Kruse's Keys: Prodigal God: Read It Because "Prodigal" Doesn't Mean What You Think (Keller)

I first read this book in 2013 and it made such an impression that I placed it on my Yearly Re-Reading list.  So I read it again this year and it keeps getting better.

The Bible's tale of the prodigal son is best understood by looking at the two ends of the spectrum for the definition of the word prodigal.  On one end it describes someone who spends recklessly (i.e., the son) and on the other end it describes someone who gives recklessly (i.e., the sons' father).  So in this story what you really have is a parable about two lost sons and a reckless (with his love) father. Keller's reorientation of the story from its traditional focus on the wayward son gives one more accurate insight into just who this tale was for.  In context, Jesus' main audience was the "older brothers" listening to him.  These were the self-righteous pharisees who sought to control their own salvation through rigorous adherence to the law (and putting down others) instead of pursuing salvation through a relationship with Jesus.

At different times in my own life, I've been both sons and in both cases found myself rutted by an inward focus on me, me, me, me.  One of best parts of Prodigal God is that it turns the reader outward showing that recognition of the God's costly grace should spur his followers to serve the poor, to love the orphans and widows in society today.  This is the lavish and extravagant call of the Father to sons and daughters of all types--to join him in the banquet--in the community of believers--in order to love and draw in even more to the celebration.

KEY QUOTES:

• "It is impossible to forgive someone if you feel superior to him or her." -Keller
• "Religion is the default mode of the human heart." -Martin Luther
• "The targets of the [prodigal son story] are not wayward sinners but religious people who do everything the Bible requires." -Keller

KEY TAKEWAYS:

• Definition of prodigal:  spending recklessly; giving on a lavish scale
• Jesus' target in the parable is the older brothers, not the wayward sons--his focus is on the religious people.  The New Testament is chock full of Jesus hanging out with younger brothers--does your church seem more full of younger or older brothers?
• "Religion" is the default mode of the human heart--we have to constantly fight against it.
• You can't forgive someone if you feel superior to them (the biggest obstacle for the older brother in the story)
• Elder brothers seek to control their environment rather than to seek a relationship--it was likely the attitude of the elder brother that drove away the younger brother in the first place
• The Bible tells the story of exiles over and over again.  That's really what the bible is about:  a bunch of exiles trying to get home just like the younger son
• A sign that you recognize costly grace is that you serve the poor:  younger brothers are too selfish and older ones too self-righteous...eventually serving the poor is a matter of integrity for Christians

KEY REFERENCES:

• Three Seasons film
• Edmund Clowney Sermon--on story of brother searching for his brother in Vietnam
• The story behind sehnsucht here.  https://tylerhuckabee.com/2013/10/23/sehnsucht/

NOTES:


XV:  The father calls his older son to join in the welcome--that is to join the community
XVII:  The parable of the two lost sons and the reckless father
5: The father sees the younger sons and IS FILLED WITH COMPASSION
7:  The older son is too busy working to realize that everything the father has is already his
12:  The target of the Jesus' parable is not wayward sons but is instead religious people...i.e., older brothers because he's talking to the pharisees
16:  Christianity started as a non-religion--a gathering of believers without a temple
19:  The new testament shows time and time again, Jesus and his teachings attracting younger brothers...does our church attract that same segment?
23:  The father still loves his younger son amidst the agony of him collecting his inheritance and leaving him
28:  The father runs out to his son and embraces him and accepts him back before the younger son actually repents and shows that he's changed his life
30:  Accepting the younger son back means that the inheritance is once again divided between everyone.   God's wealth, however, is infinite
39:  The approaches to life of both son's is wrong
40 the elder brother refuse to enter the feast because:  "I've never disobeyed you" except, however, when it counts most--when Jesus asks him to enter the feast!
41:  really the older brother wanted his father's stuff--NOT his father himself
43:  God wants your heart your heart your heart
52:  Everyone is wrong and everyone is loved.  Admit this and change
63:  You can't forgive someone if you feel superior to them
65:  Anger as a prison
74:  Elder brothers seek to control their environment rather than to seek a relationship--it was likely the attitude of the elder brother that drove away the younger brother in the first place
83:  The father doesn't love BECAUSE of repentance but rather his LOVE drives repentance
86:  Elder brother's problem is self-righteousness
87: Truly becoming a christian requires also repenting of the reason for doing right things
94:  Forgiveness always COSTS the one doing the forgiving
96:  Three Seasons film reference
104:  German Word sehnsucht: profound homesickness and longing
109:  The Bible tells the story of exiles over and over again.  That's really what the bible is about:  a bunch of exiles trying to get home just like the younger son
126:  A sign that you recognize costly grace is that you serve the poor:  younger brothers are too selfish and older ones too self-righteous...eventually serving the poor is a matter of integrity for Christians
128:  Luther's assertion that "religion" is the default setting of the human heart--you must repeatedly fight against that
136:  God's free love means that we were bought with a price
137:  Bonhoeffer's definition of "cheap grace"means that you are all about the free grace but not about the living it out//the cost of following Jesus pales in comparison to the cost he paid for us
142:  You can only get to know Jesus the individual through the community (i.e. the church)

"Deep Work" for the Christian Life (Newport)

NOTE:  I've also put together a general writeup on Deep Work here.

You are sitting at the kitchen table in the early morning intending to spend some time praying.  A minute later you hear a buzz and can’t help but to glance at the notifications on your phone.  Back praying once more, your mind wanders and you find yourself thinking about a meeting at work later that day.  This prayer time is going nowhere.  Why can’t I focus?  Why is prayer so difficult?

Sunday morning you are sitting in church listening to Pat preach.  You’re jotting down his points in Evernote on your phone.  Then a notification pops up.  Then you’re checking an alert on Facebook.  Back to writing some notes.  And back and forth.  As you drive home, your wife asks what you thought about the sermon--you draw a blank.  How can I not remember anything from 30 minutes ago?

You arrive early at the office and open your inbox.  Opening up your Chrome browser, you get a few tabs going: Facebook, Twitter, The Washington Post, your Gmail.  As you answer a few emails, you swing back and forth between your inbox and Facebook feed, then you read a bit of a news article.  Then back to looking up some information for a report that’s due later that day.  You blink and the day is over and you’re driving home wondering:

Where did my day go?  What did I even accomplish today?  

You are waiting in the line at the post office.  The overworked clerk is fighting a losing battle with the outdated shipping software and you resign yourself to losing the next 30 minutes of your life.  So you spend it swiping.  Swiping through Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, reading some news, sending a text, reading an email, deleting some old ones.  Getting things done.  The thing is, you leave the post office, feeling unfocused and tired.

Why does my mind race around?  Why do I feel so distracted?

At your Missional Community everyone is going around the room sharing prayer requests.  After two couples have shared you realize you have no idea what they said.  You had glanced a few times at your phone--really just to check a few irrelevant “breaking” news alerts that buzzed in your pocket and then found myself thinking about a multi-meter that you needed to return to Lowes.  You made it through listening to another couple’s prayer request and then your mind was meandering again thinking about how to phrase your own prayer request.

Why is it so hard to listen?  Why am I listening but not really hearing?

Can you relate to any of these scenarios?  

Do you desire to have a closer relationship with Jesus?  

Do you want to learn more of the bible?  

Do you want to have a better prayer life?  

Do you want a quieter, quiet time?

If so, then Cal Newport’s Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success in a Distracted World is for you.  While the intended audience of Deep Work is clearly a secular business one, the lessons that he lays out are ones that can benefit anyone that desires to “be better.”  For the follower of Jesus, his call to limit distraction and to focus on the priorities in your life (and to figure out what those priorities are) should be a convicting one.  For the Christian reader, Newport’s thesis that learning hard things quickly and efficiently requires intense distraction-free focus (i.e., deep work) should ring true because these very principles are affirmed in scripture.  

Take for example, one of David’s songs (Psalms 46).  He ends it by echoing God’s call to each of us.

Be still.  And know that I am God.

God isn’t calling us necessarily to a physical stillness, of course, but instead he wants us to quiet our minds. He calls us to a focused meditation on his very nature.  After spending several verses extolling the virtue and might of God, David beckons the listener into a denouement—a  time to reflect and direct one’s thoughts to the nature of our Creator.  In Deep Work, Newport examines the biological process of myelination—the science of which affirms the idea that the very type of continual, undistracted, focused reflection that David calls us to can build a deeper understanding and relationship with God.

But what does biology have to do with your relationship with God you ask?  Well, myelin is a layer of fatty lipids and proteins that grow around your nerve cells.  The more myelin that builds up, the faster these nerve cells fire off.  The buildup of myelin (i.e., myelination) comes when you focus solely on a specific task or skill.  The specific ‘circuit’ associated with that task fires off repetitively as you work which triggers cells to produce and envelope your nerves with myelin.  This process then creates a ‘permanent’ skill or knowledge base.   Where learning and myelin buildup go awry is when one tries to multitask.  Multi-tasking fires off multiple circuits at once and doesn’t allow your body to isolate the specific circuit in order to learn a new language or write that term paper--thus no myelin is produced when you are distracted.

This God-designed biological process is important because it confirms Newport’s thesis: “learning is an act of deep work” and if you want to do it quickly and efficiently, you need to maintain an intense focus on the subject at hand.   If you want to get better—in your marriage, your academic studies, your relationship with God—you have to do the (deep) work.  Newport offers a useful equation for the reader:  

High Quality Work Produced = (time spent) x (intensity of focus).  

The deep work of prayer

Prayer (i.e., the time we spend talking to God), is perhaps the foundational element of our relationship with Him.  Looking to the Gospels we see Jesus modeling both time spent in prayer and a focused and undistracted intensity in His prayer life.  The gospel writers repeatedly describe Jesus’ concerted efforts to seek out the “deep work” of building his relationship with God as He withdraws and spends undistracted time in prayer and communion.  Some key examples include:

• Shortly after beginning his ministry, Jesus withdraws to pray in solitude early in the morning (Mark 1:35),
• After hearing the news of John the Baptist’s beheading, Jesus goes off by himself to pray (Matthew 14:13)
• Before naming his disciples, Jesus prays to God all night (Luke 6:12),
• Before and after feeding the five thousand, Jesus prays in solitude(Matthew 14:23; Mark 6:31; John 6:15)
• At Gethsemane, Jesus enters into three different prayer periods (Matthew 26:36; Mark 14)
• With his dying breath on the cross, Jesus’ prays the words of King David’s own song of trust in God amidst feelings of abandonment (Luke 23:46; Psalm 31:5)

Jesus’ lifelong focus on prayer is best captured in Luke’s wry observation that “Jesus often withdrew to pray” (Luke 5:10).  In other words, prayer was a focused habit for Jesus.  The question for followers of Jesus then is how do we advance toward that same place.  Following Newport’s template for producing high quality work (in this case, a deepening relationship with Jesus), we can focus on spending focused and intentional time with God.  Using themes from Deep Work, I’ve created a month long challenge geared to help retrain and refocus our thoughts from distraction toward myelination in our relationship and prayer life with Jesus.

Take the 30 Day Deep Work Challenge

1. Find rest on your Sundays.  Turn off social media on Sundays.  Disable internet connectivity on your phone as soon as you leave for church until you get home (or at least turn off those pop up notifications on your phone).  Use this time to do the deep work of growing as a Christian.  Orient your heart and focus your thoughts.   The “attention residue” from even a quick glance at an email during the sermon degrades your ability to re-focus on learning and internalizing the message.  Focusing takes practice.
2. Wake up and put first things first.  Resist the urge to check social media/email when you first awake.  Spend those first moments actively focusing your thoughts on Jesus.  Thank him for three things in your life.  Spend time reading or listening to the Bible and thinking about its application to your own life.  Get up 15 minutes early if you need to.
3. Schedule your nights and weekends and create value.  Be proactive—not reactive.  During the week, set aside blocks of time for important tasks/projects/papers.  During these time blocks, disable internet connectivity.  For your nights and weekends, write down three spiritual and/or personal goals/projects.  This could be anything from learning about the theology of baptism, to memorizing a Psalm, to making a long-term tithing plan, to serving your community as a family, to being a better dad or husband, to reading with your kids, to playing catch with daughter, to doing a puzzle with your son, or to starting a missional community.  Set aside an undistracted hour during the weekend to make progress on those goals.  
4. Embrace boredom and leave your phone in your pocket.  At least once a day, resist the urge to check your phone while stopped at a light, while at the post office, or while waiting in line at the Safeway.  This addiction for on-demand distraction is literally short-circuiting your brain so that when you want to concentrate on deep work, you won’t be able to.  
5. Tell Someone.  It’s easier to stay accountable if you know someone’s going to ask you how it’s going.  

Kruse's Keys: Read "Deep Work" Because It Will Change Everything (Newport)

Note:  I've also written another post: "Deep Work for the Christian life" here.

This was one of the most useful books that I have ever read.  Deep Work will make you better and if you focus--it will make you the best.  I especially enjoy books that lead to other books and this one is packed with nearly 20 of them! Were I running a company, business, platoon, or squadron I would buy a copy of this essential read for every worker under me.

Key Quotes:

• "The way to be a better comic is to create better jokes...[and write every day]" -Jerry Seinfeld
• "There is a popular notion that artists work from inspiration...but I hope my work makes it clear that waiting for inspiration to strike is a terrible plan...the single best piece of advice I can offer to anyone trying to do creative work is to ignore inspiration." -Mason Currey
• "Great creative minds think like artists but work like accountants." -David Brooks
• "If you want to win the war for attention...say 'yes' to the subject that arouses a terrifying longing, and let the terrifying longing crowd out everything else."  -David Brooks

Key Takeaways:

• You want to be well-myelinated in order to be great.  Myelin is a layer of fatty lipids and proteins that grow around your nerve cells.  The more myelin that builds up, the faster these nerve cells fire off.  The buildup of myelin (i.e., myelination) comes when you focus solely on a specific task or skill.  The specific ‘circuit’ associated with that task fires off repetitively as you work which triggers cells to produce and envelope your nerves with myelin.  This process then creates a ‘permanent’ skill or knowledge base.   Where learning and myelin buildup go awry is when one tries to multitask.  Multi-tasking fires off multiple circuits at once and doesn’t allow your body to isolate the specific circuit in order to learn a new language or write that term paper--thus no myelin is produced when you are distracted. 
• HQW = TS x FI
• Combat"attention residue" (as defined by Sophie Leroy).  It's very difficult for our mind's to switch from one task to another, especially if one task is not completely finished.  We are then aided when we can focus on one task for that extended (and undistracted) period of time.
• Don't let busyness define you.  Without clearly defined metrics for success or what constitutes accomplishment, people default to busyness and long hours as a proxy for productivity.  You can buck the trend by focusing on deep work and tasks.
• Your attention's focus becomes your worldview--this becomes relevent in dealing with adversity but also in a mindset that avoids focusing on the shallow.  A shallow focus drains your brain neurologically.
• Meaning doesn't come from your work but your mindset. Your work or profession doesn't have to be an especially meaningful one--instead you can derive meaning by the way in which you approach your work.
• There are 4 Deep Work Scheduling philosophies:  
• Monastic: Typically not part of a large, interdependent organization and thus you can seclude yourself completely for extended stretches of time
• Bi-Modal:  Your job or requirements require non-deep pursuits.  In some cases, the shallow pursuits "pay the bills" so that you can spend extended periods in deep work.
• Rhythmic: You use the chain method (p.111) to incorporate depth into your daily life. This means building set times for deep work into your schedule and giving yourself visual cues to prompt the deep work.  Aim for 90 minute blocks. 
• Journalistic: This is the varsity approach where you enter deep work states when you can.  In essence you 'switch on' deep work and crank out productivity.  
• Create Rituals--you need to determine:
• Work location and duration
• Work rules and processes (e.g., no internet, words per hour etc.).  If your job is internet/email intensive--schedule your internet/email blocks.  *When an internet need arises outside the designated time blocks, practice delaying its use at least 5 minutes.  
• Deep work support (e.g., coffee, right food, light extercise etc.)
• Figure out the how (i.e. the execution):
• Focus on the wildly important
• Act on the lead measures (i.e., the time spent in deep work periods--so track your hours)
• Keep a compelling scoreboard (i.e., create a visual focus point to track your progress)
• Create scheduled accountability (e.g., a weekly review)
• Shutdown.  Shutdown at the end of your workday.  Stay shutdown at night and on the weekends and on vacation.  
• Downtime aids insights
• Downtime recharges your "directed attention", enabling deep work
• Evening work is almost always not that important and most often just induces stress as you think about something that can't be solved till the next wday
• Create a shutdown ritual that frees your mind (p.151-4)
• Be Bored.  Rewire your brain to break the cycle for on-demand distraction.  Sit in line without looking at your phone.  Let your mind wander.
• Take an internet/social media sabbath for one day a week and one week a year.  See what you are missing in the life around you that exists outside a screen.
• Social media short-circuits the connection between attention and value by promoting a shallow alternative where everyone pays attention to everyone's postings of little/zero value.  
• The ideal is that we strive to create things of value that are valuable apart from social media 'likes' or attention
• Meditate productively (while running or during commutes/long drives)
• Fight distraction and lazy looping (i.e., move your thought process forward)
• Structure your deep thinking
• Make your free time count.  It sounds counter-intuitive but schedule your free time for concrete purposes/objectives.  Instead of exhausting you, this will promote fulfillment in your inner being and prevent you from haphazardly filling your free time with meaningless activity.  
• Commit to Fixed Schedule Productivity.  This was one of my favorites because the default understanding in most offices (especially military ones) is that hours/"busyness"/physical presence= productivity. In a fixed schedule one adheres to a finite end time (e.g., 5PM every day) and then finds productivity strategies to accomplish what's needed to be done in that amount of time. Otherwise, in an undefined day the hours get filled with shallow, trivial pursuits and end times get pushed for no productive reason.
• Send Better Emails.  Process-centric ones.  Properly executed this can revolutionize your work day.  
• Just the act of scheduling when you check your email (and getting those checks down to a few times a day) and batching your replies will skyrocket your productivity past everyone else in your office.  The biggest hurdle is to just TURN OFF your email between those scheduled times.   
• The next step comes when you write your replies.  Resist the urge to dash off a quick reply--instead take the time to look at what the actual project/mission is in the email and what's the most efficient way to bring it to a close.  In other words, lay out the solution or possible options so that the addressee can make a decision without a myriad of emails flying back and forth.  
• The other shortcut that I use (not from the book) is that when you anticipate that its going to be an overly complex or lengthy email--just pick up the phone and call--this has saved me countless hours.  
• Finally, not every email merits a response--don't let superfluous poorly written emails consume your precious time.  A corollary to this is to RESIST THE URGE TO REPLY TO GROUP EMAILS.  Think long and hard if you really need reply at all--unless you are the only one with specific knowledge you probably don't need to descend into that black hole. 

Key References:

• Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant (2014)
• "Why Is It So Hard to Do My Work" by Sophie Leroy (2009)
• Scrum project management technique (i.e., Agile)
• Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew Crawford
• To Save Everything, Click Here by Evgeny Morozov (2013)
• Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life by Winifred Gallagher (2010)
• The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt (1999)
• The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made by Evan Thomas and Walter Isaacson (1986)
• Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work by Mason Currey (2013)
• The Four Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Sean Covey and Chris McChesney (2016)
• The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
• "The Art of Focus" by David Brooks (2014)
• Hamlet's Blackberry by William Powers (2011)
• Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer (2012)






NOTES:
26  Talent is not a bulk item, that is, a bunch of mediocrity does not = talent.  "There's a premium to be being the best"

36  Being good at something = well-mylinated.  Myelin is a layer of fatty lipids and proteins that grow around your nerve cells.  The more myelin that builds up, the faster these nerve cells fire off.  The buildup of myelin (i.e., myelination) comes when you focus solely on a specific task or skill.  The specific ‘circuit’ associated with that task fires off repetitively as you work which triggers cells to produce and envelope your nerves with myelin.  This process then creates a ‘permanent’ skill or knowledge base.   Where learning and myelin buildup go awry is when one tries to multitask.  Multi-tasking fires off multiple circuits at once and doesn’t allow your body to isolate the specific circuit in order to learn a new language or write that term paper--thus no myelin is produced when you are distracted.

37  Learning is deep work--it requires intense focus and concentration.

38-39  Should publishing be the measure of a professor's worth.  Adam Grant as most productive professor at Wharton and highest rated teacher

40  High Quality Work = time spent x intensity of work

42-3  Attention Residue as examined by Sophie Leroy:  As revealed by two experiments,
people need to stop thinking about one task in order to fully transition their attention and perform well on another. Yet, results indicate that people find it difficult to transition their attention away from an unfinished task and their subsequent task performance suffers. Being able to finish one task before switching to another is, however, not enough to enable effective task transitions. Time pressure while finishing a prior task is needed to disengage from the first task and thus move to the next task and it contributes to higher performance on the next task.

48  Stand up meeting to reduce bloviation--i.e., people less likely to drone on if they are standing up--refers to SCRUM project management

58  Principle of the easy(est)= without clear direction and input, we will do the easiest task/thing

62  for managers: lack of clear metric for success promotes anxiety.  And without a good idea of what accomplishment means, they default to busyness...thus:

64  Busyness becomes a proxy for productivity.  But you can buck the trend and focus on the deep work

76-7  Focus on the good.  Our worldview is actually shaped by our focus NOT our circumstances.

82  A "shallow" workday is a neurologically draining one
91  Your work or profession doesn't have to be an especially meaningful one--instead you can derive meaning by the way in which you approach your work.


102-117  The rules for Deep Work Scheduling:  there are four types

119-120  The importance of good rituals

121-6  Grand gestures and their importance.  To go deep, first go big

131  Hub and spoke office architecture: this is NOT an open office plan with breakout rooms.  With hub and spoke, the focus is on the sound-proofed offices (i.e., the spokes) for the deep work and then encourage interactions with the hubs.  

133-4  Whiteboard effect speaks to collaborative deep work where multiple individuals depend on the progress of another group to advance their own deep work.

135  figuring out the how--recommends using 4 DX for this

136-142  4 DX: focus on teh wildly important and track it.


144-50  Why shutdown:  UTT, ART, low importance to check evening

151-4  make a series of steps: shutdown ritual

160  Social media sabbath

161-3  Schedule your internet time

167  Teddy R's intense work aka sprints

168  Roosevelt dashes (creating artificial  deadlines)

176-9  How to memorize a deck of cards

207  Study Hacks blog: value vs. attention and social media

213  Schedule your free time

229  Shallow work definition: How long would it take to train a fresh college graduate to complete certain daily tasks of mine


236  Fixed schedule productivity

248  Process-centric emails

Kruse's Keys 2017 Reading List

You can see our lists from 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2018.  You can also see my Reading the African Continent List here.

The Last Will and Testament of Senor da Silva Araujo (Cape Verde)

Read It Because:
This translated piece of Cape Verdean fiction is beautiful, sad, and meandering as it examines the life of a poor peasant boy made good as a successful business owner.  Senor da Silva's life unfolds in a non-linear, often-dreamlike fashion at times as we follow his life through the reading of his last will and testament.  The strength of this novel lies in its examination of  themes both broad and mundane. The author offers the reader a glimpse into the way in which the independence struggle affected the lives of the ordinary businessmen and local politicians as da Silva struggles to position himself to prosper however the struggle might end up.  Far more interesting, though, is the investigation by da Silva's illegitimate daughter (suprise!) into a mysterious (and perhaps fantastical) love obsession named Adelia.  As the details surrounding Adelia are slowly revealed, a melancholy shadow falls over the life of da Silva as he grapples with love, rejection and loss.   The reader is left to wonder: was Adelia actually real or was she a mad creation by a man unable to find his place in Cape Verdean society and life in general?


*One of my Reading Around the Continent books--the full list is here.
My full post is here.









Sleepwalking Land (Mozambique)

Loved It Because: Mia Couto has crafted a surreal, engrossing tragic tale of the hopelessness of life during the fifteen year long civil war that consumed post-independence Mozambique.  I went into this novel knowing little about Mozambique's history apart from a broad knowledge regarding the brutality with which Portugal ceded independence to its colonies.  

Reading this novel won't give the reader even a brief overview of the country's civil war, instead Couto focuses on pulling the reader into the pysche of those affected most by war--the ones not doing the killing--the women and the children.  Early on, Kindzu the narrator relates one of the most bizaree stories that I've ever read--his younger brother is forced to live in the family's henhouse bu their insane father, and then forced to act like a chicken--for so long that he eventually becomes one and disappears.  This type of magical kafkaesque storyline is repeated throughout Sleepwalking Land, as the oprhaned narrators (yes, plural) struggle to exist in a country that is dying under their feet.  The very idea of life turns Kindzu into a fatalist as he remarks at one point: "the best things in life are those that don't lie ahead"--meaning that pleasure and meaning can only be found in distant memories or in the most immediate present. 

*One of my Reading Around the Continent books--the full list is here.
My full post is here.









The Warmth of Other Suns

Read it Because: You can't afford not to.  Before the publication of Warmth some seven years ago, there had never been a definitive and comprehensive analysis (at least in the ethnographic sense) of these waves of migration that began following the reconstruction era as Jim Crow set in.  Wilkerson's book is significant because of the short historical space between 2017 and the enslavement (through legal means or socio-economic means) of a race of people.  Let the following statement sink in:

Just 77 years ago, in 1/3 of the US, killing blacks was not a crime.

Most of us have relatives at least who were young kids 77 years ago!  It's often far too easy to dismiss a movement today--#blacklivesmatter comes to mind.  Now while I may not agree with every single tenet of that movement, reading this book opened my eyes to the historical headspace from which its leaders and followers are coming.  While the idea of the de facto legalized murder of a race seems a preposterously distant one to me today, it probably doesn't to many of the African-Americans in this country.  Because they have family members STILL ALIVE who endured it.  They know the history. Much of the conflict in today's society would at least be softened if both sides took the time to know one another's history--their backstory.  Wilkerson has presented a gift to Americans--she has captured a fundamental piece of our history that before only existed buried in the margins of dusty newspapers and crumbling, fading memories of aging octogenarians.  By weaving the personal with the historic she has brought to life the brave flight of millions who sought a better life only to find roadblocks, but who fought on--hoping to give their children and grandchildren a better life or at the very least the chance to bloom.
My full post is here.





Vakio Milamina (Madagascar)

Loved It Because: it gives you the inside scoop on the culture and politics of Madagascar. Soamiely is the rare Malagasy author who writes in (great) English about these things.  I lived in Madagascar for three years and often read Soamiely's posts on Medium but it was only once I was back stateside that I realized that he'd written two books (his other: Ambony-Ambany (Upside Down) is available to purchase on Lulu.com).  

Vakio Milamina (i.e., A Quiet or Smooth Read) lays out the authors thoughts on life in Madagascar through a series of very loosely related essays.  In particular, I loved "It's All Part of Growing Up" which is basically a 6 page rundown on the political history of Madagascar.  Other essays like "Fiadanana and Moramora" made me laugh--moramora IS the quintessential essence of being Malagasy (from a vazaha aka foreigner perspective).  It captures the incrementalism of progress (or de-evolution) and a peace with slowness that one notices even after only a few days in the country.  Perhaps most useful for any visitor/tourist is his essay "Our Unambiguously Ambiguous Art of Conversation" in which the author lays out why a Malagasy will seldom ever say 'no'.  If I had realized this early on I would have saved myself a lot of stress and frustration. But there's no reason to read just one essay--Vakio is the wonderful book that can be read in a single sitting or on a short plane ride.  You'd also be well served to follow him on twitter at @soamiely 

*One of my Reading Around the Continent books--the full list is here.
My full post is here.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things  
This book is on just about every entrepreneurs' reading list and I heard it mentioned as mandatory reading in countless articles and interviews--particularly on the excellent Beyond the Uniform podcasts.  While much of this discussion is tech-focused, it would serve most military leaders well to read this book because Horowitz devotes much of his time to addressing how best to cope with the loneliness of leadership and "command."

Unfortunately, I listened to this one on Audible during my daily commute.  Don't get me wrong, Audible is great but it's NOT great when you are listening to a book that if you were reading would be full of highlights and notes.  Audible has a bookmark/clip function but it's not particularly easy to use or annotate (or very safe) while you are driving.  So I've resigned myself to stick mainly to fiction for my future Audible listens.   I should have written this review as soon as I finished it since I would have remembered more.

That said, the most useful section of this book for me came in chapter five: "Take Care of the People, The Products, and the Profits–In That Order."  In particular he addresses the importance of companies training their workers--with both functional training and management training.  These are two simple items that many companies and organizations (especially within the military) overlook.  

For any military leader that plans to transition to the civilian workforce, this book should feature prominently on his/her reading list prior to retirement for the myriad insights into life at a civilian company.  


 

Prodigal God
This is on my yearly re-reading list and it gets better every year.  The Bible's tale of the prodigal son is best understood by looking at the two ends of the spectrum for the definition of the word "prodigal."  On one end it describes someone who spends recklessly (i.e., the son) and on the other end it describes someone who gives recklessly (i.e., the sons' father).  So in this story what you really have is a parable about two lost sons and a reckless (with his love) father. Keller's reorientation of the story from its traditional focus on the wayward son gives one more accurate insight into just who this tale was for.  In context, Jesus' main audience was the "older brothers" listening to him.  These were the self-righteous pharisees who sought to control their own salvation through rigorous adherence to the law (and putting down others) instead of pursuing salvation through a relationship with Jesus. 

At different times in my own life, I've been both sons and in both cases found myself rutted by an inward focus on me, me, me, me.  One of best parts of Prodigal God is that it turns the reader outward showing that recognition of the God's costly grace should spur his followers to serve the poor, to love the orphans and widows in society today.  This is the lavish and extravagant call of the Father to sons and daughters of all types--to join him in the banquet--in the community of believers--in order to love and draw in even more to the celebration. My full post is here.












Deep Work

This was one of the most useful books that I have ever read.  Deep Work will make you better and if you focus--it will make you the best.  I especially enjoy books that lead to other books and this one is packed with nearly 20 of them! Were I running a company, business, platoon, or squadron I would buy a copy of this essential read for every worker under me.

My full post is here.  I also wrote a post on deep work for the Christian life here.




















Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Essentialism is a book for anyone who feels overwhelmed at any level of their life.  The author’s contention is that we all have too much going on in our lives--at work, at play, in our relationships and in our things.  This book gives the reader the tools and philosophical background in order to pare away the excess.  Ultimately, McKeown espouses the expansion of German designer and academic Dieter Ram’s mantra “less but better” (weniger aber besser) into one’s life at every level.  Whether or not one has the courage to actually apply it holistically is another question but I’d argue that we’d all do well to take stock of our lives and see where doing less but better might liberate us.   My full post is here.

Chaos Monkeys

Chaos Monkeys is a book bulging with so much saucy insider details that you feel a little guilty reading it.  I always enjoy pairing recommendations when it comes to books and I'd recommend pairing this one with Horowitz's The Hard Thing About Hard Things which I wrote about here.  The combination of the two books serve as a great introduction to anyone interested in the tech industry and entrepreneurship.  I point this out in particular for any transitioning vets looking in that direction.

Notably, readers will find Chaos Monkeys of particular value if they are looking to get into the weeds of starting their own company, launching an idea, or courting investors--this book is literally chocked full with essential information. 

Beyond that, however, there was much lacking in Martinez' life choices (in my personal opinion).  He doesn't delve to far into it, but he made very deliberate choices over being present as a father to his daughter early on in the book and rationalizes his absences as better for her.  All that to say, don't expect to finish the book feeling great about the story--which is more an indictment of the rather sordid way things are done in Silicon Valley than of the author himself.  My full post is here.









Hawaii
 
In 2009, I married my beautiful bride on Poipu Beach in Kauai.  Since that visit, the Hawaiian islands have held a special place in my heart.  During idle moments, I confess to plugging the location of Kauai into job search sites and crossing my fingers for a non-engineering job to pop up.  Since 2009 we’ve returned to Kauai several times and prior to our most recent trip this past summer I decided to finally dive into Michener’s 1000 page tale Hawaii.  

First published in 1959 (the year of Hawaiian statehood), Hawaii definitely comes across a little dated in its style but Michener nonetheless proves that he can craft an engrossing tale as he spans the physical birth of the Hawaiian islands eons ago up to it fight for statehood.  Hawaii begins its narrative with the first impossible ocean-spanning voyages of men and women from Tahiti.
From there we witness the tribal fight to consolidate power throughout the islands and then see the natives first interaction with New England missionaries.  From there Michener deftly juxtaposes the lives of consecutives generations of earnest but severe missionaries with those of lusty and wayward whalers and traders.  The narrative carries on as we see the immigration of Chinese and Japanese settlers and their eventual integration into the social, economic and political life of Hawaii over the span of two World Wars and an eventual quest for statehood.  


One assumes (with even cursory research) that Michener took a multitude of historical liberties in the writing of this tome but upon finishing it I was okay with that.  Hawaii is an engrossing novel that encourages the reader to learn more about it actual history (I’ve included some links to do just that in the full review).   My full post is here.







Transit  (Djibouti)

As you can probably guess there’s not exactly a ton of Djibouti fiction out there, especially en anglais.  But when it comes to Djibouti fiction, the author Waberi reigns supreme.  He’s written a lot to the extent where most of his novels have been translated from French to English.  

The translators, Dave and Nicole Ball, in particular, did a splendid job putting into English the patois of one of the narrators, an uneducated ex-soldier named Bashir.  The challenge to take french urban african slang and put it into English without making it sound like American urban slang is considerable but the Balls nailed it. 

Transit interweaves Bashir’s story with that of Harbi (a member of the opposition intellectual elite) and his family.  While waiting at the Paris airport, the two men reveal their life stories as the narrative arc builds toward their intersection.  The novel’s plot is pretty well done so I won’t reveal much beyond what I mentioned thus far.

The staying power of this story comes from Waberi’s deft touch as he tackles the complexity of his country’s history and current political situation through the alternating monologues. This allows him to playfully jab at the idea of Djibouti’s democracy on one hand, calling it “that hot air of politicians who take bread from whoever giving it”, while also laud the Djiboutian people’s strength on the other with his admonition: “LET'S NOT FORGET that we never accepted the domination of the colonizers. Even when faced with a fait accompli and the law of the strongest, we resisted silently, secretly. Luckily, we had enough space to fall back on, unlike countries with greater population density like Burundi or Rwanda, where the Catholic church recorded its highest evangelization scores in the world. We could retreat into the brush, unseen and unheard. And above all, no official papers. Thus, what seemed to be the most generous acts of the administration, like the vaccination campaigns, were ignored if not massively rejected. Villages, schools, or cities—we rejected them. We preferred our rustic life.” 
My full review is here.
*One of my Reading Around the Continent books--the full list is here


Moving the Palace  (Africa, Lebanon, Middle East)
Maidalani's Moving the Palace is one of those books that leaves you melancholy and blue because...it's over.  It's over and your relationship with the protagonist is severed--forever buried forever in the pages of the novel.

In Moving the Palace's case, we learn the story of Samuel (through the recollection of his grandson)--an erudite Christian adventurer who leaves his homeland of Lebanon amidst the country's wave of great migration during the onset of the 20th century.  Whereas many of his countrymen left for Europe, the Middle East and the United States, Samuel ventures down to the Sudan.  During a stay in Tripoli, he encounters a small Arabian palace by the city citadel.   Upon closer inspection, a plan hatches in Samuel's mind, a plan of what origin his grandson laments: "I do not know--nor will anyone, ever--what planted the seed of that incredible idea in his mind."
My full post is here.










The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
Let me just get it out of the way and say that Chapter 15 will break your heart.  I listened to the final minutes of that chapter while parked in traffic on the 295 and found myself muttering under my breath: “no no no no no no no no.”   I pushed stop on the Audible app when the chapter was over and didn’t pick the book back up until the next day.  That’s the kind of book Twelve Lives is.  It pulls you into the lives, minds and hearts of the characters in unexpected ways and with an unanticipated depth.

he Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is a modern day adaptation of Peisander’s play “The 12 Labors of Hercules.”  In that ancient Greek tale, after murdering his wife and children in a goddess-induced fit of insanity, Hercules sets out to atone for his sins by completing 12 fantastic, near-impossible quests over a 12 year period.  It’s in this redemptive quest, that he becomes a hero of legendary and mythic proportions.

The genius of author Hannah Tinti’s story is that she layers several tragic love stories onto this epic framework. These cover the gambit: from man and woman, to father and daughter, to platonic between two friends,and to daughter and mother.  The tragic nature of the stories comes from the common thread of absence that is woven into each of them.

Mechanically, Twelve Lives overlays the history of the 12 bullets that struck Samuel Hawley during his life with the his daughter Lou’s own coming of age, as she slowly uncovers her father’s sordid criminal past.  It’s in the convergence of these two stories that the climax approaches.

Ultimately, Twelve Lives benefits from the strength of using an age old tale for its framework--because of this--and because of Tinti’s strong and striking prose (not to mention a keen ear for dialogue) this is a story that you won’t soon forget.

My full review is here.



The Leader's Bookshelf

Jim Staviridis’ gift to bookavores everywhere, The Leader’s Bookshelf is a difficult one on which to provide notes because it is so packed with great and essential material.  What Stavridis and former Navy PAO R. Ancell have done is put together a Top 50 reading list for military leaders--they accomplished this feat by surveying hundreds of senior military leaders.  The final list, though, only took into account the inputs of the more than 200 4-star officers surveyed.  The authors then compiled the most frequently cited titles and ranked them by frequency of citation.

I’ve only read about 12 of the 50 which lean a little too heavily toward the Civil War (5 of the 50, not including three on Lincoln).  Each of the 50 books includes a prelude on its importance written by one of the surveyed 4 star officers.

He also devotes a chapter to an unofficial survey of junior officers and provides a short summaries of the titles that are most often listed. One of the strengths of this book is that it provides a framework to analyze future books.  The author’s systematic approach to reading provides a useful framework for anyone desiring to better digest and use what they read.  In particular, Stavridis notes the Marine Corps methodology in setting the standard in creating tiered reading lists.

As a FAO, I enjoyed Staviridis’ analyses that repeatedly noted the need for regional expertise (across the spectrum of history and literature) to better inform national strategic decision-making.

My full review is here.




American Rust

I first encountered Meyer’s writing back in 2015 by way of S.C. Gwynne’s incredible Empire of the Summer Moon. His story of Quanah Parker, the offspring of a kidnapped white woman and a Comanche, who went on to become one to become one of the greatest native American warriors of all time led me to Meyer’s The Son (now an AMC mini-series).  Meyer’s well-researched piece of Texas history (well, historical fiction) has a central character that is kidnapped by Indians as a child.

All that to say, The Son was so well written that I was eager to read anything else written by Meyer.  That led me to Meyer’s first novel, American Rust,  which reads like a sorrowful swan song to the American rust belt.  The story brings to light the consequences of the steel industry’s death as the reader is drawn into the lives of several families and their struggle to love, survive, and escape.  The narrative centers in on the plight of Billy Poe, a driftless, could-have-been, washed up former high school football star, and Isaac, an unmoored genius who struggles to escape the gravity of his impoverished circumstances.  Throw in a little murder and a love triangle and you have a story you won’t soon forget.  My only critique is that I wished Meyer had wrapped up the story a little more neatly but we can leave that for the eventual movie version.

My full review is here.






Artemis*

I read author Andy Weir’s blockbuster debut novel The Martian back in 2015 (before the movie) and loved it (I also loved the movie).  So when Artemis came out I added it to my Audible queue.

Artemis is the name of the colony/city/development located on the moon at some point in the future.  The story focuses on a young smuggler/dreamer named Jazz.  As the daughter of an immigrant from Saudi Arabia, she was pretty much raised on the moon and has developed a pirat-ish code of conduct aimed at eventually moving her up in the stratified social order of life on Artemis.

Early on, Jazz is offered a deal that’s too good to be true (of course) and hijinks ensue.  The narrative moves quickly with dialogue and action but Jazz irked me--she comes across as a little bit too enamored with just how cute and clever and irreverent she is (or rather, thinks she is).  This lack of humility and maturity grated me as the story progressed--in fact it ended up distracting from the novel itself at times.

One gets the sense that Weir wrote this novel to become an eventual movie--rather than to exist on its own.  The voice that reads the Audible version, for instance, is the actress Rosario Dawson.  This likely drives the reader to envision what one hears in the realm of a movie on the big screen.  But you know what, I’d probably be doing the same thing if I possessed his drive and talent so good on him.


So Jazz’ personality aside, Weir has done what talented authors do: create a previously unknown world and open its door to readers everywhere.  Buckle up.
My full review is here.



Hidden Christmas


Tim Keller stepped down as the senior pastor at the renowned Redeemer Church in NYC in early 2017--the church he built into 5000 strong members in one of the most unchurched areas of the United States.  Along the way, he’s published an array of books (one of them, Prodigal God, is on my yearly re-reading list) and Hidden Christmas falls in among them.

Hidden Christmas is the product of a lifetime of Keller’s Christmas sermons.  This amalgamation covers the breadth of the Christmas story beginning with its roots in the Old Testament, as the Israelites yearned for the freeing savior King promised to them.  Whether a believer (in Jesus) or not, a reader will find much of interest in this short read.  And I think that’s really the strength of this book: Keller covers so much that there’s bound to be something in it that will give you pause to consider what Jesus’ birth in a manager means.

Personally, I finished Hidden Christmas with a newfound understanding for just how significant it was that God became man (i.e., the incarnation).  The Old Testament contains volumes on the just how carefully the people of Israel had to approach even the presence of God in their temple.  There are literally pages and pages, in fact, that detail the cloth, the spacing, the colors, the time of day, the season, the sacrifices, the materials, all the prerequisites just for the Israelite priests to commune with God and atone for their people’s sins.

Then God (i.e., Jesus) becomes a baby in a manager.  Now all that has to happen for the people of Israel to approach God is to merely COME.  Come and adore him...in a manager, as a defenseless baby.  That’s changes--that changed everything.  We take the ability to talk to, to pray to, to approach God ourselves for granted today and the Christmas story should remind us of how incredible this is.  My full review is here.