Paul O’Connor takes a look at  a book that is making him stop and think and might – just might – make him a bit optimistic.

Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor

COMMON GROUND FOR US: Warning! This Book Makes Folks Optimistic. By Carl Nordgren. Torchflame Books. 112 pages. $19.99, softcover.

Carl Nordgren is a creative guy.

He’s written three novels, hosts a weekly radio program on creativity and has taught entrepreneurship – basically business creativity – at Duke.

Now he’s written a book about creativity, and he threatens to make us all optimistic if we read it.

At my own peril, I will try to summarize this tight little book in two sentences: We are all born with creative minds that we maintain, and in some ways improve, well into our dotage. If we use this creativity positively, we can improve not only our own lives but also that of our community.

I can’t remember a book that forced me to stop and re-read paragraphs or pages as much as this one. Not because it was incomprehensible; it’s not Ulysses. It’s because Nordgren is concise with his words. He packs a lot of thought into each sentence, and really doesn’t allow his reader to daydream, which is one of my favorite pastimes when people threaten to make me optimistic.

How can I be optimistic in 2026 when the world is being run by buffoons? Nordgren says we use our creativity to work outside the political system to find common ground with those who share our concerns. For example, civic clubs help communities solve a great many problems when questions of partisan politics never arise.

Just within our own lives, a bit of creativity can lead to improvement. Try something different every day, he says, something you have never tried before. He was standing in a coffee line one day and just turned around and introduced himself to the person behind him. For someone frequently described as a “man of many routines,” I can see how this might improve my life.

In his entrepreneurship classes, he urged his students to think creatively and promised that such thinking would lead to new businesses, new technologies and new solutions. As an entrepreneur himself he started several successful businesses.

This is not a straight-line read whose 112 pages you complete in one sitting. It’s a book I will reopen a few times, read a few pages and put down to ponder again.

If it turns me into an optimist, whew!

• Paul T. O’Connor is a retired journalist and author of  The Missing Child: The Life She Lived and The Life She Missed.