Peak Careers

Professional Development for Career Practitioners

Book Reviews

The Third Chapter by Sara Lawrence -Lightfoot

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The Third Chapter by Sara Lawrence -Lightfoot is a great book on understanding this Third Chapter of life and how we as career practitioners can help people successfully navigate aging.  She states this navigation requires curiosity, adaptability, engagement in new perspectives, skills, experiences, and vulnerability & uncertainty.  Yes, it complicated but millions of Boomers are facing this time in their life that will require assistance.

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She speaks to the developmental stage perspective using Bridges Transition work, Eriksons’ view of life span, and gerontologists Neugarten & Hagestad who say “people no longer move from adulthood to old age, but instead go through a relatively long interval when physical vigor remains high, family responsibilities are low, and commitment to work continues but changes.”

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How To Get Any Job With Any Major

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How To Get Any Job With Any Major (or how to avoid living in your parent’s basement) by Don Asher

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As I write this, we looking to bring Don Asher to Colby College this spring and I wanted to read this book in preparation for his visit.  I have seen Don present at the Middle Atlantic Career Counseling Association and was very impressed.

This book was no disappointment.   Like Don, this is a very practical honest view of what college age people should be doing (and not doing) if they want to find work.  He says, “the purpose of college is to find what makes you happy.” and that colleges “should also give you the skills to do that.”  There are still lots of people that look to colleges for specific work skills and the reality is that colleges help expand thinking, culture, and discovery by introducing people to a variety of subject areas and activities on campus.

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Lobster Coast by Colin Woodard

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Subtitle is: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier.

Having lived here in Maine since 1984, I have always been fascinated with this “Maine mystic” and although I’ll never be a “native” I think my kids will be (at least I hope so).

The author takes us back to the beginnings of the Maine settlements before we were part of Massachusetts even and how those hard nosed Scots and Irishman settled the Mid Coast and the French settled DownEast (next to New Brunswick) and how that made a difference in the independence that has become a personality trait of Mainers.  I love that he speaks about a fish house built on Monhegan Island (my wife and my favorite places) that was built in 1780 that is more than 170 years AFTER the first Europeans began fishing here!

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The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want. by Sonja Lyubomirsky

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The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach To Getting The Life You Want.  By Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph. D.

This book came recommended to me at a Pre-Conference session I attended at NCDA in Boston this year.  A curious title for a curious Peacock 🙂   I knew I liked this when I read this quote from Aristotle, “Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life…”

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A Thousand Splendid Suns. by Khaled Hosseini

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Once again, Khaled has taken me to Afghanistan with this story about how lives were affected by the numerous recent wars in Afghanistan. He shares the struggles and horrors of how families had to survive during the wars and the Taliban take over. In particular this story about two women’s lives and how they were affected.
Great book, did not want to put it down.

A World On Fire. Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War by Amanda Foreman

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Public radio was talking about this book and how the author did such a great job of introducing us to a whole new view of our Civil War… from the Brit’s perspective.  I really enjoyed the book, I learned so much, and understand better how intricate the relationship was between Britain and US,  but it felt more like a history lesson at the end for me than an enjoyable ‘read’.