A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service
by Robert M. Gates, 2015

Gates was Director of Central Intelligence, President of Texas A&M, and Secretary of Defense, and he is currently the President of the Boy Scouts of America. Some of the versions of this book have the cover quote, “The book [politicians] should all admit to reading- and actually read… Refreshingly nonideological.” I think that is apt. It is a very good rundown on how to treat subordinates, how to foster trust, what mindset to have as a leader, how to enact effective change, and when to know it’s time to walk away from a position of power. Gates has a wealth of experience to draw from, and he tries to give examples that are relevant to government, academia, and business.

The audiobook is very well read and highly recommended. I listened to this on my lunch-time walks.

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
by Malcolm Gladwell, 2013

After listening to this book, I checked some of the reviews. I should have done it in the opposite order. Not Gladwell’s best stuff. I feel like a lot of the message was anecdotal, and it missed the opportunity to be widely applicable. I expected some references to startups having advantages over slow-moving established companies, but the topic was largely focused on social issues. The re-telling of David and Goliath, alluded to in the title, was certainly worthwhile, and recommended if you haven’t seen it before.

Thanks to Maria for the guest book review!

Airstream: America’s World Traveler
by Patrick Foster, 2016

This coffee-table-sized book is a quick read and full of pictures from the Airstream archives. I didn’t know much about Airstream before reading this book, except that I associate the travel trailer company with outdoor adventure and road trips. The book is a history of the company from its founding in the 1930s, through what happened to it in WWII (the signature aluminum was needed for airplanes – not luxury trailers), and subsequent decades to the present. The history stops about 2015. We learned a little bit about the founder, Wally Byam, and other management executives involved throughout the years, but not as much as I expected.

Although it was a fun, interesting read for me, the book could have used an editor; there are several obvious typos throughout, the parts that were most interesting to me were not elaborated on, and there is potentially inaccurate information. For instance, at one point the book casually mentions that an Airstream was used for atomic bomb testing and was undamaged aside from a broken window. This seems like it would make a good story, but one sentence is all the book gave. So I looked it up on my own and discovered that, for testing purposes, a fake mini town was built in Nevada and included an Airstream and other travel trailer brands stationed 10,500 ft from Ground Zero of the bomb; the Airstream was undamaged aside from two broken windows and a small dent in the back. So, take the book with possibly a grain of salt. The author did use current Airstream employees and the Airstream archives to write the book, so I am sure most of it is fine. It does read a little bit like a love story to the brand, with statements accompanying photos along the likes of, “It doesn’t get any better than this!”, but it was still a fun book to read and to look at the photos of Airstreams all over the world and while under construction.

Thanks to Maria for the guest book review, a follow-up to her earlier review.

Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People
by Meik Wiking, 2017

From the same author who brought us The Little Book of Hygge (reviewed here), the Little Book of Lykke looks analytically at the six factors that the Happiness Research Institute thinks are at the basis of a society’s happiness level: togetherness, money, health, freedom, trust, and kindness. It is worth reading the physical book since there are graphs and data (and some pretty pictures). It does not turn into a glorification of Denmark nor an attack on the US or other nations, and in fact highlights what various people around the world are doing to increase their society’s happiness, but it does give context for why the Danes and other Scandinavian countries tend to have such high levels of happiness. Hint: it has a lot to do with the fact that quality time with friends and family is more important than working 70+ hours a week, among other work-life balance aspects, plus not having to worry about health care or child care costs, naturally building mood uplifters into the day (in Denmark, a huge percentage of the population bikes to work, which is exercise that lets you start and end the workday in a good mood), and having a feeling of belonging in a society. It is a quick read (only took me a couple of hours) and offers some ideas and perspectives on happiness I hadn’t considered before (and I read a lot of books about happiness). Recommended.

For books that I read in book-form (as opposed to books on tape), I will start adding some of my favorite quotes from the book. I’ve updated the post about Crossing the Energy Divide accordingly.

Thanks to Telesilla Kotsi for the guest book review!

Still Life
by Louise Penny, 2005

A woman is found dead in the morning of Thanksgiving Day in Three Pines, a small village not far from Montreal. This is how “Still Life”, a mystery novel, begins followed by an elaborate description of the nature in Quebec and all the characters involved.

Highly recommended, although I do not prefer mysteries lately. It is not because I do not like them, quite the contrary. When I start one that I really like I cannot stop reading until I discover the solution to the mystery. This one was very well written, with wonderful setting and characters: Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec who comes to Three Pines to decide if the death was a hunting accident or a murder; Jean Guy Beauvoir who is the right hand of Inspector Gamache; Clara and Peter Morrow, both of whom are local artists, closely related to Jane Neal, who was the one found dead in the woods. What I liked the most was that all people in this small village where related to the crime but their motive was not obvious since they all seem to like Jane in the first place. Coming from a small place – fortunately not as small as Three Pines – I could relate to all these odd, tangled, interpersonal relationships. The plot is engaging and there was a point towards the middle of the book that I would change opinion every five minutes about who killed Jane. If you enjoy autumn colors and you want an easy read in front of your fireplace, you would definitely agree with me when you read “Still Life”.

The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream
by Tyler Cowen, 2017

Follows in the same stream as The Great Stagnation and Average is Over. Shows how America has become more complacent, in many forms, in recent decades. We have fewer startups and fewer people work at young businesses. We use matching algorithms to find romantic partners, books, movies, news, music, and more that we know we will like and are unlikely to expand our horizons much. We have a government that is ~80% on auto-pilot due to entitlements and inflexible spending, with very little left for discretionary spending. We limit how many houses can be built in dynamic areas and end up with more class segregation in our cities than ever. Basically, we are not a very dynamic country right now.

Cowen discusses the implications of complacency and postulates on whether this is a permanent condition or a passing trend in a cyclical cycle. Recommended.