The idea comes from a hypothesis by Edward Lorenz presented in 1963 that “a butterfly could flap its wings and set molecules of air in motion, which would move other molecules of air, in turn moving more molecules of air— eventually capable of starting a hurricane on the other side of the planet.”

He then applies the same theory and says that your actions, no matter how small, can have a much bigger effect on the world. Andrews gives two examples — one of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a school teacher fighting in the Civil War, and one of Norman Borlaug, the man responsible for hybridizing high yielding, disease resistant corn and wheat that became the ABC News person of the week in 2004. But Andrews takes it a step further and shows how Borlaug would have never become the person of the week if it weren’t for a farmer named Moses Carver.

I highly recommend reading this book! If you feel like what you do in life, whether it be at your job, with your family, or in your community don’t have a bigger effect, this book will open your eyes. Even if you don’t realize it, your actions matter to someone somewhere.

“Everything you do matters to all of us forever.” – Andy Andrews

Before I even finished the book, I declared Primal as the best book that I have read in 2010. It is clear that Mark Batterson has a heart for God and a passion for change. He wants to see Christians acting more like Christ, and more so reacting like Christ.

Batterson challenges the reader to go on a personal quest to examine compassion, wonder, curiosity, and energy in their faith.

For days before reading this book, I felt like I was being called to donate money to a charity, even though I really don’t have the means to do so. I kept getting little signs from God (or they were little in my mind) that I needed to do this. I’d had Primal on my bookshelf for a while, and randomly picked it up to start reading. When Mark talks about being more compassionate, I thought, “Ok, God. You win. I get your message loud and clear.” The book really challenged me and convicted me.

Mark Batterson has now earned himself a spot in my top authors. Bravo, sir. It’s not easy to get there.

The book is the story of these zombies trying to reach the man who created the virus in hopes that he can cure them. All the while, they must feed their insatiable desire for human flesh, while avoiding being “killed” by the military. In addition, they seek for other intelligent zombies among the hoards of the walking dead in hopes that they can build their own army.

One thing that bugged me about the book (and it bugged me a lot) was the author’s use of pop cultural references. She slipped them into the story so often that I almost wondered if she came up with a list of them and then wrote a story around them. They really distracted me from the actual story.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It’s not in the normal genre of books that I read, but it was a nice change of pace. However, I don’t really feel compelled to start reading more zombie books because of it.

I started reading this book completely skeptical of it, because I don’t trust diet plans that promise fast weight loss and all-you-can-eat food. Right on the cover of Let’s Do Lunch, the author (Roger Troy) states that you can lose weight “eating all the calories and carbs you want.” The lies on the cover are only my first piece of beef with this book.

Sure, you can eat all of the carbs that you want, as long as they aren’t “bad” carbs, like bread or potatoes. And you can eat all of the calories you want, as long as they don’t come from those bad carbs and… as long as they come from fruit and beans. The theory is that no one gets fat eating fruit. The fruit has fructose, but not glucose or sucrose or any other -oses that make people fat. But what they fail to mention is that eating a diet that consists mostly of fruit will spike your blood sugar.

Some of the ideas in the book make perfect sense. For example, make lunch your biggest meal because if dinner is your biggest meal, it will just sit in your stomach all night. And it’s better to eat fruit than other bad foods. But I have a lot of questions that some people can’t (or won’t) answer. The plan promises rapid weight loss. Is that really safe? Have doctors approved this plan?

On letsdolunch.com, there is a message board of people who are looking for a quick fix, and yes, this plan will make you drop pounds fast. Fruit is easier to digest than other foods, so your body’s metabolism rises naturally. And there are people who have lost a lot of weight on this “way of eating” plan. But is this weight loss sustainable? Can a person truly expect to never eat “bad” carbs again? I’ve seen the same issues with other plans, like the Atkins or South Beach diets. You eat no, or significantly reduced, amount of carbs… and then when you eat carbs again, all of your weight comes back.

When I asked the community (or “Lunchers,” as they call themselves) how they can expect to never eat ice cream or pizza or any other “bad” food again, they all simply say that because of fruit, their cravings for those things are gone. The responses are almost cult-like, to be honest. To say that you’ll never want ice cream or birthday cake again is… frankly, BS.

I’ve tried all of the diets out there, and the one I had the most success on was Weight Watchers. The key to WW is moderation and balance. Don’t cut things out of your life completely… just eat them in moderation. Do I need to eat four scoops of ice cream? No. But do I need to substitute my ice cream with frozen grapes? Absolutely not. The advantage to Let’s Do Lunch is not counting points or calories. The disadvantage is that you’re severely limited in what you can eat.

Does Let’s Do Lunch work? Yes. I’ve seen the before and after pictures of plenty of people on the plan. I’ve heard the amazing stories of overcoming diabetes and losing weight when nothing else worked. If you’re desperate for a plan that restricts you from eating anything “bad” again, this is the plan for you. If you want the freedom to eat a balanced diet, you’ll definitely want to look elsewhere.

The economy is in a mess. People are losing their jobs, homes, and life savings. Violence is on the rise. Natural disasters seem to be stronger and faster. Morality is down. Dr. David Jeremiah aims to address how we should live in such troubling times.

While he does a fantastic job of pointing to specific verses from the Bible on how we can “weather this storm with a calm heart,” I often got the feeling that he was trying to scare the readers into thinking that the Apocalypse was upon us. Two examples:

Just before Jesus Christ returns to earth, keeping the promise He made to His disciples, this troubling time will finally arrive. And, my friends, it’s quite possible that we have entered the early stages of those events.

And while writing about meteorological warfare:

The last book of the Bible indicates that catastrophic disruptions in earth’s meteorological patterns will wreak havoc on the world during the Great Tribulation.

Maybe he’s right. Maybe Christ is about to return, but I couldn’t get past the idea that Dr. Jeremiah is just using scare tactics to sell a book. That said, he makes some very good points and gives Biblical examples about how we should live, regardless of whether the Apocalypse is upon us or not.

Maybe I’m being oversensitive about the “Christ is about to return” message. Maybe I’m reading too much into it. I just don’t think that Dr. Jeremiah has the authority to predict when Christ is returning. I do recommend reading this book for the overall message, though.

What I expected was a book about how beer (Guinness, in particular) affected Christians. What I found was a good book about how Christianity affected the Guinness family, and in turn, affected society.

However, the reason I give this book only 3 stars out of 5 is because while it was interesting to read the history of Guinness, I got a little bored reading about the entire family tree of the Guinness family. It would have been sufficient to talk solely about the key players of the brewery, and how Christianity affected how they ran the family business.

It was very interesting to see how the brewery survived some of the hardest economic and political times, and stayed one of the best selling beers of all time.

And I’m proud to say, that after learning about the history of Guinness, I’ve become much more interested in other history, as well.

That being said, I really enjoyed Dirt. The first Stone Barrington book (New York Dead) was more of a whodunit, whereas Dirt was more of a “we figured out who the bad guy is, we just have to catch them” book. And what I really liked about this book is the way that a few different stories intertwined.

What I like most about Stuart Woods books is that they’re quick book between heavier reads. After reading a dense history book, I need something to just relax and free my mind for a bit. And these books are great for that.

This is all common sense. And yet most companies just don’t get it.

I could sit here all day and list off my reasons for loving Zappos as a company, or Hsieh as a CEO. But it would be much easier to just read the book yourself. Hsieh does what is best for the company, the employees, and the customers… even if it means making personal sacrifices, such as setting his own salary to $12 (not $12k or $12m… just $12) a year.

Delivering Happiness definitely gave me a new prospective of how a company should be run. This book should be required reading for all company owners and managers.

This book was no different.

However, what made me really enjoy this book was watching the characters trying to solve the crime. The entire time I was reading, I kept thinking, “you idiot… you’ve got your person right there!” Of course, I didn’t know HOW they’d figure it out, and that was the fun of the story.

The chapters were short, making for a pretty quick read. There were some sex scenes, but I didn’t find them too graphic. It seems that the police (except for Barrington) were pretty racist, which kind of bothered me. But overall, I really liked this book. I’ll definitely read some more Stuart Woods books.