Reading Reflections: November

Buckle up - I really started to pick up the pace in November. I read 23 books - including some of the more relevant ones to date (and some of the more casual ones as well). 

In an effort to not spend my entire evening writing this post; I'm going to skip my reflections on most of the casual reads. Happy to discuss them if anyone's interested though!

 

Making Things Happen - Scott Berkun

Why I read this: This was a part of my curriculum - specifically in support of the PMP. The PMBOK is a nice guide of how project management is supposed to work. Making Things Happen is a book about how project management actually works.

Reflection: This was exactly the kind of book that I find the most valuable. I find very little joy in books that spout pure academia and the way things are supposed to work - and this book was the antithesis to that. Berkun provides advice based on real world experience and successes (and failures). One of Berkun's core philosophies is that the role of the PM is to be responsible for empowering people not process or deliverables. The more that I develop my own skills and knowledge the more that I am certain that the intersection of people and systems is where the magic happens.

Peopleware - Tom DeMacro

Why I read this: This is more PMP curriculum. Much like Making Things Happen this is a book about the real world - not the academic perception of it. 

Reflection: Peopleware is a book about being a PM who puts sociology above technology. As a leader the way to accomplish great big things is to create an environment that empowers and protects your people. This was not something that was surprising to me - but it is surprising how few managers choose to work this way.

Team Topologies - Matthew Skelton

Why I read this: Much of the PMP curriculum I've consumed has been about how to get the most out of a team. This book is about how to build the right team in the first place.

Reflection: This book is basically an ode to/expansion of Conway's Law - "organizations design systems that mirror their own communication structure" - The concept of 'flow' has appeared in most of the PMP reading I've been doing - so it was no surprise that when building an organization/team; flow is the unit by which success is measured. I'm not convinced that all the ideas in this book are as practical in application as the author makes them sound; but the focus on building teams that flow is one that will stick with me.

Accelerate - Nicole Forsgren

Why I read this: This is a part of process management curriculum. Much of that curriculum is based on anecdotes, case studies, and hokey (but valuable) parables. Accelerate was billed as the cold, hard, data driven facts.

Reflection: The book lived up to its recommendation. The only tech team I've ever worked on (my current team) uses a CI/CD model and adopted trunk-based development a little over a year ago - as a result this book was mostly preaching to the choir. Despite this - Forsgren's methodology for measurement was mostly new for me. One of the hard parts about what I'm seeking to do will be measuring whether or not I've been successful - this book will be one I reach for when that time comes. 

The Prince and The Discourses - Niccolo Machiavelli

Why I read this: Read this in college - hadn't thought of it since. I was looking at my bookshelf for a 'next' book and it stood out to me so I snagged it.

Reflection: It is deeply disappointing that a guide to retaining political power in 1500s Florence still seems to be a reasonably relevant playbook in 2025 America. Apparently we have not evolved much the past 500 years.

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry - Neil deGrasse Tyson

Why I read this: I got this book at a library sale. I'm not particularly 'in a hurry' as the title suggests - but books about challenging topics that have been written for simple minds appeal to me. 

Reflection: I wish I liked Tyson more. Everything he writes about in this book can be learned quicker/easier by tuning in to one of his rants on whichever podcast he happens to be on this week. It's interesting stuff - but he just doesn't inspire the same sort of wonder as Carl Sagan or Stephen Hawking.

The DevOps Handbook - Gene Kim

Why I read this: DevOps is just a fancy name for systems thinking applied to the operations of a tech team. I want to use systems thinking in a field dominated by technology - it was an obvious addition to my curriculum.

Reflection: Having already read The Phoenix Project (the narrative/allegory version of this) - much of this book was more of a refresher than it was new information. The core values - focusing on throughput and breaking silos - are exactly the kinds of changes I want to introduce in organizations.

Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

The Drama of the Gifted Child - Alice Miller

The Name of God is Mercy - Pope Francis

Walking Disaster - Deryck Whibley

Your Money or Your Life - Joe Dominguez

The Motivation Manifesto - Brendon Bruchard

Switch - Chip Heath

Why I read this: I've made the comment before - it's not enough to know the right way to do things, I have to know how to convince other people as well. That change management knowledge is the focus of Switch

Reflection: For such a perpetually difficult topic - this book makes it seem so easy. "Direct the rider, motivate the elephant, shape the path." A simple framework to capably convince anyone to adopt whichever changes you happen to be implementing. To be clear I liked that they made the framework so simple - but I have no doubts that the execution of that framework is anything but simple. 

The Green Hills of Earth - Robert Heinlein

Animal Farm - George Orwell

Hatchet - Gary Paulsen

Disrupting the Game - Reggie Fils-Aime

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

The Horse and His Boy - CS Lewis

Prince Caspian - CS Lewis

Voyage of the Dawn Treader - CS Lewis

 

This brings my total books read (at the end of November) to 70. 

30 books left to read in December - and as of today (12/22) I'm quickly closing in.

CHG