Short talk about the books I got to read during the summer of 2020.
Imagine what it would be like walking into one of the oldest libraries that exist. How tall would the shelves be and how many books would be sitting on them? Which would be the last untouched book and what would the texture of its pages be? Add a little wood fragrance and at least one creaking plank in the floor, as you pick up one random book and start reading its story.
This summer I got round to reading a few interesting books, from autobiographies to various leadership collections. Every one of them came with an amazing story to tell and plenty of information to take away, which inspired me not only to very briefly present those books, but also to share a few of my favourite quotes. :)
Without further ado, let's begin.
1. Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi
To make a small suggestion about the place where the heart of the action takes place, the picture above depicts a bas-relief carved in the walls of some of the buildings found in Persepolis, Iran. The book inherits the name of the ancient capital of the Persian Empire and it presents the autobiography of Marjane Satrapi, a graphic novelist and film director. Focused on her psychological and moral growth, Persepolis could rather be called a bildungsroman.
Marjane Satrapi starts by recalling her childhood experiences; brought up in Teheran by a family involved in political movements even before the Islamic Revolution, she details the war between Irak and Iran as seen through her eyes. Then, the author goes on to talk about her teenage years spent at a highschool in Vienna and the hardships faced, her return to Iran and the definitive departure to France.
What I found most catchy were her inside stories regarding women's condition in the Islamic world, as well as her descriptions of how their compulsory veils hid sensitive aspects about politics, religion and history. Since this autobiography is a series of two French comics, I do not have a particular quote to share, but the following piece of information could make up for it: Marjane Satrapi has also directed an animated film based on her life story!
2. Leaders eat last, by Simon Sinek
In his book, Simon Sinek presents his vision of what it takes for an organisation to create a healthy work environment, based on the leadership experience of the people, rather than managerial acumen. It is a well known fact that quite a few big corporations nowadays have (sadly) left their people with a taste of helplessness, in the sense that many feel left outside a circle of safety, with the need to have their own backs and care for tomorrow.
Sinek uses many examples of the U.S. military to explain the importance of leaders being focused on their people, since these types of organisations have strong cultures and shared values, understanding the importance of teamwork, creating trust among their members, maintaining focus and, above all, understanding the importance of people and relationships to their mission success.
One of my favourite stories in the book was that of Captain Mike Dowley, known by the nickname of Johnny Bravo. A year hadn't passed since the attacks of September 11 and the Taliban government had only recently fallen after an attack from U.S. forces for their refusal to turn over the Al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden. A team of twenty-two men was operating deep inside enemy territory, on a pitch-black night, having what the government calls a "high-value target". The men were working their way through a valley in a mountainous part of Afghanistan, escorting their high-value target to a safe house.
Flying over the thick clouds that night were Johnny Bravo and his wingman in their A-10 aircraft, waiting should they be needed below. Due to weather conditions, visibility was poor and the only way of knowing whether the men needed help was through radio communication. However, sensing the anxious troops below, Johnny Bravo decided to perform a risky manoeuver and execute a weather letdown (drop height to see what was happening). Just as he did so, he received confirmation the ground team was in trouble. They were under attack.
Massive amounts of enemy fire was coming from both sides of the valley. Since the instruments Johnny Bravo had were not too sophisticated, yet he needed to provide full coverage, he started counting: he knew his speed and distance from the mountains, so he did some quick calculations in his head and counted the seconds he had before he'd hit the valley walls. He locked his guns onto a position from which he could see a lot of enemy fire originating and held down the trigger of his gun. When he was out of ammo, he briefed his wingman on the strategy, who followed Johnny Bravo's lead and laid down the fire as commanded.
That night, twenty-two men went home alive and there were no American casualties, due to the risky manoeuver the Captain had decided to perform. As Simon Sinek put it,
For Johnny Bravo and those like him, the will to succeed and the desire to do things that advance the interests of the organisation aren’t just motivated by recognition from above; they are integral to a culture of sacrifice and service, in which protection comes from all levels of the organisation.
3. Dare to lead, by Brené Brown
Dare to lead is a book comprising twenty years of research the author has put into studying courage, vulnerability, empathy, the feeling of shame, and their effects on our work and everyday lives. She presents a set of tools on how to take on courage at work, that has proven useful in many different circumstances. Not only that, but she also has this nice sense of humour talking about specific situations in her own life when she needed to prove herself courageous. My favourite quote used in the book is actually the intro paragraph, which also inspired the choice of the picture above, and it sounds as follows:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly... Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. - Theodore Roosevelt
4. Born a crime, by Trevor Noah
A brilliant autobiography presenting Trevor Noah's years growing up in South Africa. He was "born a crime" not because he could answer back in several African languages; not because he accidentally almost burnt down a house with his magnifying glass; not because he took his friend Hitler to perform with him at a Jewish school program; but because that was South Africa and his mother was black and his father was white. Noah grew up under apartheid, which he exposes in the book.
As a coloured child, relatives and neighbours would treat him differently. For example, his grandmother would never hit him as punishment, arguing she didn't know how to hit a white child because "he would turn blue and green and yellow and red", in contrast to black children, who would "stay black" :) She said she was afraid she was going to break Trevor and she wouldn't want to kill a white person. I simply loved the author's view over people's skin colour:
As a kid I understood that people were different colours, but in my head white and black and brown were like types of chocolate. Dad was the white chocolate, mom was the dark chocolate, and I was the milk chocolate. But we were all just chocolate. I didn't know any of it had anything to do with "race". I didn't know what race was. My mother never referred to my dad as white or to me as mixed. So when the other kids in Soweto called me "white", even though I was light brown, I just thought they had their colours mixed up, like they hadn't learned them properly. "Ah, yes, my friend. You've confused aqua with turquoise. I can see how you made that mistake. You're not the first."
Out of the four books above, there's no way I'll try to pick a favourite - they're all unique in their own ways and I enjoyed every one of them; they're full of information to take away. Persepolis was recommended to me by a friend, Leaders eat last and Dare to lead were chosen by me out of desire to learn more about the subject, and Born a crime was picked for me (I never expected I would like this much a book someone else chose for me, I have to admit :D). If this article will inspire you to read any of books above, or if it happens that you already have, I'd like to hear your views... because, as Edmund Wilson said,
No two persons ever read the same book.
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