Audiobooks: I Think He Knows (Dreamscape)

I fell in love with Carter James Callahan’s smart-mouthed smirk long before it was labeled “The Sexiest Smile in Hollywood.” I also fell for his broad, muscular shoulders, his impossibly blue eyes, his… Nope! Not going there anymore. Because while Carter may frequent my dreams every night, I will only ever frequent his friend zone, which is why I’m on an official mission to rid myself of my pesky feelings for him.

I’m gonna put myself out there, start dating, and stop hopelessly crushing on my best friend. Deep down, I know this is for the best. It would never work between us: I’m a single mom with an impressive collection of stained sweatpants; he’s a serial-dating celeb heartthrob who never wants to be tied down to anything or anyone.

So when the media breaks a story that Carter is getting married, nobody is more shocked than I am. Especially when I click on the article and see that his mysterious fiancée is… me?!

©2023 Katie Bailey (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

Audiobooks: The Phoenix Project

Over 13k Reviews and 4.7/5-Star Rating

“The narrator also deserves an award.”

— Audible Review

“The narrator is also really good. Who knew a story about IT ops could be so gripping.”

— Audible Review

Five years after this sleeper hit took on the world of IT and flipped it on its head, the fifth anniversary edition of The Phoenix Project continues to guide IT in the DevOps revolution. In this newly updated and expanded edition of the best-selling The Phoenix Project, co-author Gene Kim includes a new afterword and a deeper delve into the Three Ways as described in The DevOps Handbook.

Bill, an IT manager at Parts Unlimited, has been tasked with taking on a project critical to the future of the business, code named Phoenix Project. But the project is massively over budget and behind schedule. The CEO demands Bill must fix the mess in 90 days, or else Bill’s entire department will be outsourced.

With the help of a prospective board member and his mysterious philosophy of the Three Ways, Bill starts to see that IT work has more in common with manufacturing plant work than he ever imagined. With the clock ticking, Bill must organize work flow, streamline interdepartmental communications, and effectively serve the other business functions at Parts Unlimited.

In a fast-paced and entertaining style, three luminaries of the DevOps movement deliver a story that anyone who works in IT will recognize. Listeners will not only learn how to improve their own IT organizations, they’ll never view IT the same.

©2014 Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford (P)2015 Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford

Audiobooks: The Princess and the Prophet (Beacon Press)

“Great Narration by Chris Ruen”

— Audible Review

The just-discovered story of how two enigmatic circus performers and the cultural ferment of the Gilded Age sparked the Black Muslim movement in America

Delving into new archives and uncovering fascinating biographical narratives, secret rituals, and hidden identities, historian Jacob Dorman explains why thousands of Americans were enthralled by the Islamic Orient, and why some came to see Islam as a global antiracist movement uniquely suited to people of African descent in an era of European imperialism, Jim Crow segregation, and officially sanctioned racism.

The Princess and the Prophet tells the story of the Black Broadway performer who, among the world of Arabian acrobats and equestrians, Muslim fakirs, and Wild West shows, discovered in Islam a greater measure of freedom and dignity, and a rebuttal to the racism and parochialism of white America.

Overturning the received wisdom that the prophet was born on the East Coast, Dorman has discovered that Noble Drew Ali was born Walter Brister in Kentucky. With the help of his wife, a former lion tamer and "Hindoo" magician herself, Brister renamed himself Prophet Noble Drew Ali and founded the predecessor of the Nation of Islam, the Moorish Science Temple of America, in the 1920s.

With an array of profitable businesses, the "Moors" built a nationwide following of thousands of dues-paying members, swung Chicago elections, and embedded themselves in Chicago's dominant Republican political machine at the height of Prohibition racketeering, only to see their sect descend into infighting in 1929 that likely claimed the prophet's life. This fascinating untold story reveals that cultures grow as much from imagination as inheritance, and that breaking down the artificial silos around various racial and religious cultures helps to understand not only America's hidden past but also its polycultural present.

©2020 Jacob S. Dorman (P)2020 Beacon Press

Audiobooks: The Blue Sapphire of the Mind (Oxford)

"There are no unsacred places," the poet Wendell Berry has written. "There are only sacred places and desecrated places." What might it mean to behold the world with such depth and feeling that it is no longer possible to imagine it as something separate from ourselves, or to live without regard for its well-being? To understand the work of seeing things as an utterly involving moral and spiritual act? Such questions have long occupied the center of contemplative spiritual traditions.

In The Blue Sapphire of the Mind, Douglas E. Christie proposes a distinctively contemplative approach to ecological thought and practice that can help restore our sense of the earth as a sacred place. Drawing on the insights of the early Christian monastics as well as the ecological writings of Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Annie Dillard, and many others, Christie argues that, at the most basic level, it is the quality of our attention to the natural world that must change if we are to learn how to live in a sustainable relationship with other living organisms and with one another. He notes that in this uniquely challenging historical moment, there is a deep and pervasive hunger for a less fragmented and more integrated way of apprehending and inhabiting the living world - and for a way of responding to the ecological crisis that expresses our deepest moral and spiritual values.

Christie explores how the wisdom of ancient and modern contemplative traditions can inspire both an honest reckoning with the destructive patterns of thought and behavior that have contributed so much to our current crisis, and a greater sense of care and responsibility for all living beings. These traditions can help us cultivate the simple, spacious awareness of the enduring beauty and wholeness of the natural world that will be necessary if we are to live with greater purpose and meaning, and with less harm, to our planet.

©2013 Oxford University Press (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

New Post: The Unreal Stakes of the Wisconsin '23 Spring Election

As a kid growing up in Wisconsin, our state was known as setting a kind of standard for good, clean, functioning government. How things have changed. A secretive GOP-led gerrymander in 2011 led to electoral maps that are so unrepresentative that, even though Wisconsin elected a Democratic Governor in 2022 by more than 3 points, we came within a couple of thousand votes from a complete GOP supermajority in both houses of the state legislature. With no hope of accountability from voters, I have witnessed the resulting corruption and arrogance from elected GOP officials up close by way of the scandal over Cedar Gorge in Ozaukee County. I know that is just the tip of the iceberg — the ongoing treatment and abuse of Milwaukee by the state GOP is beyond the pale.

How bad is the situation in Wisconsin? In 2020 the Harvard Electoral Integrity Project gave our state the worst score in the entire nation, likening the quality of democracy here to nations like the Congo and Bahrain.

Fortunately, we have a chance on February 21st to vote for a nominee for the State Supreme Court that can go on to the general election on April 4th and flip the 4-3 political balance of the court, suddenly opening the door to legal challenges that are likely to give us Fair Maps and strike down the 1849 abortion ban. Wisconsin can be a real democracy again, opening up endless possibilities for the future of the state. Click here for a great explainer on the stakes of the race.

Last week I was lucky to hear Wisconsin’s top pollster, Dr. Charles Franklin from the Marquette Law poll, share the history of turnout for spring elections. He predicted turnout to only be in the neighborhood of 30% for the general election in April! In addition, my more-politically-connected friends have shared that some recent internal polling showed neither liberal-aligned court candidates making it through to the general — effectively ensuring Wisconsin remains a “democracy desert,” perhaps forever. I have a hard time believing Judge Janet doesn’t make it through, but that info gave me serious pause about my assumptions.

There is no reason to take anything for granted for the February 21st primary, much less the April election. Friends and family that you assume will vote may not even know this election is happening, or how fundamental the stakes are—of course this is especially true for folks that you know are “not very political.” This is a case where lawn signs and word-of-mouth both really matter for awareness, especially if you’re in a “blue” area. I encourage you to share the link to this post if it is helpful or find another way to spread the word on this race, leaving nothing to chance. This is it. The whole enchilada. For all the marbles. We may not get another chance to flip the court in our lifetimes, especially if extreme conservative policies keep young people and young families away from the state moving forward.

Given all of this, here are some recommendations for the February 21st Primary from a SE Wisconsin perspective:

• I am supporting Judge Janet Protasiewicz in the primary because she has run the strongest campaign and has the best chance to win in April. I saw Judge Everett Mitchell speak a few months ago. He was very impressive and genuinely inspirational. I’m sure he would be a fantastic and empathetic member of the court, but whenever I’ve checked on his campaign it has seemed like not much is going on organizationally. I’m not voting based on who will be the better Judge, or even whom I prefer to be on the court, but who is in the strongest position to win and, based on campaign organization and strength, from what I can tell it isn’t even a question.

• If you are in Ozaukee County, please see recommendations for other races from Oz Dems here.

• While she is unchallenged for the primary, Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin is running for a HUGELY important special election in the 8th State Senate District. If she loses, the GOP will have a supermajority in the state senate, giving them impeachment power — they could impeach Gov. Evers, for example. So if you know anyone in the 8th — including Whitefish Bay, River Hills, Fox Point, Bayside, Mequon, Grafton, Thiensville, Germantown, Menomonee Falls or Richfield (I’m missing some but you can see the district lines here) — it’s worth reaching out to them to make sure they understand the stakes of this special election.