I've got a lot of books going at once. Typically, I'm reading one fiction book, one or two business books and two or three books arounds spiritual formation at a time.

Fiction:

Tripwire
My brother Dan turned me on to this series of eight books, all with the same character, Jack Reacher. Jack is a man's man, a hero's hero. Great books that combine a little CSI with a little Tom Clancy.


Mount Dragon
This is a new author that the librarian turned me onto when I was looking for more Lee child books - thinking I wanted Lincoln Child. Apparently Preston and Child write together quite a bit, and the result is great. This book could have been written by Michael Crichton. It's about a genetic lab facility in the desert that could destroy the world. Good read.

Business:


How Full is Your Bucket?
Good, quick read that paints a great picture around the residual impact of your interactions with others and their interactions with you. Nothing new in this book, but for some reason, reading this has made me very concious of what I leave behind in the smallest situations - cashiers, doormen, rental car staff, etc. A friend of mine, Dorla gave me this book a few months ago and it was worth the 60 minutes I've put into it. I still have to make it throught the last chapter.


Execution
Apparently I'd rather read books that tell me how good I already am at what I do. This is a tough book. It's very straight forward, but it talks about the difference between theory and execution and how bad most people are at it. This can be a huge gap for me when the length of execution extends beyond a month or two. I've been going through the book chapter by chapter with a guy I'm mentoring in our company and getting a lot out of it.

Spiritual:

Divine Conspiracy
I've been plugging through this for the past month, reading it with a friend of mine, Brad. I think that Dallas Willard is a lot like C.S. in terms of how revolutionary the stuff he puts out there. The first two or three chapters of his books are really painful, though. He has to lay all of hte philosophical groundwork for what he's going to talk about and it's like eating paste. This book deals with the idea of the Kingdom of God and what it really is. He spends a lot of time digging through the beattitudes and the reality of them. Great stuff. It's the kind of book you read 10 pages, think about it and pick it up and read another 10. I'll probably be done with this is a month or so.


Searching for God knows what
Will got me this book for Christmas. This is written by the same guy that wrote Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious thoughts on Christian Spirituality. The first one was great, I'm only a few pages into this so far.


What every father must know
It's a tiny little book written specifically for Dad's that gives you a thumbnail sketch of Eldredge's three other books: Sacred Romance, Journey of Desire and Wild at Heart. It's a great book to give to any dad to walk away with two key ideas of what every little boy and little girl need from their dad. If people resonate with the message in this, they'll likely dig Eldredge's other stuff.