Posts in: books

Finished reading: Counting the Cost by Clemens Sedmak 📚

This book is a terrific exploration of what it means to integrate values into the work of organizational budgeting.

10/10 - required reading for mission leaders, faith-based organization executives, and finance leaders everywhere.

A quote from _Counting the Cost_, by Clemens Sedmak and Kelli Reagan Hickey: We claim that financial decisions are moral decisions and also spiritual decisions, decisions that reflect values, but also decisions that shed light on the ultimate questions of mission and purpose.

Finished reading: The Contagion of Liberty by Andrew M. Wehrman 📚

This was a great read! Wehrman helped me understand how the defense against smallpox was so intertwined with the American Revolution.

Unfortunately, we’ve largely forgotten how important inoculation is to our independence.

Finished reading: Managing Transitions (25th anniversary edition) by William Bridges 📚

Transition is like a low-pressure area on the organizational weather map. It attracts all the storms and conflicts in the area, past as well as present.

Confession: It was really hard to read this book without dwelling on the bad transitions I’ve experienced in the past. I hope I can contribute some positive value to the future transitions in which I will play a part.

Finished reading: All the Kingdoms of the World by Kevin Vallier 📚

In this critique of anti-liberal ideologies - primarily Catholic integralism - Vallier presents arguments for (history, symmetry) and against (transition, justice).

I love the note on which he ends.

This is what it means to be a liberal: to pursue the ever-present possibility of peace.

Amen.

Finished reading: Bizarre Bioethics by Henk A.M.J. ten Have 📚

This book contains a welcome call to bioethicists: pivot focus from the individual to society as a whole. The common good must be reclaimed.

Fort Collins bookstore pays people to sit down and read quietly

The reader-in-residence doesn’t have to write an essay. They don’t have to host a book club or moderate a panel discussion. They don’t have to contribute to a blog or create sponsored content. They don’t have to do anything, except show up to the bookstore a couple of times per week and read.

This is my dream job. 🤓

Finished reading: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz 📚

A quick read & nice reminder of a few universal truths:

  • We are formed by our first family
  • Love yourself so that you may love others
  • The words we use have power

Don’t take anything personally.

You are never responsible for the actions of others…

Finished reading: The Utopia of Rules by David Graeber 📚

This book brought some structure to many ideas & concerns I’ve had about business, ministry, and politics. I will be drawing on it for some time.

I rank this among the best books I read in 2023 despite the fact that pages 185-200 were missing from the volume I purchased.