Sanjib Das Adhikary, M.D.
Associate Professor Department Of Anesthesiology
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business By Charles Duhigg
The book the Power of Habit tries to explain why some people and companies never achieve real transformation, despite years of trying, while others remake themselves almost overnight by changing different habit patterns. I have been trying to modify some of my habits at personal and professional level and this book helped me to have different perspective on that. This book also tries to demonstrate how the right habits were essential to grow as a human being. And with Kindle edition it was really handy to read it through.
Robert Kennedy, M.ED
Senior Instructional Designer
Medical Education
Designing Disney: Imagineering and the Art of the Show By John Hench
I chose Designing Disney: Imagineering and the Art of the Show by John Hench because it relates in several aspects to the Harrell Health Sciences Library. The book is an outstanding repository of archival images and information, presented in a variety of forms. Hench was the consummate experiential designer, with an unerring gift for knowing what Disney’s guests would want. Every day, I see the faculty and staff of the library focus on that same goal: anticipation of visitors’ needs. From the layout of web resources to the consideration of quiet study space, this library consistently stays in tune with patrons’ expectations. Hench’s design skills and critical decisions will continue to positively affect people far into the future, and the efforts of the library will do the same.
Lawrence F. Kienle, M.D.
Founder, Doctors Kienle Center For Humanistic Medicine
The Pine Barrens By John McPhee
Upon retiring in 1978, I first read John McPhee’s The Pine Barrens. This book prompted an intensified interest in this minimally inhabited 1,000-square-mile region (largely in New Jersey) which has remained pretty much unchanged for over three centuries. During walks into various areas of the Pine Barrens – often accompanied by one or more of my dogs: Bus, Jo, or Ruf – I encountered the Pygmy Forest and countless native wild flowers. Over time, with the help of a Conshohocken landscape company as well as my own hand pickings, I transplanted some 250 kinds of the plants I had admired on my walks into my own developing garden at home. Lady Slipper Orchids and Pine Barren Gentians were my favorites. Similar to how the work of The Doctors Kienle Center has long promoted new perspectives into the importance of establishing compassionate care regardless of one’s surrounds, McPhee’s book provides an entire new dimension to the way I saw, appreciated, understood, and eventually cultivated the environment surrounding my own home.
Pratibha Samantroy, M.D.
The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition By Anne Frank, Edited by Otto M. Frank, Mirjam Pressler, & Susan Massotty
It is extremely difficult for me to choose just one book. But I decided to choose The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition. It taught me to live in the present moment. I realized that I have wasted so much time, wondering what could have been and not savoring what is already there. I felt sad that I was not enjoying my 9 year old when he is chirping incessantly, but was rather lost in my thoughts about what future holds.
After reading this book, I started writing poems, short stories and my experiences about life in general and felt alive for the first time. I started sharing them with my precious child and could see his entire face light up with pure joy. He, then, introduced me to a whole new world of adventure, fun and bliss through his favorite authors like Dr. Seuss , Ezra Jack Keats and books like Winnie the Pooh, Night on Neighborhood Street by Greenfield, and the list is endless.
And now, I see him writing his own journal and realize that he will never be alone anymore, ever, because….
“A notebook can be a clearing in the forest of your life, a place where you can be alone and content as you play with outrage and wonder, details and gossip, language and dreams, plots and subplots, perceptions and small epiphanies.” - Ralph Flether
Fred Stuppy
Systems Analyst, Team Lead, Department Of Information Technology
Great Innovators By Walter Isaacson
Rather than a single book I have chosen a set of books called Great Innovators by one of my favorite authors Walter Isaacson. The author not only describes these innovators lives in fantastic details – he also dedicates a fair amount of pages to the explanation of their ideas and theories. He does this surprisingly well – and in a way that makes you understand what it is all about.
I am not a fast reader and have a somewhat long commute, so I use audio books. I listen to books on my IPhone through the radio every day as I commute. There are times when I am so deep into the story being read that I may sit in my car an extra five or ten minutes before going into work or into my house, like a book where you just want to read one more page. I currently have 104 books on my IPhone. With audio books, I can do gardening and woodworking in the evening but still listen to books during my commute to engage my mind and continue to learn.
Wayne Zolko, CPA
Associate Vice President For Finance And Business Controller
Needful Things By Stephen King
I don't read to impress people. Nobody is looking to see what I'm reading when I step off Air Force One at the start of my vacation. While I always learn something new when I read, that is not what motivates me to read. I read for pleasure, and that is why I like to read Stephen King novels. His books are not so much scary as they are funny. His characters, even minor characters, are never stereotypes. Instead, Stephen King has an amazing ability to create "real", multi-dimensional characters with strengths, weakness, quirks, foibles, idioms, fears and motivations. Characters, towns, and events will reappear in later books as a natural development of the "real" world that has been created through his writing. At the end of the story, I feel as if I have just vacationed in a small town in Maine, met some truly unique and interesting people, and we had a great and maybe just a little bit scary time together. I particularly enjoyed “Needful Things” because I liked the underlying message about the emptiness of our lust for objects and possessions.