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SUMMARY
Canadian astronaut, author, and CEO Dave Williams in Leadership Moments from NASA: Achieving the Impossible examines the resilient culture and diverse leadership styles at NASA. In an organization where decisions can literally be matters of life and death, leadership styles matter!
Using oral histories and interviews, Dave Williams and his co-author Elizabeth Howell help us understand many triumphs and tragedies spanning more than 50 years of space exploration. We learn how NASA was able to send a man to the moon in less than a decade of John Kennedy’s announcement and how it continues to daringly push the limits of space exploration with confidence and courage. Despite all its setbacks, NASA has persisted as a place that continues to attract the best and brightest minds.
KEY LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS
QUOTES FROM WILLIAMS
BUY Leadership Moments from NASA: Achieving the Impossible
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SUMMARY
"In My Mother's Footsteps" by Mona Hajjar Halaby layers the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict with honest recollections of a Palestinian mother and daughter who both lived in their homeland at different times. Leaving California to spend a year teaching conflict resolution to schoolchildren in Ramallah, Halaby keeps a journal of her observations, feelings, experiences, and impressions of the challenges of living in a militarized, occupied town.
This sabbatical gives her a chance to claim a homeland where she'd never lived.: “For me—a Palestinian in the Diaspora, whose mother has been denied the right to return to her home lost in 1948—my coming back and living in Palestine was a way of reinstating my connection to the land of my mother and grandparents. Like a homing pigeon who always returns to its coop, it was a way of saying, 'I might be far away geographically, but I still belong here.'” Then, after 59 years of exile, Mona's mother also returns to Jerusalem where, in a poetic role reversal, Mona would guide her through the narrow cobblestone alleys of the Old City where she grew up.
Throughout the book, Halaby recounts seminal political decisions, such as the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate for Palestine, all etching a deep and long-lasting mark on the country and her family. Ultimately, however, she has much deeper reasons for raising her voice: “I cannot turn a blind eye to the injustices perpetrated against the Palestinians, or to any dispossessed or subjugated people. Can I forgive, or forget, what was, and is still being done to the Palestinians? With work, forgiving is doable, but forgetting is unthinkable. I cannot and do not want to forget the tragedies that have shaped my family and my people’s lives. I want to honor the memory of their forced exile and share their story with the rest of the world.”
QUOTES FROM HALABY
BUY In My Mother's Footsteps: A Palestinian Refugee Returns Home
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SUMMARY
In his book “Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less,” Leidy Klotz shows how we systematically overlook the concept of taking away. Instead, we tend to default to fixing through adding. Moreover, additive ideas come to mind quickly and easily; subtractive ideas require more cognitive effort.
So, Professor Klotz from the University of Virginia, where he directs the Convergent Behavioral Science Initiative, has pioneered behavioral research pinpointing how and why we underutilize this fundamental approach to problem-solving. He also offers several tools for “using the minus sign” to gain greater satisfaction in our personal and professional lives.
KEY POINTS
QUOTES FROM KLOTZ
BUY Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less
RECOMMENDATIONS
For a children’s take on subtraction, BUY The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.
Watch this video to simplify your home by mastering Marie Kondo’s way of folding basic clothing items.
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At age 70, Letty Cottin Pogrebin felt fit as a fiddle on that fateful day she walked three miles to her routine mammogram. A founding editor of Ms. (magazine) and women’s rights activist, she had energy and to spare until she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Facing six weeks of radiation treatment, she was now obligated to join others in the waiting room of Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York City. So, putting on her journalist hat, she began interviewing fellow patients. The result? How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who’s Sick–an invaluable handbook about “The New Illness Etiquette” for both the sick and their friends.
00:10 Intro to Letty Cottin Pogrebin, book author and founding editor of Ms. (magazine)
01:15 Flu and cold season begins
01:45 Pogrebin gets a routine mammogram at age 70
02:10 Breast cancer diagnosis comes without warning signs
04:00 Shares news of cancer and radiation with close friends via email
05:00 Searches in vain for a book about sickness and friendship
05:50 Interviews waiting-room patients for How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who’s Sick
06:31 Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center attracts people the world over
07:45 Discovers discrepancies between their the experiences and wishes of sick people
08:15 Unexpectedly learns about caregivers’ needs
09:30 Illness has a ripple effect, touching families and friends
09:50 Bottom line: people want to be honest—both the sick and their friends
10:40 What a friend should be able to ask a sick friend
11:10 What a sick person should be able to say to a friend
11:55 Truth-telling and “The New Illness Etiquette”
12:30 A friend reacts perfectly to Pogrebin’s diagnosis
13:15 Asking “Do you want to talk about it?” gives a sick person control
13:25 Other lines that are both true and helpful
14:30 Sick people don’t want to hear or answer, “How are you?”
15:55 Their responses can overwhelm friends with TMI
16:15 Asking “What’s happening?” gives patient control over how much to disclose
17:30 Nobody wants to be labeled sick (such as “cancer girl”)
18:15 Saying, “You look great!” can give false reassurance and seem disingenuous
18:30 “Empathy translated into action equals kindness”
18:50 “Illness is friendship’s proving ground”
19:15 Guidelines for visiting sick friends – be considerate
20:40 Guidelines for giving gifts to sick friends – pay attention to diagnoses
21:00 Examples of inappropriate gifts and insensitive comments
22:30 Personalize a friend’s illness to the point you know what gifts to give
24:15 Humor and laughter depend entirely on how well you know the patient
24:50 Remembers laughing at Marlo Thomas’s funny jokes
26:00 Disparages fruit baskets and extols massages (and other sensitive gifts)
27:20 Why ice cream scoops adorn the book cover
28:50 Contrasts generous gifts with the gift she really wanted
29:15 Follow up “What would you like?” with “You know I’m bringing something.”
30:25 Illustrates differences between sick men and sick women
30:50 25% of men interviewed hadn’t disclosed their illness
31:15 Tells a heartbreaking story of Orthodox Jewish man hiding his cancer diagnosis
33:45 Cultural and gender barriers prevent many men from sharing the truth
34:10 Women tend to feel comfortable confiding in close friends
35:30 The book includes many lists for how to be helpful & honest
36:00 First step: learn what to say to a friend who’s sick (“Do no harm.”)
36:20 Also, learn appropriate things to say to the bereaved
37:10 Recommendation – Ryan Hamilton: Happy Face (on Netflix)
BUY How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who’s Sick
RECOMMENDATION
Watch the trailer for Ryan Hamilton: Happy Face.
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SUMMARY
In her breakout memoir “HOUSE OF MUSIC,” Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason, opens up about what it takes to create a family of Black classical musicians in a Britain divided by class and race. Mother to seven extremely gifted children, she describes the difficulties of navigating the professional world of classical music while raising a musical family in a normal home in Nottingham, England.
Rising above a family history pocked by prejudice and riddled with racism, she and her husband Stuart pour their love and support into their children through unwavering emotional, financial, and intellectual commitment. Although lacking the privilege and polish of elite music schools, all seven children have developed exceptional skills and brilliant stage presence, catapulting them into the toughest musical competitions, providing extraordinary opportunities, and earning undisputed world fame.
The Kanneh-Masons are a remarkable family. But what truly sparkles in this eloquent memoir is the joyous affirmation that children are a gift and we must do all we can to nurture them.
KEY MOMENTS
QUOTES FROM KANNEH-MASON
BUY House of Music
RECOMMENDATION
Watch and listen to Sheku Kanneh-Mason play “Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1” as he wins his title as 2016 BBC Young Musician.
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SUMMARY
In his memoir ONE BY ONE BY ONE, Dr. Aaron Berkowitz traces his journey as a young doctor grappling to bridge the gap between one of the world’s richest countries and one of the world’s poorest. On assignment in Haiti with Partners in Health, he meets Janel, a 23-year-old man with the largest brain tumor he or any of his colleagues at Harvard Medical School have ever seen. Trying to make the first big save of his medical career as a neurosurgeon, and determined to “to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need” and work toward “solidarity rather than charity alone,” Dr. Berkowitz aims to save Janel’s life by bringing him back to Boston for a 12-hour brain surgery.
With heart-wrenching twists and turns, the story of Janel’s uncertain medical future parallels Dr. Berkowitz’s own uncertainties as a doctor. Berkowitz brings the reader to the front lines of global humanitarian work as he struggles to overcome the challenges that arise when well-meaning intentions give rise to unintended consequences, when cultures and belief systems clash, and when it’s not clear what the right thing to do is, let alone the right way to do it.
KEY FACTS
QUOTES FROM BERKOWITZ
BUY One by One by One: Making a Small Difference Amid a Billion Problems
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Learn more about Partners in Health and their mission by visiting their website.
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SUMMARY
Christina Soontornvat thrills readers of all ages with her 2021 Newbery Honor Book, All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team. Winner of numerous nonfiction awards, All Thirteen is a gripping page-turner. What begins as a simple afternoon adventure for teenage boys exploring a cave escalates into a global life-or-death mission to save a soccer team and their coach.
Of Thai descent, Soontornvat happened to visit Thailand on the same day the boys were lost in the cave, and she returned to the U.S. the same day they were finally rescued. With the heart of a scientist and an author, she knew she needed to capture this compelling true story. In All Thirteen, Soontornvat combines science, culture, and real-life suspense to explain the complexities of the rescue operation while simultaneously sharing the emotional and mental struggles of the thirteen young people trapped underground.
RULES FOR CAVE DIVING (developed by Sheck Exley in the 1970s)
QUOTES FROM SOONTORNVAT
BUY All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team (Newbery Honor Book)
RECOMMENDATION
Watch the moment the two British cave divers found the thirteen stranded young men, a YouTube video that immediately went viral.
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SUMMARY
Emmy award–winning journalist and media expert Frank Sesno teaches how to question others in his book, Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors, Uncover Solutions, and Spark Change. Sesno shares the secret sauce to asking the right question at the right time. Mastering this simple skill sets apart successful people in all disciplines from the pack.
With more than three decades of diverse journalistic reporting under his belt, Sesno knows how to use questions to break down barriers, discover secrets, solve puzzles, and imagine new ways of doing things. He explores all different types of inquiries—from strategic and confrontational questions to empathy and creativity questions. Sesno’s advice will help you know what to ask and when, what you should listen for, and what you can expect as the outcome. By asking more, you can get people talking!
KEY INQUIRY SKILLS HELP YOU…
QUOTES FROM SESNO
BUY Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors, Uncover Solutions, and Spark Change
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Get more tips for asking great questions by listening to Nonfiction4Life podcast episode #110: The Book of Beautiful Questions: The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead by Warren Berger.
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For more than 20 years, Heather Lende has written obituaries for the Chilkat Valley News in the tiny town of Haines, Alaska. Now, the New York Times bestselling author weaves her own life lessons together with recollections of the deceased. And we get Find the Good: Unexpected Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer, a gentle, insightful memoir mixed with humor and sensitivity.
More than a storyteller, Lende is a “story catcher” who knows the challenge of describing life with words that both honor the dead and bless the living. But she manages well. "Find the Good" reminds us all to live more gratefully by seeing life through the lens of optimism.
00:25 Intro to author Heather Lende from Haines, Alaska
01:25 Obituary writers describe a life in 500-600 words
01:30 Lende’s mantra: “Find the good.”
02:00 Writing our own obituaries, every day
02:25 Unpacking the title, “Find the Good”
03:45 Countering sadness
04:15 Lende’s career begins in 1996
05:45 Characteristics and qualifications of a good obituary writer
07:45 Be a “story catcher”
08:45 Who approves obituaries?
11:00 Lende’s own brush with death changes everything
12:20 Recovery breeds empathy and gratitude
12:45 Wounds, seen and unseen
14:00 Deaths hit close to home
15:00 “I’m just the chronicler of these tragedies,” trying to give families hope
15:40 Using her art to make a difference and move hearts
16:30 Lende faces her own grief with unwed daughter’s pregnancy
17:00 “Draw lines in the sand so you can move them.”
17:45 Wisdom from an elderly Southern lady
19:00 Sometimes the “Big Worry” isn’t a worry at all
19:40 “Practice staggered breathing”
20:25 Life lessons from choir metaphors
22:00 “Writing obituaries is my way of transcending the bad news.”
22:25 The story of Richard Boyce, a fisherman lost at sea
24:45 The power of a father’s love
25:20 Story of Russ, the town cemetery gardener
26:00 A long-lost son returns, dies, and gives his home to hospice
27:00 The power of simple greeting cards and the family Bible
28:32 The story of Rene—writing a pre-death obituary for a breast-cancer victim
29:02 What would you do with your remaining days?
30:42 Quantity vs. quality of life
30:59 Everyday blessings
31:20 Life’s two greatest regrets
31:45 Longing for small-town living
32:10 The downsides of small-town living
34:05 Navigating “spiritual boot camp”
35:00 Nurturing the skill of “finding the good”
35:20 Hearts turn to stone, but stones also turn to hearts
36:15 The story of Vic—proof people can change
37:15 How to get a good obituary
37:45 Who will write Lende’s obituary?
38:30 The immediate value of an obituary
39:10 What Lende hopes her readers feel
39:40 How to create small towns anywhere
QUOTES FROM LENDE
"If indeed all the wisdom I had in my heart was to be summed up in final words and it was difficult to speak more than, say, three, what would I rasp before my soul flew up the chimney? Find the good. I surprised myself with this pretty great notion. Find the good. That’s enough. That’s plenty. I could leave my family with that."
"Awful events are followed by dozens and dozens of good deeds. It’s not that misery loves company, exactly; rather, it’s that suffering, in all its forms, and our response to it, binds us together across dinner tables, neighborhoods, towns and cities, and even time. Bad doings bring out the best in people."
"I have a friend who says we spend the first half of our life building it and the second half preventing it from falling apart. I’d rather be under construction when I die."
“We are all writing our own obituary every day by how we live. The best news is that there’s still time for additions and revisions before it goes to press.”
"The invisible part of a mother’s heart is the strongest and most flexible because it enlarges with each child and grandchild. Rather than divide the heart’s chambers into smaller rooms as the family grows, love multiplies them."
"No matter how many obituaries I write, I will never get used to talking to someone one day and learning that they’ve left town, and the entire planet, the next. It may not shock me the way it does others, but that doesn’t make it any easier. There is no good in missing someone so badly you can’t even hum."
BUY Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer
Other Books by Heather Lende
BUY If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name: News from Small-Town Alaska
BUY Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs: A True Story of Bad Breaks and Small Miracles
RECOMMENDATIONS
Listen to Nonfiction4Life podcast episode 102, Farewell: Vital End-of-Life Questions with Candid Answers from a Leading Palliative and Hospice Physician by Dr. Edward T. Creagan with Sandra Wendel.
Check out Nonfiction4Life podcast episode 172, The Parlay Effect: How Female Connection Can Change the World by Anne Devereux-Mills.
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SUMMARY
“The Power of Kindness: Why Empathy Is Essential in Everyday Life” by Dr. Brian Goldman is the result of a veteran ER physician questioning his empathy quotient. Concerned his ability to be kind has diminished, Goldman travels the world looking for stories and data about empathy. Relieved to learn neuroscientists believe humans are hard-wired to experience empathy, he investigates why kindness is so vital to our very existence.
KEY TERMS
QUOTES FROM GOLDMAN
BUY The Power of Kindness: Why Empathy Is Essential in Everyday Life
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Watch Dr. Brian Goldman’s TED Talk, “Doctors make mistakes. Can we talk about that?”
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From the publisher's feed