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“If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you.”
–Jim Mattis, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead
I will keep this quote almost as a theme for this category of posts–my monthly reading log. For 2020 I have decided to write a round-up each month (end of month/beginning of new month) to share good books. If you’re interested, here is January’s post.
February 2020 Reads
I read nine books in February (slightly down from January’s 11 books): four non-fiction, and five fiction. Two of the four fiction were re-reads, and one of the non-fiction was a re-read. For those keeping count (I do like keeping count!), that is 20 books so far in 2020.
Favorite Non-Fiction
My favorite non-fiction book was Scam Me if You Can: Simple Strategies to Outsmart Today’s Rip-off Artists by Frank W. Abagnale.
As my e-mail subscribers will know, I am on a little bit of a Frank W. Abagnale “kick” these days, after hearing him on the HerMoney podcast. I find his approach to preventing becoming a scam victim sensible and compelling. We have already watched the movie (that I never knew existed!) about his early life, Catch Me If You Can, based on his first book about his life as a con artist turned FBI agent.
There is so much good in Scam Me If You Can, but some takeaways:
- everyone can be scammed, so feeling proud because you have not or embarrassed because you have is not helpful.
- scammers try to get you “under the ether” and create a sense of urgency to get you take action.
- the “hall of shame” sidebars about notable scammers in history.
Favorite Fiction
My favorite novel read this month was From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konisburg. I have not read this book since my childhood, but when I heard Gretchen Rubin talk about the book on her podcast (I think it was an episode of A Little Happier, but those mini-episodes are not listed on her website), I immediately got a copy from the library. From the beginning of the book:
Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her bck. She didn’t like discomfort; even picnics were untidy and inconvenient: all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes. Therefore, she decided that her leaving home would not be just running from somewhere but would be running to somewhere. To a large place, a comfortable place, an indoor place, and preferably a beautiful place. And that’s why she decided upon the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
-From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
When I raved about it to our family, one of my daughters actually found my childhood copy of it, and she is reading it now, too. Who knew that I was so hard on books? And how did I not remember that there was a movie based on the book? I do not remember ever seeing it.
What have you been reading this month? I’m especially interested in good audiobooks, as I have several Audible credits.
