Choosing Life

Archive for the ‘Book Reviews’ Category

I’ve recently begun reading How to Be A Hepburn in a Hilton World by Jordan Christy (I used to be her RA at Belmont! Small world). I am currently about half-way through and think Jordan has done a great job. I wanted to share with you one of my favorite excepts about friendship:

Anyone can speak, but it takes intelligence, self-control, and maturity to set our own interestes aside and focus our attention on the needs and concerns of someone else for a change. Not only is it hard to feel validated in a relationship where you can’t get a word in edgewise, it’s just not a lot of fun. A good friendship is built on the mutual sharing of ideas, dreams, concerns and fears. If we find ourselves on the short end of the sharing stick, it might be difficult to keep the friendship going. And one way we can learn to identify a good listener is by being a great one ourselves.

We can start by asking about our friend’s day and then shutting up. We can inquire about our coworker’s weekend and then just let them talk about it. Or we can simply stop fiddling with our phones and BlackBerrys long enough to make eye contact and let them know we’re genuinely interested in hearing what they have to say. In our drive-up, fly-by, fast-talking society, listening is a lost art. But I’m convinced that we classy ladies can be the ones to bring it back.

Oh, may she be right.

This passage has encouraged me to think about how I approach friendships, my time with students and colleagues. Not only that, but it helped me really think about the friends I have who are great listeners, and how grateful I am for them!

Are you a good listener? Or is this an area where you, like me, need to be a little more Hepburn and a little less Hilton?

Check out Jordan’s book here:

I love strengths. I love anything based on positive psychology and helping people learn to be their best selves. So when I had the chance to review Marcus Buckingham’s newest book in this area titled Find Your Strongest Life I jumped on it.

Buckingham’s newest book originated from a realization he had while visiting the Oprah show– that despite progress in women’s rights over the last several decades, women are profoundly unhappy and under a great deal of pressure. Reading one personal story after another, Buckingham set out to determine what makes women happy and successful- what is different about those women than other unhappy women.

I have to admit– I found this book rather slow moving. I took the “Strong Life Test” before I got the book to discover my “lead” and “supporting” roles. I was anxious to discover more about those and how to apply them to my life. However, the chapter with this information did not even begin until 97 pages in. Leading up to the 97th page was a lot of information about how unhappy women are and why living a strong life is important. I liked the information about the different roles, but I think there is still a lot of room for developing these roles deeply like StrengthsQuest.

I will say that I felt my results of the Strong Life Test were pretty spot on with who I am. My lead role is caretaker and my supporting role is creator. I would have liked to see Buckingham expound about each of these roles more than he did, but I do think that they make sense and help affirm things I do well.

Overall, I think that Find Your Strongest Life is an interesting book, and that the Strong Life Roles seem to make sense. I would like to see further development of these things, including a better test, and more research on validity of the tool. Find Your Strongest Life is not my favorite of Buckingham’s book, however, it is still somewhat helpful in the quest to better understand one’s self. Overall though, I think this book is really best for working mothers, but there is not much for women who are single career women.

It goes without saying that we have all found ourselves paralyzed by fear at one time or another. Whether it was based on real life circumstance or paranoia that a fear might come, we can all sympathize with the grip fear has on our lives. I just finished reading Max Lucado’s newest book, “Fearless”, which focuses on many typical areas of fear that often paralyze us. In each chapter Lucado offers witty over-exgagerated examples of each of these specific fears and supplements them with a Biblical example when believers are encouraged to trust God’s hand and provision.

Remember this post about my excitement for Donald Miller’s new book? Well, now you can read part of it right here on my blog. I love how high tech Thomas Nelson Publishers are!

A Million Miles In A Thousand Years by Donald Miller

My second year at Belmont University, I had the privilege of serving as an RA for 60 pretty awesome freshman women. I got the chance to walk alongside them and learn so much about my life and who I was created to be from them. All of these women are awesome, and I am grateful to have known them.

With that said you can imagine my pride when I see one of them on the Today show for a book that she authored that is titled “How to be a Hepburn in a Hilton World”. I’ve read a snip-it of it and I think she’s right on target!

Clink the link above to watch the Today Show peice or, click here to order her book on Amazon!

I recently signed up for Thomas Nelson Publisher’s Blogger Book Review program. This program allows bloggers to receive copies of Thomas Nelson’s newest books to read and review. It’s a pretty great deal, because I just get to do what I love– read and write, and get free material to do those things! Without further ado, here is my first book review for this!

I was initially drawn to Andy Stanley’s “The Principle of the Path” for the sub-titles on the cover– “How to get from where you are to where you want to be”. As someone who is hoping to move a community from one place to another, I thought this might have some great insight for my work and life.

Stanley’s thesis is pretty clear from the beginning- the choices we make determine our outcome. Making a series of poor choices probably will result in some poor outcomes. While this point is true, and something I hope my students learn during college, that seems to be the meat of the book. Each subsequent chapter outlines more examples of how people were faced with choices and how those choices led them to where they were. I kept hoping the next chapter would provide new information, or more advice on guiding one’s self or organization down the path to where we want to go. But, I felt like Stanley left me hanging.

I will say though, the book was a fairly easy read and his examples are relatable. While I felt like I needed something more and deeper from this book, I do think there are those in the world need to know that making reckless choices now will only harm them in the end. I would recommend this book for those who would like encouragement in the truth that making wise choices now is making a choice for goodness in your life. I wouldn’t rank it at the top of my favorite books list, but it certainly is not at the bottom either.

You can find this book on Amazon here.

I just pre-ordered this: