Book Reviews

Designing Your New Work Life: How to Thrive and Change and Find Happiness-and new Freedom- at Work

By Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

I totally “get” these guys and love the way articulate how to make your next move in your career. Sometimes it is leaving but they recognize that sometimes it is a matter of redesigning your current job too.

Their advice is solid in that you have to prototype your next move and learn as much as you can about yourself, what you are looking for, and what is out there. You have to take “action” and then be “open to discovering things by accident” which is my philosophy of embracing “intentional serendipity.“

I also love their advice on reframing your situation. I feel like career coaches do this all the time with our student and clients. We help them take another perspective and give them hope.

This book is filled with perspective, hope, and solid advice in how to make your next move.

By Andrew Carroll

This was my bedside book for the past couple of months because the chapters are brief and independent of each other. So in the evening I would read a chapter on some lost or forgotten piece of American history and sleep peacefully…most of the time.

The author takes us to places that most people drive by and don’t know about the significant historical events. He starts with President Lincoln’s son Robert Todd being saved by a man when a train nearly crushed him. Turns out the man that saved him was the brother to John Wilkes Booth. Holy crap! What are the odds of that??

Well that was just the beginning of this book. Stories included the man who created a number of vaccines that ultimately have saved millions of lives (you’ve never heard of him, neither did it), and several organizations that placed orphans and indigent children in rural towns scattered throughout the mid-west. Often immigrants children who didn’t really want to go.

There are stories about forgotten graves and much more. I enjoyed this book and a lesson in all the small (and sometimes not so small) historical facts get lost unless someone tells us the story.

By Ronald C. White

Being from Maine and my interest in history, I knew about Joshua Chamberlain who fought at Gettysburg with the 20th Maine regiment and defended Little Round Top so famously. He was depicted in Ken Burns documentary of the Civil War and also in Shaara’s Killer Angels book.

This author dug deeper into the life of Joshua Chamberlain from his upbringing in a religious family which gave insight to his values, to his time at Bowdoin College as a student, later as a professor, and after the war as the President of Bowdoin.

He also served as the governor of Maine for 4 years when the terms were 1 year. Chamberlain lived a full life and had many decisions to make along his career path, which nearly led him to be a minister having completed a few years of the Bangor Theological School. His passion was learning new things but he also was gifted at reading people which served him well in war as well as the rest of his life.

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