The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Lots of Books I Haven’t Logged Yet
Book 8 – The Great Workplace: How to Build It, How to Keep It and Why It Matters, by Michael Burchell and Jennifer Robin
The are the people that do the Forbes’ Great Places to Work lists. The main theme is that if your people don’t trust you, then nothing is going to work well. And it talks about ways to build that trust in your workplace. Good stuff.
Book 9 – Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, by Helen Simonson
Widower and retired army guy is in something of a depression following the death of his brother. He begins a friendship with a widowed neighbor lady who happens to be..Pakistani, I think. They both have foolish, presumptuous families and the neighborhood has revealed itself as rather racist. In a “we will shop in their store but they can’t belong to the golf club” way. I had trouble with this in the beginning, because outside of our heroes, there is hardly a likable character. But I am glad I stuck with it.
Book 10 – Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen
This was the most YA of all of the Austen novels, which makes sense since it was her first. She was doing a bit of a satire of the gothic novels of her day. I am not sorry that I read it, but I am not in a hurry to see a film version.
Book 11 – It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership, by Colin Powell
I believe I have mentioned I am in freakin’ love with Colin Powell. If he had run for president, I would have actually donated money to the campaign. And blogged about it. Dude’s endorsement is what pushed me over the top in voting for President Obama in 2008. I have seen him speak and he is fabulous.
This book has a bunch of his stories, many from the military, along with corresponding life lessons. The material is very good, but he doesn’t blaze any trails of new ideas. I am sorry to say the most striking thing for me was his story about the UN speech before the Iraq War.
I have always maintained the assertions that Colin Powell lied on behalf of the administration in order to proceed with the war were total BS. If Powell thought there was danger, that is all I need to know. He may have been wrong, but he sure wasn’t going to lie.
He seems to be saying there is a lot of blame to go around, and the life lesson for him was take your time, do your homework and verify, verify, verify.
Books 12 – 15 – More Deborah Knott books, by Margaret Maron
I am still having fun with these, but there have been one or two instances that I wanted to call BS on the misdirection techniques. One I remember was a victim’s train of thought at the beginning of the novel. When the reveal was “the husband did it” I actually went back to read that scene, because I had clearly made a bad assumption. But no. It was a cheesy misdirect. However, I am still reading.
Book 16 – Heat Wave, by Richard Castle
Seriously, I only read this because an audio copy was available for download from my library. I knew it was going to be bad. It was worse than that. My mother, who had to listen to my shouts of, “EWWWW!! Yuck! No! STOP!!” will tell you that my primary objection is the sex. One is required to picture Jamie Rook/Rick Castle/Nathan Fillion hooking up with Nikki Heat/Kate Beckett/Whatever-the-actress’-name, and one knows that this did not happen in the show, but this is how Castle is imagining it in his little writer’s head. The writing was as Hollywood-bad as you’d expect, but to give credit where due, they really were true to how I would expect the character of Richard Castle to write a novel. But really. Ew.
The Next Dark Age 