By: Alana Hayes on March 31, 2023
Stephen King’s book “On Writing – A Memoir of the Craft” is both a book on his writing craft and a personal account of his long career as a master storyteller. The author takes readers on an intimate journey through his writing problems, creative process, and insights into being a successful writer in today’s competitive…
By: Alana Hayes on March 31, 2023
Although geological knowledge and technical expertise are needed for gold mining, a different sort of prospecting is required for the mining of leaders. Coaching is essential for turning an individual into a strong leader. However there are some other keys such as time, patience, and a willingness to experiment with new methods. “We sometimes judge…
By: Alana Hayes on March 31, 2023
Um, hello body…. This is your captain speaking… is your transmitter that’s regulating all of your body’s dopamine levels turned on? While I appreciated your initial interest and motivation – I wonder if you have maybe taken on too much. This is the conversation that I wanted to have with my body after reading this…
By: Michael O'Neill on March 30, 2023
Consuming Religion Consuming Religion, Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture by David Miller is an insightful look at how consumer culture has affected religious beliefs and practices over the past century. Miller uses economic justice, environmental ethics, and postmodern theory, among other things, to show how much consumerism has taken over our lives.…
By: Audrey Robinson on March 30, 2023
Peter G. Northouse, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus of Communication in the School of Communication at Western Michigan University. Northouse has spent over 30 years teaching leadership. His book, Leadership: Theory and Practice, is the world’s best-selling academic textbook on leadership.[1] Once you open the book and start to review the table of contents, you…
By: Troy Rappold on March 30, 2023
Patrick J. Deneen finished writing, Why Liberalism Failed, three weeks before the 2016 presidential election. Although unplanned, the timing was impeccable, and in part, explains why this book has made such a big splash. This book is not about policy and whether Republicans or Democrats have the best approaches. This book speaks to the cultural…
By: Kristy Newport on March 27, 2023
Personality, by Daniel Nettle, has been sitting in a pile of books on my shelf, ready to read, for a couple of months. I looked forward to reading this book as I typically enjoy books on psychology and any information which will aid me in helping clients in my clinical practice. Unfortunately, I found this…
By: Russell Chun on March 27, 2023
Ready or not MAGA hats, t-shirts and banners will be resurfacing again in preparation for the U.S. Presidential Election. Whether you agree or not, the above slogan speaks to Duffy’s comment. “Our analysis of Donald Trump’s success in the United States showed how ‘nativism’ –the sense that your own people, those born in the country,…
By: David Beavis on March 26, 2023
“Just do buy it.” Living in Portland means visiting the Nike employee store at least once. Nike is based in Beaverton (a suburb of Portland). Many of the congregants at the church I serve at work are Nike employees. About a year ago, I got my first Nike Employee Store pass. I entered the store…
By: Alana Hayes on March 26, 2023
Vincent Miller reveals how consumerist ideas have crept into our religious activities, by putting more of an emphasis on consumerism than on a deep spiritual connection. This commercialization of religion has the potential to be detrimental. Miller states that people must give up the materialistic ideals embedded in their beliefs if they are to completely…
By: Noel Liemam on March 26, 2023
“Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding,” by Bobby Duffy, reminded us how much we needed to look to each other for guidance and at the same time to be vigilant about seeking what matter most. And not only that but the truth may never be the common knowledge or what…
By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on March 25, 2023
We are consumers. In Matthew 9, we see Jesus having compassion on crowds that came to him as sheep without a shepherd. In July 1990, I was in Kigali and attended Reinhard Bonnke in a crowd of thousands of others hungry and passionate to hear and hope in Jesus. In September of the same year,…
By: Kally Elliott on March 25, 2023
“If you don’t like TikTok it’s because you haven’t spent enough time on it. Once they figure out which mental illness you have, your celebrity crushes, and which cute animal you like the most…it gets really good.” (random internet meme) This meme is not only humorous, it is true, and it’s talking about me. I…
By: Dinka Utomo on March 24, 2023
“There is a strong linear relationship between confidence and being wrong” -Bobby Duffy- One of the main things in this book that challenges my comfort zone in thinking is when Bobby Duffy also references the theory of the Dunning-Kruger effect, which identified that the illusory superiority bias—our tendency to think we’re better than others—has…
By: Jana Dluehosh on March 24, 2023
It is not lost on me that most of our books this semester has been about being wrong, or solving a problem or a “how to” book. Pursuing a doctorate (imposter syndrome not withstanding) takes a certain level of confidence and belief in ourselves that we have something the world needs. What if we are…
By: Audrey Robinson on March 24, 2023
Us versus Them Vincent Miller’s work in Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture is not an ‘Us’ (Christianity) versus ‘Them’ (Consumerism) read. Instead, Miller has taken a unique approach that provides the reader with a description of ‘Them,’ i.e., consumerism and all its tentacles in culture, and insights into how the Church…
By: Adam Harris on March 23, 2023
I can still remember a few times as a kid when I believed I had been “left behind”. Meaning I thought Jesus had come, taken my family, and left me behind on earth. Just watch the movies. I grew up in a faith tradition that preached all kinds of ideas around the “end times”. These…
By: Esther Edwards on March 23, 2023
I must confess, just by reading the title, I did not envision this book to be on my desired “must read” list of books for the semester. Why? Because I don’t like to think I’m wrong about nearly everything. I went to the doctor this week and stepped on the scale. Shockingly, it showed that…
By: Scott Dickie on March 23, 2023
It appears that authors who feel compelled to tell the rest of us that we are generally misinformed and delusional are witty and entertaining writers. That is probably a necessary ingredient in a book that is repeatedly telling us how wrong we are about most things! In this respect, Duffy’s “Why We’re Wrong About Nearly…
By: Roy Gruber on March 23, 2023
Patrick Deneen serves as a professor of Political Science at Notre Dame University. His book Why Liberalism Failed offers a scathing review of the current state of cultural alienation and emptiness that the author attributes to liberalism. Often, failure comes from one or more issues detrimental to an effort. Deneen offers a counterintuitive premise for…
