Let’s do this thing.

There’s no particular order to these short reviews. I own most of these books either on paper or as audio book. As I do believe in book sharing: Drop me a line if you want one of them!

1. Medea:Stimmen (Wolf) ***
   Medea was a random pick-up at Pêle-Mêle, but boy, it’s intense. Greek tragedy is seriously screwed up: Don’t try to look for right or wrong, just embrace the dilemma! Also: Great material for my next Toastmasters project. Here’s the practice podcast.
2. The Creative Habit (Tharp) ***
   Recommended by the likes of Mr Mann and Ms Wainwright, this seems to be a classic for creative professionals. The dancer in me thoroughly enjoyed the stories from Tharp’s choreography practice. The take-away: Creativity is hard work. Build a practice. Keep at it. Challenge yourself. Rinse, repeat.
3. Netherland (O’Neill) ***
   I don’t know who told me that this was a favourite amongs Obamaites, but there you go: A post 9/11 novel about New York, Cricket and transatlantic relationships. A pleasant read in the style of Corrections, but in the end not too impressive.
4. The Science of Enlightenment (Young) ****
   Meditation for Mathmaticians? Well, there you go. An intensive listen with its 17 hours, from the benefits of meditation and an introduction to deeper questions of identity and Buddhism. I wasn’t ready yet to follow all exercises, but have to credit Young for giving me the foundation for my meditation practice.
5. The Age of Wonder (Holmes) *****
   Wow, definitely the read of the year! An intense account of a time where science and poetry evolved in deep conversation: Foreign cultures, the heavens, chemistry. Told along the lines of the British Royal Society and interspersed with poetry and literature. Awesome.
6. Magazine Editing (Morrish) **
   Meh. Bought this book to learn about how to build a new magazine for a membership organisation. Instead of the step-by-step approach I was hoping for, I got an in-depth account of the role of the editor for existing magazines, always assuming that there’s still a publisher to take the remaining decisions and a large team to do the bulk of the work. In the end, I’ll need to solve my riddles myself.
7. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel (Clarke) **
   Long. Praised as a mix of Jane Austen’s sense for personalities and details and JK Rowling’s magical imagination, I was hoping for a narrative that would carry me through 1.000 pages of french. I managed to get to the end, but it took half a century. At least.
8. Don’t think of an elephant (Lakoff) ***
   An essential introduction to framing political issues, how to identify them and how to employ them. For me an excellent backgrounder to the framing research we commissioned on ecolabels this year.
9. Brain rules (Medina) ***
   I vaguely remember, there were 12 rules. One of them was exercise. But I fear that my brain hasn’t quite absorbed these rules yet, otherwise it would function better. Still, a strong reminder to take good care of your brain.
10. Wishcraft (Sher) *****
    If I hadn’t already awarded the title read of the year, then this would be it. This book kicks *ss. What to expect: A solid goal-setting process followed by an unconventional approach to getting there, including, yes, asking for help and making it fun. A great start into the second half of 2009. And the best: You can download the pdf of the book for free.
11. Made to Stick (Heath) ****
    Yep, messaging and storytelling. One of my favourite topics. I remember a number of aha moments when listening to the book (and should really buy the paper version to be able to look them up once more).
12. Ecological Intelligence (Goleman) **
    Yes, we need to solve the ecological crisis. Yes, we can do it. And yes, consumer behaviour, transparency and corporate social responsibility will play a big role. I appreciate that Goleman took up the topic; however, I’m not sure how much he contributed to the overall debate.
13. Difficult Conversations (Stone, Patton, Heen) ***
    Read in conjunction with a number of difficult conversations I had to have. The book introduces a number of “key conversations” and proposes strategies to deal with them. A really useful framework. Now, if I could only remember to use them when things get difficult…
14. In Defense of Food (Pollan) ***
    Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants. That’s the premise of the book, and Pollan then goes into detail: How eating became a pseudo-science and how thinking about nutrient content actually harms our eating habits. Good to read, but not essential.
15. Nonviolent Communication (Rosenberg) *****
    However, this one is. Again: A comparatively easy concept explained in detail, but it takes a moment to sink in. Summary: When you _____, I feel ______. I need to _____. Can you _____?
16. Strengthsfinder 2.0 (Rath) ***
    A personality test disguised as a book. I wrote about it earlier. It’s a game, it’s fun, you learn about yourself. What more could one ask for?
17. What I talk about when I talk about running (Murakami) ***
    Creativity, contemplation, exercise: Topics that have been with me this year. If my favourite author writes about the topic, I have to read it. However: I was disappointed by this account. It felt too much like a journal to overcome his own runner’s crisis.
18. Mensch ohne Hund (Nesser) ***
    Swedish thrillers. Must be read. On the train or on the sofa, but definitely in hours on end. The culprit is known too early in this one, though.
19. The necessary revolution (Senge) ***
    What is the role of collaborative creation in overcoming today’s sustainability challenges? After listening to the audiobook, I wanted to buy the paper version for reference. Also: A great description of one of my favourite projects, the Sustainable Food Lab.
20. A Theory of Everything (Wilber) *
    Don’t know what to think about this one. Didn’t like? Didn’t understand? That the book included too many obvious statements, too badly written? We’ll see.
21. Child 44 (Smith) ***
    Great book to read through the night. The story of a mass-murderer in post-Stalin Russia, when crime was supposed to be non-existent. Thrilling.
22. Don’t make me think! (Krug) ***
    An introduction to website usability. Originally written in 200X, and yes, the web has moved on since then. For good. Still: Plenty of good advice there, some of it common sense, other parts less so.
23. The Secret (Byrne) *
    Do I believe in the law of attraction? No. Do I have friends who do? Yes. I wanted to know what the hype was all about, and what the heck, I had spare audible credits. I do believe in the power of intention, however.
24. Whoever tells the best story wins (Simmons) ***
    This person is definitely not me. Storytelling? Uargh, difficult. Especially about myself. Nevertheless: Something I want to work on. Didn’t learn the greatest deal from the book, but then, you don’t learn storytelling by reading, do you?

Any books you can recommend?

So, there I was, wanting to make a white chocolate mousse. The basic recipe I found:

• Melt 1 part* chocolate with 1 part cream. Let cool.
• Whip 1 part cream. Fold into the cooled mixture.
• Fill into pretty glasses and let chill.

The impatient cook that I am of course folds the whipped cream into the lukewarm chocolate mix and it all goes pear-shaped. Hooray.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Or White Chocolate Icecream with Speculoos (and Raspberries). Here’s how:

• Mash up 1 part of Speculoos (the typical caramel cookies of Belgium) and fold into the mix.
• Fill everything into a container and place it in the fridge for at least six hours.
• Every two hours or so, take the container out, mix everything thoroughly, and place it back in.
• In the meantime, blend 1 part of no-longer-frozen raspberries with some icing sugar into a raspberry coulis.
• Decorate the icecream with some lovely leftover meringues, and serve with a helping of raspberries.

Voila.

* In my case, 1 part was 400g. But I had to feed an army ;)

via Oberrazzi on Flickr

1. Where is the root of the situation?
2. What is my contribution?
3. What do I need?
4. How can I do this differently?
5. What does this remind me of?
6. What outcome do I wish for?
7. How long will this take?
8. What will make it worth my while?
9. Who else is involved?
10. Where is passion?
11. Where is compassion?
12. Who can help with this?
13. How can I get more information?
14. What is the next action?
15. What is holding me back?
16. What steps do I see on the way?
17. What is the worst thing that can happen?
18. How does it align with my values, with my deepest beliefs?
19. Who needs to know about this?
20. What learning can I pass on to others?

Wow — this looks like a pretty good list of questions to apply to difficult situations, problem solving and/or project planning. I already have 1, 2 ideas for situations I would like to apply this to.

Do you want to play? What questions do you carry right now?

What do you wish to complete?

When answering this question, I notice how many of my current projects aren’t so much asking for completion, but for the establishment of a practice. Each completed step is just progress, but nothing to hold on to; nothing that would give me permission to let go.

Still, when reflecting about my themes for the year complete was one of them. I even made a list (and did sufficiently well on it).

For now, I wish to complete:

1. The Toastmasters Competent Leader Certificate
2. The Professional Diploma in Marketing
3. The book ‘Branded’

Completing things creates room for new things to emerge.

• Chartered Institute of Marketing – Professional Diploma in Marketing

Hugh MacLeod, cartoonist and writer behind Gapingvoid.com, has just published a book full of tips for young artists/creatives/people. My top five:

5. You are responsible for your own experience.
13. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside.
16. The world is changing.
27. The best way to get approval is not to need it.
37. Meaning Scales, People Don’t.

Hugh McLeod: Ignore Everybody (via Amazon)

When I arrived in the office this morning, I wasn’t quite ready yet and needed more time to understand where I was at and what was bothering me. A quick check of the agenda and a phone call with my boss, and – tada – there was a day of leave.

It’s funny to have an unplanned day off: There’s some time to spend, but not too much and most of it alone. What do you do?

As my main goal was to re-energize and to re-connect, there was no point in spending much time intellectualizing about what was going on, but rather give my body and mind the space to do their work unconsciously. Here’s how I regained my centre:

When I came home, I cried some more, then leafed the first couple of pages of Difficult Conversations for a while. But as there’s nothing better for general well-being, mood and energy levels as fresh air, sun and some exercise, my next step clearly had to be the Bois de la Cambre. Plenty of oxygen in my brain afterwards, and delight over the greens and the trees out there. On the way back, a stop Mama Roma for the best pizza in the world, eating slowly, drinking lots of water. Picked up some Moelleux au Chocolat from C’est pas raisonnable for later, then home, hitting the shower.

By that time I had arranged a phone call with my boss in the afternoon, and boy, did I enjoy the nap until the phone rang. And what a difference the few hours made since we spoke in the morning: I wasn’t stuck and terrified anymore, and could actually listen and share my perceptions.

Anything afterwards was a piece of chocolate cake (see above). Taking an hour to listen to Shinzen Young. Drafting a blogpost. Leading a conference call. Welcoming the BF from work, and feeding him chili. And oh-so-good to top things off: a really sweet birthday party for a good friend who has lots of nice friends to have great conversations with.

In short: Time out can be incredibly rewarding. And sometimes ‘hitting the wall’ gives you a chance to actually do something with it.

People who are especially talented in the Connectedness theme have faith in the links between all things. They believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a reason.

People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

People who are especially talented in the Relator theme enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.

People who are especially talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.

People who are especially talented in the Arranger theme can organize, but they also have a flexibility that complements this ability. They like to figure out how all of the pieces and resources can be arranged for maximum productivity.

via Strengthsfinder 2.0

White Books

I’m a sucker for books. At any given time I’ll be reading five, six books in parallel (though at different speeds), and I hardly ever give up on one, not wanting to miss the wisdom hidden on the later pages. Unfortunately, I also hardly ever capture the learning from books I read. After having made the International Day of the Book the theme of our Toastmaster Meeting on 23 April, I’ll follow up with a summary of books I’ve finished in 2009.

1. Nudge (Sunstein/Thaler)
   How can we design use nudges and default choices to help people make better decisions? A concept not new to marketeers applied to public policy, ranging from the design of school cafeterias to retirement funds and greenhouse gases.
2. The Audacity of Hope (Obama)
   Well, well, we’ve all heard him speak. A summary of Obama’s ethics, the big issues in American politics and some personal history. Not a necessary read, but definitely a pleasant listen.
3. Breakfast of Champions (Vonnegut)
   Weird. A set of characters with broken histories happens to converge in a hotel in rural America. Someone runs amok. Not my cup of tea.
4. Freakonomics (Levitt/Dubner)
   Applying economics to all kinds of situations: Race and given names, parenting, drug dealers and swimming pools. Entertaining read with some surprising insights.
5. Eden (Smit)
   How Cornwall’s Eden project came about. A detailed history with more insight on project management than on botanical gardens.
6. Digital Fortress (Brown)
   The NSA’s most powerful code-breaking machine is under attack. Excellent page-turner for the ride home from London.
7. The Code Book (Singh)
   A history of codes and ciphers, and how to break them. Surprisingly little overlap with Information Security 101, instead stories from the people making the codes and breaking them.
8. The 7 habits of highly effective people (Covey)
   A classic. Even though I knew the 7 habits before, listening to the book introduced me to some previously unknown concepts, including the circle of influence.
9. Everything is miscellaneous (Weinberger)
   How taxonomies are increasingly created after the fact, and how to fit one thing into many places. Once you’ve understood the difference between categories and tags, there’s no further need for this book.
10. Here comes everybody (Shirky)
    This book blew me away. Is power really moving from our central organisations back to the individual, and how can we use that for good?

Currently reading: Strategic Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations (Andreasen), Don’t think of an elephant (Lakoff), Brainrules (Medina), The Shadow of the Wind (Zafon) and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel (Clarke).

Organic Vegetable Box

Every second Wednesday I walk up to the little office of the neighbourhood committee in Rue Sans Souci to pick up my organic vegetable box. It’s such a pleasure to come home afterwards and sort through the treasure trove of fresh, seasonal and local produce, immediately being struck by inspiration on what to create from the water cress, the beetroot, the mushrooms or carrots, sometimes challenged to find new recipes for previously unknown marvels, and generally enjoying the touch, the smell, the colours and the quality of what I get for my 9,70 EUR.

The system is pretty easy, if not easy to find. There are about 20 pick-up stations all over Brussels (see pdf). Most are open only one day per week, sometimes only for an hour. There is no subscription or long-term commitment: You come and order a week or two in advance, pay on the spot, and pick up your box on the desired date.

I usually take the smaller of the two sizes of boxes on offer, which is plenty to feed the BF and me for two weeks. There’s also a fruit box, and the option to order bread. All produce is organic, and mostly from a handful of farms around Grimbergen. The box comes with detailed information on the origins of its content, and some recipes to match.

More information on sustainable living ideas in Brussels are on Friends of the Earth’s website GreenBrussels.