Gents, we’ve been hard at work over here at Abraham’s Wallet, but you wouldn’t know for our publication rate this past couple weeks would ya? Fear not, many big announcements and great articles are on the horizon. In the meantime, I decided to throw you a few of the books that I read and enjoyed this year. They range from thick, significant masterpieces to light reads about barbells and fermented grape juice. But I thought you’d enjoy the list and maybe find a book to tide you over until we re-open the article faucet here at Abraham’s Wallet. Happy New Year, thank you for reading our humble blog this year, and we look forward to big stuff in 2019. Now lemme kick those book recs your way:
My favorite read of 2018 was a work of fiction. Rare for me, but there you have it. Gilead is the story of an elderly midwestern preacher, John Ames, writing to his young son to convey the wisdom and memories that he won’t be able to share in person due to an illness that will soon take his life. It isn’t action-packed, but as I read it, I was constantly stopping to think back on moments in my life that were meaningful despite being pretty unremarkable. Within the first 20 pages it was clear to me why this book won the Pulitzer Prize. As a bonus, I think Gilead also dramatically improved the quality of my annual letters written to my children as I fancied myself a young Pastor Ames waxing poetic about the Good Lord’s Grace.
If you read our stuff here at Abe’s Wallet, you might just be familiar with Five Marks of a Man and its author, Brian Tome. This is no Gilead (sorry Brian), but I found it to be fun to read, encouraging, and a solid reminder of what it means to be a man in an era when masculinity is more often than not thought of as a dirty word. This book gets bonus points for taking less than two hours to read in its entirety!
You’ll forgive the good people at Bethel Church for putting a knight on the cover of this book, it’s actually about how we can honor each other in community for our individual giftings, versus trying to make everyone have all of the gifts. Once I got over my initial disappointment that this would not be a guidebook for how to settle questions of honor with jousting, I found Danny Silk’s take to be immensely refreshing. What did they do when church employee types got caught in sexual sin? Not what you’d expect. This book impacted me deeply in the way I think about church community, but also in the way I’m thinking about building businesses.
Did you think we’d not mention Doctor Jordan B. Peterson? If you haven’t heard of 12 Rules for Life, you must not listen to the podcasts we like or visit the popular website Youtube.com. No matter – Peterson has been criticized as being an alt-right, anti-woman bigot because he suggests that men need to become competent if they want to have any success in life. Cleaning your room, for example, is a great start to dealing with your miserable life – it might lead to a positive next step when you realize that you can, in fact, exert yourself to effect positive change around you. For all the noise, I’ve yet to hear a critique of Peterson that holds intellectual water. This book is sort of like a Cliff’s Notes version of JP’s best ideas.
Here’s a fun sub-100 page read for anyone who has wondered about what wine goes with what, how to pick a bottle out and stuff like that. Wine is a hobby of mine, but I’ve gifted this book to friends with only a passing interest, and so far it has gotten many thumbs up.
This book is a foundational piece that shaped the way Steven Manuel and I think about business and money. The gist is that scripture imbues business and the profits that result in successful business ventures with deep value, morality and goodness. The Jewish people have been taught this from birth, and thus, they have none of the baggage that many of us struggle with when it comes to making money and handling it capably. We will write up a full-blown Thou Shall Prosper review soon, but for now, do yourself a favor and get a whiff of the secrets that have made Jews so capable when it comes to building wealth.
I put some physical capital goals on my annual goals summit list last year, and some of those had to do with Barbell Training. Mark Rippetoe is the king of barbells, and his book will teach you the basics (which, delightfully, is all you need). Whether you’re trying to save money on that gym membership by lifting in the basement or you, like me, are concerned that you’ll be a weak old man if you don’t put some meat on your bones before it’s too late, check out Starting Strength. My favorite quote, “if you insist on wearing gloves at the gym, just make sure they match your purse.”
*Mark Parrett is one of the founders of Abraham’s Wallet. When not blogging for you here, he’s raising a family in Salt Lake City, UT and working as a financial planner at Outpost Advisors.
LOVE Danny Silk. Have you read “Keep Your Love On” or “Loving Our Kids on Purpose” (LOKOP)? LOKOP is one of my top 3 fav books. And I would love to check out Gilead. I often think about writing my own “proverbs” for my future children– power-packed gut punches of wisdom that convey our family values, etc. Love your idea for writing annual letters though! So cool!