The Story of Edgar Sawtell

by David Wroblewski

This was an unusual story and I have mixed feelings about it. Basically, it was a rather steady paced, gloomy story all the way throughout, which for the characters, didn't seem to fit. There were also a number of story lines that were started and strung along very far, and then just dropped, which is troublesome: relationship between brothers, the wild dog "Forte," the fortune-telling lady, and the letters between grandfather and dog breeding friend.... then the whole deal with the rain ghost of the father?  

I think this author just kept having all of these ideas and didn't want to edit any of them, but couldn't actually tie them together either. When he realized it, the book went up in flames..... kind of like some of Stephen King's :)

One personal issue, way too much brain-power is given to dogs. Maybe the entire book is written for them?

The Go-Giver: A Little Story About Power

by Bob Burg and John David Mann

Ok, a guy, we'll call him Joe (he really is called Joe) is struggling with being successful in his business and he wants the "secret to success"... isn't that what everyone wants! Well, he gets introduced to just the man to give him the answers in 5 easy steps! Yeah, you've heard that before, well, here they are:

1. The Law of Value: Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than      you take in payment.

2. The Law of Compensation: Your income is determined by how many people you serve and      how well you serve them.

3. The Law of Influence: Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other            people's interests first.

4. The Law of Authenticity: The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.

5. The Law of Receptivity: The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.

Now if he does these five things in five days he'll be a success... BINGO! He wins....

really, these are practices of ways to treat people that might just be reworded from scripture; do to others as you'd have them do to you, look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others, serve others before yourself. How can you argue with that? 

The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive

by Patrick Lencioni

 

The first half of the book is a short story contrasting two business owners and how they differ in running their same companies. Both are in the same business, have similar backgrounds, and for all practical purposes appear the same, however, one of the companies has content employees with low turnover, and continued growth, while the other is struggling to maintain it's top talent and keep business.

The second half of of the book goes into detail explaining the four principles Mr. Success used to make his company great to work for:

1. Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team

2. Create organizational clarity

3. Over-communicate organizational clarity

4. Reinforce organizational clarity through human systems

These are all things done from CEO down, beginning with hiring and new employee orientation. 

The Secret Scripture

by Sebastian Barry

Roseanne Clear (McNulty) is 100 years old and has spent the majority of her life in a mental institution that is now getting ready to be torn down. The new facility cannot hold as many patients so it is going about determining who to release, based on records.... but no one has the admitting records for Roseanne. There seems to be no reason why she is there, and now the search is on.... Let's just say her life was a mess! Most of this is discovered from her own personal journal written for her child. To me, a lot of her history smacks of The Scarlett Letter, in updated English, never the less it is an intriguing tragedy. 

The narration flips perspective between Roseanne and Dr. Green, the attending physician who is researching her case, so that between his findings and her diary you piece together her disastrous life. At times you wonder if she remembers things correctly, as his findings contradict her retelling, but all things settle in the end.

For me, the "surprise ending" came as no surprise, so I'd wonder if it was for others.

 

Lottery

by Patricia Wood

Ok, I am foregoing the normal routine here and heading straight to the thoughts. Perry L. Crandall might not technically be retarded, but I found it frustrating to read a book written from the perspective of someone who almost is!  And he might think L. stands for "lucky", but I'd say it stands for lame (as in unconvincing, implausible). Really, this was just Forest Gump wins the lottery..... "life is just a big... lottery" as stated by Perry's gram. He also has many obstacles, ends up becoming an amazing businessman by proposing some clever ideas to his employer, blah, blah... 

Granted, there are some nice thoughts on the importance of valuing relationships over money, and how to treat all people; slow, handicapped, overweight, etc. However, these were forced on the reader as opposed to a conclusion the reader might draw from experiences presented. 

It is a fast read, and if you are prone to like Hallmark movies of the week, you might like this book.  

A Prayer For Owen Meany

by John Irving

General: John Wheelwright just can't seem to get over Vietnam; even after 20 years, even after moving to Canada, he is still haunted, and yet, he never served a single day! John grew up in small town New Hampshire with his best friend Owen Meany.  Owen was never just a normal boy, for starters, he was small (barely 5'), and he was light (his friends played a game of lifting him), but the strangest thing about Owen was his VOICE. Owen's voice was in a permanent high pitch, near scream. Another thing that was different about Owen was that he believed he was an instrument of God, put on this earth to serve a specific purpose. None of Owen's friends understood or believed him, but Owen stuck to this belief with unswerving faith. 

The story tells of the friendship of these boys, struggling through their teen years, with school, girls, religion, and naturally politics and war. This was the generation of JFK, Vietnam, hippies and draft dodgers. John and Owen find a way to get through these years, but not all the way through.

Thoughts: This was my book club selection. Although I had read this book before and really liked it, I decided to re-read it and see if I still felt so. YES! This is a very well thought out, well planned book. All of the details, which at times you wonder about, are so seamlessly tied together at the end! It all makes sense, the VOICE, the constant practicing of the shot, the dream, the baseball; each piece was needed to form this tidy end package. I like the symbolism: the armadillo, baseball, the nativity, the dressmakers dummy, even the Christmas Carol. I like all of the controversial thoughts: the struggles with religion and predestination, the struggles with war and decisions of government, and the constant reminder of our (Americans) short memory for history. I liked Owen's solid faith (it's a story, I might question what I think about him knowing, but that's a different issue). Owen said, "FAITH TAKES PRACTICE." 

If there was one thing I could say negative, it might be that the diary narration of the present day was sometimes a bit distracting. For me, I can see that it remained within John's character,  but it didn't lend to developing the plot. Regardless, that can be overlooked; it's well worth reading.

The Ballad of Castle Reef

by Honor Tracy

General: The Barraclough's of Ireland, have been soldiers for centuries. Until the latest boy, Francis, decides to buck the tradition, and go "find himself" in Paris! this causes his orderly father quite a disturbance, so in order to teach his son a lesson and give him some respect for hard work and responsibility, he decides to turn their family home over to his trusted servant upon his death, until that fellow would die, then it would go back to the family. the father thinking his death would be far off, and his son would possibly come to his senses prior to these events ever occurring. However, Major Arthur meets an untimely death, and chaos ensues. Castle Reef, in the hands of Maguire, goes to the dogs. The remaining servants leave in a huff, Francis returns with his new bride in order to teach him how to maintain order, meanwhile, Maguire mistakenly is kidnapped by some group trying to extort a ransom. 

Thoughts: Nothing special. This whole book seemed written to give a message of don't use your will to try teaching a lesson that you'd like taught in your lifetime, because you might not live to see that lesson taught. It makes me wonder if there was a personal circumstance in this woman's life which was the springboard for this book, perhaps she (or a family member) had been written out of a will, just because she did something to upset a parent when she was young.....