The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

What a great little story! In keeping with his previous stories Mitch Albom tells us a story with the ultimate lesson, to celebrate the life that we have and stop letting external constraints get in the way of our most valuable gift, our lives themselves. The basic story line is that Dor, our main character,invents the measurement of time in direct violation of God's will. Dor pays the ultimate price not by dying but rather by living in solitude, never aging or getting ill. He never gets hungry or thirsty, and all he can do in his solitude is listen to all the voices pleading for time in one fashion or another while failing to recognize the gift that their lives already are to them. Mitch Albom's imagination is second to none. If you've never read any of Mitch Albom's books I recommend you do.

A couple more academic books

I just finished "Soar with your strengths; a simple yet revolutionary philosophy of business and management" by Clifton & Nelson for my current course Executive Management and Leadership. While the book gave a fresh perspective on how to embrace one's strengths it seemed to lack solid data to really sway me 100%. I believe in positive psychology but this book left me wanting data to back up its various posed thoughts rather than the endless parables. The concept is great, applying strengths and managing weaknesses and paring strengths with internal and external expectations for full satisfaction in employment and in life but the book itself wasn't quite 200 pages and left me wanting content and supporting data. I also completed "Organizational Management and Leadership: A Christian Perspective" by Anita Satterlee. I found this book to be a nice simple management and leadership concepts reference with not quite enough substance. It served the course purpose well however it provides just enough reference data to inspire more questions and not quite enough road signs to find the answers. I found the glossary a little thin however the distinction between management and leadership in the book was insightful and helpful. I do recommend Clifton & Nelson, but be prepared to go looking into further works on strengths, expectations and the power of positive psychology. Satterlee works well for the Executive Management and Leadership course but again needs more substance and more glossary definitions for the non-finance or non-business minds to help figure things out.