Books I've Read


James

Percival Everett 2024
Read: 2024
Fiction

My friend Jenn recommended this book to me and loaned me the hardback edition. While I have not read other books (yet) by the author, Percival Everett, I have seen American Fiction, a fantastic movie based on his book Erasure. This book is based on Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, but this time, the story is told through […]

Malibu Rising

Taylor Jenkins Reid 2021
Read: 2024
Fiction

I picked up this book while visiting my friends Sheri and Brooks. I love my book-reading friends. There’s always a book that you see or something they recommend. Malibu Rising is a recently published book (2022), and a best seller, written by the same author who wrote Daisy Jones and the Six, which. became a […]

Keys to a Successful Retirement: Staying Happy, Active, and Productive in Your Retired Years

Fritz Gilbert 2020
Read: 2024
Non-Fiction, Reading Now

After I finished my first year of retirement, I found this book. Mr. Gilbert’s book is thoughtful and introspective in his analysis and reflections. His advice would be to read this book and start thinking about all of this at least three years before you are considering retiring. I would say that anywhere from one […]

The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

Patrick M. Lencione 2016
Read: 2024
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction, Reading Now

One of my favorite parts of my career in public education is the teams that I have been fortunate to be a part of. I wrote a post on my love of teams back in 2020, celebrating teams that included: History classes that I taught New teachers (and eventually veteran ones too) at San Lorenzo […]

Cloud Cuckoo Land

Anthony Doerr 2021
Read: 2024
Fiction

My friend Heather recommended this book after I published my Summer Reading blog post in the Summer of ’23.  Any book by Anthony Doerr is worth reading, so I jumped in. (All the Light We Cannot See is so worth reading and re-reading, and the Apple TV Mini-Series is outstanding!) The book is a bit […]

The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort To Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self

Michael Easter 2021
Read: 2024
Non-Fiction, Reading Now, Spirtuality

After I wrote my blog post on doing something that sucks everyday, my sister-in-law Libby recommended that I read this book. It was an outstanding recommendation. Michael Easter does a wonderful job of telling the story of a highly challenging hunting trip to Alaska, weaving in research on how we 21st century humans have it […]

The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Douglas Carlton Abrams 2016
Read: 2023
Non-Fiction, Spirtuality

Wow. This is an amazing book. This is a book I will be re-reading for many, many years. The narrator of the book chronicles a series of conversations between the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. Both of these men are regarded by their respective religions, and by most of the world, as holy men of […]

The Midnight Library

Matt Haig 2020
Read: 2023
Fiction

One of my son Dawson’s favorite topics is how many things had to go just right for him to come into existence. What if I had not moved to California from Arkansas? What if I had never moved to Southern California? While I don’t believe in the idea of multiple universes (way too complicated), and […]

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

James McBride 2023
Read: 2023
Fiction

I found this book when I was surfing the net and looking for a new fiction book to read. I was not disappionted. James McBride writes a mystery/love story/tale of America focusing on a “Chicken Hill,” a community on the outskirts of a small Pennsylvania town. The book features disenfranchised blacks and Jewish immigrants, their […]

The Champion’s Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train, and Thrive

James A. Afremow 2013
Read: 2023
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

I bought this book after a series of disappointing times in a swim meet late in 2023. There’s no swimming advice in here. I’ll certainly continue searching for that. Nor is there a road map to better conditioning, which is all on me to get done. But what Mr. Afremow talks about is what kind […]

Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect

Will Guidara 2022
Read: 2023
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

My friend Marcia recommended this book. She is a highly successful businesswoman who has developed a successful business that thrives on making her clients feel special, connected, and karma-rich. After reading the book, I can see why she loved it. Will Guidara tells his story of how he took an excellent restaurant and turned it […]

Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity

Peter Attia 2023
Read: 2023
Non-Fiction

I’m in my sixties, and, although I’m believe that I am at peace with whatever the future brings, I want to live the longest healthy lifespan that I can. “Healthy lifespan” is a Peter Attia term. He is trying to figure out not just how we can live longer, but how we can have as […]

Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany

Bill Buford 2006
Read: 2023
Cooking, Non-Fiction

You almost don’t need to read the book after getting through the world’s longest title. I learned about Bill Buford after I wrote a post offering a list of summer reading books. Holly, a frequent contributor to comments on the blogsite, suggested both Heat and Dirt, by Bill Buford. I read Dirt first, about experiences […]

Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again

Johann Hari 2022
Read: 2023
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction, Reading Now

My friend Jenn loaned me this book. That means I read it as a paperback, instead of Kindle-ing it. I read less than 10% of my books in hard copy. This was a perfect one to choose to be part of that 10%. This is a book about why we are distracted, and the forces […]

On the Road

Jack Kerouac 1955
Read: 2023
Fiction

My friend Bill recommended this book – he thought it was a perfect summer reading book. I’ve heard about it hundreds of times, but I’ve never read it. I’m glad I did, and I agree wholeheartedly, Bill – this is a great summer reading book. Jack and his growing and suspect group of friends travel […]

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Bill Bryson 2006
Read: 2023
Non-Fiction

My dad recommended this book to me – he may have even given me a copy of the book to read. It sat on my desk for a few years, but after I posted my summer reading blog post, he recommended it again. So I finally read it. Bill Bryson is author most famous for […]

Breakfast with Buddha

Roland Merullo 2008
Read: 2023
Fiction, Reading Now, Spirtuality

OK. I love this book. It’s one of the few books I’ve read where, after I finished it, I immediately began reading it a second time. I’ve written about it in two separate blog posts, and I have many friends who have read it and loved it after I suggested it to them. It’s a […]

Playing for Pizza

John Grisham 2010
Read: 2023
Fiction

I can always read a John Grisham novel. This one is not a legal thriller, though there are lawyers involved. I’m not sure JG is allowed to write a book without mentioning the word lawyer. Part of his contract of something. Anyway, it’s about a down on his luck NFL quarterback who needs a new […]

Demon Copperhead

Barbara Kingsolver 2022
Read: 2023

I was reading my news feed, and I saw an article about Barbara Kingsolver winning this year’s Pulitzer Prize for literature with her newest book, Demon Copperhead. I don’t need much of an excuse to read a Barbara Kingsolver novel. I’ve loved The Lacuna, The Poisonwood Bible, and many more. This one does not disappoint. She has a […]

Fish!: A Proven Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results


Read: 2023
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

If you have ever been to the Pike Street Fish Market in Seattle, it’s a fun and joyful place. These three authors researched what makes it such a great place to work, and then they started using it as a motivational tool for individuals. This is a super quick read, and here are the four […]

The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy

Jon Gordon 2007
Read: 2022
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

This is a super fun book. Even though it was published before The Power of Positive Leadership, I read it afterwards. This is written as a fable – a tale of a bus full of positive people with positive energy and their impact on a rather negative man whose life is not going the way he […]

The Power of Positive Leadership

Jon Gordon 2017
Read: 2022
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

When I started as superintendent of the Placentia – Yorba Linda Unified School District, they had already adopted the theme of positive leadership for the year. I read Jon Gordon’s Positive Leadership as I explored the theme. Those of you who know me know that I am extremely optimistic and relentlessly positive. Unlike Candide, I do not […]

Today Matters: 12 Practices to Guarantee Tomorrow’s Success


Read: 2023
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

My friend Rick Lopez is a devout follower and fan of John Maxwell. Since Rick is probably the most organized and intentional person I’ve ever met in my life, I figured I should familiarize myself with Mr. Maxwell’s thinking. “Pulitzer prize-winning journalist William Allen White observed, ‘Multitudes of people have failed to live for today. […]

Sweet Land of Liberty: A History of American in 11 Pies

Rossi Anastopoulo
Read: 2023
Cooking, Non-Fiction

In the debate on best desserts. and in the pie vs. cake debate, pie wins for me 100% of the time. Ive had some good carrot cakes, and I’ll eat a sheet cake with a whipped cream frosting, but pie rules. So when I saw that this book was written, I had to read it.  […]