This is not a blog as much as a link to a blog that I have published over on the FAST Agile website which I maintain.
I felt it had more to do with FAST specifically than agile in general so posted it over there.
The short summary is - the book "Turn the Ship Around! A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders" by L. David Marquet is the best book I have read on the essence of agility.