Adam Shields Takeaway: People make bad decisions, Ariely shows us why. Predictably Irrational is all about behavioral economics. Dan Ariely, unlike most economists does not believe that people are essentially rational and able to weigh the pros and cons of decisions and make perfectly rational market-based decisions. Instead the basic thesis of this book is that people are … Read more
Divine Commodity is a provocative book. Probably the most provocative I have read since Flickering Pixels. (I ended up writing five blog posts about Flickering Pixels because it was so provocative. This is the last post with links to the others.) In many ways it is hard to argue with the basic idea that the … Read more
This is my first experience with the Modern Scholar Series. Basically these are college lectures packaged as audiobooks. If the rest of the series is the same as this one, then it is literally just a professor recording their lectures, sometimes with a voice over asking a question and the professor answering at the end … Read more
The idea of Follow Me to Freedom is that in order to be a good leader, you first have to be a good follower (of Christ). This book is an attempt to teach us about “followership” as Shane Claiborne puts it. I listened to this on audiobook. It is presented as a conversation format, alternating … Read more
Foster is known for a several classic Christian books, Celebration of Discipline and Prayer. These are both classics for a reason. I have also previously read his Freedom of Simplicity. This is not the classic that the first two are, but it is a good and useful in Foster’s attempt at drawing the church together. The … Read more
I bought an ipad. I have no real idea how good it is to read on yet because I am still playing with it. I will write a reading review someday, when I actually finish a book on it. The best thing about lack of multi tasking, is that you have to close the reading … Read more
I am a big fan of Christopher Buckley’s fiction (I have not read any of his non-fiction yet.) No one writes better political satire than Buckley. So far I have read Supreme Courtship (about the nomination of a TV judge to the Supreme Court) and No Way To Treat a First Lady (about a former … Read more
There are several books on virtue/character/ethics that have come out in the last couple months. I am currently reading NT Wright’s After You Believe and Tim Keller’s Prodigal God and a new biography on Bonhoeffer but Steve Chalke and Alan Mann’s book Different Eyes: The Art of Living Beautifully may be the best of the … Read more
My wife had Spring Break last week (she is a 3rd grade teachers). I had two days of meetings in Chicago. What that meant was a half vacation/half work week. It was the first time in four years that my wife had been back to Chicago. We were booked wall to wall with friends and … Read more
I have had several people ask me how I find good books. My first response is almost always, “When you read enough you find at least some good books.” But the second more serious response is I read recommendations of others and I take them seriously. I almost always look at reviews on Amazon. I … Read more