Shawna's Favorite Books

The following is a list of my all time favorite books (not in any particular order).  Happy Reading!

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Poisonwood Bible by Babara Kingsolver
• The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
• The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
• The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson
• The Likeness by Tana French
• My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
• A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
• The Cider House Rules by John Irving
• Sarah's Key by XXX
• The Divine Secrets of Ya Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
• All Over but the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg
• Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
• She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
• The Blues Eye by Toni Morrison

Our Bucket List

The following is a list of things we want to do and places we want to visit  - we better retire soon so that we can accomplish it all.

Trips / Places to Visit:

• Brazil - Amazon, Rio
• Cuba 
• US National Parks - RV Trip 
• Ireland - Cycling
• Grand Canyon - Rafting Lower 
• Oregon Coast - Cycling 
• Maine / Eastern Canada 
• Triple Crown - Kentucky Derby, xx, xx 
• Sundance Film Festival
• Telluride Jazz Festival
• Italy
• Cooking course
• Mass at the Vatican
• Whistler - Skiing 
• Central America - Boat Panana Canal, Hike across Isthmus
• Antartica - Cruise
• Iguazu Falls 
• France - Cycling, wine country 
• Backroads Trip 
• Scotland 
• Spain
• Portugal 
• Baltic States - Latvia, Estonia, Finland 
•  Munich - Octoberfest 
•  London - Olympics, Wimbledon
• Oberamergau Germany - Passion Play 
• Jordan - Petra
• Mecca 
• Kenya - Mt. Kenya, safari 
• Uganda - Gorillas 
• Madagascar 
• Morocco 
• India 
• Tibet 
• Nepal - Hike Everest Base Camp 
• Bhutan 
• Laos 
• Indonesia 
• Malaysia 
• Singapore 
• Mauritius 
• Seychelles 
• Maldives
• Phillipines 
• China - Cruise Yangtze River 
• Iceland 
• Tazmania - Trek 
• Australia 
• England, France - Canal Boat Trip
• Houseboat on Lake Union in Seattle

Activities:

• Learn guitar
• Learn Spanish
• Learn piano / sax 
• Own mountain home 
• Live overseas 
• Nascar
• Tractor Pull 
• Live Supreme Court case
• Visit a Dude Ranch (e.g. http://www.klondikeranch.com/)
• Attend a Jimmy Buffet concert 
• Superbowl
• NCAA Tourney
• Olympics

Memorable Quotes and Stuff

Quotes

• If you want traction, you must have friction – from Donald Rumsfeld’s autobiography
• Coach to Brilliance – from eagle’s flight meeting
• Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast – Peter Drucker
• When employees ask “how are you” they really mean “how are we”
• R&D = Rip-off and Duplicate… - Stasha at Qmedia
• Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has - Margaret Mead
• Standford Commencement Address - Steve Jobs
• Where the Hell is Matt – 2006
• Where the Hell is Matt – 2008
• Sound of Music Flash Mob
• Pro Infirmis
• Don't cry that it's over, smile that it happened. The best things in life aren't things. Dr Seuss
• USE IT – Todd Mitchem, Eagle’s Flight
• Understanding the Big Picture
• Say my attitude dictates my experience
• Evict your ego
• I assume nothing
• This is not personal
• You can't lead the herd from the front

Awesome Web Sites

• The Onion - Keith finds this a lot funnier than Shawna does
• Kandersteg International Scout Center - I worked here in '88 and '90 and Shawna and I got engaged here
• Worth Ranch - on staff at this Scout Camp in '84, '85. '86, and '87
• Aimco - since I helped build it, I love it!
• Aimco Property Web Sites - same as above - this example is one of our higher end properties
• Internet Movie Database - the ultimate reference for "who was in that ...."
• The Daily Show - how can people not laugh at John Stewart?
• Khan Academy -my favorite education web site

Keith's Favorite Books

Business Books

Customer Service

• Inside the Magic Kingdom, by Tom Connellan -Keith Kimmel recommended this one.  The seven lessons from the book:
• The competition is anyone the customer compares you with
• Pay fantastic attention to detail
• Everyone Walks the Talk
• Customers are best heard through many ears
• Reward, Recognize, and celebrate
• Xvxryonx makxs adiffxrxncx
• Flight of the Buffalo, by James Belasco
• The Fred Factor, by Mark Sanborn
• Fish, by Lundin, Paul, and Christenson
• The Amazement Revolution, by Shep Hyken
• The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea, by John David Mann
• Raving Fans, by Ken Blanchard

Business Strategy

• Execution, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
• Good To Great, by Jim Collins
• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey
• Servant Leadership, by Robert Greenleaf
• Getting to Yes, by Fisher, Ury, and Patton
• Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, by Chip and Dan Heath
• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath
• The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home, by Dan Ariely
• The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, by Timothy Ferriss - Mike DiFranco suggested this, it is a great way to think about what is really important in life
• Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It, by Marshall Goldsmith
• Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, by Atul Gawande
• Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslo, by Chip Conley

Employee Engagement and Leadership

• Drive,by Daniel Pink - a great book about what motivates: autonomy, master, and purpose.  Autonomy really resonated with me - and in fact in the back of the book it suggests sending out an autonomy survey, which gave me some interesting results
• The Dream Manager, by Matthew Kelly - a super book about coaching, and how to build an organization that allows team members to achieve their dreams
• Delivering Happiness, by Tony Hshai - gave me a new perspective on employee engagement and customer service, I attended Zappos' two-day boot camp after reading the book

Happiness

• The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, by Jonathan Haidt

Marketing

• Why We Buy, by Paco Underhill

Other

• Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System--and Themselves, by Andrew Ross Sorkin

Biographies / Autobiographies

• Truman, by David McCullough
• The Long Walk to Freedom, by Nelson Mandella
• Churchill, by Martin Gilbert
• The Snowball, by Alice Shroeder - the official biography of Warren Buffet
• Theodore Rex, by Edmund Morris - about Teddy Rosevelt
• My Life, by Bill Clinton - facinating to hear his perspective
• The Downing Street Year, by Margaret Thatcher -
•  Rhodes, by Antony Thomas
• The Age of Turbulance, by Alan Greenspan
• Personal History, by Katherine Graham
• The Politics of Diplomacy, by James Baker
• In Retrospect, by Robert McNamera
• The Greatest Generation, by Tom Brokaw
• A Reporter's Life, by Walter Cronkite
• Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson

Math

• Calculus Made Easy, by Silvanus P Thompson
• A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper, by John Allen Palos
• Innumeracy, by John Allen Palos
• Here's Looking at Euclid, by Alex Bellos

General

Books

• Johnathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach - originally recommended by Rebecca, this was a favorite of mine while I was in my late teens and 20s.  I then read almost all of Bach's books
• A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving- read this on my trip around the world
• Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortensen - I loved this book about developing schools for girls in Packistan and Afghanistan and was crushed when I heard that some of it was fabricated
• The Day After Roswell, by Birnes, and Corso

Other Authors / Series

• John Grisham - great mind candy
• Lonely Planet - our favorite travel series.  Some day I'd love to be a contributing author
• John Irving - all his books worked for me while in my 20s
• Bill Bryson - His dry sense of humor combined with travel stories makes for great reading.  It all started with The Lost Continent, a hysterical story of Bill trying to find the America of his Childhood
• James Michner - I love the way he brings a region alive by weaving a continuous family throughout the ages
• James Clavel - with Nobel House, Tai Pan, and Shogun, I gained a fascination with history.  Because of him, if I had to live in a different age, I'd love to have worked the clipper ships doing trade in Hong Kong in the 1850s
• CS Lewis - I read the Chronicles of Narnia twice - the first time as a kid and the second as an adult.  Only the second time did I fully understand the religious meaning
• JRR Tolkien - who has not read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings?
• Michael Crighton - more mind candy
• Steig Larsen - I loved Dragon Tattoo and they got better from there.  So sad that Steig died as I'd love to have read more from him
• The Famous Five, by Enid Blyton - my absolute favorite children's series
• The Secret Seven, by Enid Blyton - a solid second to Famous Five
• Harry Potter, by JK Rowling - no explanation needed
• Christopher Buckley - amusing conservative humorist
• P.J. O'Rourke - another funnyman, his libertarian take on things is often a riot 
• Peter Rabbit's Bookshelf, by Beatrix Potter - I still have the bookshelf I was given as a kid with all 23 books: starting with "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" and ending with "Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes"