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Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in The Second Half of Life. By Arthur C. Brooks

This book was written to the “workaholics” of the world and how to navigate slowing down and reprioritizing life. I must say, although I worked hard and often long hours throughout my life, I always made time for family and friends and play. Here’s a quote near the end of the book:

Use things.
Love people.
Worship the Divine.

“Things” have never been a priority for me. After my near death experience in 1984 it confirmed to me that owning “things” was not important. People, have always been my top priority. And this book confirmed that.

His premise is that, just like athletes who have a peak physical point in their lives which is maybe mid-30’s, we all have a peak intellectual time in our lives which is probably in our late 40’s to early 50’s which he calls our fluid intelligence.

Fluid intelligence is what drives us to be creative, solve complex problems, and helps us move up in our careers. It is our strength as we build our career. But it wains as we get older. The good news is that we tend to gain a new strength which he calls, crystallized intelligence which is the kind of intelligence that gives us a more mature view of things.

Crystallized intelligence gains ground as fluid intelligence wains, and crystallized intelligence never wains. As we get older we get better at making connections, seeing broader themes, best defined as wisdom. I think explains why what I want to do now in my life is mentor more people rather than “coach” people.

I love how he ends with making your weakness your strength which helps us see that no matter what our weakness is (aging for example) we should accept it and know that failure happens to us all. (Failure Makes Me Happy) So be authentic, share your weaknesses with others and be vulnerable. It makes people accept us as human. Take this weakness and know that there are lessons to be learned that we can share with others so they can be better.

A thought-provoking book that I recommend to any workaholics out there and others who are in the second half of their lives.

Note: He talks about hiking the Camino de Santiago with his son and I learned that the translation of this trail is Way of Saint James. This trail exudes the value of walking and spending time alone or with a few friends. Which is what I love to do! My time backpacking with Rees and Howard over 40 years on the Pacific Crest Trail, Long Trail, Colorado Trail, and other hikes confirms the importance of this. (Inhale the Future. Exhale the Past.)

**If you’d like to read another review on this book, my good friend Scott Woodard recently also wrote his. Check it out here.

By Catherine Ryan Hyde (Author of Paying It Forward)

What a great book about the struggles of individuals to “get it right.” A couple of the characters are really trying to do right but end up doing some things wrong…and they pay for it unfortunately.

I love how the author takes us back in forth in time from a “5-year-old Leonard” to a “25-year-old Leonard” as well as writing the chapters from the two main characters points of view. Often from the same scene.

There are twists and turns and heartbreak and I was never sure what was going to happen until the final chapter. Loved this book and gave it to my wife before it was due back at the library and she’s loving it too.

Gain Career Coaching Knowledge and Empower Your Teen with Quick, Easy Activities to Find Career Direction. By Amy Zdanowski

I met Amy at the Michigan Career Development Association conference in 2023 and we talked about her book she was working on then. Well this year, April 2024, she has her book!

I love this very insightful book which is written to the parents of teens who want to help their teens but are not sure how. Amy breaks down not only what is important but what to avoid. i.e. don’t ask what your passion is

Her advice on exploring work style preferences and interests is simple and constructive. She introduces both concepts in easy to understand terms and provides examples so that people can understand how Data, People, Things, and Ideas plays out in work preferences. And then gives activities your teen can do to understand the concepts too.

She introduces the Holland theory and does the same model, examples and activities to support them. She also shares a number of online resources to help in this process.

If you are a parent who wants to help your teens explore their career development, this is a great book to help you. It is current and based upon Amy’s many years of experience as a school counselor and college career advisor.

Find it now at Amazon

By Adam Higginbotham

Yikes! What else is Russian not telling us? They cut corners in building nuclear plants in the 1970’s and never told anyone about the problems they had. When Three Mile Island had their accident, Russia had already had a number of accidents, but no one knew about it.

Chernobyl was scary how bad it was and how many people had been contaminated, but even scarier in that the government tried to hide the issues over and over and over. Even when responsible Russians who worked on the project raised issues, no one wanted to talk about it. Then it blew up.

This book is filled with inside information and details on what happened. If you are remotely interested in understanding how nuclear power works and, in some cases, does not work, this book is for you.

Loved this book with all the character development of a family of sisters in the Chicago area. The lesson here for me is that people are not always what they appear. The author does a great job of showing us the different sisters and William who ends up marrying into the family and that their actions do not always reflect what is going on inside them.

The pain and struggles within the family come out throughout the book, often in unexpected ways. My heart went out to each person’s struggles in a different way as the family grew apart over the years. There were times I cried just thinking about how difficult it must have been for them individually.

There is so much more I’d like to say but I don’t want to give away any of the surprise twists and turns throughout this book. Let me just say, this is a wonderful book and I hope you enjoy reading it someday.