Death Row, NFL legends, Wellness – Book Reviews

Sycamore Row by John Grisham:

• Jake Brigance’s legal career is revived as he is called upon to defend Seth Hubbard’s seemingly incredible decision to disinherit his family and name his black housekeeper as his beneficiary
• Jake searches for the answer while being in a courtroom arena with larger, more well-financed law firms
• Sycamore Row explores the prejudices, racial tensions, and Southern social structures of the 1950s in Mississippi
• Grisham weaves a decent story, although it was a long book without a lot of exciting plot twists and a somewhat predictable ending

 

Gridiron Genius by Michael Lombardi:

• former NFL general manager and three-time Super Bowl winner Michael Lombardi reveals what makes football organizations tick at the championship level
• from personnel to practice to game-day decisions that win titles, Lombardi shares what he learned working with coaching legends Bill Walsh of the 49ers, Al Davis of the Raiders, and Bill Belichick of the Patriots, among others, during his three decades in football

• Lombardi provides the blueprint that makes a successful organization click and win and the mistakes unsuccessful organizations make that keep them on the losing side time and again
• Gridiron Genius will explain how the best leaders evaluate, acquire, and utilize personnel in ways other professional minds, football and otherwise, won’t even contemplate
• I found that this book took me a little longer to get into than I had expected, as it had come highly recommended from a fellow sports fan, but it picked up steam and became a very enjoyable read
• the same principles that these NFL legends employed can be used in business and our personal lives

 

Lifespan – Why we age and why we don’t have to by David Sinclair:

• Dr. David Sinclair, leading world authority on genetics and longevity, reveals a bold new theory for why we age
• he believes that ‘aging is a disease, and that disease is treatable’
• Lifespan takes us to the frontlines of research mainly from David’s lab at Harvard that demonstrates how we can slow down, or even reverse, aging
• the key is activating newly discovered vitality genes, the descendants of an ancient genetic survival circuit that is both the cause of aging and the key to reversing it
• I found the book much too technical for my liking and the actual information that was of value was all contained within a few pages