A Whole New Mind

Ah, the beauty of bookgroups is that you read what you otherwise might not have. Let me admit right up front that I dipped and skimmed this book, but found it intriguing enough that I want to go back and re-read it. Daniel Pink is advocating for the development and employment of more right-brain directed types of activities in the work world, claiming that most of the left-brain directed stuff has been largely outsourced (computer programming, accounting, etc.) to developing nations where the labor is cheaper. He focuses on Empathy, Design, Symphony, Play, Story, and Meaning; he offers a bit of independent research, a lot of summarizing of other people's work, and some nice activities and resources at the end of each chapter. Some of the quote (almost all taken from other people) that I really loved are:"listening is an act of love" and "we are the authors of our own lives." He talked about labyrinths, and gratitude, and learning through stories...in short, a lot of things that resonated with me personally. I even got some good ideas to try out in classes and meetings and right now I'm needing all the help I can get with meetings. There's a 5 minute video of him talking about the book here.

Rough Weather

Oooohhh-- I sneaked a little indulgence in between all the reading I've been doing for review sources and writing projects of late. I haven't read a Robert Parker Spenser novel in ages and it was a treat. I just never get tired of Spenser's smart alecky remarks and his repartee with Hawk. Like the Evanovich novels, fairly predictable but highly enjoyable. In this book, Spenser gets hired to be a stand-in date for a seemingly wealthy woman whose daughter is getting married. His old nemesis, the Gray Man, shows up with several men toting automatic weapons and kills the security guards and the groom (right after the vows--that's significant) and then kidnaps the bride. The whole thing seems very staged and not at all consistent with the Gray Man's usual MO. Spenser thinks the mother of the bride knows way more than she's telling and he's trying to get to the bottom of things while not getting killed by the Gray Man. Hawk is enlisted as his back-up and straight man. There's more relationship between Hawk and Susan than I remember from previous books, which was also fun. It was a pleasure to get reacquainted!