Serve,Lead, Succeed! How servant leaders are reaching breakthrough sales. Max Cates. 2020. ISBN 978-1-64718-615-9. I have a lot of time for books by this author.  This is the third book of his I reviewed and as ever, he is right on the front edge of sales leadership writing.  With the COVID pandemic I am working with many companies who are having a real struggle in this different marketplace.  WFH puts a traditional top down sales model out the window.   You need sales reps to be more independent, assertive and confident enough to take ownership of their success. I like the servant leadership model (Simon Sinak) and have been using it in our sales consulting practice.  Max’s book now gives me something to give to the sales leaders so they can recognize themselves and see how this approach will help them.  I really took my time with this book as it deserves a thoughtful read.  Could be a nominee for sales book of the year.   Buy it, read it and read it again.

The Witcher series ( 1-7) . Andrzej Sapkowski.  A Polish writer of sword and sorcery books, Sapkowski paints intense word pictures of other worlds that gently touch on ours.  There is a overriding arc to the stories which allows all the series to be brought together at the very end. Recurring characters, embedded stories and myths make the total more than each individual title. The titles are;   The last Wish, The Sword of Destiny, Blood of Elves, The Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, The Tower of Swallows, Lady of the Lake .

The books are full of action, and sympathetic characters.   Netflix has a TV series The Witcher.  There is a set of Witcher video games.

Yellow Bird. Oil, murder and a woman’s search for justice in Indian Country. Sierra Crane Murdoch. 2020. ISBN 9780399589157. This is why I like to read books by journalists, they can write.  The book is seemingly simple, one woman following and journaling the efforts of another to find justice.  But it is much more profound. In  these pages is likely one of the better illustrations of what it means to be Indian in North America. Plus an indictment of big oil in North Dakota.   The reader comes to  their own judgement in experiencing life along with the book’s characters.  The style is simple, and almost pedestrian as you follow the chronology.  But in this simplicity comes a slow compulsion to see how it all comes out.  Worth the read.