Kruse's Keys: Read "Rocks Breaks Scissors" to Give Yourself That Edge

I don’t remember how I came across this book but it was a welcome respite from some of the heavier ones that I’ve been reading lately. The main point I took away from this novel was that people are crummy at trying to be “random.” Specifically author Poundstone points out in his prologue that


All of this book’s applications are founded on one simple idea. When people make arbitrary, random, or strategic choices, they fall into unconscious patterns that you can predict.

While entertaining to read, I’d say most of his writing is only useful for specific circumstances like taking multiple choice tests, office pools, rock, scissors, paper (RSP), catching fraud, and buying a home. For those circumstances it’s worthwhile to keep a copy of this book around.


See our 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.

Key Takeaways:

• For a one-shot RSP match, always choose paper. Tell the other player what you are going to throw and do it. Statistically, most people won’t believe you are telling the truth.
• For Multiple Choices Tests where you don’t know the answer:
• “True” answers are most common
• Four answers: “B” is most often correct;  Five answers: E is most often correct
• “None of the above” and “All of the above” are most often correct
• It’s not as likely that there will be two D’s (or A’s e.g.) in a row
• On the SAT, eliminate the answer that’s not like the others (i.e., the outliers)
• When in doubt, guess the one that sounds familiar
• When to buy a home--he’s got a nifty little formula that can be used to determine if the market is favorable for a home purchase
• For presentations: the last slide or last point is what gets remembered. Make sure you leave a lasting impression

Kruse's Keys: Read "The High Mountains of Portugal" to Learn About Loss and a Path Home

First, hat tip to my mother in law for passing along this terrific read to me over the holidays...I tore through it in a matter of days!

Man Booker prize winning author Yann Martel has crafted a trio of related novellas that lay bare the trauma (sometimes literally) of loss and its psychic weight that can echo across generations like a deep curse. In “High Mountains” we join the journey of three characters: a bereaved widower on a mission to find a lost african crucifix; a grieving, delusional pathologist obsessed with Agatha Christie; and an aging widower/politician who buys a chimpanzee and retreats with the animal to his family’s ancestral village. It’s in this village--in the high (non) mountains of Portugal that all three stories intersect.

Martel has created a world and tale that falls into the realm of magic realism--if you’ve read or seen his other story, “The Life of Pi”, you will have a good idea of what to expect. My jaw definitely dropped numerous times at the action that unfolded but the author tells the story with such skill that the ridiculousness of the situation only draws you in further.

See our 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.

Key Quotes:

What his uncle does not understand is that in walking backwards, his back to the world, his back to God, he is not grieving. He is objecting. Because when everything cherished by you in life has been taken away, what else is there to do but object (12).

And now, how do I dare love anything? (202)

We loved our son like the sea loves and island, always surrounding him with our arms, always touching him and crashing upon his shore with our care and concern (200).

Grief is a disease (201).

Kruse's Keys: Read "The Furious Longing of God" to Realign Your Perspective on Religion

My brother Patrick gave this quick read me. You can get through the 136 pages in one sitting if you’d like but I think it’s a book that’s best consumed in spurts with time to mull over Brennan Manning’s meditation on God’s love for us. Truthfully, the author’s writing style isn’t my favorite--it’s flowery and over the top at times--but despite my purely personal opinion the book has heft and a message that’s powerful in its simplicity: God loves you in a very personal way that’s filled with madness, desire, and joy. In particular, I appreciated his exposition on Zephaniah 3:17:

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.

A pastor and friend shared that verse with me after Emily and I had gone through two miscarriages and we found out we were pregnant again (with a baby who would turn out to be Betty). During that year (2012), we found out we’d been chosen to adopt a newborn baby (Macee) and 7 months later Betty was born. This verse crushed me. Emily and I had been through such a dark valley with losing two babies and had questioned so much and then God broke through with such extravagance and abundance, such prodigal love. Such a special verse for me.

This book likely has a message for any reader, most importantly this:  “Our religion never begins with what we do for God. It always starts with what God has done for us.”


See our 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.

Key Quotes:

21 “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.” Song of Solomon 7:10 (good verse to pray every day)

31 “Abba, I belong to you.” Prayer of meditation and repetition.

46 “The love of God is madness” (or folly) chanted during French Easter services as “L’amour de Dieu est folie.”

76 “Christians find it easier to believe that God exists than that God loves them.” -Basil Hume

77 “In human beings, love is a quality, a high-prized virtue; in God, love is an identity.” thus--God is love.

126 “Our religion never begins with what we do for God. It always starts with what God has done for us.”


For further study:

23 Zephaniah 3:17 God dances for joy because of you. The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you,but will rejoice over you with singing.” (NIV) The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing. (ESV)

64 Thomas Brodie commentary on Gospel of John https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-According-John-Theological-Commentary/dp/0195118111



Key Takeaways:

22 The author’s hope for you is that you shift from a “I should pray” mentality to a “I must pray mentality.”

29 the idea of fury with regard God’s love and longing is that of intense energy

38 The foundation of God’s furious longing is love

51 Song of Solomon 2:10-14 is what a French scholar believes God said to Jesus as he was dying on the cross:

My beloved speaks and says to me:

“Arise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away,

11 for behold, the winter is past;

the rain is over and gone.

12 The flowers appear on the earth,

the time of singing[d] has come,

and the voice of the turtledove

is heard in our land.

13 The fig tree ripens its figs,

and the vines are in blossom;

they give forth fragrance.

Arise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away.

14 O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,

in the crannies of the cliff,

let me see your face,

let me hear your voice,

for your voice is sweet,

and your face is lovely.

56 When a leprous illiterate woman heard the voice of God as she lay dying, she told Manning that God said this to her:

Come now, my love. My lovely one, come.

For you, the winter has passed, the

Snows are over and gone, the flowers

Appear in the land, the season of

Joyful songs has come.

The cooing of the turtledove

Is heard in our land.

Come now, my love. My Yolanda, come.

Let me see your face. And let me hear

Your voice, for your voice is sweet

And your face is beautiful.

Come now, my love, my lovely one,

Come.

62 Manning makes the point/conclusion that there is no division of God’s love--he loves us just as much as he loves Jesus! This is a powerful truth that must shift our outlook in life and with regard to our own self-worth and value. (John 17:22-25)

68 God doesn’t want a relationship with us. He wants UNION--he wants oneness!

88 Manning argues that Jesus’ entire message can be summed up in Galatians 5:6: “the only thing that matters is the faith that expresses itself in love.” Being Christlike, being most like God means “loving the most.”

93 Beautiful example in the book of a boy named Larry Malaney, whose father modeling Christ’ furious love, loved him so publicly and overwhelmingly that it changed the whole direction of his life.