Book Review: Business Made Simple

This was another recommended title, not entirely up my alley, but beneficial. Donald Miller provides a clear-cut explanation of what drives business and how to excel in business. I skimmed through the bits that didn't apply to me, but took my time over sections I valued. I appreciated the five customer questions that drive marketing: 1) What problem will you help solve? 2) What is your solution? 3) What will my life look like if I use your solution? 4) What do you want me to do next? 5) What should I remember? To think of sales and marketing as a story is a helpful construct for someone who writes. Hopefully, I gleaned what I needed from this title.

Book Review: The Kalahari Typing School for Men

The title of this 4th installment in Alexander McCall Smith's detective agency series comes from a side business that Mma Makutsi creates to bring in more income. Her typing school for men is a great hit. However, the rival detective agency, started and promoted by a man, is not a gender-based venture they support. Mma Ramotswe pursues two new cases and must scrutinize Mma Makutsi's behavior for one. Still no wedding for Mma Ramotswe and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. Minor skirmishes with the foster children. Continuing to appreciate clean tales and the delightful narration of Lisette Lecat.

Book Review: Enchantment

Guy Kawasaki is a new-to-me author, recommended by a friend. I happened upon a book of his in the store, but didn't purchase. Instead, I checked my library's coffers. This was their only book by Guy Kawasaki. I'm not the target audience, as I have no intention of creating a company, but it was helpful to process this information. The subtitle alone would have drawn me, as I've long been interested in what makes individuals change their minds. Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions gives the set-up of questions people pose. What do I want? Is the change worth my effort? Can I change?

I loved a quote he used by Oscar Wilde: "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." If the change you are hoping to create in another person is enchanting, there's a significant chance they will join you in your cause. Kawasaki provides hints and tips for how to present what you want from an individual and what you promise to provide to them. He gives ideas for how to cloak your sales pitch and move your audience to take action.

Book Review: Secrets of Sloane House

For whatever reason, this book, Secrets of Sloane House, took forever to read. Several factors played a role. I fought a terrible cold for two solid weeks and could neither focus nor rouse interest for reading. I've been in a general physical book reading slump. Most books I've consumed have been in audio form. Moreover, this was Christian fiction, and I lack a taste for strong "message" books. I think I carried this in my bag to the ranch for almost a month. Might be a record.

So what led me to even venture into the first page? I bought the third book in this series, with my credit at the library's book shop earned in their winter reading program. Wanting to read the books in order, I borrowed this one. It promised some interest, as it is about the Chicago World's Fair. But the backdrop of the fair was fairly inconsequential to the tale (did you catch that play on words?). Perhaps I would have been more engrossed with more details about the fair.

Rosalind leaves her home in Wisconsin and arrives in Chicago hoping to find out what happened to her missing sister, Miranda. She takes a position in the same wealthy household where Miranda had worked, but finds more secrets than answers. There is definitely an upstairs-downstairs feel to the book. The family treats their servants with disdain. Will Rosalind get out alive or will she meet the same fate as her missing sister?

I wanted to feel invested in the characters. I wanted to yearn to know what happened. Neither took hold. Now, I must decide whether I will seek book number two or donate the third book to Goodwill. A point in its favor - the promise of a clean read. While it would make a good discussion book for a Christian women's book club, it took me far too long to digest (although, as I said, my fault and not the author's). 

Book Review: Morality for Beautiful Girls

I've been in a blue funk. No desire to read or write. Only consuming audio books and even rejecting several of those. Thankfully, this third installment in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series made me chuckle. One day I jumped in the car with my middle son and the CD player sprang to life at a very loud volume. It pronounced "Morality for Beautiful Girls." My son looked at me and said, "Mom, what ARE you listening to?" What a laugh!

Mma Ramotswe is worried about Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. He has not been himself. She places him in Mma Potekwani's care while she investigates a case of poisoning. Her assistant has taken on the garage in the proprietor's absence and is whipping his two young apprentices into shape. The title comes from contemplations on the morality of beauty pageant contestants (another case they are tackling). I enjoy these asides where Precious Ramotswe considers the "old Botswana morality" and questions of right and wrong. Plus, I love Lisette Lecat's narration. Music to my ears.

Book Review: Green Hills of Africa

Since I've submerged myself in Africa through the detective agency books, I decided to pick up this brief travelogue by Ernest Hemingway. I did not enjoy it as much as his tales of Parisian life. Nonetheless, the book was engaging and gave me the experience of hunting that I will approach no other way. Hunting antelope, rhino, and lions sounds thrilling. Yet, I would never do it. The countryside would be what attracts me.

Book Review: Tears of the Giraffe

In this delightful second installment in Mma Ramotswe's tale, she is now engaged to Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. This dismays his maid, whom Mma Ramotswe recognizes as lazy and unscrupulous. The maid plots to get rid of Mma Ramotswe. Thanks to the back cover, I learned how to spell his business address: Tlokweng Road. I will always hear it correctly in Lisette Lecat's pronunciation. 

I enjoyed the interesting cases. In one, an American woman is seeking information about her missing son. In another, a man is trying to determine if his wife is unfaithful. Mma Ramotswe ponders life, and those moments are priceless. I always enjoy hearing about the "old Botswana morality." How funny that the New York Times Book Review labels the protagonist as "The Miss Marple of Botswana."   

Oh, Indispensable Digit

People don't lie awake at night thinking about the usefulness of thumbs. It's tragic how easily we take things of value for granted. Gratitude for my thumb is growing. Several weeks ago, I noticed pain from the knuckle of my right thumb down to my wrist when I attempted to pick things up or pinch something. Loathe to visit a doctor's office, I did what everyone does... consulted Dr. Google. Self-diagnosis? Tendonitis in my thumb. Officially, De Quervain's tenosynovitis, or sometimes called "blackberry thumb."

This situation is not new to me. In my mid-twenties, while working for the Claims Management office (of all places) of the University of Illinois, I went to pick up a stapler and couldn't lift it for the pain. After tests ruled out carpel tunnel, the doctor prescribed a splint and 800 mg (horse pills) of ibuprofen. I faithfully wore the splint and popped the pills. Six weeks later, the wrist was good as new.

Please, God, let it be so again (although I refuse to take that much ibuprofen). The alternative, should this thumb brace not work, is a shot of steroid into the tendon - yikes! Patient, heal thyself!

Many adaptations can be made, from squeezing shampoo/conditioner bottles with the left hand to hitting the space bar with my left thumb instead of the right. Yet, some actions pose more of a challenge. I have given up curling my hair (since the left hand holds my hair up while the right thumb is necessary to pinch open the curling iron). I write with the pen gripped between my forefinger and middle finger. Needless to say, my two daily pages have diminished. When I have to wash dishes (thank you, kind hubby, for tackling most of that, in addition to the cooking), I hold with my left and sweep across with a rag draped over my right fingers. It is amazing the myriad of activities requiring expert use of the thumb. Indeed, this Mental Floss article on the thumb quotes the American Medical Association assertion that thumb amputation "will result in a 40% impairment to the whole hand."

Praise God for a renewed attitude of gratitude! (*If you send your email address to wendy.hill0596@gmail.com, I'll happily send you my comical poem, "Ode to an Indispensable Digit")

- What thing/person of value have you taken for granted until experience revealed anew the gift? 

Book Review: Platform

"Of making many books there is no end." (Ecclesiastes 12:12 KJV)

Sadly, you cannot write a good book and expect publishers to thank you. Sure, they care about the quality of what we associate with their name, but it always seems to come down to this loaded word platform. How many follow you? How big is your tribe? What level of influence do you have? Most of all, how much money can you make for us?

Do I buck against this because I have few followers, a tiny tribe, and cannot promise to garner great riches? Perhaps, but I read Michael Hyatt's book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, to learn more about this necessary evil (my opinion). Hyatt lays out all the things that one should do to amass a following. First and foremost, provide desirable quality content. But of course. Then engage, engage, engage. Bring people into your sphere any way you can and attempt to keep them there. 

Book Review: Twilight at the World of Tomorrow

When I think of the world's fair, I think of Judy Garland and "Meet Me in St. Louis." Or I think of Chicago - the White City. I was unaware of the 1939 NY World's Fair. In Twilight at the World of Tomorrow, James Mauro highlights the fair as a symbol of the "transformation from acute optimism to fear and dread." While this narrative nonfiction treats an interesting topic, mixing true crime with stories of grandiose dreams, the book didn't suck me in as much as, say, Candice Millard's nonfiction. I was interested to learn that they built the fair in the cleaned up area The Great Gatsby mentions (the giant ash heaps under Dr. E's vigilant eyes). But I grew tired of hearing constant emphasis on the monetary failures of the fair.

It took half the CDs to understand what the subtitle referenced. This subtitle: Genius, Madness, Murder, at the 1939 World's Fair on the Brink of War sounds exciting. It details Einstein, foreign dictators, and terrorist bombing. I guess I was never fully drawn into affection or even concern for any of the individuals mentioned. Grover Whalen, the vain driving force behind the fair. The cops who attempted to disarm the bombs. Even Einstein. Never felt invested in any of them. So, while the book adequately covered a specific moment in time, my interest remained moderate.

I wonder if my mother-in-law would find the tale more interesting. She was alive then. Somehow I doubt her family made the trek from Indiana to NY to attend this world's fair. Indeed, not enough people did - the main thrust of the book.