It’s often said that brain science (neuroscience) is the moving frontier of the twenty-first century. The field of modern psychology took shape in the twentieth century. The output of the intersection of these types of study is still taking place, but TIME magazine’s focus on mental health could not take place at a more opportune time. One in five Americans have dealt with one form of mental illness in their personal health. The annual spending…
This book is the seminal statement of systems thinking – the philosophic idea that knowledge is increasingly aligned in groups of thought. And the goal of systems thinking is to produce an organization of human endeavors that – wait for it – learns. The learning organization trumps not only individual learners but also established organizations that have ceased to learn/grow/adapt effectively. While this might seem obvious to those (like myself) in research, much of this…
As detailed in the Acknowledgements section, this book narrates in fiction the true story of young black men imprisoned in Florida. Only this was not a regular prison; it was a torture chamber. It details how this prison’s culture sought to imbue a feeling of worthlessness on its black prisoners. Nonetheless, Whitehead’s story is one of redemption, about one man’s successful attempt to overcome life within this prison. Whitehead, himself an African American, projects to…
William Zinsser is famous for being an excellent coach for writers. He has mastered the art of communicating through words. He has followed an alternative career path that has brought him success and fulfillment. He shares his insights in this memoir of his life while coaching the reader how to write about her/his own life. Zinsser’s style is humble and consistently strikes the right tone for sharing the memory. That skill – sharing memories –…
My wife came home from church one day and said, “I want to take that Sunday School class on the Enneagram.” I’d heard of it, but I knew nothing about it. Over the next few weeks, she kept calling people numbers. “You’re a five.” or “I’m a six.” Intrigued, I decided to read this book to learn more about it. I was – and still am – very cynical that human personality can be broken…
Review courtesy The Englewood Review, where it is originally published. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946-47 provided scholars of religion something new and unique to talk about. For millennia, scholars tried to work on the relationship between Judeo-Christian beliefs and Greek academics. The Dead Sea Scrolls demonstrated a dynamic ascetic community from the Hebrew tradition in Jesus’ time. In so doing, it overturned what had become a consensus position that Jesus represented…
This is a story of the effects of improper incarceration of America’s black men. It is also a love story. The reconciliation of these two themes births a plot with several twists and turns, right down to the Epilogue. Jones provides us with a fresh tale with interesting food for thought. My only additional wish is for more. I wish that there were some other theme that played itself out in these pages and interacted…
Why should one read this almost 900-page biography of this American hero? Douglass penned several autobiographies of his own. Why is this work needed and important enough to be read in its entirety? First, the writing and depth of research are marvelous. Blight considers and presents detailed arguments about the finer points of Douglass’ life. Each chapter is replete with scores of endnotes for further reading. Second, the topic is timely, especially to America. Race…
Any work by William Faulkner is going to be heady, confuse sometimes, and be filled with long, descriptive prose. Light in August, one of Faulkner’s earlier works in Yoknapatawpha county, Mississippi, is no exception. In it, he compares the plight of the American negro in the early-twentieth-century South to the sufferings of Jesus Christ while interweaving several points-of-view into a coherent tale. Joe Christmas (whose initials suggest that he is a Christ figure) is a…
Do conversations ever catch you off-guard? Do you ever feel unprepared for conversations that pop up spontaneously yet seem to matter a lot and to affect dramatically the course of our lives? These situations often occur in families and in businesses, and this book attempts to prepare us better for handling those weighty situations. This book came recommended to me as a part of a book club at my workplace. I can see why. It…