Book Genre: Non-Fiction

Leading with Focus

Michael J. Schmoker 2016
Read: 2017
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

Schmoker’s original book, simply called Focus, remains one of my favorite educational books of all time. Schmoker’s point remains the same: schools need to narrow their focus on what they are trying to do. His three major pushes are for schools to have a coherent curriculum, have sound lessons, and teach literacy. In other words, […]

Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want

Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy 2016
Read: 2018
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

I am a big goal-setter. I find that I am much more focused and driven when I write down my goals or when I have target events to shoot for. If I have neither, I can kind of drift. This book caught my attention because it was recommended by many and it clearly focuses on […]

Know How

Ram Charan 2007
Read: 2016
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

I actually did not find a lot of application for this book for the public education sector. If I were starting a charter school or an internet-based school, two ideas that will continue to grow and shape the education scene, then I might be more interested in examining this book more closely. But I did […]

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette

Hampton Sides 2015
Read: 2018
Non-Fiction

My wife recommended this book to me. It is a nonfiction story of an ill-fated journey to the north pole in the 1870’s. There were many theories about the north pole at that time, and one of them was that there was a large ring of ice around the arctic circle but inside that, once […]

How Will You Measure Your Life?

Clay Christensen 2012
Read: 2012
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

I had all of our administrators read this book this summer, and they loved it. He asks and advises on three questions. How can I be sure that: I will be successful and happy in my career? My relationships with my spouse, my children, and my extended family and close friends become an enduring source […]

How to Raise an Adult

Julie Lythcott-Haims 2015
Read: 2019
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

How to Raise an Adult, by Julie Lythcott-Haims (2015) I had the chance to hear Julia L-H speak near Stanford University last year. She is a highly enthusiastic person who has seen first hand the impact of children who are raised with helicopter parents. This book is about trying to avoid that helicopter syndrome, and […]

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

Jenny Odell 2019
Read: 2020
Non-Fiction

I can’t remember how I came across this book, but I’m glad I did. This is a very intellectual book that combines economics with art, literature, poetry and more. I think I understood the majority of it, but it will take a second read for me to get it all. The author’s main point is […]

How to be an Antiracist

Ibram X. Kendi 2019
Read: 2020
Non-Fiction

As the George Floyd protests rated in 2020, I made a commitment to read and learn more about how to address racism in our country. In terms of their impact on me, the two most influential books I read were this one and Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson. The premise of Mr. Kendi’s book is simple: Not […]

Horace’s Compromise and Horace’s School,

Ted Sizer 1984 and 1992
Read: 2010 or before
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

by Ted Sizer (1984 & 1992) These are books that came out in 1984, as I was beginning my teacher preparation master’s program, and 1992, as I was entering my first principalship. Both of these books have had profound influences on me and my leadership of schools. In short, Ted Sizer gets secondary schools. He […]

Hillbilly Elegy

J.D. Vance 2016
Read: 2017
Non-Fiction

This is a New York Times Bestseller book about a lawyer in San Francisco who grew up in the self-described hillbilly lifestyle in the Appalachian Mountains. My dad recommended it to me and he was right! It’s a great reminder of how cultures can stymie us into not wanting anything beyond what we have. It […]

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Angela Duckworth 2016
Read: 2017
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

Grit is the story about how we often are quick to praise students for their natural ability. We don’t as often praise students for the hard work that it takes to be successful. Grit gives example after example of how successful people in our world today may certainly be impacted by their level of natural […]

Golf is Not a Game of Perfect

Bob Rotella 1995
Read: 2017
Non-Fiction

Here’s another golf book that deals very little with technique. Nothing about backswing, follow-through, speed of the swing or any of those things. It is just about mindset, focus, and attitude. Having that concentration it takes to do a job well and then enjoying the rest of the time with whomever you are playing with. […]

Getting Things Done

David Allen 2001
Read: 2011
Non-Fiction, Reading Now

When I started teaching at age 22, with just two large classes in a high powered high school, I had great ideas. About 10% of my great ideas turned out to be pretty good lesson plans. But behind all of the ideas, there was a jumble. I struggled to keep up with all of the […]

Get Some Headspace

Andy Puddicombe 2012
Read: 2016
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

In the 2015-16 school year, we made our first foray into bringing mindfulness into our classrooms. We trained all of our elementary teachers in the MindUp program.  This program is designed to teach our students about how the brain works, how stress can overload the brain, how having little or no downtime prevents the brain […]

From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership

Harry M. Kraemer 2011
Read: 2019
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

I read this book in preparation for the fall 2019 meeting of Consortium 2032, our group of seven school districts who work together towards continuous improvement. Mr. Kraemer is a resident of New Trier, Chicago, which is where our Consortium was hosted and has spoken to the leaders of that school district many times. He […]

Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto

Aaron Franklin and Jordan Mackay 2015
Read: 2020
Cooking, Non-Fiction

Some of you who know me know that I love to cook, and I love to barbecue on my Big Green Egg. Whenever I go to any place in the south, and lots of places in Los Angeles as well, I try to find great barbecue. There’s great barbecue in Arkansas where I grew up, […]

Focus: Elevating the Essentials To Radically Improve Student Learning

Mike Schmoker 2011
Read: 2011
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

I love this book. Love it. Mike Schmoker, a long advocate of using data to guide instruction, brings so many of his ideas together here. He has written a simple and direct book that basically says we just need to do two things well: Check for understanding and Promote excellent reading and writing skills. Some quotes: […]

The Flip Side: Break Free of The Behaviors that Hold You Back

Flip Flippin 2007
Read: 2014
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

I heard Flip Flippen speak at a conference. He’s an incredible force. He’s adopted children from around the world and made an incredible difference in their lives. His message is one of caring, building relationships and leading with the heart. He also has many ideas for maximizing our own potential. He has programs for schools, […]

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

Loung Ung 2000
Read: 2017
Non-Fiction

I read this book as I prepared for our trip to Cambodia in December of 2017. I had been trying to get our family to go to Cambodia for three years now. My brother-in-law has been the British Ambassador to Cambodia since 2014. He and his family have been inviting us over to visit them […]

Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, & American Business

Chris Fenton 2020
Read: 2020
Non-Fiction

It’s always nice to gain insight on people you already know from a book that they write and publish. Chris and Jen Fenton live right here in Manhattan Beach, and it was great to read Chris’s description of American businesses trying to work in and with China over the past decade. Filled with personal anecdotes, […]

Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury 1951
Read: 2013
Non-Fiction, Recommended for Young Adults

I reread this book after Ray Bradbury died. It was my way of paying homage to a great thinker. I was struck by his prediction of reality TV, something that existed neither when he wrote it nor when I read it in the 1970s, and how it sucks people in. His version of Big Brother […]

Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life

William Deresiewicz 2014
Read: 2015
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

This book was recommended to me by a Mira Costa graduate who is now a college sophomore. It is a damning report on the level of instruction at the college level. Having had a son just go through college, I believe that great teaching in many colleges is the exception. It also discusses how our […]

Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching

Charlotte Danielson 2007
Read: 2013
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

We are doing a lot of work on teacher evaluation in MBUSD, and Charlotte Danielson is regarded as one of the foremost experts on the subject. I worked with her many years ago on a teacher evaluation project in Santa Monica – Malibu USD, and I found her to be bright, engaging and completely passionate […]

Emotions, Learning, and the Brain

Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang 2015
Read: 2016
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

Manhattan Beach belongs to Consortium 2034, a group of school districts from across the country who work to better serve the needs of our similar communities. One of our regular contributors is a MBUSD parent, Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang. Dr. Immordino-Yang is a USC professor who has written this book and others, and speaks around […]