Tag: Connecticut

Books, Professional Development

Book 383: Managing Up – Rosanne Badowski and Roger Gittines

Geoff W

Badowski, Rosanne and Roger Gittines - Managing UpMy final foray, at least for the time being, into professional development was Badowski’s Managing Up: How to Forge an Effective Relationship with Those Above You, and if I’m completely honest it’s the only one I should have read.

I enjoyed the “theory” and the “professional opinions” in the Harvard Business Review compilations I read, Managing Up (The 20-Minute Manager Series) and HBR Guide to Managing Up and Across, but neither of them had the wit, the humor or the charm of this book. Seriously, there is something to be said about reading a book that could be an incredibly boring (or pedantic) subject that makes you laugh out loud or giggle to yourself on public transportation. They all provide great advice, but this book offered the advice through the art of storytelling and not the other way around.

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Books

Book 329: A Jane Austen Education – William Deresiewicz

Geoff W

Deresiewicz, William - A Jane Austen EducationWarning: Goodreads rant – skip to second paragraph. I’m not sure what jumped up everyone’s butts on Goodreads (I shouldn’t really be surprised), but this book doesn’t deserve as much vitriol as it has received on the site. So many people trashed it without even finishing the book, many obviously had read the synopsis (Amazon Affiliate link) and yet were shocked at what they read.

The book definitely deserves a lot of the criticism, but it doesn’t deserve the pure vitriol that Goodread’s reviewers thew at it. Sure, I wanted to smack Deresiewicz for being an insufferable grad student, but it’s very clear in the synopsis that the book was going to be full of naval gazing. He made a couple of questionable sexist and classist comments and he may have reduced a lot of Austen’s genius down to basics, but it would definitely work for people who are not familiar with Austen. Seriously, if you can’t find the good in a book, why bother finishing and trashing it? Just move on to the next book.

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30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #27 Visit and gamble at a casino

Geoff W

2014 11-22 Mohegan Sun - So Many PeopleAfter visiting and gambling at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut yesterday I am down to nine items left! And over this next week I will cross most (definitely five) if not all of them off my list.

I added visiting and gambling at a casino as I’ve never been to one. I’ve seen the outside of Harrah’s Cherokee Casino in NC, but never been inside and thus, yesterday. I drove down (about two hours in traffic) and spent about two hours there and then turned around and drove back (with a side-trip to Ikea). and honestly, I was underwhelmed after I got over the sheer size of it. The architecture and decor were actually really cool, but the amount of smoke in most of the areas made it difficult to really enjoy it.

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Book Group, Books

Book 254: Amistad – David Pesci

Geoff W

Pesci, David - AmistadThis is one of those books that make me glad that I participate in my local library’s book group! I would never have gone out of my way to read this book and I surprisingly enjoyed it. I’ve done like I did with Dances with Wolves and broken down this post into the book and movie sections. I don’t think I will add a book group recap unless something really bad happens like with Dances with Wolves.

The Book
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised anymore that I’m enjoying the books selected for book group. They’ve broadened my reading and helped me to branch out, not just because of the styles and subjects I never would’ve read, but because the film adaptations are older and they are really interesting!

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Books

Book 224: Seating Arrangements – Maggie Shipstead

Geoff W

Shipstead, Maggie - Seating ArrangementsFor a book that has this much hype I expected it to have a lot more impact upon completion. Perhaps I just didn’t understand it and the impact’s subtlety was lost on me. I will say re-reading the last line again increased the impact, but I honestly thought the denouement would be much more dramatic and or conclusive rather than sort of wishy-washy-ing its way to a finale.

Don’t get me wrong, this was not a bad book, it was incredibly well written and the number of lines that made me laugh out loud or that I had to re-read because of how beautiful written they were far outnumbered the issues I had with the book. What got me though is how little action there was in the book. It felt almost like a set of actions stuck on repeat. and that just didn’t do it for me. Thankfully the writing was so great that it pushed the story forward, but I’m still not sure about most of the hype for the book.

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