3 X 5's: Index Card Wisdom from Best of Books

JAB & HOOK Gary Vaynerchuk (2013). Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook . Vaynerchuk has a BA in Management Science and is best known for his entrepreneurial work. The boxing metaphor of jab and right hook is applied to marketers where jabs represent creating connections with audience interests (GIVING for free), and the hook represents asking the audience to do something (e.g., purchase a product/service, subscribe, like...(GETTING). The general format is for marketing is: jab, jab, jab...followed by the hook (jabs are the free gives to create connection and the right hook is the knock out punch). For every type of social media, there is a native context that the marketer needs to read based on who is using the platform, their purpose, and the platform's unique format...all of these need to be taken into account when engaging with the audience in jabs and hooks. Best advice across platforms is to use a striking, high-quality photo to grab attention (most people are scanning, looking for ...

SECRET AFFAIR Mary Balogh (2010). A Secret Affair. 5th and final book in the Huxtable series set in the Regency era of England. Hannah Reid marries an old rich Duke, becoming the Duchess of Dunbarton and learns platonic love...when the Duke dies 10 years later, she has an affair with Constantine Huxtable, illegitamate son of the Earl of Merton...over time they discover that they each have charitable hearts, households set up to help the poor that is kept secret, slowly they learn to care for each other and eventually marry and have a son. Favorite lines: I will always love you...nothing you do will make me stop (16) Everyone is a rose...of infinitely layered petals...precious at the heart of their being (142) We found something to laugh at every day...laughter is better than medicine (185) ...her life had followed a definite pattern...she could have never have predicted or planned...those years had not been an interval in her life...They had been integral to it...[italics mine] (226)...

INCLUSIVE THERAPY Bill O'Hanlon (2003). A Guide to Inclusive Therapy:                                               26 Methods of Respectful                                               Resistance-Disolving Therapy O'Hanlon has a Master's of Science in Counseling and Psychology from Arizona State University--a clinical hypnotherapist and author of over 30 books at the time of this writing...founded "possibility therapy" and "inclusive therapy." one key issue in therapy is balancing validating a person's experience while also inviting them to change (as most people will resist suggestions to change). some of the PRINCIPLES of inclusive therapy: give permission for ALL experiences (not necessarily behavior, but f...

FORGIVE Everett Wrothington (2003). Forgiving and Reconciling:                                                          Bridges to Wholeness and Hope Worthington has a PhD in Psychology, began studying forgiveness in the 1980's, and at the time of this book in 2003, published over 150 articles/papers on forgiveness (mostly from a social science and Christian orientation). forgiveness is an individual decision to not behave negatively toward a person that has hurt one, and making concrete attempt(s) to restore the relationship, whereas reconciliation is a relational process (requiring the cooperation of the offending party) that reestablishes trust in the relationship after trust was violated. the core process of forgivenss (this can be done individually without the offender involved) is summarized by the acronym REAC...

TO HOLD Mary Balogh (2007). Someone to Hold. This is the 2nd book in the Westcott romance series set in the Regency era of England. Camille Westcott (raised as lady Wescott but when here father dies, she discovers she is an illegitamate child of an illegitamate marriange) takes on a job as a teacher at an orphanage where her legitimate sister Anne had been teaching for 26 years...she meets Joel Cunningham who grew up in the orphanage and vounteers teaching art...Joel discovers he is the nephew of a wealthy man who dies and leaves him a fortune...Camille and Joel have an awkward relationship, but eventually marry and adopt 2 children from the orphanage. Favorite quotes: Choices...accept and move forward, deny and carry on, hide away and close one's mind, explore, make sense of it, and be born anew (49) Something that seems tragic, in hindsight, often holds an unexpected gift (374) Joel's paintings capture the character, the qualities of a person, not just the imag,e and for that...

AGING Connie Zweig (2021). The Inner Work of Age:                                               Shifting from Role to Soul. Zweig has a PhD in Depth Psychology...thesis: aging provides an opportunity to shift life perspective from outside roles of the hero's journey, ego, family, work and so forth to universal soul orientation of awareness, mindfulness, meditation, spirit, love, and service. we can grow into the wise elder (e.g., Gandalf, Obi Wan Kenobi) by entering 3 portals of awareness: shadow--e.g., ageism--hear and befriend the messages of the body as it ages pure awareness--cultivate via meditation, opening, silence, from "doing to being" mortaility--coming to terms withour personal death (e.g., life review) practices: digest the life we've lived by performing a life review distill the lesson learned from our life review turn the lessons into ...

SEDUCTION Mary Balogh (2009). Seducing an Angel. This is the 4th book in the Huxtable series set in Regency England. Stephen, the Earl of Merton, the youngest of the Huxtables, is targeted for seduction by Cassandra Belmont (a widow with a checkered past, according to the ton), but the plan backfires, and through extraordinary circumstances, the two marry. i love how Balogh takes seemingly disastrous circumstances and turns them around for a long-term good as in the case of 2 nights of seduction which results in the discovery of a pregnancy 7 months later solidifing their decision to marry. Favorite quotes: Think of those who have been kind to you today. Forget those who have not.116 Some events, some moments, were dropped deliberately into one's life...by an unseen hand. But that hand has no power to dictate one's response. It is up to the individual concerned to make something out of these events and moments. Or not. 150 ...I would be ready to come here and be healed. And to ...

WAR Yeva Skalietska (2022). You Don't Know What War Is:                                                  The Diary of a Young Girl from the Ukraine. Yeva was 12 years old when the war began in her city in the Ukraine...she kept a detailed diary by day and time for 28 days, from the sound of the first bomb to her landing in Dublin, Ireland, free at last. The fear, uncertainty, and trauma of the bombings come through powerfully in Yeva's story--all material concerns are nothing compared to the overwhelming need to survive for oneself and one's loved ones.  The kindness of ordinary people who helped her escape Ukraine to Hungary, then to Dublin, restores my faith in humanity.  The ability to connect by mobile phone was a blessing and a curse.  Prayer was a central part of the story--G help us, get us safe.  I (Jim) feel so GRAT...

SEDUCTION Mary Balogh (2009). Then Comes Seduction. This is the 2nd book in the Huxtable series set in the Regency era of England. Jasper Finley, Baron Montford, wagers to seduce Katherine Huxtable in a fortnight, and upon the verge of winning his wager, he stops and confesses his wager to her...later he makes a double wager with Kate, that they will each fall in love with each other--which in time, they do, but not without an intriguing set of seductions. Favorite quotes: Kate: "...decided that love was not safe but that it must be pursued at all costs." (224) There was something very special about Cedarhurst, something that spoke to her soul. She could just sit here forever...Just being. A part of it all." (294) One sound psychological principle for remaking memories: Jasper remakes an old memory (the initial seduction) by creating a similar set of circumstances but with a different, more positive ending (a mutual seduction), thereby superimposing this new memory over ...

POETRY Richard Kennedy (Ed.). (1994). E. E. Cummings Selected Poems. Cummings earned an MA at Harvard in English and the Classics...he was also a professional painter, WWI ambulance driver in France, and nature lover. Cummings' mother encouraged him to keep a journal as a boy...he spent May-Oct (5 months a year) at Joy Farm from the time of his father's death every year. He married 3 of the most beautiful women in the US, the last for 40 years. Cummings' writing style often uses lower case letters, especially in referencing himself as "i"...he uses space on the page to convey nonverbal meaning and delights in word play, puns, intentional misspellings, word breaks, parentheses, rhyme... Most of the poems read like riddles/mysteries to me, they need to be read slowly, even them, some of the poems seem incomprehensible...i remember reading some of his poems as a boy in an english literature class and now i wanted to dig deeper...overall, i am disappointed in this sel...

AT LAST Mary Balogh (2009). At Last Comes Love. This is the 3rd book in Balogh's Huxtable series set in the Regency era of England. Duncan Pennethore (Earl of Sherigford) and Margaret Huxtable are both desperate to be married, but for very different reasons...a serendipitous "crash" into each other at a ball leads to a marriage within 2 weeks...Duncan appears to be a rake, but his story reveals an honorable man willing to sacrifice for others. Some favorite quotes: There were certain moments upon which the whole of the future course of one's life turned...(p.61) I think love is always being put to the test...It bends, but it never breaks. Not if it is real. (p.281) Other days were crammed so full of events that it was impossible to believe so much living could be packed into twenty-four hours.(p.381) Not just "certain moments" but all moments are potentially moments upon which the whole future course of one's life turns; yet, there are particular moment...

M.I.N.D. Emad Mostaque (2025). The Last Economy:  A Guide to                                                    the Age of Intelligent Economics. Mostaque has a BS in Math and Computer Science from Oxford, was a fund manager, and founded Stability AI (retired in 2024). Mostaque predicts that there will be an intelligence inversion in 1K days from the time of the writing...about 3 years, in 2027 [as of my writing this is on 1//3/2026...the time is not far off]. He demonstrates historical changes in power...from land to labor to capital to intelligence. Artifical Intelligence (AI) will replace humans for all knowledge jobs...this can be viewed as a disaster or a liberation....the future (3-30 years) is a time when there will be no more "jobs", firms, or labor for money, rather, our "job" will be to guide AI with wisdom prompts, ex...

CO-INTELLIGENCE Ethan Mollick (2024). Cointelligence: Living and Working with AI . Mollick has an MBA and PhD from MIT, is professor of management at University of Pennsylvania, and is co-director of the Wharton Geerative AI lab at Univ. of Penn. As a professor, Mollick cites plenty of research while providing at times lengthy personal examples of how he uses AI (artifical intelligence...at the time of this writing, mostly Chat GPT 4.0) in teaching, research, and writing. Thematically, Mollick advocates using AI as a co-creator, a partner, a source of co-intelligence to enhance/improve the quality of what we do (he claims an increase of 20-80% productiviety when using AI) while placing human value and judgment as the final step in the process to check the AI for "hallucinations, lies," and questionable ethics.  The future challenge we as humans face is aligning our human values (like survival) with a superintelligent AI. He admits that no one knows with certainty the future ...

AI Marc Gafni (2025). Value is a Feeling and                                          Artifical Intelligence Doesn't Feel Gafni has a PhD in philosophy from Oxford and is an ordained orthodox rabbi. The book is based on a series of talks and is written in an "oral presentation" style. 3 waves of information technology are discussed: 1) social media, beginning in 2010, is designed to hijack user attention, track every keystroke and data input, place one into peer groups based on personal data, and sell this personal information to ad/marketing companies 2)AI catbot uses large language models to simulate huma conversation based on prompts the user provides, creating a "feeling" that one is conversing a real person that is smart, funny, and uses personalized language that shows an familiarity with one's specific interests and personality...ultimately appearing to con...

GIFTofTHERAPY Irvin Yalom (2002). The Gift of Therapy. Yalom is a medical doctor, a psychiatrist, and author of several books. He wrote this book at age 70, wanting to pass on learnings as 'tips for therapists' based on 45 years of clinical practice. He originally had over 200 tips and selected the best 85 tips for this book...there's much wisdom here...unable to summarize all 85 tips but i can share my favorites.  Note to self: reading this at age 65 with almost 45 years of teaching college, i too want to share tips for teaching/learning communication...perhaps a book someday entitled, gift of com. Note on tips: while these tips are designed for therapists, almost all of them can apply to interpersonal and small group relationships. Some of my favorite tips: one of the best ways to get to know someone is ask them to describe their typical daily routine --everything from the time they get up to the time they go to bed (in the therapeutic context, because of increased privac...

LOSE YOUR MIND Robert Sachs (2024). Don't Loose Your Mind:                                             Re-imagining Age and                                            Reclaiming the Place of Elder and Sage. Sachs has a Masters in Social Work and worked in hospice many years and trained in Tibetian Ayurveda; also, author of 9 books on physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. some of the demintia in age 50+ is due to polypharmacies--people 65+ average 6+ prescription meds--advice to review meds with a trusted MD to see what is really needed almost everyone could benefit from: more fruits and veggies  less processed foods and meat to age with grace, spend more: time with the young seek novelty cultivate music (listenin...

RECIPES Laura Archera Huxley (1963, 2021). You Are Not the Target. Laura was a concert violinist and therapist; here she presents 33 ways to inner happiness, or "recipes for living and loving." some starting points: feeling the energies in our bodies allows us to redirect and consciously transform the negative to positive energy a "recipe" is a method to test out in our everyday life...the recipe can be modified to suit the individual and/or circumstance   for practice, my 2 favorite recipes: you are not the target many times we experience negativity from others that is a consequence of a longer causal chain that has little to do with us personally, i.e., we are not the target! we can transform the negative energy by being aware of it and consciouslly contract our muscles (unobtrusive ones like abdominal, or leg, or buttocks...) 10 times quickly...in this way we beautify our bodies by redirecting the negative energy for a positive purpose (like strengthening our abs...

MARRIAGE Mary Balogh (2009). First Comes Marriage. This is the first of 4 books in the Huxtable series set in the Regency era of England. Elliot Wallace is Viscount Lyngate who visits a country village to inform a family that their younger brother is now the Earl of Merton...his 3 sisters follow him to London to learn the ways of polite society...one sister, Vanessa, offers herself to Elliot to save her older sister Meg, and Elliot accepts the marriage of convenience, and in time, they both learn about each other's pain, experience some healing, and begin to cultivate a loving relationship. Favorite quotes: "...only one thing at which he had excelled...He had loved. Always and unconditionally..." (p.4) "Perfection ought to be aimed for...even if it is not always possible to achieve. Anything worth doing ought to be done well." (p.226) "Life is good. Even when good people die far too young and older people betray us, life is good. Life is what we make it. We...

ROAR Don Campbell (1989, 2000). The Roar of Silence: Healing Powers of                                                           Breadth, Tone, and Music. While Campbell studied piano at a conservatory in France, i could not find any educational degree associated with his name, although some sources say he earned degrees in music from University of North Texas. He is the author of more than 20 books, including the Mozart Effect . In this book, he describes his life story and international music career that led to a health crisis and healing through music which became his passion, including drumming, singing, dancing, and music production. Each chapter contains content, meditation, and practice sections. One is encouraged to complete one chapter each week, performing the meditation and practice each day before moving on ...

TRANSFORMATIVE Ralph Metzner (2022, orig. 1997). The Unfolding Self:                                                              Varieties of Transformative Experience Metzner has a PhD in clinical psychology from Harvard and taught at the California Institute for Integral Studies for over 30 years. There is a summary journal article of the book published in 1990 called, Ten Classical Metaphors for Self-Transformation in the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology . The sources for the book are east and west religion/spirituality, mythology, philosophy, shamanism, yoga, anthropology, transpersonal and depth psychology...he frames the work as "nonstatical research" and includes many stories, some personal, some from students, some from the sources above. Thesis: consciousness, the field in which thoughts, sen...