August 2022
August flew by. We had a lot of hot days and not much wind. I got to go to a Three Days Grace concert with Aubrey and a friend. We met the kids’ new teachers and shipped them back to school. I’ve been trying to get some of my strength back, and in August I had many days with good workouts and only a few without. I lost a ton of weight last year while dealing with chronic stomach pain, and I’ve finally had enough relief from those symptoms that I’m putting weight back on so I’ve been trying to be more deliberate about what I eat. It’s not going well, but it’s a process. August was weird this year.
Here are the books I finished in August 2022 and my short reviews of them:
Shorts
Pembrick’s Creaturepedia by Andrew Peterson
An alphabetical list of the crazy creatures of Skree which was written, narrated, and sketched by the illustrious Ollister B. Pembrick. The warnings and admonishments he includes are often learned at his own grievous expense. Some of my favorite creatures are the Mustachio’d Thwap and the Tricorn. These descriptions give color to the fantastic creatures from The Wingfeather Saga. This little book is like Fantastic Beasts is to the Harry Potter series.
Why I Pick Up Trash At The Beach by Ryan Holiday
This short article resonated with me at a deep family character level. Holiday talks about his journey from being mad about the trash and mess that others left on his rural road, to doing something about it, and growing in the process. My Dad always taught us to make things better than how we found them. All you need is your two hands, a little time, and the will to do the work. We do not do these things because they are fun or glamorous. We do them because it’s who we are. We are Southards. Southards work hard. Southards pick up trash at the lake across the street from our house because it’s our fishing lake and we want it to be nice. Thanks, Dad, for teaching me the value and power of hard work and taking pride in a job well done. I’m trying to teach my kids too, and I think they are getting it.
Fiction Books
What is the best alibi to have if you are going to commit murder? What is the strongest emotion you can use against someone? Who are the real heroes working behind the scenes to keep our nation safe? These are some of the deep questions driving this complex thriller. The story is written in four parts- the setup, the backstory, the building tension, and the showdown. There are several good guy threads mixed with some bad guy threads. The bad guy, the Siason, is a Saudi extremist who seeks revenge for a publicly executed father by carrying out a biological attack on America (the far enemy), knowing an American collapse would eventually cripple the Saudi government. His weapon is a strain of smallpox created and weaponized to crash through current vaccines. The good guys discover the threat after it has already been tested on humans and struggle to hunt the terrorist who is acting alone and has covered his tracks well- he’s legally dead. The Americans send Pilgrim to Turkey to work a miracle and find the ghost who is threatening modern society. Pilgrim is a super spy acting as an FBI agent. His cover is to be investigating the death of a billionaire while also following leads and hunting the bio-terrorist. Can he find the Siason and stop the attack on America? I enjoyed the complexity of this book and the different viewpoints it gave me on some post-9/11 activities and threats. By the way, the answers to the questions above are, being dead, love, and we may never know who the real heroes are.
This book is for anyone looking for a crazy thriller.
(Rated R, Score 8/10, audiobook read by Christopher Ragland, 22:41)
Wingfeather Tales by various authors edited by Andrew Peterson
This short story collection is inspired by the Wingfeather Saga world and characters. First, a young thief saves a prince and his royal court. On his adventure, he learns the value of friends and names. Second, Ollister B. Pembrick falls in love with Sophia Stoop, only to lose her in a tragic misuse of a creature-taming potion. Third, a young Podo Helmer finds/steals a wagon full of boxes that are portals to other worlds. Fourth, is a pirate tale of greedy dragon hunters who find themselves in the depths of the dragon king. This is also the story of how Podo Helmer loses his leg and develops his death feud with the King of Dragons. Fifth is the ballad of two young lads who fight over a young maiden for so long, that they both end up losing her. Sixth, and longest, is a story about a couple who live through the nightmare of having their only daughter taken by the Fangs of Dang in the black carriage in the middle of the night. The father faces deep shame at having not fought for his daughter, and so he swears an oath to rescue the girl or failing that to seek bitter revenge. His quest takes him beyond the edges of the map where his existence fades to survival of a primal quality as he seeks the Maker with his anger and unanswered questions. Can anything good come from such an adventure? The seventh story was not included in the audio version. It is supposed to be a comic strip story about the Florid Sword. I will have to find a printed version to read that final episode. Each time I read a story in this collection, I find joy, wonder, and whimsey mixed with pain, loss, and other deep emotions. The characters are very relatable and animated and the themes are timeless and true.
This book is for anyone looking for a Quill Diggle or an adventure tale.
(Rated PG, Score 8/10, audiobook read by Andrew Peterson, 10:38)
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Count Alexander Rostov begins the book by being banished to his home- the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. This is after the revolution, and though Moscow goes through many changes, the Count must adapt to his new life in the grand hotel, because he will be shot, should he ever leave. He is evicted from his fancy rooms and sets up his living quarters on the sixth floor in some old servant’s quarters. The Count begins his education by really living in the hotel when he meets a nine-year-old girl named Nina who has found all the ways to exploit the rooms and activities in the hotel. Nina teaches the Count about the basement, the servant’s hallways, the gossip, and many other very important things. The Count also manages to fall in love with a film star, who, over the years, visits the hotel and benefits from Alexander’s council, connections, manners, and style. The story leaps through time and rejoins the hotel staff that has become Alexander’s family, friends, and neighbors. Nina visits Alexander and leaves him in charge of her five-year-old daughter Sofia. Nina leaves, searching for her husband who had been arrested, and they are never heard from again. Sofia grows up in the hotel with Alexander as her adopted father. The story time warps again to when Sofia is a young lady, invited to play piano in Paris. She and Alexander use the trip to escape from their hotel prison and start new lives out in the big crazy world. The story is charming. The characters are picturesque. Not knowing much about Russia or its history, I found the background info to be interesting and sad.
This book is for the gentile and the softhearted.
(Rated PG-13, Score 8/10, audiobook read by Nicholas Guy Smith, 17:52)
The Green Mile by Stephen King
This story was originally written as a six-part serial and released as it was written. The Green Mile is a row of prison cells- death row in Louisiana. The story is about death, tragedy, miracles, and pain. John Coffey is brought to the Green Mile for the rape and murder of two young girls. Coffey is a mountain of a man, but he doesn’t put up a fight or swear like the other men waiting for their turn to sit in Old Sparkey’s lap. There is a mouse on the mile, who lends some levity to the story. He adopts one of the inmates, who names him Mr. Jingles. As the story continues, King shows that not all of the evil on the Green Mile is inside the cells, and not all the men in the cells are evil. The supervisor on the mile, Paul Edgecomb, is healed of a painful UTI by Coffey. How could a man convicted of such evil also be a healer? It’s hard to say more without giving away the twists and turns that make the book so engaging. King wrestles with hard truths in this story. There is a lot of pain, cruelty, and death. He doesn’t provide cute answers to hard questions, and I found that to be refreshing in a world that tends to be polarized between fairy tales and horror movies. Let’s practice holding two opposing ideas in our minds and hearts at the same time. Life is full of wonder, joy, and good things and it is also full of pain, sorrow, and death. This is the first King book I have read. I had been avoiding him for a while. After this story, I think I’ll try more. And now I need to watch the movie with Tom Hanks to see how well it works with the book.
This book is for thrill-seekers.
(Rated R, Score 8/10, Read by Frank Muller, 14:00)
Pax, Journey Home by Sara Pennypacker (Pax #2)
When we go to Target we like to look at the book section, and this book stuck out for some reason. I guess I just liked the foxes on the cover art, so I looked it up on my library app and found it was available so I snatched it up. The story is a going home story about a thirteen-year-old boy Peter and his pet fox Pax. The boy struggles to find his place in the world after losing his parents. He learns how to be tough and self-sufficient. He tries to shut out everyone and everything. Peter travels to his old home through the forest and along the way he learns to let others in. Pax, who is a free fox with a family now, goes on a parallel journey with his baby daughter, who gets sick on their journey. Pax remembers how Peter saved his life when he was a kit, and he takes the little vixen to Peter. As Peter processes the web of pain, loss, and scars life had handed him the little fox finds a little sliver in his armor and slips into his guarded heart. They heal each other. I enjoyed the story and I think my kids would too.
This book is for those needing healing or a new perspective.
(Rated PG, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Michael Curran-Dorsano, 4:33)
Non-Fiction Books
The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again by Catherine Price
This book is all about using fun to feel alive. Part one - The first half describes Price's specific definition of fun: "playful connection in flow." It takes all three ingredients to have real fun. Distraction is anti-fun. Also, judgment kills fun. In our culture we have been programmed to act like time is money, so if we are spending our time on something that isn’t making us money then we are wasting our time. Price argues that this mentality is what leads us to avoid doing things “just for fun.” This over-focus on money leads us to be stressed and burned out. Focusing on having more fun can be the medication we need. Price spends a lot of words in the first half of the book describing the ways technology is undermining our ability to have fun by hacking our attention, destroying our ability to be present in each moment, and replacing real connections with fake social media connections. Price also spends some time discussing how screens and social media affect our brain chemistry, and how the negative effects can be countered by prioritizing real fun. True fun can typically be identified by laughter, which reduces cortisol and releases endorphins. Fun makes us happy- fun helps us sneak up on Happiness by giving us a pattern to use to choose experiences that lead to joy. Part two of the book breaks down some practical ways to have more fun. Price recommends starting with a fun audit. Write down the things that feel fun or that make you feel playful, connected, or in flow. By identifying the things in your life that might be fun ingredients you can be more purposeful about using them together to build true fun experiences. To have fun you must be engaged and present, not feeling judged or self-conscious. Go all in. Don’t care about the outcome. Be with other people. Identify your fun magnets - the people, places, or activities that trigger opportunities for fun. Price uses the acronym SPARK to describe her process for living a fun life: Create Space, Protect it, Attract Fun, Rebel, Keep at it. (It’s a little bit of a stretch for an acronym in my opinion) Create Space for fun and then protected it. Schedule time for it. Plan activities for connection, creation, or consumption. Pursue your passions. Ditch perfectionism. It crushes fun. Attract fun. Laugh easily. Our lives are what we pay attention to. Savor delight. Put yourself in fun’s way. Make playgrounds. Rebel- do things outside the norm, break social conventions. Being a rebel is fun. Keep at it. Don’t expect everything to be fun all of a sudden. Practice fun things. Use microdoses of fun to infuse your days with joy. The biggest value I got out of this book was the definition and examples of fun. I now have better language and framework to describe things that I think are fun and to use to generate fun for myself and others going forward.
This book is for anyone wanting to know more about fun.
(Rated PG-13, Score 6/10, audiobook read by the author, 9:15)
The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger, Joel Lovell
Some biographies, even though they are based on people from the same time and country, make me feel like they live in an entirely different world. This is one of those stories. Bob Iger grew up in New York and worked his way up in the world of ABC Sports. He worked his way up from the bottom. He had several bosses and mentors that took chances on his talent. In the book, he tells his story in two parts - Learning and Leading. In the first part, he tells about the adventures, jobs, and people who shaped him as he grew. He tells about the struggles, hard choices, and challenges he faced getting to his dream job - CEO of Disney. In the second part, he tells how all his lessons put him in a position to lead Disney out of mediocrity and into brilliant success. He describes the three key strategies he focused on to move the whole company forward together - fixing Disney Animation, building a global brand, and focusing on technology and innovation. These three strategies led to critical deals like buying Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars. They opened Disney parks all over the world. They adopted the mindset of “Innovate or die” which led to some risky choices, often blowing up successful parts of their business to seek bigger success in the future. These are Iger’s ten leadership traits: Optimism, Courage, Focus, Decisiveness, Curiosity, Fairness, Thoughtfulness, Authenticity, Relentless Pursuit of Perfection, and Integrity. I enjoyed listening to the narrative as well as the application of leadership traits. Disney has been a big part of the joy in my family going back to the trip I took to Disney World when I was seven to watching The Mandalorian on Disney+ with my kids. It’s fascinating to hear the stories about how these deals came to be and how the vision of some leads to the joy of many.
This book is for anyone looking for a good leadership book/biography combo.
(Rated PG, Score 8/10, audiobook read by Jim Frangione, 8:45)
Preview/Currently Reading-
Long Way Gone by Charles Martin
I track my books in a database called Goodreads. You might find it helpful in managing your reading lists.
Final Thoughts-
As we wrap up summer (already), I hope you have found some rest, some vacations, some fun. As we head into fall, I hope the weather goes about medium for a while before we get into the freezing cold of winter. Don’t go out and get your pumpkin-spiced lattes yet. It’s not quite time. I hope you get to grill out for Labor Day. I hope you can slow down and find things that are real fun. Things that restore you and heal you.
Thanks for adventuring with me.
Joshua
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