My Short Stack #3
As of Wednesday, December 3, 2025
What am I reading these days? For my fellow lifelong learners who share common interests, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Disclaimer: I have not completed many of the books listed, but I have read enough of each to keep them in my 'to be continued' short stack.
I am a sampler. I rarely read a book from start to finish and then move on to the next one. I read a little of this and then of that.
When something really gets my attention, I drill down.
I will limit my judgments and opinions to avoid biasing other readers as much as possible.
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1. Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre
“sexual predators don’t stop until they’re made to stop.”
2. The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World by A.J. Baime
Truman “had no college degree. He never had enough money to buy his own home. He had never governed a state or served as mayor of a city.”
3. Common Wisdom: 8 Scientific Elements of a Meaningful Life by Laura Gabayan
“Whether it be a strained relationship, health crisis, or loss of a loved one, wise people view life’s challenges as lessons. They don’t view themselves as victims but rather as students – here to learn lessons that would have otherwise never been learned.”
4. The Resilience Factor: 7 Keys to Finding Your Inner Strength and Overcoming Life’s Hurdles by Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatté
“As anyone who has ever planned a wedding or brought home a newborn child knows, the experiences of life that bring us the most happiness also can bring us the most stress. What stress researchers have found is that change, whether positive or negative, is a stressor. And change is here to stay.”
5. 12 Laws of Life by Mannardeep Singh
“According to the Law of Lessons, the whole of life is filled with learning lessons.”
6. The Jealous Kind by James Lee Burke
Badass non-stop action from the 1950s in Houston by a two-time Edgar Award winner and author of over thirty-seven novels.
7. Buddha’s Little Instruction Book by Jack Kornfield
Buddhism 101 in small bites.
8. Control: The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics by Adam Rutherford
“The discussions in the age of the genome are recapitulations of the eugenics of a century ago, whose enactment dominated the twentieth century. To know its history is to inoculate ourselves against its being repeated.”
9. The Purpose Code: How to Unlock Meaning, Maximize Happiness, and Leave a Lasting Legacy by Jordan Grumet
“You don’t find purpose; you create it.”
10. The 4 Pillars of Critical Thinking: Foundation, Process, Improvement, Application by Patrick Ian Meyer
Hanlon’s Razor: Do not attribute malicious intent to the behavior of others when those actions are just as adequately explained by carelessness or ignorance.
The purpose of Hanlon’s Razor is to encourage us to practice humility and be more cautious in our judgment of others.
Giving people the benefit of the doubt is often a better approach than immediately assuming malicious intent.
It is lauded for its potential to reduce misunderstandings and conflicts.
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Best Book of 2025 (So Far)
There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone
Stories of people who work multiple jobs and still cannot afford housing in the land of oligarchs and yachts.
I couldn’t believe it and couldn’t put it down.