What I Am Reading Monday: Innovators

Though I have read for years, I have been blogging a little under two years. This blog started as an  outlet to share my love of all things literary and has become so much more. I have found community within the online world. A giant, online book club with people only a few states and others oceans away.

This spot has become like my favorite chair-

loved, worn from use and has left a mark of where I have been.

I am constantly evolving and my reviews and reading patterns serve as a reflection. I'm okay with that. I'm not who I was yesterday nor two years ago. 

I keep reading. Whether it's five or fifty pages. Some I re-read and others I feel bad for the trees that had to die, but I keep turning the pages and as a result, my perspectives change. I am influenced by those characters and information with whom I surround myself. 

Rather than reading about the latest diet fad or exercise craze as many do to issue in the new year, I have been reading about those whose footsteps have influenced my own. They are the innovators, the crazy ones, the ones who changed the world and I hope that they change yours, if even a little bit :) 

Summary: 

The new nonfiction from #1 bestselling author and popular radio and television host Glenn Beck.

THEIR NAMES ARE FAMILIAR.
THEIR STORIES ARE NOT.

Everyone has heard of a "Ponzi scheme", but do you know what Charles Ponzi actually did to make his name synonymous with fraud? Credit for inventing radio usually goes to Marconi or David Sarnoff and RCA, but if you've never heard of Edwin Armstrong or Lee de Forest, you know only half the story.

You've probably been to a Disney theme park, but did you know that the park Walt believed would change the world was actually EPCOT? He died before his vision for it could ever be realized. History is about so much more than dates and dead guys; it's the greatest story ever told. Now, in this powerful follow-up to his national bestseller Miracles and Massacres, Glenn Beck brings ten more true and untold stories to life.

The people who made America were not always what they seemed. There were entrepreneurs and visionaries whose selflessness propelled us forward, but there were also charlatans and fraudsters whose selfishness nearly derailed us. Dreamers and Deceivers brings both of these groups to life with stories written to put you right in the middle of the action. You know that Woodrow Wilson was a progressive who dramatically changed America, but did you know that he was also involved in one of the most shocking national deceptions of all time? You know I Love Lucy, but the true story of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball is much better than anything they produced for television. You've heard of Upton Sinclair, the socialist author who gained famed with The Jungle, but it was a book he wrote two decades later that proved the depths he was willing to go to maintain his reputation.

From the spy Alger Hiss, to the visionary Steve Jobs, to the code-breaker Alan Turin, once you know the full stories behind the half-truths you've been force fed, once you meet the unsung heroes and obscured villains edited from our schoolbooks, once you begin to see these amazing people from our past as people rather than just names, your perspective on today's important issues may forever change. Find out why this series has become America's new go-to history book.  

 

 Summary: 

The computer and the internet are among the most important innovations of our era, but few people know who created them. They were not conjured up in a garret or garage by solo inventors suitable to be singled out on magazine covers or put into a pantheon with Edison, Bell, and Morse. Instead, most of the innovations of the digital age were done collaboratively. There were a lot of fascinating people involved, some ingenious and a few even geniuses. This is the story of these pioneers, hackers, inventors, and entrepreneurs—who they were, how their minds worked, and what made them so creative. It’s also a narrative of how they collaborated and why their ability to work as teams made them even more creative.”

 

Summary: 

 The printing press, the pencil, the flush toilet, the battery—these are all great ideas. But where do they come from? What kind of environment breeds them? What sparks the flash of brilliance? How do we generate the breakthrough technologies that push forward our lives, our society, our culture? Steven Johnson’s answers are revelatory as he identifies the seven key patterns behind genuine innovation, and traces them across time and disciplines. From Darwin and Freud to the halls of Google and Apple, Johnson investigates the innovation hubs throughout modern time and pulls out applicable approaches and commonalities that seem to appear at moments of originality. Where Good Ideas Come From gives us both an important new understanding of the history of innovation and a set of useful strategies for cultivating our own creative breakthroughs.