Recent Reads

Some stuff I've read recently... these are Amazon links, you can buy the books and I'll get a few pennies in the process. (I used to say you were funding my coffee, but really, you're helping to buy me more books. If it's coffee, check out Drink Trade - and get a free bag of coffee!) 

Space Team (Volumes 1-12) by Barry J. Hutchison

These are popcorn books for science fiction fans.  I found myself devouring them at the start and then reading less and less as I got closer to the end, not wanting it to end. Incarcerated for identity theft, due to a case of mistaken identity, Cal Carver ironically is abducted from his cell by aliens. Up until that point, no one knew there was anyone else in the galaxy besides humans. Still processing this, Cal learns he's the last remaining human due to another clerical error. And thus begins twelve volumes of adventures, escapades, romps and capers across a galaxy filled with all kinds of interesting people, some of whom are nice. There are good books, not-as-good books, a few odd shifts in the "universe," some embarrassing titles and a good time I was sorry to see end. A satisfying set of stories with many, many laugh-out-loud moments.

Not One of Us by Debbie Herbert 

Years ago, high school girl's boyfriend and parents vanish. She finishes school, moves to the big city and starts her life. But now, she's back in the small town because her autistic brother's caregiver (her grandma) may no longer be able to care for her. Oh, and she has synesthesia -  she can see sounds. You learn this at the beginning and I really can't help you if it's not immediately obvious that this will come into play. The disappearance of that family isn't the only secrets the town holds and soon people start dying. And anyone and everyone is suspect. The protagonist is a middle-aged Matilda surrounded by cops whose lack of proper procedure (compared to what we see on TV) is astounding and, well, it's all just a mess. Halfway through the book we find out what happened to the family and you'd think it would have been a bigger deal, but it wasn't. 

A Deadly Influence (Abby Mullen #1) by Mike Omer

I liked Detective Abby Mullen. I didn't like most of the other characters in this book. You know how some stories constantly throw plot twists at you? I kept waiting for the plot twists here and they never came. Maybe some characters didn't play exactly the part I was suspecting, but apparently the detective was a superb judge of character. An interesting, modern idea overall, but I didn't much care for it.  I think I would give book two a try, though, since none of the prominent characters in this book would be back for a second call, as near as I can tell.

Recent Reads

More books I've recently read.... (links are to Amazon, in case you want to get them for yourself. And if you do, you're helping my coffee fund, so thanks!)

Have a Nice Day by Billy Crystal and Quinton Peeples

The President's having a bad day. And that's before he learns it's to be his last day on earth. This was a nice story that was fun to listen to. I think it was a polished table-read so there are a lot of different voice actors including a few well-known celebrities, which is a nice treat you don't get too often.  

Once More Upon a Time by Roshani Chokshi

The fairytale life has fallen apart, but the now separated couple must embark together on a journey through an enchanted land before time runs out. A nice use of the buddy/quest framework.

Nut Jobs: Cracking California's Strangest $10 Million Dollar Heist by Marc Fennell

An interesting investigative piece that really benefits from the Audible format because of the ability to include interviews and relevant ambient sound that helps you better understand where you are in the journey.

Second Skin by Christian White

A girl is killed in an accident, and then her mom dies. Years later, a young girl claims to be the reincarnation of the mom, knowing things she seemingly shouldn't know. It's an interesting take and I was really curious to learn how they were going to wrap this up.  Supernatural? Something else? Kept me guessing.  I enjoyed it.

The Second Life of Nick Mason (Nick Mason #1) and Exit Strategy (Nick Mason #2) by Steve Hamiton

Nick Mason is a bad guy, but not a really really bad guy. We're supposed to root for him.  He's exchanged one kind of prison for another after a drug lord gets his prison sentence dropped and he's free, but only so far as the drug lord's leash. The phone will ring, and when it does, whatever he's told to do, he must do. So Nick becomes a killer. But he's still the good guy of the story, so we're supposed to want him to succeed, but also get out of the life he's agreed to. But he still leaves a trail of destroyed lives in his wake and emerges time after time nearly unscathed. It's popcorn/airplane reading. I don't know if there are more books, but #2 seems to be a fine place for me to find my exit from the series.

Alexander X: Battle for Forever (Book 1) by Edward Saviq

Alexander ages slowly. In a lot of ways, he's only 15, but he's been alive for 1,500 years. It's not quite time travel, but it's close enough to the genre to pique my interest but also receive the extra scrutiny I reserve for time travel books. Alexander has met everyone famous. He's not a time traveler, but somehow he was always at the right place at the right time.  This bugged the crap out of me. So often we don't recognize big events until they're already upon us, or in some cases, in retrospect. But Alexander was somehow always in the right city and with the right people to even as a 10,11,12-year-old, be known by and friends with the famous adults throughout history. This was dumb, unnecessary and really distracting to me. Book 1 is essentially his origin story and first fight to introduce his nemesis.  By the time I got to the end of book 1, I wasn't interested in knowing where things went.  It was interesting enough, but not interesting enough to continue onto book 2.

Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline

I really enjoyed Ready Player One. I loved the references, I enjoyed the story.  It was a lot of fun. So when I heard that RP2 was available for pre-order, I said "Yes, please."  I guess the joke's on me because I paid full price for RP2 and then didn't even finish it.  It's almost as if Charlie received the Chocolate Factory but then morphed into one of the other bratty children and lived in his penthouse with even less concern about the state of things than Willy Wonka was. RP2 works too hard to find 80s references that weren't used in RP1 and then works just as hard to explain those references to you, worried that you won't otherwise get them. A number of other reviewers complained that it was "woke" - I don't like that term, but I would say that it tries to approach some of the current hot topics but does so clumsily, with a heavy hand, from a character (and possibly by an author) who wants to address the issues but is too far removed. I also think when RP1 came out, it was a kindler, gentler time and we were OK with OASIS (the Facebook-stand-in) being the world's preferred - and partially benevolent - online meeting place. Now with Facebook's toxicity and repeated missteps (not to mention that it's clear Zuckerberg has embraced the dark side with relish), it's also harder to imagine such a place, without it being a toxic cesspool.  So, yeah, I eventually dumped this and really recommend against it.

The Missing Sister by Elle Marr

The motivations of the characters in this book make no sense. The Paris authorities seem to lack basic common sense or procedural standards that any viewer would know after watching even a few episodes of any cop drama on TV.  Characters disappear.  Seemingly important characters are introduced really late. Convoluted and complicated backstories are slowly teased out through flashbacks. Everyone is suspicious and untrustworthy but also safe enough to be alone with if the story needs it. In short, this is a mess. I gave up.

Stuck by Chris Grabenstein

Kid doesn't age while everyone around him does. The characters were annoying and felt too childish and too grownup at the same time. Lots of sound effects. I see this is the second book from the same author that I've abandoned for the same sorts of reasons.  Don't recommend.

Recent Reads

Some of my recent reads... links are to Amazon - if you buy any of these books, you're contributing to my coffee fund. Thank you!

The Galaxy and the Ground Within (Wayfarers #4) by Becky Chambers

I can't say enough about how important I think Becky Chambers' work is to anyone who writes fiction. Even if you don't like science fiction, Chambers does an amazing job of world creation and character development. In the fourth book set in the Galactic Commons universe, five people find themselves trapped together temporarily at a galactic rest stop. This "bottle episode" finds each learning more about themselves and each other and challenging their previously held beliefs about the other species they're now forced to spend time with and get to know. A unique aspect of the Wayfarers series is that you do not need to read them in order as they only loosely connect to each other. Cannot recommend enough. Even better - go for the audio version narrated by Rachel Dulude. 

Firefly: Big Damn Hero by James Lovegrove

One of the complaints about this story is that "it feels too much like the TV show." I do not see how this is a complaint. I feel like the author nails the mannerisms and speech of the series while bringing us a brand new story that also gives us a lot more backstory about Mal. I really enjoyed it and it has completely changed my mind about fan and other types of supplemental fiction to extend shows and movies I've enjoyed. It was nice to be back in the 'verse.  I really enjoyed it.

Silverswift by Natalie Lloyd

I think this was promoted as a youth title. My son and I regularly take rides in the car, so we listened to it during our drives. Eliza's grandmother's sight is fading, but she wants to have one last adventure with her granddaughter - to find a hidden cove where mermaids gather once a year. Of course, her mom thinks this is silly nonsense. It was a nice story, an entertaining way to spend a few hours.

How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps by Andrew Rowe

For centuries, the pattern has repeated - a Demon King arises and begins to take over the world. A Hero arises and saves them. Wash, rinse, repeat. Young Yui has studied this cycle. She's not Hero-material, but that's not going to let that stop here. It's LitRPG if that was just how your world worked, but it goes easy on the skills/stats. A well-crafted and creative experience. 

The Man on the Mountaintop by Susan Trott

This one will make you think but not make your brain hurt.  Joe has built himself a home on a remote mountaintop and people from around the world make a pilgrimage to his door to seek his wisdom. He's getting older and the idea of succession is weighing on his mind. Also, each year he invites a group to live with him during the spring months. The story is told through conversations where all kinds of issues are wrestled drawing from lots of philosophies. I never found it to be preachy and thought it was a terrific book. It does feel like two books, this may be the result of it being an adaptation from multiple books.

The Collapsing Empire (Interdependency #1) and The Consuming Fire (Interdependency #2) and The Last Emperox (Interdependency #3) by John Scalzi

Scalzi never disappoints. The Interdepency is a galactic federation controlled by a small group of wealthy families.  A new threat to the galaxy emerges that could upset this balance of power and also possibly threaten all of humanity. The warring houses will have to decide where their allegiances lie and whether they want to acknowledge the threat and if so, what it means for their businesses: life as usual, grab as much as you can now or maneuver in such a way to come out on top if humanity survives the threat. Some great characters and interesting universe.

The Inn by James Patterson and Candice Fox (Abandoned)

I couldn't figure out where this was going - it didn't hook me and I got bored.

Bacchanal by Veronica G. Henry (Abandoned)

The traveling carnival is Eliza Meek's way to escape her circumstances in depression-era south. A black orphan with the ability to communicate with animals is a good addition to the carnival which is not what it seems. I made it 60%, but I found most nights I wasn't reading much at all and finally decided I wasn't invested enough to keep reading.

Book Review: Space Team

I used to write book reviews all the time on here, back when I had a lot of free time (I guess?).  Used to be for each book I read, I'd provide some commentary.   (Amazon links below, if you click on them and buy stuff, you're helping to buy me coffee. Thanks in advance!)

But, I'd like to be a little more regular about this, last one might have been April 2018? Yikes.

I don't know how long ago, I read a book called "The Sidekicks: A Funny Superhero Adventure" - the superheroes of the world have all been killed and now the world is being overrun by supervillains. The government only has one option - years earlier, the superheroes had young sidekicks. The program had been discontinued and the kids had grown up, but now the government needs to call them back to service. It is as described: laugh out loud funny. I kept waiting for the next one, but it hasn't come out yet. (In a similar vein, Andrea Vernon and the Corporation for UltraHuman Protection and Andrea Vernon and the Superhero Industrial Complex - also highly recommended)

Anyhow, looking for another Sidekicks book (it is supposedly coming but not out yet), I found that the author had another series, 12 books starting with "Space Team: A Funny Sci-Fi Space Adventure" (I'm sensing a theme with the titles) and I figured I'd give it a try - I'm always looking for long series I can retreat into for months at a time. This delivers. I am regularly laughing at this book and these characters, and I feel like the author and I consumed a lot of the same pop culture growing up.  (The book has a few side books and even a few free online mini-stories, so there's a lot of content here.)  Books are usually 0.99-3.99 each and so darned funny. Highly recommended.

What's it about? This dude goes to jail for petty crime, gets put in jail with a hardened criminal, there's a case of mistaken identity, the dude finds himself in space with a few other species and sent on a mission by a governmental organization. The species are all much more advanced than our earth dude and they can communicate with one another through a chip implanted in their head. The chip also has a censor circuit which means when the characters curse, they end up saying things like "fonking" and "son of a bedge" which also adds to the humor and lets them be a little coarser without actually being coarse. The books follow their exploits through space... and time... and multiple dimensions... these are like popcorn books, great for reading before bed, or on a plane and would make for some really funny movies.

Review: The Shack

I don't remember where I got the recommendation from, but The Shack by William Paul Young was on my "To Read" list. When someone then also handed me a copy, I realized "Ok, maybe it's time I read this." I checked out the audiobook from the library and listened to it during my drive.

I would actually call this three books, or at least one book, with a different book in the middle. I'm going to spoil it a little bit, so if you're interested in reading it, don't read this review.

The book starts with a narrator telling about a story he's going to tell. Then there's the first story - a guy takes his kids camping. It's a plodding story that eventually leads to tragedy - during a mishap involving two of his children, his third children is kidnapped by a serial killer. Let me back up - the family has this unique name for God that no one else uses and no one else outside his family knows about. With me? So then the guy gets this note inviting to the shack where his daughter was killed and it's signed by this unique name his family uses for God.

At this point, I'm screaming "Call the FBI! The killer probably heard the girl crying out to 'Papa' before he killed her. It's a trap!" But, this is Christian fiction, so this line of reasoning doesn't cross his mind. He determines to go, borrowing a car from someone else and also the gun that car-lender offers him. And then he travels to the shack. And that's where we end book 1. I don't recommend book 1. It plods along and the idea of a murdered child is not my idea of a good read.

And that's where we start book 2. The guy spends a long weekend with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit who all inhabit corporeal human form for his comprehension. I think for God's first human form the author is thinking of The Oracle from The Matrix. I liked book 2. It dives into a lot of issues of God's relationship with humanity, why bad things happen, stuff like that. I found it to be quite thought-provoking, quite helpful in its examination of some of my own questions about my own relationship with God. I'd recommend book 2. It is a bit long and at times a little confusing, but I think it mostly works.

Eventually the weekend ends and book 1 resumes. It turns out the guy got into a car accident on his way to the shack and was in a coma all weekend long. Was his encounter with God a dream or did it actually happen during his altered conscience? And what about the note? Anyhow, he also, upon waking from the coma, is able to lead people to the cave where they find his daughter's remains and the sheet she's wrapped in provides enough clues that they then are able to identify and arrest the multi-state serial killer and find all of his past victim's bodies. This left a really bad taste in my mouth. It's a nice little bow to wrap everything up, to provide that final justice, to end on as high a note as you can when a six-year-old has been murdered, a bit of false hope that so many families who experience real pain don't get. It's too perfect. It's a cheat and a copout to try to make readers satisfied (if they don't stop to think about it for too long). So I don't recommend that either - well, plus I just explained it to you so now you can skip it. Oh, he also gets to see his daughter and to see his daughter interact with his other children, things that I don't think real parents get to experience after the loss of a child, at least not while they're still here on earth.

Still I do like the part in the middle. I think anyone can get a lot out of the meat, even if they don't eat the stale bread. It makes sense to have the dad be a grieving angry guy, but he's a bit one dimensional, mostly just someone for God (first a large black woman and later an older Native American man), Jesus (a middle-eastern carpenter) and Sarayu (the Holy Spirit as an Asian woman) to talk at. Oh, and a weird part involving a Judge who is like some weird honorary Trinity-adjacent something-or-other?


Book link takes you to Amazon. If you buy the book, Amazon might give me a penny.

A Few Recent Things...

3 Simple Strategies for Motivating Your Tech Team -- In a tight job market, these tactics can make your tech workers want to stay. (Inc.)

Driven to Success: Getting Inspiration from Plumbers -- Folks in their own service vans know as much about startups as we do at my high-tech outfit. (Inc.)

Recent Reads

Here's what I've been reading recently...

Jennifer Government by Max Barry - One day recently it occurred to me that if I'm still talking about Lexicon (and what the author wrote in the dust cover about librarians) years later (my review), then the author must have written some other stuff and I should be reading it.  So off to the library (website) to download some books to my Kindle.  Jennifer Government exists in a world where the government has been somewhat sidelined by the special interests of major corporations.  Your identity is so wrapped up in your employment that you now take the last name of your employer. So goes the tale of Jennifer Government vs. John Nike, the father of Jennifer's child and a maniacal dastardly marketer who realizes he can make billions off his latest shoes and drive up their price if he orchestrates a mall shooting. He cooly rationalizes the costs, the insurance and any fines if discovered against the profit margins of a shoe that costs nothing to make and sells for thousands due to artificial quantity limits. This turns out to be one of the first forays into a corporate war between two factions rallying behind corporate loyalty programs and between the companies and the U.S. Government culminating in actual literal shots fired (missiles) between the corporations.  The book has great movie potential, but doesn't work well, never quite lifting itself to the level of epic it strives for and the characters are a little disappointing. (Amazon)

Syrup by Max Barry - In the small-world category, Scat finds himself in a game of corporate one-upmanship with his (former) roommate in this interesting book that wants to be a critique of corporate America but seems to live in its own fantasy world. Is this supposed to be fictional commentary? Is this supposed to feel plausible? Is this supposed to make Coke look stupid, or would the book be any different if the author had chosen Pepsi or IHOP?  Is it supposed to be an inside joke about marketing that I only sort of get?  I don't know, but... eh.  I didn't find the characters relatable and the weird format of the book and its foreshadowing didn't remain novel.  I believe this one has, ironically (if you read the book) become a movie. (Amazon)

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - it's about 30 years into the future and civilization has gone into deep decline.  Well, in real life, that is.  Fortunately, everyone has the OASIS to escape to.  Food is hard to come by, the government has largely failed, everyone is broke.  Except for two companies, that is.  One is the company that runs OASIS.  While it's free to use, there are plenty of ways within the worlds for the company to make money (like teleporting and other means of travel).  The other is a large company that provides internet (and OASIS) access to much of the population.  When the creator of OASIS dies, he leaves behind a challenge: within OASIS, there is a game, nay, a quest. Find the golden egg and receive the entire fortune of the creator. Solve the riddles, complete the challenges and you could come out ahead. Fail and your avatar gets reset and you start over in OASIS with nothing. For years, there's no activity and it's largely believed to be a hoax.  And then there's a breaththrough - and the race is on, pitting a few individuals against the large internet provider who wants to gain control of OASIS so that they can monetize more of it and make even more money for themselves.  Oh, and the creator was a big fan of the 1980s, so all the quests and challenges are a chance for the author to namedrop lots and lots of 80s culture. This had originally been featured in Entertainment Weekly and been on my list for awhile.  It was an interesting read, but not one I'd put on my "you should read this" list.  (Amazon)

In This Rain by S.J. Rozan - This book was interesting but way too long. Knowing nothing about New York City politics, this felt really believable/credible. The main character didn't have a consistent voice. There's tailoring your conversation to your audience and then there's this character - almost a different character with each person they were with, more about the author being creative and clever than about defining and grounding the character, in my opinion. The most frustrating thing was the introduction of someone 62% in that you knew was somehow ultimately going to become central. The new character wasn't believable in their relationships with black and white characters when the rest of the book goes to great lengths to portray a fragile and regretable/lamentable rift between blacks and whites. Her introduction also threw the book into the "the world isn't really this small" territory. It was ok. I wouldn't say "Don't read this!" but I would say, "yeah... a bit long." (Amazon)

Top Secret Twenty-One (Stephanie Plum) by Janet Evanovich - I really like how this series has mellowed over the years.  In the earlier books, characters were more one-note and so much more was over-the-top.  But as the series as progressed, characters have become more fleshed out, events more believable, like the characters (mostly) have become wiser with time. The ending seemed a little rushed and unpredictable, but it was still a good read.  Only one true gross/groan moment (involving Bob the dog) and lots of loud-out-loud situations.  In one aspect it feels like the author has almost painted herself into a corner with one element of the ongoing saga that is Stephanie Plum's life but it's better than the fake drama the situation used to cause.  (Amazon)

Review: Losing the Signal

(cross-posted on LinkedIn)

"When a business declines it begins gradually, almost imperceptibly, until so many failures pile up that the unraveling arrives with unnerving speed."   - Losing the Signal

If you've regularly read my reviews, you'll know I enjoy a good biography/genesis story - how something got its start (Hilton, Disney, Starbucks, Amazon, Google) but often my lament is that the book ends before the story does - the companies continue to grow, evolve and innovate and that as I close the book, I'm already aware of enough new things they've done worthy of additional chapters or books.

This was one case where I didn't feel like that.  While Research in Motion, nay, BlackBerry, still exists as a company, I felt that this book served as a post-mortem to what went wrong.  The patient isn't dead, but all hope has been lost. (It's only a matter of time before they're sold for their patents to a company that would have paid much more for them just a few years ago.)

I'd wanted to read this book for some time, but had never gotten to it.  Before a recent business trip I downloaded it to my Kindle and spent a lot of the flights wrapped up in what serves to be a good look at what can go wrong. So horribly, horribly wrong.

In 2000, I had a BlackBerry for work.  It was an oversized pager with a small screen, probably 8 lines.  At 6 am when it woke up, it would start chirping with new emails from the East Coast and when it went to sleep at 11 pm, I'd often wake it up to send one more email.  I could send messages to a phone number and a robotic voice would read the message to the person.  You could call a 1-800 number and someone would take your message and transcribe and it would arrive as an email on my BlackBerry.

I remember one trip up the 5 in Central California where there was something going on at work.  Every time we'd hit a pocket of coverage, it would chirp, my wife would read it to me and then type a reply for me and quickly send before we drove back out of coverage.

I loved my BlackBerry. I was an addict. I left the company and my BlackBerry behind, but continued to hold a soft spot in my heart for them.

At that point, RIM was so far ahead of everyone else, it was their industry to lose.  And that they did. Spectacularly.  And it's tragic.  And also a warning.

This book followed the two founders from their school days, the company's early days, the explosive growth, the misteps, the arrogance, the failure to listen to the marketplace, their customers, their partners. Before too long, it was too entrenched, there was too much to protect and they were willing to break rules and use their weight to protect and advance their cause at the expense of others.  Sadly, the world moved on and it was really at their own expense.

This book is a compelling tale for any organization that forgets its way and looks inward, becomes protective, entrenched and unwilling or able to pivot, to listen to the marketplace or to kill sacred cows.  It's sad, but what's sadder will be lessons that go unlearned by those who should read this but don't.

I would definitely pair this book with Chip Heath and Dan Heath's great book Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard.


Losing the Signal: The Untold Story
Behind the Extraordinary Rise
and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry

Recent Reading

I started the year doing well, reading lots, or at least listening to audiobooks. And then, well, if you've been following along, there was all of that. Looks like my last book review was a similar quick look back in April The driving stopped, the life got busy, I had a pause in reading and even worse, a pause in blogging.

Here's a bunch of stuff I've read recently. Links are to Amazon.

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh - I don't recall requesting this one, but it showed up from the library, my daughter started reading it and then brought it to Lori saying "There's bad words in that." So we figured it was probably one I requested. It's a graphic novel about growing up and other topics and there's funny mixed with not-funny-to-me. I abandoned it pretty quickly.

Crossed by Ally Condie - I liked Matched (Quick Reads) but now they've left the big cities for work camps and beyond. I wasn't able to stay interested and abandoned it.

Prized by Caragh M. O'Brien - I liked first book, Birthmarked (my review), but book two was much harder to get into. Gaia has fled the big city with her baby sister and is rescued by a community that immediately takes her sister from her and puts her into service as a midwife. The community has a lot of strict rules and several large problems, including the fact that very few girls are being born anymore - the community heading for collapse. I followed the book through to the end, but I was disappointed and don't plan to read book 3.

Burning Kingdoms by Lauren DeStefano. I thought the first book, Perfect Ruin (my review) was interesting - a closed civilization living on a floating island rocked by a murder. By the end of the book, they had tunneled out of the bottom and made their way back to earth where they learned that people did still live. I read for quite a while but I just never got into it and finally decided there were other items on my nightstand that I wanted to devote my attention to.

Arclight by Josin McQuein - Lori brought this one home and I grabbed it off her nightstand to read. The premise was really interesting - an enclave surrounded by lights to keep a dangerous enemy at bay. Those elements reminded me of The Passage (my review) and I liked how the civiliation was designed. However, as it unfolded, things were less than satisfying and I think the author wanted a message, but it was muddy and I wasn't sure what side of things they came down on. I don't know if this is a series or not, but I'm not planning to find out.

Rush by Eve Silver. If you end up in a life-ending situation, you might be spared - if you are willing to occasionally go and fight aliens. Instead of dying, your life continues and every so often you're summoned to fight. After the fight, you're returned to your regularly scheduled life with no gap. But, if you die while fighting the aliens, life rewinds back to your original death and you die then. Interested in reading book 2.

The Red Road by Denise Mina. The latest in the Det. Alex Morrow series. I always find these to be fascinating reads. A flawed character, more about her is revealed slowly and sometimes as if against her will. As with the other books, we're given backstory that she isn't and we're along for the ride. In the end, she figures things out and we're not always sure how she does it, especially since sometimes as a reader we think we've figured it out but we really haven't. It's really interesting reading about a character who -- while she doesn't know she's the focus of a book series -- acts as if she doesn't want to be. I almost gave up after the first book (Still Midnight - my review) because I really didn't like the villains and wasn't sure what I thought of the detective herself, but I'm glad I've stuck with it.

Shadowlark - The second in this dystopian series journeys to an underground city. I read it shortly after Tunnels, another book with a civilization underground. Like Tunnels, it felt implausible to be that big. Unfortunately, I found the book to be simplistic and ultimately, predictable. I didn't care for it enough to consider the next book.

Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon - it starts with something rather gruesome and then switches to someone else and then to someone else. A number of chapters in, I did not understand how they they were connected and I didn't care about any of them. It's got four stars on Amazon, but I just couldn't keep going.

Quick Reads

I have been a bit busy and haven't been posting book reviews. I've still been reading, just haven't gotten reviews done. So here's some quick hits of what I've been reading lately. As always, these are Amazon links. Clicking shows you love me. Or something.

Independent Study: The Testing, Book 2 and Graduation Day: The Testing Trilogy, Book 3 - Book 1 was teens in peril in a dangerous cross-country journey. They made it through alive, so now they're at school. School can't be as dangerous, right? I thought the first book stood well on its own. The second and third books were less necessary and the ending not altogether satisfying. Not like Divergent-bad, but a little too neat a package. I'd recommend book 1, but you can probably be fine treating it as a singology instead of a trilogy.

Brilliant Mistakes: Finding Success on the Far Side of Failure - In your efforts to eliminate mistakes from your company and its process, beware of zapping all the creativity, of creating a culture or environment where it's impossible for advantageous mistakes to occur. These are the kinds of mistakes that open up new fields or lines of business - the kind of revolutionary jumps that can't occur in a company so focused on careful evolutionary change. I wish there had been more real-world examples, but it was a good book I'd recommend.

Shadow Ops: Breach Zone (Shadow Ops series Book 3) - When I read this one, I didn't realize it was part of a trilogy. It made reference to past events, but it explained them so well that I thought it was just history being covered for us. The book also uses flashbacks to help understand why one of the main characters is the way they are and the past history between the two main characters. New York has been invaded by a non-human army and the book is the efforts to regain control on several fronts - a military tale with elements of magic. I thought the characters and their voices and they way they spoke were distinctive, whether they were military, law enforcement, politicians or ambassadors of a foreign country. This was a rather long book with the good guys under seemingly impossible odds and while a lengthy book, it was engrossing.

The Roar - Humans live behind a wall in the upper part of the northern hemisphere. Overcrowding means that in many places, cities are stacked one on top of the other - the wealthy in gleaming towers while the impoverished below the streets in a second city where flooding is common, mold is ever-present and a regular cause of death. The rest of the planet a wasteland due to the chemicals used to kill all the animals and their habitats after all the animals began attacking humans decades before. The story focuses on a young girl, kidnapped a year prior by a government official and held against her will on an orbiting space station and her brother, the only one in her family who believes she's still alive. A new supplement is introduced at the schools and despite their poverty, an arcade opens where children can learn to fly pod fighters like the ones used in the world's defense program. It's a pretty solid book with a satisfying ending. Don't know if I'll continue in the series or if enough has been resolved for me to go in a different direction.

Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality - It hasn't been too long since I read this book, but I don't remember much beyond the title. It's one of those books that is helpful while you're reading it, kind of like a coach kicking your behind and making you get out there and make things happen, but that's about it. I do need one of those coaches, but that's why I put 10X on my wish list for both Kindle and CD.

Erasing Hell: What God said about eternity, and the things we made up - It turns out that I never wrote a review on here, but I did write one on Amazon. Here's what I wrote, under the title "Overheard at a Dinner Party": I don't feel I was the audience for this book. I think I would only be the audience if I were sitting between Chan and Bell at a dinner party and Chan was speaking past me in the hopes that Bell would hear him refuting Love Wins. I got the sense reading this that maybe it should be sold with Bell's Love Wins, that I would have gotten more out of it if I had read Love Wins first. With specific regards to hell, I feel like I should have been more compelled or convicted from reading the book, but mostly I just felt "meh."

Accelerando (Singularity) - Blech. None of the stuff described in the two different descriptions of the book happened in the first three chapters that I slogged through. Avoid avoid avoid.

Tunnels (Book 1) - Will Burrows and his dad love to dig (get it, "burrows"?) and explore underground places, be it caves or abandoned tube stations. When his dad goes missing, Will finds clues that allows him to pursue his father to some underground world. Some massive, massive underground world. Some great, vivid writing make it easy to imagine the underground world, but the story itself suffers some construction problems, with characters conveniently coming in and out of the picture as needed. I would recommend it, though, just for the descriptive writing.

Matched - Cassia and her family live in a very North Korea-like state - everything is highly controlled, but life is good because they're told it is and they don't know any better. Until something goes wrong with Cassia's matching. The ceremony is wonderful and in a rare twist, her betrothed is someone from her own school instead of being someone from another school in another part of the country. After the ceremony, she returns home with the (essentially a flash drive) that will tell her more about her betrothed. Only, oddly, a different boy appears briefly on the screen. She's contacted the next day and forced to hand over the flash drive, told that there was some kind of error or anomaly. It's enough, however, to throw her mind into chaos. Opportunities end up presenting themselves, allowing her the opportunity to get to know the other boy more.

Reading right now:
* Inc, April 2015
* I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist
* Before Happiness
* Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?

Book Review: The Gliding Flight

I saw a video of one of John Collin's world-record-winning planes and the article talked about how he had a few books that showed how to make some really cool planes. So I put this on the library request list and when it arrived, I pulled out some copy paper and got to work. The book starts with information about aerodynamics and then moves in to the best kinds of paper for making paper airplanes. I skipped over all that - let's fold some planes.

I probably shouldn't have skipped all that. Some of these planes were really complicated. As you can see, I didn't end up folding that many. I did make a lot of Crumple Ball Specials. For some complicated folds that are used regularly, there are flipbook-style animations built into the borders of the book. Even still, I had trouble figuring out some of the folds. I probably could have gone online to figure them out, but that just felt like too much work.

Not pictured - additional crumpled balls

In the end, I folded quite a few over December and when I'd throw a bunch of them at family gatherings at our house, the children were impressed at how far the planes flew and would run to fetch them so that I could throw them over and over again.

Someone with sufficient time and patience will create some really neat looking planes that fly amazingly well using the guides in this book.


The Gliding Flight by John Collins (Amazon.com)

Review: Halting State

Halting State
by Charles Stross
I really enjoyed The Apocalypse Codex but had started with book 4. So I saw this author had another series on my library's website and I downloaded book 1 of this series. Unfortunately, after one drive I decided enough was enough. The narrator used a very thick and deep Scottish accent for narration (with his characters all having less of an accent) and it's in, I think, the second person, and the lead character is a woman, but you don't find that out for awhile because the character's name is Mac and it takes place in Glasgow. The individual pieces I list here aren't a problem on their own (I've rather enjoyed the last series I read with a female Deputy Inspector with the Glasgow "polis") but it was just too hard to follow-along and I sadly gave it up. The book did feature the same great turns of phrase (and I don't mean "the same") as the other Charles Stross books I've read, so perhaps this is more a review of the audiobook than of the book itself. Someone who lives in Scotland would probably appreciate the accent and find the book really easy to listen to.

Review: The Apocalypse Codex

The Apocalypse Codex (A Laundry Files Novel)
by Charles Stross
I found this book on our library website's audiobook. I didn't realize until nearly the end of the book that it was, in fact, book 4 in a series. The book had such an interesting start to it that I thought it had to be the first in a series. No, it was just unique (book 5 doesn't start the same way) and did a great job with introductory exposition and character development throughout the book also made it feel like a freshman outing. I really liked the book and I was left with the conundrum... do I go back and read the first three in the series? I decided not to - there are plenty of books out there, the character seemed to be a much better character by the end of the book (their personal growth through what they experienced, that is) and I didn't want to confuse myself.

Bob Howard is an "IT Guy" with "The Laundry," which is the unofficial name for a secret branch of the British government that protects people from paranormal things "beyond space-time." That is, demons, monsters from parallel universes and humans who make a practice of these types of phenomena for their own benefit (and usually the detriment of others).

A preacher from a Colorado mega-church (whose retreat weekends for prospective parishioners has an astounding 100% conversion rate) has been meeting with successful British businessman and wrangles a meeting with the Prime Minister and also holds a very packed rally in London. These events draw the attention of the British government and The Laundry becomes involved because of their ability to use "external assets" - non-employee contractors who can go where the government can't.

The book is an action-packed journey right out of the gate with an early chapter that deftly introduces several characters who may or may not exist outside of book 4 (I haven't seen them in book 5) in a way that really helps explain this universe and its rules for magic.

The book is also a humorous take on Bob's struggle with being promoted to management and enduring training and has some great turns of phrase like "lettuce-infested sandwich." Some creative phrases end up being overused and the book has a very negative opinion of Christianity.

However, it's still a fast-paced entertaining book which made me wish my commutes were longer.

Review: Perfect Ruin

Perfect Ruin (The Internment Chronicles)
by Lauren DeStefano
Another in a long line of YA uptopia/dystopia, Morgan is a young girl living on a floating island with her family and friends. A highly controlled place where gender is pre-determined, birth rates are controlled, people are paired at birth, retire at 60 and are killed at 75, it's a safe, clean place, ruled over by a benevolent king and the royal family. TVs exist only in the apartment lobbies for special announcements from the king and most travel is on foot, or by bike, or by the trains that continuously circle the outer edge of the island on a two-hour loop. The island has different sections for different activities (farming, mining, commerce, residential) and four academies where the students are educated. Each chapter is started with a quote from a paper written by a students you actually don't meet in the book.

The inhabitants of the island don't know much about the earth below them. They have fashioned scopes to try to see the ground below, but they don't provide enough detail for the scientists to really understand. They're pretty sure their island was once a part of the ground below, but it's a history that's been lost from time (or erased). Instead, they survive on their relatively modern floating island, powered by solar and surrounded by clouds. A strong wind buffets the edge and residents who have dared get too close to the edge are irrevocably injured.

A murder occurs, the first in decades and this is the catalyst for the focus of our young subject to really question the world around her. What had been a nagging thought in the back of her head is thrust to the front as she realizes the tidy world with all of its pat answers isn't enough. She wants... more.

While slightly uneven, I enjoyed this book. It was an interesting tale and I wanted to know more. And while a bit heavy-handed, I liked the character's observation of an increased visible police presence actually making her feel less safe and that the eventual diminished presence was quite obvious and the questions that we've faced in real life in similar recent situations. The book ends with a lot of questions unanswered and I was relieved to find out that it was the first in a series because I, too, want... more. (The audiobook narrator made no reference to the series at the end and the other books aren't available as audiobooks so I wasn't sure before I did a little more research.)

Review: The Black Swan

The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
A Black Swan is an unpredictable event that when viewed in hindsight is not at all surprising. It gets its name from, well, a black swan. Way back in history, there was a time when scientists didn't believe swans could be black. There had been rumors of them, but people who "knew about these types of things" had never seen one and therefore didn't believe they existed. Until eventually proof was provided to the right people at which point it became a "duh, well, why not?" There will be "dreamers" who imagine black swans, but they aren't credible until after the black swan has been shown to exist. If they're lucky, they might be considered a visionary, but more often than not, people have forgotten. If they're unlucky, people will demand that they "do it again" like some magic fortune teller.

A number of recent advances in technology have been described as Black Swans and a lot of effort is put into trying to figure out what the next one is because Black Swans are rare and Black Swans are valuable.

I had this book on my list for a long time. I didn't think it would spill any secrets about Black Swans known only to its readers or unveil some magical formula that would turn me into a Black Swan spotter, but I was hoping that I would at least learn a little more about how to think like a visionary, maybe identify Black Swans a little quicker (and discount swans who have fallen in a can of paint) and most importantly, I was looking for a good list of recent Black Swans with some solid analysis on what made them Black Swans and how they came to be.

I didn't find any of that, at least it hadn't happened before I abandoned the book. The book mostly seemed to be the author smugly talking about his own life. It it was supposed to be bonefides to why the author was equipped to talk about Black Swans, it went on extremely too long and didn't get to what I was looking for by the time I had had enough (and then some). It, or the term, had been mentioned by a number of the smart people I regularly read, so I pushed on well past when I wanted to abandon and when I did finally abandon, I felt a little bit more chagrin than usual - if I couldn't even read the book, I was admitting that I wasn't even tangentially near those circles. Alas.

This book is ranked 3.5 stars on Amazon with some pretty vicious comments by its dissenters, despite it making the New York Times Bestseller list. To read more reviews, head on over to Amazon (affiliate link).

Review: Amnesia Moon

Amnesia Moon by Jonathan LethemThe book opens with a guy who decides he'd rather drive on the wrong side of the highway. Because he can. Because it's his highway. Because he's claimed as such. This is the world after something has changed everything. Everything has gotten "local" - there is no big, there is no central, there is no country. There is only your current existence, subsistence. No one seems to remember what happened, and if there are people who actually do, they're not saying. But everything's different now. You might scrap by for food, you might live in a town where you move twice a week, or where air is literally as think (or at least as green) as pea soup and you move everywhere following guide ropes.

This is the post-apocalyptic world of Amnesia Moon, an on-the-road travelogue of someone trying to remember his past, what happened, and trying to understand what's real and what's not. If you're hoping for answers, you'll be left wanting, or maybe you won't. But you won't get them. If you stop to ask questions of logic and semantics, you'll get pulled along to the next stop before you have a chance to think about them too long. And maybe one of the characters will ask the same question you have. Don't worry, they won't really get any answers either.

If I had been reading this in print, I probably would not have made it to the end. However, the audiobook is well done, the narrator approaching it more like a radio play, with a wide cast of characters and voices to match, he did a really good job. Rarely does it feel like a voice changed, though there are two spots where it sounds like a line was re-recorded later. The author does a great job with imagining and describing a world where even some of the laws -- like gravity -- aren't entirely fixed (in the process also giving the narrator some great clues about how to approach a scene.)

In the end, the book concludes. Rather quickly, I might add. As if the author ultimately got tired of his journey. In the end, the main character finds something and I think we're to understand that this was what he was looking for all along, even if he didn't realize it himself.

It was a real trip to listen to as I drove and I'd find myself looking forward to the next chance to be in the car to find out what happened next.

For more reviews, please head on over to Amazon. (This is a referral link so Amazon will give me a few cents if you make a purchase. Think of it as your way of saying you like my blog.)

Review: Getting Naked

Getting Naked: A Business Fable About Shedding The Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty by Patrick Lencioni
Back in September when I was dealing with the severance and job search, a former supervisor (well, my two bosses reported to him but I was a workplace rich with friendships) found out about my situation and reached out to me. We talked on the phone for almost an hour and at the end he said "Give me your address, I have a book I want you to read." When I worked for him, I was always asking for recommendations. Sometimes he's given my titles, sometimes he'd hand me books. This wasn't the first time since I left that he's mailed me a book he thought I'd like.

So I get this book and smirked at the title because that's probably what the author intended, and then dove in. Much of the book is a fictional story of a consultant from a large strategy consultancy. They do well, have a lot of billable hours, but whenever they go up against a much smaller consultancy in a nearby suburb, they always lose. It gets to the point where even the mention of the consultancy or the founder just drives them crazy.

And then one day the lead character is called into an office. It's announced that the founder has put his consultancy up for sale and the larger corporation bought them. It will be our lead character's responsibility to integrate himself with the smaller consultancy in order to facilitate the merger of consultants, culture and customers.

He feels like this is a career-killing assignment, but out of obligation he reports to the elementary-school-turned-business-park where this quirky little consultancy headquarters. He quickly finds a culture vastly different from the one he came from, a much more engaged set of clients (who pay more - happily), and a thriving practice that actually turns away business and customers. What he doesn't find is a single salesperson.

He quickly realizes it's not going to be a quick transition but that there's also quite a bit that he can learn and take back to his organization to make it better.

I really appreciated this book, especially at this juncture. While I've essentially been in a service role for most of my career, I find myself at a place where that is truly the core of what we do. In some of my past jobs, it's been *how* I did it, but now it's *what* we do. I really enjoyed this book - I found it to be affirming, confirming, enlightening, educational and convicting. It turns out that I was doing some of this already, having stumbled upon it in some form or fashion, but there were other areas I could definitely improve, or that I'd slipped up on in recent years. And it put an intentional framework and emphasis on things I now need to make sure I'm intentionally and blatantly emphasizing and I'd really recommend this book.

In brief, he says that the three fears are:

1. Fear of Losing the Business. He says this fear means you're focusing on the wrong things and your client will inherently sense that. And also that it's not always bad to lose some business. Some business you just don't want. Or sometimes it results in a really, really, really long game.

2. Fear of Being Embarrassed. In the services and consultancy businesses, you wants to appear as the expert because you want people to hire you for that expertise. But if you don't have any humility, you won't help your clients and you'll undervalue the expertise they bring, living in that space day in and day out.

3. Fear of Feeling Inferior. Like the last two, but slightly different. One example was intentionally asking dumb questions. They could lead to great conversations or allow you to bond with executives at the firm who had the same questions but were scared to put voice to them.

He said this was the first time he's written a book using himself (or his consultancy) as a direct example, so he felt a little awkward, that maybe he wasn't being humble. But I thought it was a good, quick read.

He then goes on to explain how to overcome those three fears. You will, of course, want to read the book to learn how he unpacks each of these.

• Always Consult instead of Sell
  
• Give Away the Business
  
• Tell the Kind Truth
  
• Enter the Danger
  
• Ask Dumb Questions
  
• Make Dumb Suggestions
  
• Celebrate Your Mistakes
  
• Take a Bullet for the Client
  
• Honor the Client's Work
  
• Do the Dirty Work
  
• Admit Your Weaknesses and Limitations
  

You can, of course, find this book on Amazon or other bookseller websites. (If you purchase using this link Amazon contributes to my coffee fund.)

Review: Truth Like the Sun

Truth Like the Sun by Jim Lynch
I read about this book on Crosscut awhile back and when I started my new job with its long commute, I found that this was one of few fiction titles on my "to read" list so I downloaded. It is an interesting book - one story line covers the 1962 World's Fair - beginning with the opening party at the new Space Needle and the lead up to and then the fair itself and a police corruption scandal happening simultaneously. The other story line occurs in 2001. A central figure in both stories is Roger Morgan, a fictional character known as "Mr. Seattle" - in this fictionalized history, he was primarily responsible for the World's Fair after his visionary and mentor passed away. In 2001, as a reporter new to town is assigned to write a retrospective piece about Morgan, now 70, he on a whim, decides he's going to run for mayor after a life of advising other politicians but never publically holding office himself.

The flipping back and forth, the unfolding corruption story, the revelations the journalist uncovers as she digs deeper, all make you think that there will be some big reveal at the end. A crime, murder perhaps, or maybe even Morgan at the center of (or the mastermind?) of the corruption? Not to spoil, but, nothing really happens in this book. Politics, the death of print journalism, the fictional recounting of the staging of a major event in the city's history, but at the same time, a lot of nothing. In 1962 it's pretty clear early on that Morgan will probably not get married (though he's engaged as the book starts) but later revelations that he has several children are almost a non-event. I think something must have gotten lost in the editing.

Anyhow, the true star of this book is Seattle itself. This is what made me love this book. To hear the descriptions, as well as the characters' experiences (the new-to-Seattle journalist exasperated by the rain or Mr. Seattle's reminiscing of how things were - or the potential yet to come) it's just wonderful. I really enjoyed all the descriptive language and it's really given me a brand new appreciation for "my" town. I may not be Mr. Seattle and it may have been 40 years since I lived there, but I love Seattle and I loved how this book portrayed it. Had this book taken place in Portland or Bellevue, I probably wouldn't have found it nearly as interesting. But in the end, I felt mostly satisfied with the story and I would recommend it. Just be prepared to take some time digesting it.

To read more reviews, check out Amazon.com.