Samson By Shawn Hoffman

I literally could not put this book down!

This book tells the story of Samson Abram, a Jewish man who was imprisoned in Auschwitz during World War II, who is forced to box every Saturday night for Nazi brass entertainment. If he wins, he receives extra food but if he loses then he is sent to the gas chambers. But Samson is a fighter. He was a 1936 Olympic boxer who was robbed of his medal because of his nationality.

This book tells of the cruelty of man in the horrors of the Holocaust while at the same time portraying the courage of man in struggling for honor and dignity in these circumstances. I was immediately drawn into Samson’s story as one act of kindness throws him and his family into the eye of the SS and gets them all shipped off to the concentration camp. I walked through the petrifying moments when they arrive at the camp and the days which followed as the rumors are all confirmed in their living nightmare. But then, as I read, hope began to grow like a lone yellow flower Samson found growing in the changing room outside the boxing ring. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough as I raced to keep up with this phenomenal story of one man who would just not give up in the face of unimaginable cruelty and brutality.

Everything in this book actually happened to real people during the Nazi invasion of Poland in the early 1940’s. As you read through it, there are side notes detailing the actual facts this story is based on. 

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard By Chip Heath & Dan Heath

Have you ever thought? “I would do that if I had any will power or could motivate myself.” I know I have. I know that I will start out strong on a project or a goal and then my motivation withers away as the days go by.

The Heath brothers tackle this problem in their book Switch: How to Change Things When Things Are Hard. In their research they discovered that there are two parts in a human mind. There is the rational mind and the emotional mind. The rational part is the leader but the emotional part is 3 times larger. How do you get the rational mind to guide to the emotional mind? How do you get the emotional mind to use its fierce instincts to light a fire under the rational mind? 

Self-control is an exhaustible source. Change is hard because people wear themselves out. When people attempt to change things, they are fixing habits that have become automatic and changing those behaviors will drain a person’s self-control. If you want to change things, you’ve got to appeal to both the rational mind and the emotional mind.

This idea not only applies to an individual but it applies to teams, organizations and businesses as well as countries. The book tells a story about the St. Lucia Parrot which only exists on the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean. This is a beautifully stunning bird with deep blue, lime green and red feathers. In 1977, there were only 100 of these birds still alive because of the desolation hunters and those who wanted them as pets. One biologist said they would be extinct by the year 2000. The country’s leaders had worked so hard trying to implement laws to punish such actions but nothing had worked up to this point. People simply didn’t care about the bird. Until a grad student, fresh out of a London university, had an idea. What about using patriotism and pride to motivate people? They started a campaign to make the public more familiar with the bird. They did puppet shows, made t-shirts, convinced a band to record a song about the parrot, got volunteers to go into the school dresses as the parrot and talk about the bird. They even did a card campaign comparing the parrot to the bald eagle with the slogan “Who has the better national bird?” By 2008, there were close to 700 St. Lucia Parrots on the island and there hadn’t been a report of a bird shooting for 15 years. By motivating the emotion side of the population with a rational idea, they were able to have widespread change where there was no movement before.

This book was ingenious, full of real stories and gave me many clever ideas to try in my own life to achieve change. If you want some tools in your toolbox for the next time you want to attempt change this is a perfect book for you. 

Our New Blog

One of the best parts of being a librarian is having books at your fingertips every day. People ask us what we like to read, what we would recommend, what is the best book we have ever read. We wanted to start this blog to talk about some of those books. Some of the most victorious or heart-wrenching stories you will ever read have actually happened. 

Nonfiction is defined as "writing that is based on facts, real events and real people." As we read these books, we will share our thoughts and recommendations with you!