Cover: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

Donald Miller’s new book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life is available from booksellers today.  I received a free copy early as part of Thomas Nelson’s Blogger Review Program.  Otherwise I’d have bought a copy today, as I’m a big Donald Miller fan.

The book tells the story of what happens to Miller when a couple of movie producers begin working with him to adapt his earlier book Blue Like Jazz into a movie.  He quickly learns that changes have to be made to his story to make a successful movie.  As he works to learn more about what makes a good story, he finds a new lens for looking at his life, and in turn, for making a better life.

If you’re a Miller fan, you won’t be disappointed.  You’ll love his quirky characters, you’ll smile and laugh out loud, and you’ll quickly get sucked into his story.  And then the twist hits — you’ll begin to see yourself in the story, and wonder how he suddenly began writing about you and your story.  You continue reading to find out how Miller’s story turns out, but you’re also reading to learn more about editing your own story.  And it works on both levels.

You might as well just buy a couple of copies.  You’re going to want to hold on to yours to reread, and you’re going to want one to give to those you love.

Fearless, by Max Lucado

In Fearless, Max Lucado takes on our fearfulness straight up.

He enumerates all of the reasons we have to be fearful, and then boldly asks, “Can you imagine a life with no fear?” He then builds the case for a life of courage based on Jesus’ most common command recorded in scripture, “Fear Not!”

Lucado doesn’t sugar coat the difficulties all of us face in life. But as he addresses many of our major fears, he helps us understand how we can face them with more courage and less fear. “The promise of Christ and the contention of this book are simple:  we can fear less tomorrow than we do today.”

I’ve been looking forward to the arrival of Fearless since before I heard about it. I’ve witnessed the effect of fear on people struggling with unemployment, with other life circumstances. I’ve wished for an effective tool to help them deal with their fear, to find courage.  Fearless fills that bill.

But as I read the book, I was surprised by how much it also spoke to my life. I found encouragement for being less fearful, for being more courageous.  I believe you’ll find the same.

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I am a member of Thomas Nelson’s Book Review Blogger program.

Book Cover: The X and Y of Buy

The X and Y of Buy: Sell more and market better by knowing how the sexes shop by Elizabeth Pace is a good read for those of us who are always interested in learning more about why we and others do what we do.

The book provides interesting insights into the differences in the brains and brain function of men and women, and how these differences come into play as we make buying decisions.  Pace then builds on this information to provide strategies to more effectively market and sell to both women and men.

I found the book easy to read and the principles easy to apply.  Pace does a good job of presenting brain research findings of the past several decades and then providing clear examples of how the findings translate in real life buying and selling scenarios.

Frankly, I started reading with some skepticism that the book’s rather simplistic premise would hold, but the more I read, the more I found it to ring true.  There are significant differences between how women and men buy, and therefore if we hope to be successful in selling, we need to understand the differences and adopt strategies to account for them.

Bottom line?  Whether your goal is to sell, or just to influence, you’ll find The X and Y of Buy a good investment.