The Sun Also Rises
by Ernest Hemingway

Twelve Steps to Eighteen Holes
Andrew Mecca
Andy Mecca has become one of my favorite people and his book about golf has zero technical golf tips - in fact he only started playing golf in his 50's - though it is filled with tips that will help in golf and in life. Imagine the game of golf meets an AA 12 Step program. That's what this book is.

Andy's decades of success in service in the drug treatment world starting with a tour in Vietnam has now translated into his role as President of the California Mentor Foundation. I plan on taking Andy up on his offer of a round at his home course - The Olympic Club in San Francisco before long.

The Best Buddhist Writing 2009
Melvin McLeod (Editor)
This is a wonderful collection of 33 stories or ideas that I read one a day to get the impact of a once a day injection of very different thinking. The 2009 version is just as good as the 2008 version and I suspect as much from 2010. Melvin McLeod - the editor-in-chief of Shambala Sun - as picked a wonderful array of greatest hits that touch a wide variety of topics EACH examined in a very non-traditional fashion as so far as "western" culture is concerned.

Drive
Daniel Pink
An easy romp through historical thinking about what motivates people and how out of register the modern business world is with the latest best thinking on the topic. An excellent primer.

The Great Gatsby
F Scott Fitzgerald
What a beautiful book and I hadn't read this since 10th grade and I didn't remember even a hint of... Shows what an uninspired student I was in 10th grade. The final lines have me fixated... Gatsby is a character/persona that is created by a man aiming desperately to escape his roots as opposed to honoring and acknowledging them. Maybe one "lesson" is that is important to acknowledge one's sourcing and have gratitude for that sourcing even when it hasn't provided what one dreams of... While the settling of the US in the 1920's seems appropriate perhaps it is far more relevant 90 years later... Unfulfilled dreams in America after 60 intense years of mass scale marketing that shapes what we should dream that goes nearly unquestioned but its effects are undoubtedly extraordinary.

Angela's Ashes
Frank McCourt
Last week’s summer reading selection was Frank McCourt’s story of growing up in Limerick, Ireland in the 1930s-1940s in an extremely poor family… I am not sure I have any sort of insight from this brilliant though dire piece. JohnSteinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath only moderately eclipses Frank McCourt recollection of childhood. Perhaps it ties into the comments I have made the past couple years about society focusing on/studying “elites” because we are so uncomfortable as humans being around those suffering whether it is someone who has just lost a loved one or someone on the street who is destitute. Broadcast TV – as well as most every entertainment media – sense that they can only chronicle the destitute in society for a short spell before their audience changes channels and as such guess what stories get under reported. Ethan Zuckerman had made the same comment about global reporting of life in Africa. On a per capita basis Africa has long been under represented. Here is our thought when it comes to the media tilting its coverage of the “elites” in society: as more people in a given society begin to struggle they just leave the “elite” group and “we” forget about them.

Crush It
Gary Vaynerchuk
A sensational book to read right after The Opposable Mind from roger martin... Gary Vaynerchuk discusses a number of the tools to use in building a business from one's deep personal passions here in 2010... His energy may overwhelm you as well as the phrase "crush it" but there is tremendous depth of starting from passion and purpose. This is NOT a get rich quick book.

Tuesday with Morrie
Mitch Albom

"This book talks about life thru a series of interviews from the perspective of a former college professor who is ill with a life ending disease. A simple and yet extraordinary book."

The Blue Sweater
Jacqueline Novogratz
This book is something of an autobiography of the founder of Acumen Fund. I found it exceptional as it routes her thru the pre genocide Rwanda as well her return to absorb as best possible the aftermath. She is courageous in all her journeys as well as the vulnerability she is willing to allow in telling her story... Mostly it is about her development as a human being fully committed to serving the basic needs of people throughout Africa and Asia.

The Hero With A Thousand Faces
Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell is considered one of the greatest contributors to societal thinking in the 20th century so I dove into one of his major works -- The Hero With A Thousand Faces. This works is strictly focused on the Hero story and from my starting point of zero it was a bit too much for me... Interesting but he picks up on subtleties that are far too expert for me... The great news is that there is a 7 page finish that pulls all the lessons together and connects to the new world society. Society today is one in which the individual dominates over the group and where the state dominates over religion. The question of what effective ways in society today can the values and lessons and spirit that our stories (including those of Heroes)developed be effectively developed still today thru stories or otherwise. An important issue. Campbell wrote this in 1949! The issues have only grown I suspect.

The Screwtape Letters
CS Lewis
A series of letters from one disciple of the devil to his failing mentee who is losing a battle to capture a human soul in England. CS Lewis brilliantly uses these letters as his vehicle to discuss 1001 abstracts of the individual in the world and what works and what doesn't work.

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty 
Muhammad Yunus
Story of nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunnus' development of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and how he nurtured hundreds of billions of dollars in micro loans of $300 on average and how he changed lives in the process. 98% repayment rates.

Blink
Malcolm Gladwell
Very easy read about the power of enhanced awareness... popular hit

Chaos
James Gleick
Great survey of the history of chaos theory development

Complexity
M. Mitchell Waldrop
Chaos and complexity -- Brian Arthur plays the central role

Democratizing Innovation
Eric Von Hippel
It is pretty darn hard for me not to like this book a lot... The main message is that users indirectly generate the product innovations that are largely adopted thought manufacturers seem to willingly overlook studies supporting this idea perhaps in order to absorb the credit for themselves. If manufacturers incorporated the reality of user innovation into their acknowledged processes far better results would occur....

Does IT Matter?
Nicholas Carr
Nicholas Carr suggested that Information Technology was FULLY commoditized... fails to consider that nearly every company on the planet is either aiming to use technology as a differentiator or aiming to keep up with someone who is... see instead Jim Collins p 144-163 of Good to Great

Einstein Dreams
Alan Lightman
Interesting collection of thoughts about all sorts of worlds where common elements are exposed and monumentally altered. A collection of very out of the box thoughts.

Future Shock
Alvin Toffler
Absolute classic on change and society... nearly a must read

Guns, Germs and Steel
Jared Diamond
How did civilizations evolve around the planet... Unbelievably good... Pulitizer winner

Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Peter F. Drucker
One of the best thinkers walks thru "innovation"

Joker One
Donovan Campbell
This book started fairly slowly but grew slightly more powerful to me chapter after chapter. It is written by a very bright young man who becomes a marine platoon commander during the Iraq War. He never states it so clearly until the final few pages what has transpired in these men's lives as they grow from strangers to literally willfully risking their lives routinely for one another in a cause that they believe is meaningful though they are disliked if not hated by the community that they are responsible to serve. It was extraordinary for me.

Linked
Albert Laszlo Barabasi
One of the better entries on "network effects"

Living Buddha, Living Christ
by Thich Nhat Hanh
Mind opening book... Mind opening book

Mastering the dynamics of innovation
James Utterback
The distinction in between product innovation, dominant design and process innovation... think about Dell vs everyone else

Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win
by William C. Taylor, Polly G. LaBarre
Most anytime I have read something by Polly Labare or associated with Bill Taylor I come out refreshed and inspired and am more open to considering how our business can work better and better everyday... An especially important message is that people matter most of all...

Peace is Every Step
Thich Nhat Hahn
This a series of short, very powerful reminder about basic ideas in living "mindfully" which might be considered code for living with awareness, effectiveness, compassion. I find much of writing as well as his general abstracts to be very helpful in a very very practical day to day sense.

Six Degrees
Duncan Watts
Another winner on "network effects"... easy read

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
by Norman Doidge
If you ever wanted a tour of the brain 101 w today's thinking this may be it. The key key point: experts used to think that the brain was a fixed organism but today it is clear that the brain can rewire itself and often... They call it "plasticity".

The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure
James Redfield
a search for an ancient manuscript leads to a review of sorts of major changes in society and possible changes ahead

The Future of Peace
Scott Hunt
Scott Hunt interviews a number of world figures to ask there few of what peace is and to understand how their view of peace impacts their view of how change can occur.  Psychotics of "change" will love the deep connections and others may fall asleep. I LOVED it!

The Holographic Universe
Michael Talbot
A review of quantum physics leads to a comprehensive review of the world of holistic thinking... interesting collection

The Innovator's Dilemma
Clayton M. Christensen
Shows that innovative companies are unable to follow on with further success due to cultural problems

The Innovator's Solution
Clayton M. Christensen
Superb sequel to his classic Innovator's Dilemma... focus on focusing on "services" and a tie to a brilliant 1975 article by Ted Levitt

The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch
Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon. When he learned he would not recover from Pancreatic Cancer he wanted to leave something for his three young children to learn from when he had passed. He offers up simple life lessons that have worked in his life. Many of them I have taken immediately and added into my own life.

The Opposable Mind
Roger Martin
What a simple and useful book! The author discusses what he terms the knowledege system of the integrated thinker. The recognition that mental models of how the world works do not equal reality and that those ever questing for better and better models will avoid getting caught in a defensive non-learning non-growth status. Integrated thinkers use deductive and inductive reasoning as well as abductive reasoning which points forward looking. Integrated thinkers do not get stuck in either/or circumstances but rather seek both deepening of mastery and the nurturing of originality -- possessing only one of these two is not sufficient.

Radical Evolution
Joel Garreau
Superbly organized collection of cutting edge thinking of where society and technology growingly meet.  The discussion of Jaron Lanier and Jaron's thinking as a separate possibility to Ray Kurzweil's heaven or Bill Joy's hell is extremely useful.  Enhanced humans?  Who cares so long as there is greater connection?

The Search
John Battelle
A wonderful review of the history of search and Google's role in it.

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations
Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom
Superb piece on issues of centralization and decentralization. In some cases the authors direct speak to the idea we talk of in "uncentralization". I suspect many - like me - will be able to more clearly recognize the current environment having read this book and with the language that the authors provide.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Thomas S. Kuhn
My favorite book on change... published way back in 1962... 

The Tipping Point
Malcolm Gladwell
Popular recant about why mass markets take off and the phrase "tipping point" has stuck

Unstuck
Keith Yamashita & Sandra Spataro
Identifying points when change is required in companies and how to implement