What I’m Crunching — April 12, 2026
This one kept me on the edge of my seat. It’s enjoyable. A bit too wordy in places, but the narrative is excellent.
From the Goodreads summary:
From the New York Times bestselling author of Washington’s Spies, “a page-turning thriller” (James M. Scott) about one of the greatest heists in history: the U.S. Navy’s clandestine capture of a Nazi U-boat at the climax of World War II.
Shortly before noon on June 4, 1944, the sonar operator on a destroyer prowling off the coast of West Africa heard a sharp, metallic ping. The sound could mean only one thing: The German submarine that their hunter-killer group had been tracking, U-505, was lurking somewhere below. The ensuing struggle between exhausted hunter and venomous prey would make history when American sailors boarded an enemy warship at sea for the first time since the War of 1812.
That day’s victory was the culmination of an unrelenting campaign against the Nazi submarine threat by the U.S. Navy’s “Tenth Fleet”—a mysterious unit that could predict the locations and movement of Hitler’s U-boats. Run by Commander Kenneth Knowles, Tenth Fleet had guided Captain Dan Gallery to U-505; to repay the favor, Gallery was going to steal an Enigma machine for him.
Now all they had to do was to make an entire U-boat, its crew, and its secrets vanish into thin air . . .
In this swashbuckling adventure story, bestselling historian Alexander Rose draws on long-classified encrypted documents and intercepted German transmissions to reveal in full, for the first time, how an owlish egghead and a glory-seeking buccaneer teamed up to score the richest prize on the high seas.
What I’m Crunching — April 5, 2026
I’m back in this one this week as our leadership team at church works through it. Lots of challenging lessons here on servant leadership and taking responsibility. Plus, the combat stories are a nice draw for a guy.
What I’m Crunching — March 29, 2026
I picked this one up at the library last week. It’s quite engaging and the narrative is gripping. The writing could be simpler. But, it seems like the author uses big, little-known words unnecessarily.
It reminds me of several quotes from Writing to Learn by Zinsser where he emphasizes that the most enjoyable, accessible writing uses simple sentences and words, and doesn’t require the reader to pull out their dictionary to understand a sentence.
What I’m Crunching — March 22, 2026
This one will be a focus for the next few weeks as I work through it alongside our leadership team at church.
In a team coaching session in another context this week, one teammate made the point that, after a while, you start to realize leadership books are just repackaging various truths already found in Scripture.
This is obviously true. Still, well-written books like these bring helpful real-world examples of healthy leadership principles in action.
What I’m Crunching — March 15, 2026
I continued in this book this week as our leadership team at church is reading it together. It’s gripping and practical.
Various life situations I encounter constantly remind me of the lessons in this book. Leadership is service. Leadership is the single most important factor in forming effective teams. Observers of ineffective teams, teams who don’t accomplish their mission, can trace the failure back to the leader.