While not a book I’d heard of, or would necessarily select even if I did, I’m very glad my sister was kind enough to send it for me to read! A true story, written in 1996 by a now well established writer, originally from Central Oregon. He’s written eight books, including ” Where Men Win Glory”, a biography about Pat Tillman, the NFL player who left the NFL for the Army and to fight in Afghanistan post 9/11.

On its surface, this is a story piecing together Chris McCandless’s short life based on his college and post graduation diary and journal, and numerous interviews. His life raises some interesting questions like ” What was the lure of the American wilderness and the restlessness it creates in young men?” Or the complex between father and sons. All under the umbrella of a smart, 4.3 GPA student in both high school and university. Who, upon graduation, happens to walk away from the “normal” future adult life of career, mortgage, 9-5 office hours, wife and kids, and chooses to give away all his life savings and belongings and to live off the land in the wilderness.

The book explains many of his travels around the western U.S. for a couple years, hitchhiking, sneaking on empty train cars, walking for miles, canoeing to name a few examples of transportation. Ultimately his goal is to hitchhike to Alaska to walk, live alone in the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. After 4-5 months, he inadvertently dies and is found a couple months later, and so the author explains all the “how’s” and “whys”.

Each chapter is about a specific adventure, and includes passages that evoke thought and insight of the human condition, as well as quotes/excerpts from famous authors like Mark Twain, Henry David-Thoreau, and Jack London to name a few. The author clearly has done lots’ of interviews of people McCandless meets on his journeys, and further builds out the narrative based on the journals which really help fill in the blanks. Some of the chapters also analyze how he might have died, almost becoming a science lesson themselves.

As I reflect how I might apply what I learned after prison, my main take away is McCandless’s laser focus on how he wanted to live his early to mid 20’s, strange or different to some or not. He didn’t let stereotypes or peer pressure impact those dreams as well. A lesson maybe all of us could use for the next few years of our lives as well! And one I will use as soon as I’m released! BJ

Title: The Innocent Man
Murder and Injustice in a Small Town

Author: John Grisham

Date: March 20, 2025

I’ve made a point to pick an author like Baldacci or Patterson and read all their books in the library. Same with John Grisham. When I grabbed this one I hadn’t realized it was a non fiction, maybe the only one he’s written. Or at least is the only one here in the library.

The story itself is about a small town in Oklahoma, and the legal journey two local troublemakers had to go through as a result of a biased and corrupt local police force(12 people) and District Attorney. The book goes through their life story first prior to arrest, from pro baseball player “want to be” to alcoholism/mental illness and related issues. Then they were accused of rape and murder and then arrested. From there, its a typical story of jail, conviction, death row appeals, all well explained by Grisham. Even with my limited time in prison, I could totally relate to what Grisham detailed out.

The next phase deals with how broken so many of our institutions are, and the collusion of so many types of professionals. I’m talking about mental health experts, private and state institution employed, crime labs, district attorney’s, jail guards, and so on. At least in Oklahoma:) Reading from a prison cell, you can’t help but question each and every aspect of our “system of justice”. Just sad and pathetic. Just like a needle in a haystack to find a judge who will listen, these 2 defendants file a last minute Habeus Corpus filing to stay their execution(to a local district judge near their prison to relook at things at the literally last minute), and by the grace of God, the judge has a team of law clerks who sense injustice and dig deeper. In time, they convince the judge he should read everything, and ultimately he agrees( happened to originally come from the same town years earlier) with his clerks and orders a new trial. Thanks to he Innocence Project( Barry Schenk and OJ Simpsons attorney back then) taking him on, plus the invention of DNA technology, he ends up being released due to the DNA not matching. Incredible. Even then the DA kept trying to keep him imprisoned seeking anything new evidence wise, but to new avail thankfully.

End of the book deals with their life’s after release, of course the one with mental illness is just ruined after 10+ years in prison/death row and little treatment, and dies at 51years old, four years after release. Nothing like Lady Justice. At least he had his glory on all the TV shows from Good Morning America to Dateline and on and on.

Between my own experience of “the system” and reading their story, my takeaway is to try as best I can to stay healthy during my time in the prison system, and then make damn sure to do nothing to ever get involved with “the system” ever again. Ultimately I hope A Better Tomorrow will successfully advocate and achieve some change as well! BJ

Title: The Autobiography of William Zeckendorf

Autobiography of the man who played a real monopoly and won the largest real estate empire in history

Author: William Zeckendorf with Edward McCreary

Date: March 17, 2025

A friend of mine here in the library who had also recommended the Theranos book, Bad Blood, suggested I’d like this book. So I borrowed it, having never heard the name Zeckendorf before, was curious to see what it was about.

Zeckendorf began his real estate career in New York City in the 1920’s. This book spans his 50 year career beginning with being a commercial real estate broker, then a commercial mortgage buyer to gain control of buildings, to developing developing and building high rises all the way to envisioning “Master Plan” cities across the U.S. He brought a in a young architect early on, one who became famous in his own right over the years, I. M. Pei as a partner.

The book goes into great detail on all kinds of transactions, and he established himself as the pinnacle of Corporate America from a networking and professional relationship perspective. As such, not only did he build some amazing high rises in NYC, but he led the charge to provide the land for the UN building in the 1950’s, he built up the south end of Manhattan to what we now know as Wall Street with many banks and brokerages headquartered there, built the first high rise in Denver and Montreal, and so forth.

He even worked with Howard Hughes and Twentieth Century fox Studios to acquire all the land for what is now Century City in Los Angeles. Really quite a life of wheeling and dealing, always looking for capital, biting off more than he can chew at times, and then scrambling to make a project work. Even if it meant selling prematurely due to lack of cash!

Intestinal fortitude, hustle, risk taking shines throughout the book. Unfortunately as with many firms growing more than their capital base allows, he hit the wall in the late 60’s when his firm, Webb and Knapp, ended up in bankruptcy. He apparently started over with his sons, even in the same offices, though the autobiography stops there, so not sure about the rest of the story.

Some interesting parallels to my story, including a much more lax legal environment in the 1960’s that didn’t make business failure a crime. My personal takeaway is respecting how he didn’t lick his wounds or feel sorry for himself, he just started over and got after it, much like he did throughout his 50 year business career. Sounds like a recipe for myself as well!BJ

Title: Bad Blood
Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Author: John Carreyrou

Date: January 17, 2025

A friend in the library here at FCI Lompoc II recently read this book, and suggested it to me, and when someone recently returned it he checked it out for me. The author is a former Wall Street Journal reporter who originally broke the story in 2013, which helped launch all the regulatory investigations ultimately resulting in Theranos’ bankruptcy. I had followed the story real time, and also saw the movie on Netflix before self surrendering, but was curious.

The author clearly did his research for 3 1/2 years. Based on emails, former employee interviews, agency investigative reports and much more, this is a non fiction, corroborated book. As such he takes the reader into Elizabeth Holmes(CEO/Founder) childhood, psyche as a teen-ager/only year of college, and all the way to the end of the Company and criminal trial.

The book tells numerous tales about:

1) Elizabeth Holmes journey
2) The fraudulent blood testing schemes
3) The life cycle of Theranos
4) Investors and their experiences

The author did an excellent job providing details so the reader could form their own opinion despite all the “headline” evidence like 1 million disqualified blood tests which were revoked by the FDA, or investors losing $1 billion+.
For those who want an extraordinary read, and even more detailed facts of the Theranos story, I’d definitely recommend this book.

Normally when I write a book review I end with what I might use on the outside once released. My takeaway is to make sure you treat family and friends well as opposed to how they were treated here! BJ

Title: The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel

Genius, Power and Deception on the
Eve of World War I

Author: Douglas Brunt
NY Time’s Best Selling Author

Date: January 23, 2025

A dear friend of mine since 3rd grade sent me this book, probably one of my Top 3 non fiction favorites since being here at FCI Lompoc II. Different topic, but similar in story telling of the real life event in “Boys in the Boat”, one of my other favorites.

The book was incredibly well researched, yet told in a fascinating and interesting story kind of way. Rudolf Diesel, as the name implies, was a very famous inventor at the time, late 1800’s to early 1900’s, when he vanished and for several years thereafter. This time frame was in the middle of a lot of history, from John D Rockefeller and Standard Oil, to Henry Ford and Ford Motor, to the world shifting from steam powered engines to combustion engines, Thomas Edison inventing light bulbs and much more! Truly a fascinating time.

In the 1890’s, Rudolf finally invented and patent protected a “Diesel” engine, that was internal combustion, easy to start/ignite, and didn’t require oil as a fuel. The social, commercial, military, and the geo political issues arising from the engine technology are discussed through out the book, and the author really does an excellent job explaining them in an understanding way.

From a military perspective, this was all about competing Navy’s converting steam engine warships to diesel for first mover advantage, inventing diesel powered submarines that could actually fire missiles and take out ships, and Diesel’s loyalty to which country to help make their Navy most successful. Similar issues on the commercial front, with trucks, cars,train engines and so forth. And in multiple countries, from England, to U.S., Germany and France, Canada and more.

I appreciated the author’s research into Diesel’s family, friends, business partners, and the many stories and tales he discovered and shared. Really helped me appreciate Rudolf Diesel the person,and set the stage for his disappearance /death. The debate was whether he:

– committed suicide jumping from a ferry from Belgium to England

– died as John D Rockefeller had him killed to eliminate any threat to the gasoline engine success he so desperately needed to maximize all his oil resources

– died as King Wilhelm II of Germany had him killed so he wouldn’t help Germany’s enemies, namely England, commercialize the diesel technology.

The author has his own conclusions which you will discover reading this book!

Suffice it to say, over 100 years later, the diesel engine is the engine of choice for trucking, ships, trains, generators farming equipment and so much more. He truly was a genius/inventor on the level of Thomas Edison(he also invented the ice cube, a long story:)), and these industries are a testament to his genius.

My take away, both for while I’m in here and when I get out, is how he is an example of hardwork, passion, caring about others, recognizing the importance of family, all things that drive me now and will when I get out as well!

Quite randomly this book was floating around our Unit, and someone asked me if I’d like to read it, so that’s how I got the book! Obviously had heard a lot about it throughout the recent election, so was curious to see what it said myself.

The book itself has two parallel tracks to it. The first, as one might imagine, is about a child growing up low income, in the “boonies”, absent parents due to drugs and mental issues, with the grandparents stepping in. It goes on from there with colorful stories and memories. Suffice it to say the “typical” issues we all hear about and see portrayed in movies, TV,and books. Unlike many folks, in this case, JD is somehow able to survive it, not give in to bad influences or to his situation, finally enlisting in the military which was a game changer for him. After an honorable discharge, Ohio State University on the GI bill and Yale Law School. Clearly he eventually had some good fortune, as he explains, but also the key characteristics necessary to get out of his socio-economic situation and then thrive and excel. The book does a nice job walking the reader through this incredible 30 year journey.

The second parallel track is really about JD’s observations and learnings about mental illness, education, spirituality, government policies for the poor or people similar to his family, hometown, and income level. I found some of his observations quite insightful and compatible with my views, and really what has become the basis for several of his political and policy views.

In terms of my current incarceration, I got some helpful insights as to some of the inmates here, and how similar circumstances have impacted them in an opposite way than JD, or a more “traditional ” way. This book will be useful once I’m out of prison in my undertaking and assisting ” A Better Tomorrow” and how we can better serve inmates seeking to have a successful re entry process and journey!BJ

Title: The Success Principles

” How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be”

Author: Jack Canfield

Date: December 1, 2024

A dear friend and fellow inmate of mine bought me this book as he recommended it as one the best self help books he had ever read. I’m thankful he did! The author is a co author of the world famous series ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul” and all their related books, having sold over 200 million copies.

The book itself has 67 chapters broken into sections such as
– The fundamentals of Success
– Create Successful Relationships
– Success and Money
– several more

I found the chapters easy to read, some with fresh insight and some information or things I already knew. Have a pen and paper handy as there are plenty of exercises if you really want to get the full benefit of the book. As an example, I’ve summarized Chapter 3, “Decide What you Want” for your ease to read it’s highlights and benefit from the next steps it outlines.

I highly recommend this book, and hopefully you will see why below. He has a lot of YouTube content if you’d rather watch as he uses this book in all his seminars(not that I’ve seen any:))

* The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of this life is this:

” DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT” – Ben Stein Actor/Author

* Decide what you want to:

– be
– do
– have
-accomplish
-experience

– Don’t live someone else’s dream or NO dream

* Make an ” I WANT” list of 30 things per topic

– spend 10-15 minutes on each
– do with a friend or spouse as an option
– to be, to do,to have, to accomplish,to experience

* Make a “I LOVE TO DO” list of 20 things

* From these lists, clarify your vision for your life- include”

– work or career – health/fitness
– finances – relationships
– recreation/free time – personal goals
– contribution to larger community/society

* Vision exercise to help define your Vision

1. Financial Area- what is your ideal monthly income/cashflow? what does your next home look like? Where?
2. Visualize ideal job/career-
3. Focus on free time- what are you doing with it? New Hobbies? Vacations?
4. vision of your health and body- free of pain? exercise enough/ eat healthy? No red dye #3:)?
5.Ideal vision of relationships with family/friends- spouse? what do your friendships feel like? loving, supportive or damaging?
6. Personal Goals- more school? need counseling? learn new instrument? write a book?
7. community- volunteer where? give back how?

* Once you have your vision, lock in by:

– goal setting
– affirmation and visualization(prayer works as well)
– move forward pursuing!

These are just highlight examples(Book has much more), but the point is to write your vision and goals down, and review them every day/week. Canfield recommends sharing with your spouse and close friends who would be positive and supportive. Bottom-line, each time you share your vision it becomes clearer and feels more real and attainable. Most importantly you strengthen your own subconscious belief that you can achieve it!

I chose to share this section as an example of the books importance and approach, as I realize how busy everyone is “living and doing life”. And days roll into months in a heart beat. Taking the time to be intentional about “What you Want” during this rat race is so important, yet ironically so hard to find the time for!

This book is definitely helpful while in prison, and for preparing for release, as well as post release. Some sections more relevant for each phase, but well worth having for the complete journey! BJ

Title: Dreamt Land
Chasing Water and Dust Across California

Author: Mark Arax

Date: November 11,2024

Honestly, I’ not sure who sent me this book, as our mail department keeps the packaging showing the sender. Little did I know, it was a complete book on; California’s history, the evolution of San Francisco and Los Angeles post the gold rush in the late 1800’s, the establishment of the agricultural based Central Valley and its water resources, human and governmental behavior, life’s ups and downs, and much more!

These 530+ pages are like an encyclopedia of information, but provided in various stories of personalities and events. Yes there is a lot about water rights and water allocation in California, but also agriculture, human nature and so forth. But ultimately the book is about human self interest over a long period of time by all kinds of types of constituents, factions, government agencies etc. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by that, but the scale of self interest by ALL involved is disappointing to put it mildly. Armed with the facts from the book, 70%+ of California’s water is used by agriculture, much of it for several non essential food types( almonds and pomegranate for example) when one looks at alternative uses for the water. Only 30% for the population of California in SFO, LAX, and So. Cal in general. The rationing the people of California have to endure at the expense of propping up the wealth of the corporate growers or wealthy families of these water consuming non essential food crops who have mansions elsewhere but use all the water in the Central Valley comes across as ridiculous.

The book does a good job explaining the weakness/ineptness of government policy. The book portrays it as highly doubtful the issues will ever get resolved in the context of “redoing” the policy, so water for its people will always be California’s achilles heel. Clearly one more reservoir isn’t the issue!

The author does a nice job “humanizing” the life of the Hispanic workers who do all the work in the Central Valley, also sharing many interesting histories of some of the families over multiple generations. One also gets a good understanding of the living conditions provided these workers.

I personally am annoyed at all the political verbal warfare in California around this topic, when there are clearly some solutions. But greed seems to continue ruling the day. I would have appreciated the author contrasting these issues to the USDA and its policies subsidizing other types of growers like wheat and soy beans , cheese to manage volumes prices and so forth. Clearly there is an overlap in policy in how the government thinks about water, but I didn’t see where there’s been a thorough review of those policies, discussion around alternatives and action plans to address improvements for California unfortunately. Just too bad.

As I reflect how I might use the book once released, I come to thinking about what I learned from the author as to “writing a book” people want to read, since that’s what I’m also working on. Some of the media critics cited at the beginning of the book use words like “deeply researched, or personal, or weaves reportage, history and memoir, and a storyteller”. All these attributes in some measure useful and thoughtful for our book as well! BJ

Title: Triumph!
The Straight -A- Guide
How to Adjust for Success From Prison

Author: Michael G. Santos

Date: November 6, 2024

As a subscriber to Prison Professors emails written by this same author as well, Michael Santos, they make me aware of books he has written. While I’ve read many of them, when I saw this one, I asked for it given the book Derek and I are writing around success after prison.

I found the book very helpful from an inmates perspective, especially having 10 months under my belt now perspective now. It definitely resonated with me, which is good, but sad as well. Sad in that it doesn’t seem much has changed in the 15 years or so since the book was written!

The book itself does an effective job contrasting two distinct inmates in each chapter and their approach toward the “Straight A’s” of Success the author defines. One inmate follows the “A” model below, the other doesn’t:

Attitude
Aspiration
Action
Accountability
Awareness
Achievement
Appreciation

Each chapter does a deeper dive into the specifics on how to pursue hte topic as well.

Threaded through out the book, beyond the benefits of each type of “A” outlined above for an inmate as opposed to not applying them, is a classic summary of the prison culture environment and why the “A’s” are so important:

* Rule after rule can exterminate a man’s dignity and self worth as the months turn into years…..

* Prison environments have a troubling tendency to destroy a man’s will, as the system relies upon policies and procedures that serve to discourage or demoralize rather than motivate or inspire

* Men who buy into the ridiculous myth that that the best way to serve time is to forget about the real world and focus on time inside. Thus they surrender their will to perpetuating the cycle of failure that the American prion system is.

* Prisons being failure factories as distinguished from success incubators, chase out compliant servile inmates….

* Yet not a single mechanism exists to incentivize excellence

* American prison system aspires similar policy to like the Eagles sang in Hotel California, “where you can checkout anytime he wants, but he can never leave”.

Thus the purpose behind the list of ” Straight A” behavior the author espouses so effectively to deal with the prison environment and its culture therein.

In summary, my takeaway is he’s 100% correct on his ” Straight A” list, and its an effective method to use in doing so. Todays Prison Professors with its book repots, journaling and blog posts offer even more tools to do so.

Once I’m out, I fully intend to continue following the “Straight A” guide, including all 8 “A” items as part of my planning and activities. BJ

Title: Tactics
A Game Plan for Discovering Your
Christian Convictions

Author: Gregory Koukel

Date: October 21, 2024

My boss in maintenance handed me this book at church one Sunday and suggested I might enjoy reading it. I always liked logic and debate so gladly took it to read. This version was a 10th anniversary edition, i.e. 2019 so fairly recent.

When I started reading it, I expected more of a template about certain Christian beliefs and how to defend/support them in a discussion. The book is 20% that, but its really a generic book about tools and techniques one can use in any discussion- Christianity, political favorite for President, climate change, you name it. As the title suggests, the book is more about different approaches to engage with others, how to respond to various approaches from others and so forth.

Over 19 chapters he offers over 40 tactics depending on the situation. I won’t name them all, but a couple examples are Columbo and Inside Out. The author has 5 chapters on various Columbo techniques, yes after the former TV detective, Peter Falk. He was famous for acting like an absent minded professor in his TV show with all his questions, but he always got to the right answer. For example, one technique, when someone challenges you with a strong opinion, is not to respond on point. Rather respond with a question like “what do you mean by that?” Try and diffuse it. The author goes on to build out 5+ tactics related to Columbo. Inside Out is bringing out inner feelings to the conversation as opposed to a direct response. He cites an example of discussing morals and guilt, and where they come from. As part of the debate, he turns to the concept of guilt, hypothesizing” Maybe we feel guilty because we are guilty”. Basically backdooring the concept that guilt must be based on something(morals/values), an inner most feeling we may have, but not consciously acknowledging it in our debate with others.

One of my main takeaways from the book is the sad state many of us have devolved into on “opinions”, often repeated from the media at large, without any thought to underlying facts. The author highlights how some of these tactics can expose this without directly engaging in a debate where opinion generates a needless argument when there is no underlying substance or even prior thought to an opinion. Often times just getting the individual to respond with a question to their opinion forcing them to go down a layer will accomplish that !! Definitely not like it used to be when people read more than 300 characters before PC’s and social media:)

My main takeaway from the book for when I’m released is that I’ve learned some good tactics I can use in any situation when having discussions or debates with some one and I’d encourage everyone to read this book for that reason alone if that’s important to you! BJ