What I’m Crunching — December 28, 2025
This was a fast read, and generally enjoyable. A few things about it stood out:
– Pullman uses a variety of lesser-seen words in his writing. I often long-pressed on words to see their definition in my Kindle app while reading. I enjoyed this; I love learning new words!
– It’s another female-lead-character novel, which is fine, but I didn’t realize how this one would be geared more toward young adults. This meant that the characters were a bit more immature and the dialogue used expressions and idioms more connected to young people. Perfectly acceptable if you’re a young adult, but it didn’t connect well with me.
– I found myself not being surprised by the direction of the plot; in several cases, it was quite predictable.
I don’t expect I’ll continue on to the next book in the series.
What I’m Crunching — December 21, 2025
Book I’m Reading The Golden Compass This is the first volume of the seminal “His Dark Materials” series written by Philip Pullman. The series title comes from Paradise Lost where John Milton wrote: “Into this wild AbyssThe womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave—Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,But all these in their […]
What I’m Crunching — December 14, 2025
It’s becoming increasingly clear the impact that dopamine has on our physiological well-being. App designers and others with an economic interest in grabbing and keeping a user’s attention deeply understand and aim to take advantage of the human body’s neural and chemical design to keep our attention.
Equipped with this knowledge, we should begin making wiser choices what we give our attention to, and for how long.
“I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.”
Psalm 101:3
From the Goodreads summary:
In Dopamine Nation, Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, explores the exciting new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain . . . and what to do about it. Condensing complex neuroscience into easy-to-understand metaphors, Lembke illustrates how finding contentment and connectedness means keeping dopamine in check. The lived experiences of her patients are the gripping fabric of her narrative. Their riveting stories of suffering and redemption give us all hope for managing our consumption and transforming our lives. In essence, Dopamine Nation shows that the secret to finding balance is combining the science of desire with the wisdom of recovery.
What I’m Crunching — December 7, 2025
Our Operations Leadership Team at SonSet Solutions finished this one recently. It has been transformative for us. It’s an immensely biblical, practical book with many helpful suggestions around growing in your prayer life as a leader of God’s people. From the Goodreads summary:
Skoog, Greer, and Doolittle spent three years researching. They logged over one hundred hours of interviews with leaders in six continents who collectively serve in over one hundred countries. They researched or spoke with global entrepreneurs and business executives of Fortune 500 companies, as well as some of the most influential pastors and ministry leaders in the world. Here in this book, the authors share the spiritual habits, techniques, and practices of these world-changing leaders, revealing specific details of their prayer lives. In addition, the book includes prayers for leaders to use in their own prayer time as well as tools for how to cultivate a personal and organizational commitment to prayer.
What I’m Crunching — November 30, 2025
I’ve been so encouraged by this accessible read. Rinne did a great job bringing together the various Scripture passages detailing the elder qualifications and expectations.
I can heartily recommend this for both aspiring elders and existing elders.