ARC, Books

Book 1,064: The Fabric We Make – Joe Wilcox

Book cover of "The Fabric We Make"I’ve been knitting off and on for 20+ years, but really got back into it 7-8 years ago after 2-3 years of a little bit more off-and-on. This past November I took the leap and jumped into the knitting/fiber podcasting/vlogging world and haven’t looked back.

After one of my episodes the author, Joe Wilcox of QueerJoe fame reached out about his recently self-published book The Fabric We Make.* QueerJoe is one of the OG knitting blogs and I had recently been there reading about linen stitch and a project bag I was mulling over self-drafting (Instagram preview of the bag). I was like okay it’s a sign I should read this and so Joe kindly sent me a copy. Add in that I’m always looking to expand my nonfiction reading and it was double awesome.

Continue reading “Book 1,064: The Fabric We Make – Joe Wilcox”

ARC, Books, Professional Development

Book 1,052: Supercommunicators – Charles Duhigg

I’ve read a few books by Charles Duhigg and in all honesty The Power of Habit, the first I read of his, was the best and the rest have felt like attempts to recapture the success that one had. That being said, when the publisher reached out with a copy of this one I said “Sure, why not?”*

I work in communications and I’m always interested in how others see it and what the latest trends/fads/ideas are. In reading this, I found that I do quite a few of the things Duhigg observes the best communicators do, so that was reassuring. Duhigg takes a look at communications from across all walks of life from FBI interviewees (both HR and interrogation), lawyers, simple spousal conversations, group interviews, jury proceedings, television shows, and so many other examples.

Continue reading “Book 1,052: Supercommunicators – Charles Duhigg”

Books, Professional Development

Book 1,042: Getting to Yes – Roger Fisher, William Ury, & Bruce Patton

This was the last book I had to read as I wrapped up my master’s degree earlier this year. It was part of the negotiation course it was written for many years ago and we were taught by members of the negotiation project (but not these authors). Reading it for a course made this a bit more of a slog than it probably would’ve been. We only had to read roughly half of it so I was like may as well finish it out. If I would’ve picked this up on my own, I probably would’ve read through it a lot faster.

Continue reading “Book 1,042: Getting to Yes – Roger Fisher, William Ury, & Bruce Patton”

ARC, Books

Book 1,019: The West – Naoíse Mac Sweeney

This was a fascinating read. Mac Sweeney takes what you think you know about “Western Civilization” and attempts to flip it on its head via fourteen mini-biographies about historical figures, only a few of which I knew immediately.

I feel horrible it’s taken me this long to push my response out. The publisher reached out in January 2023. I blew past the publication date in May 2023, and finally read it in December 2023. So, I’m hanging my head, because it’s now taken me another month and a half to actually publish my response.

Continue reading “Book 1,019: The West – Naoíse Mac Sweeney”

ARC, Books

Book 977: Don’t Think of an Elephant! – George Lakoff

I had to read this for a communications course earlier this fall and when I read it I blazed through it very quickly and knew I wanted to revisit it as soon as the semester was done. So I left it as “reading” in my Goodreads for over a month and finally got around to re-reading it and genuinely absorbing it.

I’m glad I re-read it, some of it was pretty obvious and some of it clearly explained things like why “climate change” is the predominant word of choice instead of “global warming.” My professor said that many of his students said they can’t watch the news anymore after reading this, and while I can still watch it I’m much more aware of the framing and terminology newscasters/journalists use than before.

Continue reading “Book 977: Don’t Think of an Elephant! – George Lakoff”