“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence.” ~ Albert Einstein

Photo Credit: Marta Christensen, Coronado Beach, CA, December 2025

Greetings -

I hope you, your families and friends are well as we navigate the launch of 2026. (That was a quick January!) In particular, for those of you dealing with the arctic tundra sweeping large swaths of our fair land, I am thinking of you. Please stay safe and warm!

We had a delightful and fun-filled visit with our lovely daughter over the holiday season. It is always a treat to spend time with her and see the many ways in which she continues to grow and flourish. Our time together carried added significance and proud parental vibes, as it marked her final break with us before she completes her undergraduate studies in the early Spring. She has an eventful final semester planned in and out of school. We wish her all the best and look forward to her next chapters in the months to come!

As I resume writing, I thought it might be nice to lead off with a recap of the great books I read over the latter part of Q4 and during my extended break. They are listed in no particular order or reading preference. I hope you enjoy some or all of them as much as I did.

I will be back in February with our regularly scheduled content and programming.
As always, happy reading and listening!

Be well, take good care of your families and community.
-kj

PS - (Missed a newsletter? Past editions can be found here: https://www.kevinjordan.coach/blog. And if you hit paywall on an article(s), feel free to send me a note and let me know what you need. I have subscriptions to many of the sources that I cite.)

“The real purpose of books is to trap the mind into doing its own thinking.” ~ Christopher Morley

"For, so long as there are interesting books to read, it seems to me that neither I nor anyone else, for that matter, need be unhappy." ~ Selma Lagerlöf

January Poem
by Suzanne Matson
Only the wrinkle
of a disappearing squirrel
breaks the snow stillness.

The walker, swathed in wool,
lowers toward the prints left
by others, feet that lead to the village.

There a clock stands in front of a closed shop,
its hour not late, though the moon has come early
to mirror the white coin of its frozen face.

Non-fiction Reads To Start 2025

The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life ~ Suleika Jaouad
"A companion through challenging times, The Book of Alchemy is broken into themes ranging from new beginnings to love, loss, and rebuilding. Whether you’re a lifelong journaler or new to the practice, this book gives you the tools, direction, and encouragement to engage with discomfort, ask questions, peel back the layers, dream daringly, uncover your truest self—and in doing so, to learn to hold the unbearably brutal and astonishingly beautiful facts of life in the same palm."

Also includes essays from: Martha Beck • Nadia Bolz-Weber • Alain de Botton • Susan Cheever • Lena Dunham • Melissa Febos • Liana Finck • John Green • Marie Howe • Pico Iyer • Oliver Jeffers • Quintin Jones • Michael Koryta • Hanif Kureishi • Kiese Laymon • Cleyvis Natera • Ann Patchett • Esther Perel • Adrienne Raphel • Jenny Rosenstrach • Sarah Ruhl • Sharon Salzberg • Dani Shapiro • Mavis Staples • Linda Sue Park • Nafissa Thompson-Spires • Jia Tolentino • Lindy West • Lidia Yuknavitch • And many others

[KJ: I REALLY enjoyed this book. And, in the spirit of full transparency, I am not a journal guy nor did I become one after reading this. I read it for the many platinum nuggets interspersed throughout her reflections and the many other contributors she included. Collectively, they offer much to sit with and ponder in whatever way works best for you. She also gave a wonderful interview on Adam Grant's Worklife podcast, which you can find here.]

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life ~ Marshall B. Rosenberg, PhD
"...Marshall Rosenberg offers insightful stories, anecdotes, practical exercises and role-plays that will dramatically change your approach to communication for the better. Discover how the language you use can strengthen your relationships, build trust, prevent conflicts and heal pain. Revolutionary, yet simple, Nonviolent Communication offers you the most effective tools to reduce violence and create peace in your life—one interaction at a time."

Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI ~ Ethan Mollick
"Cutting through the noise of AI evangelists and AI doom-mongers, Wharton professor Ethan Mollick has become one of the most prominent and provocative explainers of AI, focusing on the practical aspects of how these new tools for thought can transform our world. In Co-Intelligence, he urges us to engage with AI as co-worker, co-teacher and coach. Wide ranging, hugely thought-provoking and optimistic, Co-Intelligence reveals the promise and power of this new era."

More Human: How the Power of AI Can Transform the Way You Lead ~ Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter
"The AI-augmented leader moves beyond a focus on the technology itself to constantly probe how it can strengthen the core qualities of human-centered awareness, wisdom, and compassion. In this way, AI can help leaders and organizations become more human. With deep insight and rigorous research, More Human will help leaders navigate our AI-enabled future."

Fiction Reads To Start 2025

Orbital ~ Samantha Harvey
"...Orbital deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men traveling through space. Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts—from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan—have left their lives behind to travel at a speed of over seventeen thousand miles an hour as the earth reels below...Their experiences of sixteen sunrises and sunsets and the bright, blinking constellations of the galaxy are at once breathtakingly awesome and surprisingly intimate."

Audition ~ Katie Kitamura
"Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an elegant and accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, and young—young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In Audition, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day—partner, parent, creator, muse—and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us best." [KJ: shout out to my mother-in-law for introducing my wife and I to both Orbital and Audition, winners of the 2024 and 2025 Booker Prize respectively.]

My Friends ~ Fredrik Backman with Neil Smith (Translator)
"Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art."

The Thursday Murder Club ~ Richard Osman
"In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves."

We Solve Murders ~ Richard Osman
"Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job...

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?"

The Templars' Last Secret ~ Martin Walker
"When a woman's body is found at the foot of a cliff near St. Denis, Bruno suspects a connection to the great ruined Château de Commarque, a long-ago Knights Templar stronghold that stands on the cliff above, and which, along with the labyrinth of prehistoric caves beneath it, continues to draw the interest of scholars. With the help of Amélie, a young Haitian newcomer to the Dordogne, Bruno learns that the dead woman was an archaeologist searching for a religious artifact of incredible importance, the discovery of which could have dramatic repercussions throughout the Middle East--not to mention in St. Denis. And the woman's ties to Islamic terrorists can only heighten the pressure on Bruno to unravel the centuries-old mystery."

Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm ~ Charlie Mackesy
"Charlie Mackesy’s four unlikely friends are wandering through the wilds again. They’re not sure what they are looking for. They do know that life can be difficult, but that they love each other, and cake is often the answer.

When the dark clouds come, can the boy remember what he needs to get through the storm?"