Each quarter, I post a quick run-down of books I’ve read during the quarter. Please note that all links are Amazon affiliate links that may pay to me a very modest commission that I will promptly use to buy more books to read. Basically just helps spin the flywheel.

Leadership / Management

• Traction – This was great – “All entrepreneurs and business leaders face similar frustrations—personnel conflict, profit woes, and inadequate growth. Decisions never seem to get made, or, once made, fail to be properly implemented. But there is a solution. It’s not complicated or theoretical.The Entrepreneurial Operating System® is a practical method for achieving the business success you have always envisioned.”
• Tribal Leadership. Within each corporation are anywhere from a few to hundreds of separate tribes. In Tribal Leadership, Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright demonstrate how these tribes develop—and show you how to assess them and lead them to maximize productivity and growth.
• Organization Theory and Design – If you are looking for an interesting textbook to read, I enjoyed this – “Discover the most progressive thinking about organizations today as acclaimed author Richard Daft balances recent, innovative ideas with proven classic theories and effective business practices.”
• Organizations: Rational, Natural and Open Systems. Not for the faint of heart here, I read the first third and then was worn out – This broad, balanced introduction to organizational studies enables the reader to compare and contrast different approaches to the study of organizations. This book is a valuable tool for the reader, as we are all intertwined with organizations in one form or another.
• Book of Five Rings – I know this one is famous, but I much prefer The Art of War

Investing

• Geopolitical Alpha. Geopolitical Alpha posits that investors should ignore the media-hyped narratives, insights from “smoke-filled rooms,” and most of their political consultants and, instead, focus exclusively on the measurable, material constraints facing policymakers.

Entertainment

• Friends: Understanding the Power of our Most Important Relationships – This was excellent – best read of the quarter by far…Robin Dunbar is the world-renowned psychologist and author who famously discovered Dunbar’s number: how our capacity for friendship is limited to around 150 people. In Friends, he looks at friendship in the round, at the way different types of friendship and family relationships intersect, or at the complex of psychological and behavioural mechanisms that underpin friendships and make them possible – and just how complicated the business of making and keeping friends actually is.
• AWOL on the Appalachian Trail – Entertaining account of one thru-hiker’s journey

Philosophy / Theology

• Leisure – The Basis of Culture – Absolutely fantastic – a great reflection on the role of work / leisure in creating cultural depth. “Pieper maintains that our bourgeois world of total labor has vanquished leisure, and issues a startling warning: Unless we regain the art of silence and insight, the ability for non-activity, unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will destroy our culture — and ourselves.”
• Communion with God – The Puritans don’t fool around – this was a heavy lift and I only got through about half before I ran out of steam. First third is exceptional thogh
• You Are Not Your Own – I know this has sold a lot of copies, feels like it could have been one 30 page article – felt a bit repetitive
• Good of Affluence – This was an interesting theology of money / wealth