My 2018 Summer Reading List
I don’t know about you, but summer always comes with the hope of a little slower pace and windows of time to read. Not that summer doesn’t have its own important tasks, but there just seems to be a little extra time to push pause…and develop knowledge and abilities that will be needed in the days ahead.
You’ll note that this is not a list of small group ministry books (or even ministry books). Ideas that open doors to what’s possible come most frequently when exposed to the work in other fields.
Ideas that open doors to what's possible come most frequently when exposed to the work in other fields. Share on X
Every year I post a summer and Christmas reading list. Here are my previous lists.
Here are the books I have on my 2018 summer reading list:
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink. I’ve heard Pink on a couple podcasts this spring talking about the research behind this book and can’t wait to jump into it. Seems it will have real application to my work going forward.
Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility by Patty McCord. McCord’s experience at Netflix, where she helped build a unique and high-performing culture, make this required reading for anyone interested in shaping corporate culture.
The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip and Dan Heath. I’ve been intrigued by this one since it published in October of 2017. Understanding how to design moments will serve me well in my work.
Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations by Thomas L. Friedman. Over the years I’ve been held captive over and over by Friedman’s writing. Always on wide-ranging ideas and topics. He is an “explanatory journalist.” And if you’ve ever read his work, you will understand what that means.
Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More by Morten Hansen. Co-author of Great by Choice, Hansen brings a lot to this topic. “Based on a five-year research study of 5,000 managers and employees, which resulted in seven practices that the best of them share.”
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle. I’ve been on a hunt for the ideas at the center of building a high impact culture. In this book, Coyle “goes inside some of the world’s most successful organizations—including the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team Six, IDEO, and the San Antonio Spurs—and reveals what makes them tick.”
The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile. The road to building an effective leadership pathway and pipeline includes a better understanding of self-awareness and self-discovery. Although I’ve been a little skeptical of the enneagram concept, this one looks very promising.
Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark. Although I’ve read quite a bit of short-form articles and posts on AI, I’ve been looking for a solid treatment of the subject and “there’s nobody better qualified or situated to explore that future than Max Tegmark, an MIT professor who’s helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial (New York Times).”
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I reread The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy this year and have never read these stories. Seems like it might be time.
Image by Andrew Siguenza
