The Utah Politician’s Summer Reading List: Senator Deidre Henderson

It’s not too late to start a new book. And if you need a good idea or two, here are a few that Utah’s politicos are reading.

This is the second in the series on what Utah’s politicians have on their summer reading lists.

Senator Deidre Henderson represents Utah’s Seventh Senate District, which covers part of Utah County.

She’s in the middle of several books:

• John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace by Jonathan Aitken
• The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip Zimbardo
• The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual & Organizational Accountability by  Roger Connors, Tom Smith, and Craig Hickman
• Why Smart Kids Worry: And What Parents Can Do to Help by Allison Edwards
• (and with her son) A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and Brett Helquist
  

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DEIDRE HENDERSON’S SUMMER READING LIST

John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace by Jonathan Aitken

Amazon summary:

Most Christians know John Newton as the slave ship captain who famously converted to Christ on the high seas and then penned one of the greatest hymns of the faith: “Amazing Grace.” Less well-known is Newton’s significance in his own day as an evangelical icon, great preacher and theologian, and important influence on abolitionist William Wilberforce. In this fascinating biography, Jonathan Aitken explores many facets of Newton’s eventful life story, helping readers better understand his remarkable conversion and passionate fight to end the slave trade. The first modern account to draw on Newton’s unpublished diaries and correspondence, this colorful and historically significant portrait provides fresh insights into the life and legacy of one of the most important Christians of the 18th century. Now available in paperback.

The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evilby Philip Zimbardo

Amazon summary:

What makes good people do bad things? How can moral people be seduced to act immorally? Where is the line separating good from evil, and who is in danger of crossing it?

Renowned social psychologist Philip Zimbardo has the answers, and in The Lucifer Effect he explains how–and the myriad reasons why–we are all susceptible to the lure of “the dark side.” Drawing on examples from history as well as his own trailblazing research, Zimbardo details how situational forces and group dynamics can work in concert to make monsters out of decent men and women.

Zimbardo is perhaps best known as the creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment. Here, for the first time and in detail, he tells the full story of this landmark study, in which a group of college-student volunteers was randomly divided into “guards” and “inmates” and then placed in a mock prison environment. Within a week the study was abandoned, as ordinary college students were transformed into either brutal, sadistic guards or emotionally broken prisoners.

The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability by  Roger Connors, Tom Smith, and Craig Hickman

Amazon summary:

A decade ago, The Oz Principle took the business world by storm. At its root, the principle works like this: Like Dorothy and the gang in The Wizard of Oz, most business people have the tools to succeed, but when things go wrong they blame circumstance or others instead of looking within for the true cause of unsatisfactory results. Once individuals learn to accept responsibility, they can use the Oz Principle to become better leaders.

Now, with corporate scandals in the headlines and the culture of victimization running rampant at every level of the business world, Roger Connors, Tom Smith, and Craig Hickman return with a new edition of The Oz Principle. Fully revised, this edition will update the statistics, concepts, and relevant companies through fresh, timely anecdotes and stories.

Why Smart Kids Worry: And What Parents Can Do to Help by Allison Edwards

Amazon summary:

Why does my child seem to worry so much?

Being the parent of a smart child is great—until your son or daughter starts asking whether global warming is real, if you are going to die, and what will happen if they don’t get into college. Kids who are advanced intellectually often let their imaginations ruin wild and experience fears beyond their years. So what can you do to help?

In Why Smart Kids Worry, Allison Edwards guides you through the mental and emotional process of where your child’s fears come from and why they are so hard to move past. Edwards focuses on how to parent a child who is both smart and anxious and brings her years of experience as a therapist to give you the answers to questions such as:

•How do smart kids think differently?
•Should I let my child watch the nightly news on TV?
•How do I answer questions about terrorists, hurricanes, and other scary subjects?

Edwards’s fifteen specially designed tools for helping smart kids manage their fears will help you and your child work together to help him or her to become more relaxed and worry-free.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Collection by Lemony Snicket and Brett Helquist

Amazon summary:

If you have not read anything about the Baudelaire orphans, then before you read even one more sentence, you should know this: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are kindhearted and quick-witted, but their lives are filled with bad luck and misery. All of the stories about these three children are unhappy and wretched and will most likely fill you with deep despair.

From The Bad Beginning to The End, this comprehensive collection with unfortunate bonus material that may or may not include trivia questions, character profiles, and several very sad sentences is the only choice for people who simply cannot get enough of a bad thing!

Pick up one or more of the books on this list over on Amazon.

Related articles

• Meet Deidre Henderson (hollyonthehill.wordpress.com)
• UTPOL’s Summer Reading List: Senator Pat Jones (publiusonline.com)
• LUCIFER EFFECT: Could this be why Politicians and Others Display Psychopathic Behaviour or? (inquiringminds.cc)
• “On Point”, Utah’s first all-female political show (hollyonthehill.com)