Making Happy - Review

In Making Happy, Drs Les and Leslie Parrott provide practical methods for finding true joy in marriage. They claim that the “3 week happiness plan” is based on cutting edge research that really works. Drs Les and Leslie Parrott have spent years exploring the art and science and the practice of long-term happiness in marriage. They are founders of Realrelationships.com and the Center of Relationship Development at Seattle Pacific University. They have also authored several books including Love Talk and Saving your Marriage Before It Starts. There are ten chapters in this book and they are brief so the reader is not intimidated by the size and content of the material covered in this book.

The authors are dedicated to helping you keep the vital sign of happiness healthy and strong in your relationship. They do this not with armchair psychology but the strategies that they present built on long time research. In recent times many have stated that marriage is not about happiness, it is about holiness. This might seem as though happiness and holiness are mutually exclusive. But it need not be the case. Why can’t married couples be both happy and attain holiness in the context of a Christian union? They define happiness as “the emotional state of feeling satisfaction, playfulness, contentedness, amusement, cheeriness, serenity, gratification, elation, triumph, joy, and bliss.” This book is permeated with interesting quotes (that itself is worth the book). It also has “Reflection Questions” at the end of each chapter which makes for a great group study.

Stephen Mansfield - "Killing Jesus" Review

In Killing Jesus, Stephen Masnfield attempts to tell the unknown, fascinating story of the death of the world’s most fascinating person – Jesus Christ. Stephen Mansfield has written other books including The Faith of Barack Obama, The Faith of George W Bush, and Lincoln’s Battle with God. According to Mansfield, “the execution of Jesus was a crime born of the streets, the barracks, and the enclaves of the privileged and the smoke-filled back rooms of religious and political power brokers. Its meaning lives in these places still”

There are twenty one chapters but they are brief and fast paced. Each of the chapter titles are one word Latin words with an English translation (e.g., Inceptum: The Beginning, Piaculum: The Sacrifice, etc). The chapters are short and it is fast paced (in the sense that you are moving along with the story quickly). Also, there are no footnotes to slow you down or distract you. In the author’s own words, footnotes are “little numbers stinging the eye and desecrating the text.” Instead, he has chosen to put his sources and commentary at the back of the book where other scholarly input is also listed. At the end of the book, he also lists the five earliest and most attested references to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ by non-Christian writers: (1) Josephus – Jewish-Roman Historian; (2) Cornelius Tacitus – Roman Historian; (3) Lucian of Samasota – Satirist; (4) Mara Bar-Serapion – Philosopher; (5) The Talmud.

Drucker & Me - Review

In the Book "Drucker and Me" Peter Drucker is quoted as saying, “No century has seen more leaders with more charisma than the Twentieth century, and never have political leaders done damage than the four giant leaders of the twentieth century: Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Mao” One person can do a lot of damage. But can one person do a lot of good? “Drucker and Me” is a story of Bob Buford and Peter Drucker, who was a management consultant, educator, and highly influential author. He is known to have developed the management education concept which emphasizes management by objective. Bob Buford is an entrepreneur and bestselling author who also founded Leadership Network to serve leaders of churches and coached them to go from success to significance.

This book has 14 chapters and each chapter is short, pithy, and accessible. One of the best part of this book (in my opinion) are the gems of wisdom that are permeated throughout its pages. For example, one of the sayings goes like this: “It was not unusual for Peter to begin a meeting by saying, “tell me what you’re not doing.” In other words, not everything you try is going to work out, so what have you decided not to do?” This is just one example of the wisdom that is found in this book. It will help you un-clutter your thinking and help you focus on the essentials.

Amazon Link: amzn.to/1kvm5B1