasons why. If you need a deadman's talk, call me.
Thanks for adventuring with me.
Joshua