General Reaction: Great book on how businesses should be run.
Star rating: 3.5 out of 5
General Plot Synopsis: In this book, Malloch investigates the Spiritual Capital built by companies and how that capital helps them become and stay great enterprises.
Extended Reaction: When picking out this book, I was greatly intrigued by the fact that the book had been featured on PBS (my son has become hooked onto the PBS show Word World in recent months). I thought this was a great book. When you have books like Jim Collins’ Good to Great and Built to Last that take a look at the organizational structure it is highly enlightening to see the spiritual aspect to what makes companies great and where others fall short. If you are looking for a book that focuses on how Christian businesses work, this is not the book for you. The author’s main aim was to define the term Spiritual Capital (and that Spiritual Capital doesn’t mean that it is primarily Spiritual Capital, he looks at companies that range the spectrum of religious belief) and show how it affects the success and impact of the businesses that employ it.
Gut Reaction: Not quite the book that I was expecting, but a good book overall.
Rating: 3 out of 5
General Plot Synopsis: The trick about giving a general plot synopsis for a book like this is that the book really doesn’t have a plot. This book is similar to Now, That’s a Good Question by R. C. Sproul. This is basically a question and answer book where Max Lucado takes letters and other questions that he has received over the years and puts his answers in book form.
Extended Reaction: Before grabbing this book, I probably should have done a little research. If I had, I probably would have had a better gut reaction to this book. I was expecting typical Max Lucado style like He Still Moves Stones or He Chose the Nails. I was pleasantly surprised though at how much I enjoyed the book. While I don’t agree with Max theologically on every issue, it was an interesting look into Max’s mind where you could really see his heart for the people he has been leading for so many years. If you are a pastor or someone who regularly gets questions about what the Bible says about different everyday life issues, this would be a good book to add to your library.
David Ponder is at it again…actually, he gets dragged into it again. David Ponder is now 74 years old when Gabriel decides to visit him and pull him and all previous Travellers to save the world…literally…humanity is on a crash course with destruction and the Travellers must figure out how to save it…
We first met David Ponder in The Traveller’s Gift where he first learned the 7 decisions that determine personal success. I loved that book and with The Final Summit Andy Andrews has done it again. What I like the most about Andy’s books is that he teaches major life lessons using stories that intrigue you and pull you in. When you sit down to read an Andy Andrews book you don’t want to get up, you find yourself rifling through the pages as fast as you can. The Final Summit does not disappoint in this regard. Writing a review for a book like this is hard because it is such a good book that you really just want your reader to go buy the book…and experience it for themselves without being tainted by your own opinion. So, I will say it again…go buy the book…
Other (highly recommended) Books I have read by Andy Andrews:
One thing I love about being a BookSneeze.com blogger for Thomas Nelson Publishers is that through this program, I am able to read books that I may or may not normally read.
That was how I came across this book. A theme I am noticing is that actions have consequences, in a previous review, I reviewed The Butterfly Effect by Andy Andrews. Where The Butterfly Effect takes a look at the positive consequences of a person’s actions, Seeds of Turmoil takes a look at the negative and far reaching consequences of one man’s (Abraham) actions. He goes in depth into how the turmoil that we currently see in the Middle East is the result of decisions made 4,000 years ago. He talks about how because of those decisions, turmoil in the Middle East is inevitable.
Overall, I liked this book and was very impressed by the depth by which Bryant Wright digs into the history of the region and the turmoil that is inevitable. However, it did seem like the book got a little repetitive and could have ended a little earlier than it did. With all this in mind, I would definitely recommend this book to any serious scholar of the Bible (this is the version I use for my study) who wants to understand a little bit more the implications of the Biblical HIstorical Narrative on today’s events.
If you know me, then you know that since I stopped playing college football at Drake University and entered the “real world” and started driving a desk, I have been waging the battle of the bulge. So when Let’s Do Lunch was available through Thomas Nelson’s BookSneeze program, I decided to get the book to see what the author had to say.
I’ll first say that this is not your normal weight loss book, (I’ve read a few, listed at the end of this post). Roger Wilson never claims to be a health and/or fitness professional. What Roger does claim is that he lost 230 pounds using this plan and has kept it off for 15 years. Another anomaly is that throughout this plan you eat as much food as you want, what matters is the kind of food and when. The other non-health professional diet book that I have read is The Jerusalem Diet by Ted Haggard and they both share essentially the same approach in that the author is speaking from personal experience as to what has worked for them to lose the weight that they wanted. Where I feel this book falls short is the lack of medical evidence from a certified medical professional validating what the author is stating. The author does mention that his doctor’s weighed in and said that he was healthy, but I am a thinker, I want to know why the diet works, I didn’t feel like I got that with this book.
Do I recommend this book, yes, wholeheartedly because let’s face it, America is fat and will this book help people lose weight, yes. But this gets to my next point. In reading this book, and talking to people who work for another diet system (a potential customer of mine actually) I am noticing another alarming trend, less and less emphasis on working out or attaining a certain level of physical fitness. The author mentions briefly that working out is good, but he doesn’t really recommend working out. The other diet system actually discourages you from working out…that scares me…because it takes the focus off the real issue. Are you overweight, yes, but just attacking your weight is not going to solve your problem because you are losing weight to get healthy. Our bodies are an amazing machine that if properly functioning will heal itself and regulate itself. So the correct approach should be to get healthy to lose weight which includes exercise for the sheer benefit of making you healthier, that is why while as my schedule starts to become “normal” again as I approach my health and fitness and fight the battle of the bulge while I may borrow some ideas from this book (frozen grapes are amazing) my main tool will be P90X.
Related Books/Materials:
Let me know your thoughts/comments below…