I can’t believe that March is almost over and I have not yet shared my reading list with you. As I shared in previous posts, I have been keeping up with the reading, but I am falling woefully behind on book reviews. I hope to remedy that over the next couple of weeks. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I seem to have more time on my hands. On my trip to New York City via train and back, I was able to knock out three books. I will have to do that more often. Perhaps when the virus precautions are over. In the meantime, come and check out my reading list for March and read along with me.
March is another diverse month. Half the books are historical and the other set focus on business and productivity.
Here is what is on my reading list for March 2020:
The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic–and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson
I picked up this book while in New York City. It just happened to be the same time that the Coronavirus was starting to make the news. I was interested in how John Snow was able to isolate the cause of the epidemic. I thought the information would come in handy.
Via Amazon:
It’s the summer of 1854, and London is just emerging as one of the first modern cities in the world. But lacking the infrastructure-garbage removal, clean water, sewers-necessary to support its rapidly expanding population, the city has become the perfect breeding ground for a terrifying disease no one knows how to cure. As the cholera outbreak takes hold, a physician and a local curate are spurred to action-and ultimately solve the most pressing medical riddle of their time.
In a triumph of multidisciplinary thinking, Johnson illuminates the intertwined histories of the spread of disease, the rise of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry, offering both a riveting history and a powerful explanation of how it has shaped the world we live in.
Black Berets and Painted Faces: The Story of a LRP in Vietnam by Gary A Linderer
This book has been sitting on my shelf for about 30 years. I originally got it while in the Air Force. It was part of a military book club subscription. I realized I had not yet read it. Now was a great time to start reading books that were in my queue.
Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition by Michael A. Stelzner
Michael Stelzner runs a great operation. I regularly read the posts that his Social Media Examiner team puts out. I also attend his annual conference called Social Media Marketing World. Additionally, I regularly listen to his podcast. It would only seem natural to read his book.
Via Amazon:
If you’ve been let down by the undelivered promises of marketing, this book is for you. Launch reveals a new way to grow your business that involves focusing on the needs of others, giving gifts, working with outsiders, and restraining your marketing messages. These principles are precisely the opposite of traditional marketing. Yet they work. And they are the future. If you follow the formula outlined in this book, you can attract countless customers and prospects, resulting in amazing business growth.
This book will show you how to:
- Create highly sharable content that meets people’s needs
- Identify and work with outside experts, many of whom will gladly promote your content
- Attract and retain raving fans that will help your business grow
- Creatively market and sell to people who will gladly purchase your products and services
Launch isn’t like other marketing books. Rather than making keen observations about others who’ve achieved success, the ideas and principles in this book were developed, refined, and practiced by the author to great success. Pick up a copy for yourself and one for a friend.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel by Heather Morris
This book was a book my wife, Bernadette, picked up. The title grabbed my attention so I am going to see what it is about.
Via Amazon:
This beautiful, illuminating tale of hope and courage is based on interviews that were conducted with Holocaust survivor and Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov—an unforgettable love story in the midst of atrocity.
“The Tattooist of Auschwitz is an extraordinary document, a story about the extremes of human behavior existing side by side: calculated brutality alongside impulsive and selfless acts of love. I find it hard to imagine anyone who would not be drawn in, confronted and moved. I would recommend it unreservedly to anyone, whether they’d read a hundred Holocaust stories or none.”—Graeme Simsion, internationally-bestselling author of The Rosie Project
In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.
Imprisoned for over two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.
One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.
A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov’s experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.
The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide by Bonni Stachowiak, Robert Talbert, and Kathryn E. Linder
I subscribe to Bonni Stachowiak’s podcast, Teaching in Higher Ed. It is a wonderful podcast. I have learned a great deal. Buying and reading her book is a way I can say thank you.
Via Amazon:
What does it mean to be a productive professor in higher education? What would it feel like to have more peace and productivity? To have nothing fall through the cracks? The Productive Online and Offline Professor is written for today’s busy higher education professional. Through an exploration of what it means to make work meaningful, this book offers practical strategies and tips to support higher education professionals in efficiently managing and effectively using a wide range of technologies and productivity tools.
Higher education instructors will find this guide helps them to fulfill their teaching roles with excellence and to build engaging relationships with students while also successfully managing other priorities in their professional and personal lives.
The Productive Online and Offline Professorassists those who teach online and blended courses with managing their personal productivity. Faculty are often expected to provide support and feedback to learners outside of normal work hours in non-traditional classes. Programs that are designed with more asynchronous content may cause faculty to perceive that it is difficult to ever press the “off button” on their teaching. The author offers guidance and suggests software tools for streamlining communication and productivity that enable faculty to better balance their lives while giving rich feedback to students.
The Productive Online and Offline Professoris a practical guide for how to provide high quality online classes to diverse students. This book shares specific technology and other tools that may be used in charting a course toward greater productivity. It is intended to be a professional resource for fulfilling our roles with excellence and joy, while managing other priorities in our personal and professional lives.
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman
I head about this book on one of the many podcasts I listen to. It sounded like something I should read.
Via Amazon:
What happens when media and politics become forms of entertainment? As our world begins to look more and more like Orwell’s 1984, Neil’s Postman’s essential guide to the modern media is more relevant than ever.
Originally published in 1985, Neil Postman’s groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth century. Now, with television joined by more sophisticated electronic media—from the Internet to cell phones to DVDs—it has taken on even greater significance. Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining control of our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.
That’s it for this month — I want to hear what good books YOU’VE read lately! Please share in the comments below.
My Reviews for This Reading List
- Book Review: The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide
- Book Review: The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic
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