The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni
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The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni
I have gotten half way through Moby Dick. It is an interesting read, changing writing styles several times, but is a great book.
Just finished Moby Dick - a great work, indeed.
Now I picked up A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Twain.
Finished A Conneticut Yankee, and am reading Tom Sawyer with my son, and reading Frankenstien.
Now I am reading "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoyevski
Consent to Kill - Vince Flynn
Another fan of the Mitch Rapp series.
So I went back and started reading this thread from the begining, because I am looking for a good book to read. Monkey Wrench Gang sure is mentioned a lot so I think I will pick up a copy and see if I like it.
I just finished New Moon, because it was laying around the house and I had nothing else to do. Eclipse was laying around too so now I am stuck in it. This is ridiculous I feel embarassed to say I have read, am reading these books. But they aren't half bad for light silly romantic read. I like vampires, they kinda have the bad boy thing going on. Maybe I will pick up Interview with a Vampire.
My favorite all time book is The Count of Monte Cristo (I hated the movie)
Books lying on the floor next to my bed or in my office:
The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor E Frankl
Uncertaninty Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science - David Lindley (REALLY LIKED this book)
Lady's Choice Ethel Waxham's Journal & Letters, 1905-1910 A Wyoming Courtship --- ugg my Mom gave this one to me and I have made it to page 85 I don't think I will ever finish it.
Zinn & The Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance - Lennard Zinn (trying to learn how to take care of my bike)
The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards
Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
With no TV in the house, I am getting even more reading done.
The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Douglas Brinkley
A couple nuggets:
Americans, however did not share Chertoff's good humor, and they were decidedly not "extremely pleased." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on vacation, shopping at the Salvatore Ferragamo store on Fifth Avenue in New York, when a fellow shopper spotted her and shouted, "How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless?"
***
[While on Air Force One] What was truly important to Nagin was that his head was shaved and waxed just right for his photo-op with President Bush. Like a primping teenager, he just wouldn't get out of the shower. Guards rapped at the bathroom doors, telling the mayor, "You've got five minutes and then the President gets here." They knocked again. But Nagin feigned deafness, wanting to smooth his head just right.
Brinkley takes local, state, and federal leaders to task, but he also details the heroic efforts of average citizens and the first responders.
A terrific read, but you may want to avoid if high blood pressure is an issue.
Tony Hillerman, 83; wrote Navajo mysteries
By Amanda Lee Myers
Associated Press
PHOENIX - Tony Hillerman, 83, author of the acclaimed Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels and creator of two of the unlikeliest of literary heroes - Navajo police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee - died Sunday of pulmonary failure.
Mr. Hillerman's daughter Anne Hillerman said her father's health had been declining in the last couple of years and that he was at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, N.M., when he died.
He lived through two heart attacks and surgeries for prostate and bladder cancer. He kept tapping at his keyboard even as his eyes began to dim, as his hearing faded, as rheumatoid arthritis turned his hands into claws.
"I'm getting old," he said in 2002, "but I still like to write."
Lt. Joe Leaphorn, introduced in The Blessing Way in 1970, was an experienced police officer who understood, but did not share, his people's traditional belief in a rich spirit world. Officer Jim Chee, introduced in People of Darkness in 1978, was a younger officer studying to become a hathaali - Navajo for "shaman." They struggled daily to bridge the divide between the dominant Anglo society and the impoverished people who call themselves the Dineh.
His commercial breakthrough was Skinwalkers, published in 1987 - the first time he put both characters and their divergent worldviews in the same book. It sold 430,000 hardcover copies, paving the way for A Thief of Time, which made several bestseller lists. In all, he wrote 18 books in the Navajo series, the most recent The Shape Shifter.
Each is characterized by an unadorned writing style, intricate plotting, memorable characterization, and vivid descriptions of Indian rituals and of the vast plateau of the Navajo reservation in the Four Corners region of the Southwest.
The most acclaimed of them, including Talking God and Coyote Waits, are subtle explorations of human nature and the conflict between cultural assimilation and the pull of the old ways.
"I want Americans to stop thinking of Navajos as primitive persons, to understand that they are sophisticated and complicated," Mr. Hillerman once said.
Occasionally, he was accused of exploiting his knowledge of Navajo culture for personal gain, but in 1987, the Navajo Tribal Council honored him with its Special Friend of the Dineh award. He took greater pride in that, he often said, than in the many awards bestowed by his peers.
Although he was best known for the Navajo series, he wrote more than 30 books, including a novel for young people; a memoir, Seldom Disappointed; and books on the history and natural beauty of his beloved Southwest.
He also edited or contributed to more than a dozen other books including crime and history anthologies and books on the craft of writing.
Born May 27, 1925, in Sacred Heart, Okla., population 50, Tony Hillerman was the son of August and Lucy Grove Hillerman. They were farmers who also ran a small store. It was there that young Tony listened spellbound to locals who gathered to tell their stories.
The teacher at Sacred Heart's one-room schoolhouse was rumored to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan, so Tony's parents sent him and his brother, Barney, to St. Mary's Academy, a school for Potawatomie Indian girls near Asher, Okla. It was at St. Mary's that he developed a lifelong respect for Indian culture - and an appreciation of what it means to be an outsider in your own land.
In 1943, he interrupted his education at the University of Oklahoma to join the Army. He lugged his mortar ashore at D-Day with the 103d Infantry Division and was severely wounded in battle at Alsace, France. He returned from Europe a war hero with a Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, temporary blindness, and two shattered legs that never stopped causing him pain.
He returned to the university for his degree and, in 1948, married Marie Unzer. Together, they raised six children, five of them adopted.
As a young man, he farmed, drove a truck, toiled as an oil-field roughneck, and worked as a reporter and editor for a variety of newspapers. He quit in 1962 to earn a master's degree from the University of New Mexico, where he later taught journalism and eventually became chairman of the journalism department. In 1993, he was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame.
He was still teaching when he wrote Blessing Way. A story that always made him chuckle: His first agent advised him that if he wanted to get published, he would have to "get rid of that Indian stuff."
Mr. Hillerman is survived by his wife, Marie, and their six children. Services are pending.
Just finished "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoyevski, and started "Tom Sawyer" my Mark Twain.
Just finished Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin. If you haven't read it, do. Incredible.
Now reading Endless Forms Most Beautiful - The New Science of Evo Devo, by Sean B. Carroll. A moderately detailed look at the merging fields of evolutionary biology (Evo) and developmental (as in embryology) biology (Devo). A fascinating overview of how so many body shapes and sizes have developed using the same genetic "tool box". One of the best books I've read in a while - having trouble putting it down.
AGREE! Read it last year and Greg actually came to Carbondale (a nearby town) to do a talk about his work. As a result of my son's class reading this book, they started collecting "Pennies for Pencils" the entire year and his school donated the money to the cause. Very inspirational book. :2thumbs:Quote:
Originally Posted by Cirrus2000
I have started the following in no particular order- Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. I recently finished Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.
I have yet to pick up a copy of Monkey Wrench Gang but still plan to.
Just finished
The Russian Concubine - Kate Furnivall
Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Jeff Kinney (Sarah made me read this one cute kids book.)
Currently Reading Digital Fortress - Dan Brown
Three Cups of Tea is amazing... I have loaned my copy out three times now.
How was The Brothers Karamazov? I tried reading that book at least 2x, and couldn't get into it. I had read Crime and Punishment years ago, enjoyed it immensely, so figured I'd read his other works.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mtnman1830
It sounds like you're working your way through lots of classic literature - good for you! :2thumbs: I've done the same thing several times in the past. I have Cervantes' Don Quixote de la Mancha to read one of these days :nod:, and a few others I can't remember.
Currently, I'm reading a non-fiction book An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power, by John Steele Gordon. It is a fascinating read and has actually been really great as a review of American history in general. In fact, I've probably learned (or re-learned) more about American history, including wars, than anything I was taught in school.
I'm also reading a few painting books and a new bread baking book I just bought to keep things interesting :haha:
Most recent fiction book I've finished was A Thousand Spendid Suns, (by the same author who wrote The Kite Runner)which will surely go down as a classic. It was a very powerful and moving novel.
-SJ
I am about to start Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, but i am lazy so i might listen to it instead.
the Book of Mormon
Thats not lazy! That is multi- tasking. I love books on tape. Last one I listened to was Bourne Identity. I have actually listened to it twice. Clean and listen or drive and listen.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ride On
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
Initial impressions are that it is pretty boring and not very insightful. Go figure.
Also reading "The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, The Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy."
So far, so interesting. We'll see how it plays out.
I am rereading Purple Cow by Seth Godin
Just finished book 7 of the Dark Tower series. Wow. Each of those puppies is like 500+ pages. I started the series in August and just finished. I can't even count the number of times my legs went to sleep while reading on the pot.
Going to start the Reagan Diaries next.