Book Reviews

By Joshua M. Powell

If you’ve hiked the PCT or other long-distance trails, you’ll enjoy this take on the experience of hiking for days. Its hard to do a book on the PCT these days because so many have been done, but this is a fresh look at the trail in many ways.

He is a list maker. He has lists for songs that were going thru his head in a section, to daily notes with weather (and more), struggles he was going thru, toponyms (how the names of rivers, peaks, etc… came about), and more. So many of these made me smile because they reminded me of that section. i.e. the mosquitoes in Oregon…wow! I’d forgotten about them until I read his section on OR.

He is an amazing artist as well and includes all images he’s drawn of sign posts, building, mountain peaks, flowers, animals, people, and more.

I really liked his little “Ask a thru-hiker” stories he scattered throughout. I had this book for a long time and was not motivated to read another book on the PCT but once I started, I could not put it down. It was so enjoyable and brought back so many memories of what I was thinking and experiencing at the time.

By Nicholas Sparks and Micah Sparks

Of course Nicholas Sparks has written many great novels, from the Notebook, Message in a Bottle, The Guardian, and many more, but this touching book is about him growing up with his brother Micah and sister Dana and their strange parents. I still shake my head about some of the things they did or didn’t do with those kids.

But they turned out fine, mostly. One of the strangest things they did was that Dana and Nicholas shared a birthday and they would only celebrate Dana’s birthday “because she was a girl and the younger one.” They were poor, but this still boggles my mind.

The three weeks with his brother happened while Nicholas was extremely busy writing books and doing book tours and Micah was busy with his own business, both had families, and they took a 3-week trip around the world together. Enjoying the moments and reflecting back on their childhood.

I thought I had read this book many years ago and wanted to send it to my brother Mark who is one of my closest friends (Just like the Sparks brothers) and thought I’d just flip through it again. Turns out it had been on my shelf all these years and I had never read it :-O

So I did. I can’t wait to mail it Mark so he can read it. A wonderful book filled with times when you laugh and times to cry.

By Jonathan Fields

OK, who needs another personality assessment? I do! I do!

Well, actually I don’t, but I sure like this one. You can take the free assessment to learn more about what makes you tick (see website).

What I love about this one is that he really gets to the motivation behind the person and reveals the patterns in your past that demonstrate that motivation.

If you know what motivated you in the past, then you know what will motivate you in the future. So why not discover this now and find ways to get MORE of what gives you energy.

My primary sparktype is The Advisor and my motto is “I guide to grow.” I agree as the things that bring me joy are helping others discover ways to improve their work and/or lives. I think about my career coaching, my online seminars, the FCD class, my book, and my blogs and realize that it is about being interactive with people and based upon the relation. It really is about helping others grow in their own way.

It is not about giving “advice” but really listening to what people are saying and being aware of their own needs and then “nudging” them to move forward. My tag line for my Field Guide for Career Practitioners is “Helping Clients Create Their Next Move” which fits the Advisor well.

My “shadow” sparktype is The Sage. “I awaken insight”, illumination is my calling. A shadow type is a big part of who I am but it is secondary to my primary sparktype of Advisor. The shadow tends to be how people do things and the primary is the real motivation.

The Sage is all about the process of sharing and transferring insights and can take many different forms. For me, I do it in workshops, writing my book, delivering online seminars, and more.

I am still exploring this book and the concepts and plan to give it to more clients and friends to see the results.

His Expression Inventory still needs work. I’ve started it but want to let it simmer a bit more before I return to it.

The author has you create an inventory of tasks, tools, and topics that you have done which fall into these four categories:
1) Paid Work
2) Leisure
3) Roles (parents, volunteers, etc…)
4) Classes

It is his way of visually showing you what you have done in the past for your sparktype so that you can then build on that in the future.

I needed an escape book for my flight to California and I had this small paperback book- perfect. Gotta love Sidney Sheldon for taking me on an underground spy trip that had more twists and turns than the “going to the sun highway” in Glacier National Park.

The ending was a “holy crap” kind of ending but I said it out loud and slightly differently. And then he gives all kinds of real data on UFO’s from a number of different governments and authorities…now this is all I can think about three days after finishing.

Loved the book and found myself reading “one more page” all the time.

People need to know this Dr. Farmer and his work.

He is Dr. Paul Farmer is close to Mother Teresa in his work to help the poor across the world, but mostly in Haiti. He not only is a doctor but he also specialized in anthropology so he has an unique view of the world and a special place in his heart for the poor.

Because of this and his work in one of the poorest regions of Haiti (which qualifies as one of the poorest places in the world) he helped create cures for TB and many other diseases.

He worked locally in Haiti and in Boston as a doctor, flying back and forth. PLUS, the would speak all over the world about ways to improve the health care system for the poor. He was the “go to” guy for the World Health Organization (WHO) on many topics but also for many other global organizations.

He created clinics in Peru, worked with the Russian prison system, and so much more.

This is a piece of history more people should know about. Loved this book.

Highly recommend this one.