Performance Breakthrough: The FOUR Secrets of Passionate Organizations

'Performance Breakthrough: The FOUR Secrets of Passionate Organizations' by Mike Goldman is narrated as fiction but speaks to a company with disengaged employees trying to get back on its feet. The first time I read a book fictionalized in business is 'Revenue and the CMO: How Marketing Will Impact Revenue through Big Data and Social Selling' by Glenn Gow.
In the recent times, I have read the concepts of knowing your 'employee culture' in 'Under the Hood' by Stan Slap and playing ignorance in 'The Ignorant Maestro'. Knowing your employees and building trust among them is covered in detail in the former, empowering your employees and trusting them to do a good job, giving them the needed freedom is covered in the latter.
So the concepts have all been there. But this book acts as a quick reminder to get the train onto the track. The format has two layers of fiction. One is the personal life of the narrator which feeds directions into his office life.

140 characers for 3

I didnt realise that unsent letters could be so much fun. The Twitter feeds and the lists are funny.
The author's replies to the conversation heard as a third party listener is a two-tier privilege to the reader.
If the authors neighbies are so dumb, I am surprised how he hasnt moved. I still didnt get how the author has become a better person. And if the author has decoded the female brain then the next book should be 'What girls want?'.

The Unimaginable

3 and 1/2 stars
I was very intrigued by the story. I never read a romance that takes place abroad for the characters. And to think of the heroine trying to save herself, who doesnt want to be in that place.
The setting of a foreign land and the shores add up for a catchy tale. The main characters emotional baggage is well portrayed. Another supporting character too is well sketched while the traditional romance novels dont leave the focus from the main characters. The most striking thing about the book is the adventure and the risk that it involves , which adds the texture of things going awry.
The book is way too long for a romance novel. Its not going to be a quick stress buster like a Harlequin or M&B. But the length also gave the author a chance to flesh out her characters to know them more than superficially.

Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal

After reading few pages, you understand the title.
I havent read much about Panama canal. So I grabbed this opportunity to know some of it. If it comes in poetry form. Even better.
This book Silver people: Voices from the Canal is a mix of historical fiction like Exiled: Memoirs of a Camel and multi-voiced liked Parched by Crowder. Only there are many more voices. In the jungle, its never quite. With all the diverse animals, you get to hear from all the trees and fauna.
The main characters Mateo, Anita were fleshed out very well. The book shows the travesties of the canal project and puts the people who worked for it, on the map of history.
A century after the bridge opened is a good time to commemorate all the people who contributed to it.
Panama Canal 

A face to a voice on NPR

Author: Frank Deford

Sports as he knows it

I have heard a couple of NPR commentaries by Frank Deford. Long time ago, I had heard that one of my classmate’s father was a sportswriter, but never learnt how different his life was from a regular writer.

Frank Deford has reservations about bloggers, game score statisticians and the future of sports journalism. He is not one to keep a secret of them. Being in his game of writing for a long time, he chronicles how one day when his contemporary players are ready to retire and coach, it hits him hard that he is out of place and he cant identify with the music in the locker room.

He shows the regard or lack of it for sportswriting in the recognition it receives in the form of awards. He compares how sportswriting was when he started and how it is now. Then the onslaught of TV and now the internet, obliterate the need of a sportswriter. For a ‘not so bright boy’ he did well by reporting about ‘unusual personalities, or athletic exotica, the Americana of sports, out on the fringes’. He takes us to the time when sportswriters gathered in pressboxes to give the public blow by blow accounts of the games. He also compares how earlier he could meet the athletes in the lockerroom for statements while now they do press meets.

This book thrives on rich characterization of real people. Grantland Rice’s profile is written in such a way that lack of familiarity with Rice does not take away the interest from the piece like that on exclusive clubs at Princeton. The success of his writing must be due to his attempt to ‘humanize commisioners’. As you approach a paragraph regarding his nostalgia for sports and sportswriting of the yore, you can pat your back for realising it that for him sports was always about the people. In his words -‘Nowadays sportswriting is too much about predicting games; then, it was more about revealing human nature’. He uses his writing wand as a justice tool to give every athlete and coach their due. Through his writing on women in sports, I learnt of a new game – Roller Derby. I liked the description of ‘three match game’ that the journalists played. Another game that I havent heard of before.

His initial writing has led him to be a judge for beauty contests. He boasts that

‘you are never going to find another expert writer the equal of yours truly with feet in both the tennis and the pulchritude camps’.

He has reported on all kinds of games. The book has many interesting anecdotes from his years of writing from the stands. On tough subjects, he stood up. He called out ‘Commercial racism’.

Writing about the coverage of sports on road, he became the chronicler of Americana of sports. When he says ‘I wasn’t just writing about Americana. I was Americana.’ Somehow he becomes the snake with its tail in its mouth encompassing the world of sports.

Culinary skill acquisition at 'Chez Weil Duane'

How to Cook Like a Man: A Memoir of Cookbook Obsession by 

Daniel Duane

Theres the eternal question of art for arts sake or for the buyer/viewer. When it comes to food we know its about the one who is going to eat the food, but its difficult to wrap your head around the fact that atleast courtesy would call for exclusion of bell peppers from the ‘pav bhaaji’ if your audience does not like the peppers, but it wont be the real pav bhaaji if you get compassionate. The author is in for a surprise when he ends up ‘interested in food as love – food as sustenance, generosity and balm’ after years journey of hacking at cookbooks.

I like reading anything about food and cooking. After reading ‘how to cook like a man’ by Daniel Duane, when I realised that ‘No Cheating, no dying I had a good marriage. Then I tried to make it better’ was by his wife Elizabeth Weil, I was curious to know the effect of the author’s cooking straight from the horses’ mouth.

Daniel Duane has an obsession for cookbooks, especially the ones which have some chronological order associated with them. ‘the book’s A-Z quality – inviting me to cook every recipe therein –‘. The book being referred to is Chez Panisse Vegetables. He didn’t stop with that. He then moved to other books by Alice Waters.  He justifies that ‘…my (his) compulsions came not from dysfunction or narcissism but rather from a healthy impulse to find joy and curiosity in everyday life’. But it wasn’t just a compulsion for the new dad, he was doing the cooking to feed his family that consists of a wife who likes to eat simple food.

The author’s wife refers to his pre-cook book days as ‘when food was still fuel for him’. Faced with all this food on the table, she wondered if he could offer her choices in meals. The chef conceded for choice in breakfast but not in dinner, which is when he gets to follow all the complicated and exotic recipes, not to mention the expensive grocery shopping preceding that.

His wife’s pregnancy, the house’s dire carpenting needs do not deter the man with a knife. He carried sourdough sponge along with him, if he went out of town so he could feed it regularly.  Somewhere along the line when too many truffle recipes alienated him from his friends, he realised that he needed to mould his interest to meet his family needs instead of maniacally following recipes.

In the end he is at peace with culinary tastes of his family members. When he began he had two signature dishes. After years of making all the recipes, he has learnt the middle way of keeping his audience and their food taste in mind.

He is not just a home cook. Magazine assignments take him fishing, let him go on a steak marathon in Vegas, meetings with the food celebrities. This reporting life gives us a peek into the exclusive world of food.

When he met Alice, he asked what she would do with a certain set of ingredients and that’s when I realized that I read an article of his in ‘food and wine’ which combined this experience as well as cooking with Thomas Keller.

  

In cooking you begin with the ache and end with the object, where in most of the life of the appetites – courtship, marriage – you start with the object and end with the ache – Adam Gopnik

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The Queen of PCT

When the author Cheryl Strayed’s mother was diagnosed of cancer that sneaked on a person with healthy habits, she thought it must be her town docs who didn’t know much. While the docs gave the mom a year, she died in 49 days.

Cheryl had imagined a family with her as the substitute mother which didn’t work. After that her whole family came unglued, she was untethered but for her marriage which she pulled out of to ‘gather(ed) up inside of me’ through a hike on the Pacific crest trail.

The mode of walking she chose needs a comment. Her journey is halfway between a pilgrimage like ‘The Santiago’ but there is no one to stamp to validate that you went through all the stops and a road trip like ‘Going back to Bisbee’ by Richard Shelton where the landscape plays a major part with its detailed history. Here the author turns herself into the place that she delves into. Its said that driving is by muscle memory once you learn it but walking being the most natural act, frees your mind to do the thinking. But in the wild, solo the mind also fuels its fears. In this tug of war, what helped the author was the books she carried with her.

On the hike she wonders about the hardness of PCT vs the recent events in her life and thinks that ‘Perhaps the impulse to purchase the PCT guidebook months before had been a primal grab for a cure, for the thread of my life that had been severed’.

The way she begins her hike with an oversized pack that she is unable to lift is hilarious.

She comes across as a person with ‘should have read the guide’ seems ill prepared for the PCT hike. But after one day on the trail she feels experienced. Her hiking pace doubles in a couple of weeks. Her way of confronting the wild animals is calling out their names.

This act of strength is something that everyone applauds while at the same time they wonder about the parents who would let their daughter go it alone in the wild like this. This subject being broached up frequently by the fellow hikers, she has to find the coordinates of her family ties.

Serious hikers of long trails like this and Appalachian mail themselves food that can be picked half way or somewhere along, so dont have to carry all of their food for the journey.
She wanted to do the hike alone and turned down company during the hike. She wanted full responsibility of her survival on the trail. Yet, the vastness amazing her also left her lonely. At stop points she was always glad to have company and meet up with other PCT

Hikers.

The author chose ‘Bridge of the Gods’ as her destination. Bridge which is a symbol for transformation.

‘The bull, I acknowledged grimly, could be in either direction, since I hadn’t seen where he’d run once I closed my eyes. I could only choose between the bull that would take me back and the bull that would take me forward.

And so I walked on.’

We are now in the mountains

and they are in us ..

John Muir, My First summer in the Sierra

Survivor tale

A friend once sent an invitation with ‘save the date’. The first time I learnt of wedding planners was through the JLo movie. Put together, I was interested in knowing an event planner’s job experience of fixing up things.

Jennifer Gilbert with entrepreneurial ideas as a kid and ‘viral party’ throwing skills, was cut out for a career that screams power in her dreams as well as reality. After a life of wanderlust in Europe, a 22yr old, she was ready to fall into a fabulous life until a tragic event put a ‘before and after’ break in her life. The experience not only splintered her but sent her into a cocoon when she is not pumping energy into event planning.

The author can take you to the fanciest of places where its hard to get in – as an event planner. She can take you to the lowest of lows where even in a situation of shock, you wont panic but fight for life like her. After becoming a victim of a random attempted murder, she shared how she felt nothing. The one thing that saw her through was her passion for celebrating the memorable moments in others lives. When her tragic experience was ‘at leasted’ away she learnt to listen to the pains and fears of others, however small they may be, a trait that helped her in her business.The way she ran her event planning business, her experiences with hard to please clients, last moment ‘saving the day’ to make everything perfect even if it does not fall in the bucket of her job duties, its no wonder that she got the recognition for it.

She is written well of her victim guilt, strife being a broken person with no scars on the outside. Ironically when she later writes of her son’s alopecia a condition where nothing’s wrong inside. She has addressed issues like body image which took her a lot of time to overcome through the journey of peeling of her defense layers.

In this book, the author switches well between the personal tone when it comes to the pursuit of happiness through relationships and a survivor tone when she recalls the event and its effect three years later when she has to face all the bad memories again. The book is always optimistic even if the author sometimes thinks that she is the best enemy of her happiness. Control personified, her life experiences have taught her that the she may not have control over the events but she can control who she is after.

It got weary to read of the n love interests. I do understand that given the life changing experience, she had to take many chances at love and life.

I find it surprising that for a type A++ planner, she wouldn’t read up on signs of labor.

A book with similar turning point is Dear Marcus: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me  by Jerry McGill

First portrait second portrait

I had great expectations from Saramago in 'The Manual of Painting and Calligraphy' after having enjoyed both his memoir 'Small Memories' and 'The notebook'. The title which presages the view of an artist is a subject dear to me. Despite being the right reader, I couldnt key into the book.
I liked the concept of exploration of a subject in another medium (the narrator's primary being painting and secondary writing) as well as another attempt stripping an artistic endeavour of its chance happening outcome (have you ever tried to draw something and realise that you drew something too well but you know you cannot repeat it again ) in the first attempt and actually knowing the subject. I kept myself interested just on this single concept but could not continue after half the book. when I read something new of artists or their work, I am inclined to reading more about it. In this book, there are many references to such works as part of the narrator's travelogue. But the accounts lack conviction.
I notice that the previous books I read were nonfiction and this is fiction. I enjoy nonfiction better. Still I cannot believe that the readability would differ so much. But this has happened in the past where I liked Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Remains of the day' and 'The Artist of the Floating World' but not 'Never Let me go'. In Ishiguro's case it was his latest work that did not come together. But in Saramago's case, I like dhis last works best.

On the rough seas

At first the two stories run parallel in narration. One, a riveting story of five fishermen who set out from Mexico and without knowing drifted to unknown place to be rescued by Taiwanese fishermen after 10 months on sea. The other is the author's own. It begins with the glitter of his success story and then the decline. These two stories join when the author has moved into the publishing business.

Survival stories. What about them attracts people? With someone living to tell the story is hope in adversity. In these kinds of stories, to know what the survivors went through is insightful. The author sets out to find the survivors and present the story to the largest audience possible. To that extent, he puts in all his resources into it.

A big problem that I have with the `intertwining' of stories - both have faith in common, which is what led him to the survival story but the part where he is trying to bridge the gap of how his marriage was saved through this story is not convincing. In fact his involvement with the story put his already strained marriage to a further test.

The author has a flexible writing style to suite the subject's tone. He can handle serious tone of a weighty survival tale, share the ups and downs of his personal life to show the influence of faith towards the better in a lighter vein. In the pursuit of the story, he showed his doubts voiced about it in the media which didn't reduce his interest because of the connection he felt with the survivors.

Whose planet is it?

Recently having read in ‘A Planet of Viruses’, that viruses help in photosynthesis, I was curious if ‘The Man who planted trees’ book by Jim Robbins would have anything on it. It does mention the role of viruses in generating new diseases. Reading ‘Sex on six legs’, where it is all about the intelligent and good things that insects do, this book looks at the other side to see what harm insects do to the trees. Even this book like the six legs book quantizes the good done by its subject in terms of money.

And the subject is ‘Trees’ although it is on ‘The Man who planted Trees’. That man’s mission was to safeguard trees by saving genetics of the oldest trees to store it for future study when better tools are available and by cloning the trees. I realize that this review is partial to the trees.

Fader, zoonotic, wind training, dimensional stability, edge effect, forest migration. There are many terms like these about trees which are unknown to the general public. The author uses his skill of science writing and explains the terms and concepts thereby holding the readers attention and giving them a learners high to keep on going. He is comfortable in donning the hat of explaining science of how insects go about destroying trees, how trees work at cleaning up the air, creating clouds as well as portrayal of David Milarch who came up with the Champion project. I have not heard of this project before. So there you see, why there needs to be a book like this.

It is two books one that serves as a natural history of all major trees and another of the Big Tree project which is a brainchild of David Milarch who was inspired to do this project from a Near Death Experience. Milarch’s project’s course, tribulations and successes are documented. Instead of lamenting about global warming and how we are clueless as to what to do, here’s a ‘done it’ and the author’s ‘Bioplan’ calling for steps that have all been reached at with research in the past few years.

Each tree’s characteristics and their benefit to humans are well described. The author brings across the point about how human actions detrimental to the trees, disable the trees from taking caring of us and the planet by the ways available to it. For example human induced drought kills the trees and deforestation causes floods. A direct relation has been found between trees and their ability to cause rain with the help of a microorganism that can help form clouds. Trees provide home to a wide variety of species. A delicate balance is being tampered with human actions.

The book is based on research done in the last decade. The research as well as the cases mentioned spans the globe. By admitting that there is still so much unknown to the scientists regarding trees functioning but phrasing the unknowns will pique the interest of budding ecoscientists.

The author has managed to keep the readers in the magic of science with not just enhancing our current knowledge about trees but also explaining wherever possible why something is done the way it is done. I found many interesting facts in the book (too many to list). How some trees are hard to date by the ring counting method, when the growth is not from the main stump, how the aerosols emitted by the trees are helpful in preventing and treating cancer and many other medical conditions, how Phytoplanktons that generate 90% of the oxygen need trees to filter polluted water, how the wind event in Canada caused a large population of beetles to move to another forest causing more destruction but that is supposed to be good too in fertilizing the soil.

Few eye opening quotes:
Less diversity means less opportunities for adaptation – Reed Noss.
When the Europeans landed, the forests were so thick its often been said that a squirrel could travel from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi river without touching the ground.

Hiking with your kid

Looking at the cover picture of 'Up: A mother and daughter's peakbagging adventure', I formed an idea of the author hiking into the real wild. After reading the book I realize that it is as much about the young kid who hiked as much as of the mother who was in all the situations, terrible and exhilarating that you find yourselves on two feet in the mountains with as little or as much comfort that you can carry with you.

I like the motivation of the author Patricia Ellis Herr to provide an environment for her children where they can be immersed in nature. What better than hiking mountains? Hiking, strenuous as it can be, is bound to give you the high of achievement too. Alex, the kid draws the mountain, not content with scaling it. When we see the same person twice on the same hiking route, we wonder and ask if he/she is training for something. So if a hiker sees a kid then there will be some questions and encouragement. I know a kid age 6 who can hike 6 miles. I heard of a kid who was out to visit as many national parks as she can.

When the author realized that her daughter could hike peaks, a flyer about peak bagging the forty eight 4000fters in the Whites got her started on with the goal of attaining it. Their experience hiking together with unexpected events and outcomes is an engaging read. Hiking on the trails is no less of an adventure, especially when you have a kid along. With hiking, starting from losing way, to not having enough supplies, to fickle weather, anything can happen and that’s what makes it interesting in going from point A and returning back to it. Added to this in the nature’s bounty, you get close to clouds and happiness. Then there are the denizens of nature who can stop you on the trail. But you have to go on to the peak or home. As I kept reading of the hikes, I was reminded of the profiles of the mountains that I have hiked and points where we had encounters with animals. The last peak bagging event was interesting to imagine with all the community support shown to Alex.

There will be a comparison with Tiger Mom book. In this book, we get to know the child who is on a mission. The author balanced her presence with her daughter’s persona in the book. The author’s non-hindering parenting style includes the child’s wishes too. I recognized the father Hugh Herr from ‘The Sorcerers and their apprentices’. His story of how he came to have prostheses is illuminating of how an adventure can end on a wrong note.

Simpler than OJ

Unbinding the heart

In the book, the author explains the difference between a maze and a labyrinth. Her life and her search for self and meaning traces the path of a labyrinth with the center being her home. If you are the kind of reader who likes stories where the characters meet dead ends and still find the way out of a maze, then this book is not for you. Its not the adversity that fuels the author but the tenets of life passed on to her by her mother.

OR

In the preface of 'Unbinding the Heart', author Agapi Stassinopoulos uses the word 'synchronicity' many times. You begin to wonder about the meaning. Once you are informed of the originator of the term - Carl Jung and its relation with 'meaning', you can see the importance of meaning and its search in the author's life.
The book is written in independent chapters. Thats good as well as bad when some major events are repeated more than thrice (even if just a mention). Write to me if the age at which her parents got seperated doesnt get tattooed in your brain.
I picked the book for 'fearless living' in the description of the book. I want to know what other futures can we dream of if we dont limit ourselves even if that contains a huge monster from mars chasing us.
The book is very simple. There is no huge concept or sequence of things to be done. As I kept reading I wondered if its the same person all through. There's this image you have of the autor for whom things are falling in place even if after a great amount of persistence and then there's the ascetic side of forwarding her spirituality. But it is in this duality that she made her life path happen.
The author's mother has been a big influence on her philosophy of life. With that foundation, she was confident to find her own path. The author's wisdom lies in being a part of her friends experiences and learning from them.
Most books start with why they were written but this book ends with the moment the author found her reason. To share that 'our true home is inside ourselves'.

Poems that go beyond whats said

In Jane Shore's collection That Said -

In 'Willow', by pitting herself against the tree and against the well wishers of the tree, she has two narratives going on. One of her wish of fate for it and the other of the rest of the family.

In 'Priorities' - with the explanation of the setting of the apartment, the poet invites both the readers familiar with and unfamiliar with the environment into the poem. This is a beginning which encompasses all readers into the 'written for you' club.

My father's shoe trees. By story there's a reference to Cinderella's story without its mention, assuming that its a story known to all. Then this poem is meant for everyone.

American girl Addy

In 'Tender acre' , 'Then bands of bargello stitched the skin' are used to describe the snake. This one word does the magic for the poem. A poet is for correct naming of things.

Lobels
Mikveh
Kewpie

The poet manages to not polarise the readers into one slot. If she gets readers with experiences similar to her interested in her poem by familiarity, she draws in the rest with curiosity. If she gets certain readers to root for her feelings of dislike, she leaves the rest unguilty by providing them another dias for their point opposite to her feelings.

Author/Writing lovers: Add it to your library

What to look for in winter

The prose goes on about many people. Author Candia Williams writes `It is hard to know where to start with Rosa since it is a story of extreme compensation for absences.'
For the reader: Who is Rosa? A schoolmate.
For the author: Every acquaintance in her life is an attempt to understand them.
Her description style of people which toelines along `greedy obsessive recall of trivial' is the author's way of recalling all that has ensued now that she has gone blind. If you like description, of architecture or people, the author has hinged the book on it and supported it very well and still trying to put it all in words- of a fort, after few lines, she asks - `how to describe it?', an ongoing attempt.
We have to see if by `picking up lost bits and pieces of my(her) scattered life to try to make something whole by putting it all together, my own flotsam and jetsam' , if she can find a frame for her life. With the `precise naming of things' she wants to see if she can will her sight back.
The author is always wary of letting us know that she is speaking from her Edinburgh times and acknowledges that things could be different now.
In the first half of the book, everyone she meets is under scrutiny. In the later part, she confines it to her family. She tries to understand her father. Her ex husbands and their current benign families. I felt like a good reader when I read the lines: `phase one, the first bit of memoir, to toughen up and prepare for deeper digging; phase two, this bit to, to do that deeper digging, in order perhaps to see more..' that I got the book like she meant it while writing.
If you think that the author is unsure with her frequent questions like`How does one write about marriage?' ,she does start and end with a quick summary of what that or the next chapter is about. The book has a story quality to it.
For the author her writing /art is a fallback. In her words - `I had discovered a great pleasure of the painful side of life: its relief, or exacerbation, by literature'.
On the borderline of neither blind nor well sighted, the author writes of how her blindness changes her lifestyle and how she enjoys and generates literature. As she is trying to bring everything to name she accedes that `It is this feeling of docking cleanly that grows more elusive with blindness'.
When I picked this book, I had to overlook her alcohol addiction part of life in light of the heavy leaning towards writing in the book. Even of the alcohol addiction and getting out of it, the author has written in an exploratory way, like a natural history of an alcoholic.
I have to mention that the book is rife with many new words, so look forward to some dictionary time.
Some lines I liked:
We are polite but so far havent offered tea.
Lonely for them.
"`Do you know how to make a fishing net?' The answer is that you find a lot of holes and tie them together. `
I could say that this is the metaphor that works for the whole book.